LINEAR Electronics Ltd Auckland New Zealand

Colin Murphy

New Member
Greetings all from the land of the Long White Cloud, Dunedin in New Zealand; my first post on Audiokarma.

I am trying to find the history (or anything) about Linear electronics from New Zealand. I have one amplifier, circa estimate mid 1980's and another I am looking to maybe purchase on our own NZ eBay-beater, called trademe.

I have collected other locally made amplifiers and established all I need through Google, just I cannot find out anything about 'Linear' amplifiers or sub brands like 'Sinehertz'. Both names ensure many subjects rank higher in search engines, (searching 'linear' and 'amplifier' has obvious results!).

The last long term NZ local audio magazine and associated forum (Audioenz) closed last Year after 30 Years, so I am asking Globally while thinking locally.

In NZ and Australia during the 70's through 90's there were a few major players who re-badged Japanese built up equipment and assembled and marketed imported kits. David Reid Electronics were one of these companies and 'distributed' the amplifier I own. They became defunct in early 2000's when the founder died (lots of gossip and innuendo and really became defunct).

This may have been the case with 'Linear', and despite much research I cannot find anything at all about them.

These images of my Linear amplifier

IMG_8107.jpg IMG_8110.jpg IMG_8111.jpg

And these are of the unit I am thinking of buying

linear front.jpg linear name.jpg

Any thoughts or comments on how I can get more information on LINEAR Electronics Ltd Auckland New Zealand would be appreciated.

Cheers
 
I'm afraid I may not help you with your question but, nevertheless, give you a warm welcome to AK!
 
Welcome to AK. I have a review someplace of a linear amplifier from the early 80s. It was a timber cased, horizontal sliding pot arrangement not unlike the one pictured above. A Linear amplifier was one of the first repair jobs I did for real money back in my school days. I'll see what I can dig up for you.
 
Thank you Guiller for the welcome. And John, that would be fantastic thanks! David Reid Electronics were a competitor of Dick Smith, here and in Australia. Later purchased by Woolworths (as was Dick Smith I think). Lot's of cross-ditch argument about who did what.... Now David Reid Electronics do mainly hearing assistance and associated technology. They do not answer my emails and I read that the father was the driver of the consumer electronics and when he passed away, the interest of that business side evaporated. Cheers
 
I have the review here- just gotta hook up my scanner. It's a model TA-235. There's also a Linear Advert I'll scan too.
 
Thank you John! Perfect... As a sideline, another older (I presume NZ) amplifier appeared on Trademe. Solid State, wooden cabinet... And my realisation is that despite my thoughts, Google does not know everything as once again, I can't find anything about this unit. I never thought that would be the case!

I have attached an image just to show what I am talking about; there seem so many manufacturers of this era where their history was never documented.CN .jpg
 
Google knows very little actually. It's just a giant repository of pointers to dubious information that can change or disappear from one moment to the next.

Scan coming soon.
 
Hi Guys,

I just picked up the above amp,
And some other Gear made In NZ.

I'll send some photos, it's really hard to find much about the old gear, but I love it :)

I also have 2 sets of old speakers made in NZ.
And was in contact with Perreaux about them, but they couldn't find much on them, unfortunately the tweeters have been replaced and maybe the Mids 2.

Anyway if anyone can help out with history / model
I would love to try and restore them back original.
 

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'It's a bit of a shame the amp in OP"'s second pic only has DIN inputs. Could be problematic finding compatible cables. However, looks like there's plenty of panel space to install female RCA jacks.
 
I'm a bit late to the party, but I can add a little information to this thread.
Linear was an in-house brand manufactured here by David Reid Electronics in Birkenhead, from the mid-70s to the late 80s.
They also produced a range of products under the 'Laser' brand.
Over the years they produced a number of amplifiers, speakers and related accessories carrying the Linear name.
David Reid had a number of different manufacturing plants, including speakers and cabinetry.
They also used to import speaker grille cloth and supply to other manufacturers around NZ.
The photo below shows the speaker assembly and manufacturing operations.
Unfortunately, the internet is only as good as what people upload to it - and very little of the David Reid stuff has made it onto the net - including Linear amps.

Somewhat related to this, I am researching David Reid Electronics (it was a favourite hangout of mine when I was a kid) and I am looking for old David Reid (and Dick Smith) catalogs
or anything to do with the company.


1_cr.jpg
 
Hi Guys,

I just picked up the above amp,
And some other Gear made In NZ.

I'll send some photos, it's really hard to find much about the old gear, but I love it :)

I also have 2 sets of old speakers made in NZ.
And was in contact with Perreaux about them, but they couldn't find much on them, unfortunately the tweeters have been replaced and maybe the Mids 2.

Anyway if anyone can help out with history / model
I would love to try and restore them back original.

Perreaux NZ (as they are now) won't be able to tell you much at all.
I don't think there is anyone working there now that was with the organization in the early days.
Perreaux has been bought and sold a dozen times since then, and moved around the country.
It has changed so much over this time that it's not really even the same company.

Recently I came across one of their very early pre-amps - a model SP1000 which dates from 1980.
I emailed Peter Perreaux (I know him fairly well) about it and he was unable to provide me with any info on it (I was specifically after some service info).
The trouble is a lot of time has gone by and much of the early information wasn't kept.
Like many companies, when they moved it all got tossed out in the skip because it was 'old' and no one cared enough about it to want to save it.
 
Perreaux NZ (as they are now) won't be able to tell you much at all.
I don't think there is anyone working there now that was with the organization in the early days.
Perreaux has been bought and sold a dozen times since then, and moved around the country.
It has changed so much over this time that it's not really even the same company.

Recently I came across one of their very early pre-amps - a model SP1000 which dates from 1980.
I emailed Peter Perreaux (I know him fairly well) about it and he was unable to provide me with any info on it (I was specifically after some service info).
The trouble is a lot of time has gone by and much of the early information wasn't kept.
Like many companies, when they moved it all got tossed out in the skip because it was 'old' and no one cared enough about it to want to save it.
super pictures
 
Somewhat related to this, I am researching David Reid Electronics (it was a favourite hangout of mine when I was a kid) and I am looking for old David Reid (and Dick Smith) catalogs or anything to do with the company.

Have you tried the National Library or National Archives in Wellington? I have been amazed at what I have found there in the past.
 
Have you tried the National Library or National Archives in Wellington? I have been amazed at what I have found there in the past.

Yes, I have been down that route but there's very little of any relevance to be had.
Some newspaper ads and mentions of the shops in different cities.
I have a small collection of NOS David Reid parts and branded ziploc bags as well as a number of their catalogs but I am always on the hunt for more.
 
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