Wigwam Jones
Caesar non supra grammati
H. H. Scott & Sherwood come to mind. They may both still be around, but not the same companies. I believe Emerson owns the H. H. Scott name, and Sherwood is something else again.
Favorite Orphans
- Thread starter Marek
- Start date
Wigwam Jones
Caesar non supra grammati
Also, "The Fisher" and Tandberg...um, perhaps not orphans. But again, not exactly the same, either.
Wigwam Jones
Caesar non supra grammati
And Aiwa. I didn't realize until just now that they were assimilated by Sony and more or less put to rest.
Wigwam Jones
Caesar non supra grammati
Superscope!
Hydralique
New Member
Thoughts on orphans
Ah, cool thread . . . as it turns out much of my small collection of equipment would qualify as “orphan” stuff. A few days ago I posted in the Setton thread about my TS-11 turntable, and even got some links to getting a new belt. That’s the only thing that has gone wrong with it in 25 or so years of ownership, so I can’t complain . . . but then I do well with French products, having owned many old French cars, which, like the Setton, gave good service at least to me!
The Setton sits above three Rotel pieces, an RCD-855 CD player, an RTC-850 tuner/preamp, and an RB-850 power amp. All have been totally reliable over the last 15 years. I wouldn’t have considered Rotel an orphan, since they have continued in business over many years making the same kind of product and are hardly obscure in the world of audio, but I like ‘em regardless of orphan status.
A couple of other pieces of equipment come to mind which are definitely orphans as regards their particular lines, but from companies which are well known. These are the KLH Model 52 receiver, and the Yamaha DP-U50 external sound card/preamp. KLH never made many receivers, but I think the Model 52 is a gem. I bought mine as a teenager, having mowed lawns to save up the money. I looked at other 35 wpc receivers from Sony, Marantz, Pioneer, (and Nikko too!), but liked the KLH best. Audio magazine liked it too. I never regretted the purchase, and used it for 15 or 16 years until buying the Rotel stuff. I still have it in storage and maybe someday I’ll refurbish it. Too bad KLH didn’t continue with their receiver family and go for some high power, but as we all know the competition in the ‘70s was pretty tough for good receivers.
The Yamaha DP-U50 was one of two external sound cards they offered about five years ago. There was an otherwise identical model with an internal amp (AP-U50 I think), but this is just a preamp with a USB input, regular preamp inputs, an onboard sound processor and a very nice remote. It has a funky vertical cabinet with a sloped front which guarantees it won’t match any other equipment, but I love it. Where I live radio reception is awful except for high power stations I don’t care for anyway, so the DP-U50 allows me to listen to my favorite jazz and lounge music stations on Live365.com through the Rotel. Obviously the bitstream isn’t CD quality, but it’s fine for background music which I listen to during working hours and it sure beats trying to get the local low-power jazz station on FM. Unfortunately Yamaha seems to have totally abandoned this concept, in that they have not only discontinued the DP/AP series, haven’t replaced them with new units and haven’t even offered updated drivers on their website. One reason I bought a new computer this fall is that I wanted the last of the Win XP computers, not a new Vista one, since I don’t know if the Yamaha will work with Vista. Right now the drivers are only rated for Win98 and 2000, but work fine on XP. I have no idea what I would replace the Yamaha with.
One last orphan: ADC (Audiodynamics) speakers. This is what I originally bought with the KLH, and used for many years. I can’t say I loved them, but they were OK, the XT-10 model with one 10" woofer and two tweeters placed at opposite diagonal corners of the box. Really nice cabinets, though, which came in handy when my sister got a Yamaha receiver with Boston A-100s in the ‘80s. The A-100s have crappy wood-look vinyl cabinets, so I proposed a trade . . . she got the speakers with the best cabinets, I got the speakers with the best sound . . . still have them. I’ve often wondered what became of ADC.
Ah, cool thread . . . as it turns out much of my small collection of equipment would qualify as “orphan” stuff. A few days ago I posted in the Setton thread about my TS-11 turntable, and even got some links to getting a new belt. That’s the only thing that has gone wrong with it in 25 or so years of ownership, so I can’t complain . . . but then I do well with French products, having owned many old French cars, which, like the Setton, gave good service at least to me!
The Setton sits above three Rotel pieces, an RCD-855 CD player, an RTC-850 tuner/preamp, and an RB-850 power amp. All have been totally reliable over the last 15 years. I wouldn’t have considered Rotel an orphan, since they have continued in business over many years making the same kind of product and are hardly obscure in the world of audio, but I like ‘em regardless of orphan status.
A couple of other pieces of equipment come to mind which are definitely orphans as regards their particular lines, but from companies which are well known. These are the KLH Model 52 receiver, and the Yamaha DP-U50 external sound card/preamp. KLH never made many receivers, but I think the Model 52 is a gem. I bought mine as a teenager, having mowed lawns to save up the money. I looked at other 35 wpc receivers from Sony, Marantz, Pioneer, (and Nikko too!), but liked the KLH best. Audio magazine liked it too. I never regretted the purchase, and used it for 15 or 16 years until buying the Rotel stuff. I still have it in storage and maybe someday I’ll refurbish it. Too bad KLH didn’t continue with their receiver family and go for some high power, but as we all know the competition in the ‘70s was pretty tough for good receivers.
The Yamaha DP-U50 was one of two external sound cards they offered about five years ago. There was an otherwise identical model with an internal amp (AP-U50 I think), but this is just a preamp with a USB input, regular preamp inputs, an onboard sound processor and a very nice remote. It has a funky vertical cabinet with a sloped front which guarantees it won’t match any other equipment, but I love it. Where I live radio reception is awful except for high power stations I don’t care for anyway, so the DP-U50 allows me to listen to my favorite jazz and lounge music stations on Live365.com through the Rotel. Obviously the bitstream isn’t CD quality, but it’s fine for background music which I listen to during working hours and it sure beats trying to get the local low-power jazz station on FM. Unfortunately Yamaha seems to have totally abandoned this concept, in that they have not only discontinued the DP/AP series, haven’t replaced them with new units and haven’t even offered updated drivers on their website. One reason I bought a new computer this fall is that I wanted the last of the Win XP computers, not a new Vista one, since I don’t know if the Yamaha will work with Vista. Right now the drivers are only rated for Win98 and 2000, but work fine on XP. I have no idea what I would replace the Yamaha with.
One last orphan: ADC (Audiodynamics) speakers. This is what I originally bought with the KLH, and used for many years. I can’t say I loved them, but they were OK, the XT-10 model with one 10" woofer and two tweeters placed at opposite diagonal corners of the box. Really nice cabinets, though, which came in handy when my sister got a Yamaha receiver with Boston A-100s in the ‘80s. The A-100s have crappy wood-look vinyl cabinets, so I proposed a trade . . . she got the speakers with the best cabinets, I got the speakers with the best sound . . . still have them. I’ve often wondered what became of ADC.