Housebrands

[drknstrmyknight]

Didn't Sears source some stuff from Fisher as well?

 

[Bone Yard]

I drove several Vegas, great cars with a bad rap...I think it had to do with the aluminum head warping, never had that problem. They ran great and were easy to fix, used to be able to pick them up for dirt cheap back in the day.....

 

[beemer]

Tech Hifi had a house brand called "Vector Research". Some of the stuff wasn't too bad. I never owned any of it.

I remember well the Tech Hifi in Waltham Massachusetts at the corner of Main and Moody St. All the Marantz quad recievers, set up on carpeted shelves that angled downward and had a small lip on the front to keep the recievers in place. One wall with dozens of speakers and the controller to A/B speakers with a wired pushbutton. This all about 1972-1973.

Downstairs was the "big dollar room". Orange deep shag carpet, a couch and coffee table. Separates of all kinds and featuring prominently Ohm "F" loudspeakers. Boy oh boy those days were fun.

Best,

Paul :thmbsp:

 

[Mike Petrik]

I drove several Vegas, great cars with a bad rap...I think it had to do with the aluminum head warping, never had that problem. They ran great and were easy to fix, used to be able to pick them up for dirt cheap back in the day.....

My apologies to Vega lovers. No harm intended. Had two friends with Vegas -- both had head problems (the Vegas that is; only one of the friends had a head problem).

 

[x_25]

I have a Realistic STA-85 receiver that is quite nice and connected to it are some Optimus PRO 7AV's, same as the Minimus 7's from the Rad shack.

 

[Stuart Pedaso]

It turns out to work very well overall and is now playing thru two 15" and two 12" speaker boxes in my bathroom. It will put out all the crisp and clear E. Power Biggs organ I can stand on CD or record.

Holy Crap!
I'll bet THAT promotes regularity!

 

[rickr15]

Tech Hifi had a house brand called "Vector Research". Some of the stuff wasn't too bad. I never owned any of it.

I had a Vector Research receiver. Sounded pretty good but it was real ugly. It had the schematic silk screened on the top cover IIR. Still have a Vector Research tuner VU-1500 its ugly too but works well for garage duty.

 

[Rybeam]

Vector Research was sold around here but we had no Tech HiFi. Did Tech HiFi have other names ? Team Electronics, maybe? Team had house speakers sold under the Atlantic name.
Back to VR., I have an old Vector Research receiver, the amp is broke but the tuner part is very good. One of the smoothest tuning knobs ever !

 

[DSChamber]

I got a Sears LXI all-in-one rack set-up, looks to be about 50 watts per channel, made around 1987. Told it might have been made by Sanyo, but of course, who really knows on such things? My point is, I picked it up in a combined deal with several other things for $10 total at a Goodwill clearance place. It turns out to work very well overall and is now playing thru two 15" and two 12" speaker boxes in my bathroom. It will put out all the crisp and clear E. Power Biggs organ I can stand on CD or record. Not bad for next to nothing money, don't have to worry about all the humidity ruining several Vintage name brand pieces- all made possible because it was a house brand all-in-one. Sometimes house brands can come in handy. Curt

I have similar Sears LXI components.... slim line integrated amp (deceivingly heavy for it's size), slim line tuner (which connects to the amp via a special cable to get its power), and a tape deck... tape deck needed a new belt, but since I had an Akai tape deck, I trashed it... bought all the LXI pieces for I think $10-$15

This above "system" minus the tape deck is out in my unheated garage, happily pushing two big NEC S47 3 way speakers (15" woofers, 6" mids, and 4" tweeters).... I have no complaints with this "housebrand"

Actually this system is the first "vintage" (not sure if this would be considered vintage or not) system I bought and it put me on the slippery slope of the never ending search for "golden era" audio Hi-Fi... damn you Sears LXI!!! lol...

 

[Clmrt]

Speaking of LXI...

Some months ago, I sold a BPC Denoon set to a co-worker, who teased me by saying he would give me the big silver thing that was all futzy in the volume.

Delusions of grandeur befell me...all for naught...

If you squint, it looks like a Luxman...eep

 

[70salesguy]

Minor Vega thread hijack

I drove several Vegas, great cars with a bad rap...I think it had to do with the aluminum head warping, never had that problem. They ran great and were easy to fix, used to be able to pick them up for dirt cheap back in the day.....

Yes, I had one as well and it provided me excellent service. :thmbsp:

Mine was a GT with a 4-speed and A/C. Bought it from a friend that needed a station wagon and couldn't get a decent trade-in on it. It sure was better on gas going back and forth to work than my GTO was!

I sold it about 2 years later for the same amount as I paid for it! :yes:

We now return you to our regularly scheduled thread.


We sold "Royal" speakers as our house brand. First generation was made by E-V, really were nice!

Second generation were made by CTS. Still a good speaker at a good price.

I sold a lot of them!

 

[dshoaf]

Here are a few other 'house brands' that I had contact with:

- Interaudio: These were supplied by Bose to their dealers. Not advertised, they were intended to provide a higher-margin speaker than the Bose branded stuff. They used many of the drivers found in the 501s, 301, and 601s. There were 4 models, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, with the 1Ks being a small mini-monitor up to the 4K which had the 501's 10" woofer and 2 tweeters in a floor-standing cabinet. Bose did issue a warranty for them and backed it up with replacement drivers and offered co-op $$ accrual, too, for local advertising if we sold them. They all sounded excellent and could be priced competitively against the equivalent Bose speaker.

- Image/Image 88: I do not know who built these but they were the Glam-rock of house brand speakers. Lots of little bling around the drivers like chrome rings, colored driver cones and the ubiquetous removable grill in double-knit material. They honked, burped and sold like hotcakes.

- Ultralinear: Again, these seemed to just appear on the floor. Some manfacuter's rep would show up, meet with the owner, and a couple of weeks later a small shipment of speakers would appear. We'd figure out what they sounded like and priced them less than the brand name speaker. The margins on these speakers really did keep the owner afloat. Like the Image speakers, these were ported designs and used slightly lower quality drivers. Warranty was carried through the store - there was no such thing as factory support with house brand speakers. Cabinets were thin, vibrated like crazy, used vinyl walnut coverings, had single cap crossovers and inexpensive connectors.

BTW, Ultralinear did at one time attempt to market a 'real' speaker, the Ultralinear 1000, that included magazine reviews and advertising in the trade rags. Sonically, they didn't compete that well with other name-brand speakers and we never sold them as a result.

Cheers,

David

Oh, and yes, I had a Chevrolet Monza, the successor to the Vega. Same car - different name. It was a 3-speed manual. Drove it a long time. Is there some Seven-Degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon link to old-time audio and Vegas we haven't explored? Whew, that could get ugly.......

 

[Sansui Louie]

Vector Research was sold around here but we had no Tech HiFi. Did Tech HiFi have other names ? Team Electronics, maybe? Team had house speakers sold under the Atlantic name.
Back to VR., I have an old Vector Research receiver, the amp is broke but the tuner part is very good. One of the smoothest tuning knobs ever !

Close.... Atlantis was the Team house brand. I don't think Vector Research was a house brand, I seem to remember reading reviews of their gear and that they were sold in a number of unrelated places.

 

[denniswilson]

Lafayette's house brand for speakers was Criterion. I had a pair of Criterion 50A. Nice speakers. I wonder who made them.
Anyway, Some of you may or may not have noticed that at one point Circuit City also sold "Criterion" as a house brand. Why, you may ask.....because when Lafayette closed up, Circuit City bought up all their stores...and trademarks too I guess.

 

[fcarpcarp]

Tech Hifi had a house brand called "Vector Research". Some of the stuff wasn't too bad. I never owned any of it.

I remember well the Tech Hifi in Waltham Massachusetts at the corner of Main and Moody St. All the Marantz quad recievers, set up on carpeted shelves that angled downward and had a small lip on the front to keep the recievers in place. One wall with dozens of speakers and the controller to A/B speakers with a wired pushbutton. This all about 1972-1973.

Downstairs was the "big dollar room". Orange deep shag carpet, a couch and coffee table. Separates of all kinds and featuring prominently Ohm "F" loudspeakers. Boy oh boy those days were fun.


Best,

Paul :thmbsp:

I remember that store, used to work on River Street. I had reason to visit Waltham recently and am happy to report the Chateau is still there, going strong, and still serving the best pizza and calamari soup in town.
Thanks Paul, I haven't traveled that part of memory lane for years.

Frank

 

[Susurus]

.....
- Interaudio: These were supplied by Bose to their dealers. Not advertised, they were intended to provide a higher-margin speaker than the Bose branded stuff. .......

Doesn't that exceed some law of the physical universe?