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Interesting ebay auction - John Boulton stereo

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The weird stuff like that is neat. Wish the seller took better pictures. Also probably should copy those photos just for the sake of posterity considering it's something that's probably otherwise a ghost.
 
Boulton specialized in custom "built-in" home sound installations for the very wealthy, usually in the Northeast, particularly in the greater NYC surrounding areas.

The company existed from the early '70s until the mid/late '80s. Boulton had some sort of proprietary 70 ohm(?) amplifier/speaker design preventing Boulton electronics to be used with other equipment, consequently it has very little value today.
 
Too bad.
I have family that way. If it were a diamond in the rough, id be all over that!.Not seeing it though.:dunno::no:
 
nj pheonix said:
Too bad.
I have family that way. If it were a diamond in the rough, id be all over that!.Not seeing it though.:dunno::no:
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More of a curiosity setup today than anything else if you have the time, patience and skills to do the repairs yourself. The parents of a HS friend had a Boulton system in their home. Speakers were built into the walls which was standard procedure with Boulton installations. The thing was constantly on the fritz I recall. It was very complex - and some of the connections were a bit unorthodox. They had it nestled in an alcove of a huge living room with vaulted 30 ' high ceilings at their maximum peak. Small "jewelry gift boxes" contained hard-wired remote devices were located throughout the home which could control basic operations of the system.

Sound quality was more along the lines of a glorified public sound system than a "real" hi fi. The thing cost a king's ransom back in the day. I remember thinking the first class McIntosh rig the same money could've been bought as was paid this overpriced POS.

As far as I'm concerned, the company's motto should have been: "Audio for the ultra rich, who know nothing about audio". :rolleyes:
 
Maybe worth preserving as a curiosity then, more than reuse as hi end gear?

Any chance that was 70V distribution which is commonly used with in ceiling PA systems? Would not be proprietary though.

If it's 70 ohms it might be handy to use with a DIY line array or a stack of Bose 901s like AKer MidMo did a few years back. He stacked 3 sets of 901s and wired them all in series and built a custom tube amp to match the impedance.
 
Perhaps but service information is bound to be difficult to find to say nothing of parts.

Years ago a set of c. late '80s Boutlon equipment was offered on eBay that apparently had never been installed, complete with a full set of invoices and tags that were never removed.. I remember the original price of a single in-wall speaker as being $1,7xx. Apparently the company folded before the installation could be completed. One can only imagine how happy those customers must've been...

lightest
 
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I am sort of curious. Obviously to the then well heeled, Fisher, Mcintosh, Scott,.... Probably were known to the public. I wonder how this company made such inroads into the (let's call it wealthy?) market. Point is, There was no internet. I doubt they advertised on TV. Probably not radio. I wonder how they reached their target audience.
 
I remember seeing an ad for Boulton in the New York Times magazine back in the early 1980s. I was curious but never pursued it further.
 
nj pheonix said:
I am sort of curious. Obviously to the then well heeled, Fisher, Mcintosh, Scott,.... Probably were known to the public. I wonder how this company made such inroads into the (let's call it wealthy?) market. Point is, There was no internet. I doubt they advertised on TV. Probably not radio. I wonder how they reached their target audience.
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At the risk of getting into the weeds here, John and Prudence Boulton were well known socialites in the greater NYC area. John had been an engineer and Prudence was an heiress to the Flagler fortune. Dovetailing into all this was Boulton's main retail location in a fashionable district in NYC. No doubt between sips of champagne and nibbles of caviar and pate de fois gras, talk of audio installations took place between the couple and their many well-heeled friends at their soirees. But as they say, you can only fool some people some of the time...

John and Prudence had also contracted to build an enormous glass house in NJ which they named Chalan Farm. I don't know whether the construction was ever completed or whether the Boultons ever assumed residence before the money ran out.
 
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Thanks
That's about a half hour north of me.
Had I known I might have checked it out. (Just to see)
Not really my taste but it would have been impressive.
Seems a shame they tore it down.
 
Turntable has a Benjamin/Elac look to it. Wonder if there is any connection with Benjamin? Seems like that was an East Coast outfit too. I do like all those knobs and meters.

Thanks for posting, interesting stuff.
 
tonebells said:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/JOHN-BOULT...h=item33f6a2798c:g:DqIAAOSwqeVbu5Zf:rk:6:pf:0

It's no good without the 8 track changer.

Tony
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I doubt I touched an 8 track in close to 40 years.
I sort of missed their hay day, though they certainly were still around . Cassettes were getting popular as an audio format as I was getting interested in owning my own gear. I did find it annoying hearing the click click in the middle of a song and the bleed through from the other tracks in quiet sections or between selections.
That said. That thing is cool:rolleyes:
 
Pio1980 said:
One more;
https://princetoninfo.com/life-in-the-fast-lane-92/
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Thanks for that article. This may be the only thread where the people behind the equipment proved more interesting than the equipment itself.

I watch Boulton listings on eBay every so often mainly because of past experience but never pursued it because it's simply too impractical for me to get involved with, both logistically and economically. Restoration of old Boulton gear is bound to be challenging.

If nothing else, it may have some collector interest as a static display and/or conversation piece provoking a telling of the Boulton story.
 
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