I used to think the comment "do you remember when" and "back in the day" was exclusively the province of the elderly. Thinking back, "I can remember when" as relatively young men we used to reminisce about days gone by. I find when talking to friends, we will often dredge up events and people from the past. **I can actually remember when crisps actually had a blue paper twist in them containing salt**, not a sachet, but a bit of twisted blue paper. I even remember my very first packet and coming across this contrivance, having to be shown what to do. Untwist, shake the bag, of course with the level of motor control of a very small child, this usually ended badly. Within a very short period they changed to "ready salted"…and innovation, then came flavours, starting with salt and Vinegar…which I swear tasted better than todays artificial version. Or perhaps you remember the time when gas cookers had a pilot flame (permanently on) in the centre and a little gas wand on a tube (clipped to the side of the cooker) with a button. You lit the wand from the pilot and then used it to light the oven or overhead grill. Incredibly dangerous, especially as it was coal gas, but no one thought anything of it. As a small child I wasn't allowed to touch the gas wand…My mum had a Parkinson Cowan like this, right up to about 1975, [upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/GeL7IuH.png]

God, this thread is made up for old timers! I can remember when a Mars Bar was 2d and you needed two hands to hold it. The chocolate was soooooooo thick! My neighbour (I was around 4 or 5) used an Isetta Bubble Car for her everyday drive. In winter, you woke up (pre central heating) to chipping ice from the inside of thesingle glazed windows and you wore jumpers indoors. You ran downstairs when it snowed to find the bloody Blue Tits had pecked through the silver top milk bottles and had stolen the inch or so of cream that used to settle on the top. I remember watching the first episode of a new cutting edge drama, Z Cars.......I could go one and on! Tell you one thing though, life was simpler but were they really the good old days?

@"dfk41"#p2934 Definitely remember the ice on the inside of the windows and as a kid dragging my cloths into the bed to warm them up. Big old cottage with no central heating brrrrrrrrr.

Do you remember Spangles? When Curly Wurlys were massive, you could use them for a ladder. Bri Nylon shirts. Nylon bed sheets! Some shops still had Lamson pneumatic tube systems that would shuttle away your payment and bring back your change.

> @"Gagaryn"#p2938 Do you remember Spangles? > > 1. Bri Nylon shirts. > 2. Nylon bed sheets! > > 3\.Some shops still had Lamson pneumatic tube systems that would shuttle away your payment and bring back your change. Spangles, yes..my favourite sweet, I like the old english ones too, but only certain flavours…the red one was to die for.. 1. Mum thought it was a brilliant idea for school, I hated them. I think it was the stain resistance and one shake they were dry. Remember the little blue sparks that came off them in a dark room in the morning. 2. Nope, I refused to sleep in those…absolutely refused…used to make me itch like mad all night 3. Bentalls used to have those back in the day, always fascinated me as a kid. Shluwooop, pshhhhh. I always wondered where they went and they used to come back with the recpt as well I think. We had another shop near us, Digbys general store, like something out of 1920…used a system of wires, The stuff was put in a tube on the wires, then a sharp pull on a handle, and it went flying across the roof of the store. Those cheap bastards kept the store the same and the system going until the mid 60s..open sacks of flour, beans, tea in large cases, butter pats etc.. Can you imagine how well that would have all gone down now. [upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/bY3zuoy.png ] [upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/HbHmfM2.png ]

@"Gagaryn"#p2938 If ever you go to Beamish Museum, my friend provided the tube system they use in the shop. To carry on, card with starter handles although by my time they were more of a standby than actually needed on the modern car. Telephone kiosks with the old A & B system for putting your money in (ask your parents!), bus conductors!

Sharing your phone line with the neighbors "party line" I think it was called. Picked the phone up and you caught half their conversation - nuts!

> @"Lake_M"#p2943 Sharing your phone line with the neighbors “party line” I think it was called. Picked the phone up and you caught half their conversation - nuts! As a kid my parents had one…It always puzzled me how both phones didn't ring when an inbound call came in, and it was only years later I found out how they did it.

Does anyone remember these…. Once a month a man would come round and empty it and if there was more than what the monthly payment was, my mum would get back what was over. It was the only way we could afford to have a telly. Mind you, it was a bit frustrating when you'd be watching a really good programme and the chuffin thing would click off because the timer ran out, and mum and my older brothers would be scrambling around to quickly find a two shilling piece (two bob bit) to put in it. [URL=https://i.imgur.com/ot7CJ0u.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/ot7CJ0u.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

We had a telly like that but mercifully without the prototype pay per view box! Old English flavour Spangles were the best boiled sweets ever. Nobody ever knew what actual flavours they were but they were the best variation of Spangles for sure. I liked the light brown opaque one and the deep red translucent one best but they were all nice. I had a 'piggy bank' from Lloyds that was a black plastic horse head. Anyone remember those 'chocolate vending machine' piggy banks where you loaded them with Neapolitan sized chocolates and had to put a coin in to get one out?

Down Memory Lane

Norvin

Still have a NAD 3020 amp and a NAD CD player with a Rega Planar 3 deck. Used to have the NAD tape deck and receiver to go with them but since sold them (as well as my A&R Cambridge A60 amp and receiver). A decent Vinyl system is possibly some of the few sorts of old equipment that doesn’t date too much.

DavecUK

Norvin A common pairing of the NADs, in my student days…were Mission 770s…alas those mission speakers and their “polypopylene” cones, didn’t stand the test of time well…most I saw in later years, the cones went brittle and shattered.

back in the day though, students were definitely on a Mission to pair their Nads with that system. 🤔

Lake_M

Norvin

I have an old NAD turntable which is basically a rebadged Rega Planar 2. Just done a bit of upgrade with new pulley and counterweight.

CafeCalando

Norvin Ah memories. I loved my A&R Cambridge A60 amp. I had an odd collection of kit at the time. A Thorens deck with an SME 3 arm , Castle Kendal speakers, an old Quad valve tuner and a Sony TCK55 Tape Deck. Sadly one by one they were sold as we moved on to newer technology. The newer kit never seemed to be as exciting as those first few separates.

Pompeyexile

Ah, Hi-Fi…. There’s another very big wormhole many of us have plunged into.

Funny, but since joining the real coffee brigade I have found there are so many similarities. Types of equipment, preferences, a multitude of gadgets accompanied by a good dose of snake oil and of course OPINIONS!

For a short period of my working life I even worked for Harman Kardon but not selling their Hi-Fi but a third party Japanese tape called 'That’s' which was mean to be a competitor to TDK. They had the same sort of range as TDK except they also had a top end tape called the Suono, apparantly designed by the same bloke who designed the Ferrari or some other fancy sports car. They claimed it didn’t distort no matter how high you whacked the recording up…and they were right, it didn’t the sound came out crystal. For an individual blank tape it was rediculously expensive and only the Hi-Fi buffs bought it…hence it didn’t sell many.

I still have several unopened boxes of the different tapes including the Suono which I think are worth a few bob now.

Anyhoo, just like my love affair with Hi-Fi my real coffee journey has taken me down the same path.

Pompeyexile

My Mission 753 Freedoms are still going strong after many years. When I got my AV amp I added a Mission 75C centre speaker in matching rosewood and a pair of V shaped 77D’s for the back wall. So, the best of both worlds decent sounding Hi-Fi and Cinema.

DavecUK

Pompeyexile massive blast from the past….In a way it’s quite funny that lots of modern "HiFi systems sold in the department stores etc..are so much worse than what we had 30 or 40 years ago. One of the few areas where modern tech has not improved things

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/2023982?clickPR=plp:2:30

lol

Pompeyexile

DavecUK HiFi systems sold in the department stores etc..are so much worse than what we had 30 or 40 years ago.

You are so right. I think it was around 1998 my AV Amp the Yamaha DSP A1 behemoth weighing in at about 23kg was introduced and I bought it not long after. Up until last year it never missed a beat. But, the digital facia went awol in places. This wasn’t because of inferior parts but because as with all of us oldies as time goes by, joints got dry and the solder cracked.

To replace it for a machine not so much as capable (an amp that can accomodate 7 plus speakers is OK if you’ve got room for 7) but with the build quality and compnents would have cost me dear. But for once lady luck was on my side and I found a gentleman who ran a Hi-Fi shop called Wilkinson’s Hi-Fi in Nelson Lancs, about an hour and a halfs drive away from me here in Yorkshire. He used to be a Yamaha enginneer and for the princely sum of £60 he re-soldered the joints and it is now as good as new and will no doubt last another 20 odd years or in other words, see me out. He also sells and repairs many other makes of old gear including doing servicing on turntables such as my Linn and gets people from all over the country and the world seeking his expertise. Oh, and just for good measure, while I was in the shop Andy Kershaw the Radio DJ came in, as he also had his equipment repaired there and was doing an interview with the guy for a radio programme he was doing. Whilst he was in the back room I pretended I was from the Beeb.

Norvin

I replaced the arm a few years ago as the early Rega 3s had an inferior arm. Made a new brass counterweight for it as well as making a new turntable.
When I enquired about buying the Rega in the early 80’s, Graham’s Hi Fi in Islington wouldn’t sell me one until I had attended a listening session. They compared the Rega with a Linn and my then current Dual 505. It wasn’t until I had heard the Same track on all three (Police- Pink Floyd’s Dark side was banned) that i was able to buy.
My first job was in a Hi Fi shop in Crouch End, Happy memories.

Pompeyexile

My Linn Sondek was my first foray into what I call ‘Hi end Hi-Fi’ Before that I had a Technics SL-L1 Direct Drive Linear Tracking Turntable…

The one good thing about that was it was impossible to scratch the record with the needle as never having to touch it, you couldn’t accidentally drop it or drag it on the record.

CafeNoir

Linn Sondek, Ittok and a variety of cartridges over time..lol… personal end game. Thank god that was prior to release of the Well Tempered et al…
Coupled with Energy 22’s, Plinius amps with a NAD CD player and Nakamichi cassette deck

Doram

My parents had a car just like this when I was a child (Niche didn’t invent the wooden accents, lol) The main thing I remember about it (other than the red colour, the wood and how the back doors opened like an ambulance), is that to start the motor you had to push a botton located on the floor of the car (so I could do it!).

DavecUK

Doram i had a green 1965 mini Traveller as my first ever car…cost me £85 as it was 12 years old.

dfk41

When I was in my teens, I used to go fishing with a pal. It was to a lake up on Hadrians Wall and invariably my friends older brother took us in his 1964 Mini 850cc. Everything was fine on the way there but on the way back, there is a ver steep bank from The George at Chollerford (in case anyone knows it). With three of us in the car, it was down to first gear and crawling up at 2 mph! Nowadays, a modern car would just laugh at the road but I can remember back in the day, dreading the return journey!

CafeNoir

First car, Austin 1100…it was fun but reliable??

Pompeyexile

CafeNoir First car, Austin 1100…it was fun but reliable??

My first car too, green colour. Mine was reliable enough but as rusty as a rusty bucket made out of rust by Rusty Motors INC in Rust Town, Rustmonshire RU5T EY1.

Funny the doors and sills and wheel archers were all OK. It wasn’t until I was giving my pride and joy a spring clean and took the back seat out I could see underneath the metal floor was so rotten, the garage I bought it from had filled the space with pop riveted aluminium sheet and that was what the axle was attached to.

My brother took one look and marched me down to the garage and threatened the owner with re-arranging his face if he didn’t take the death trap off my hands and give me my money back, which of course he did.

Next up was a Ford Cortina MK1

SiblingChris

Lake_M just get one if these 😃… https://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/audio_visual/hifi_components/a-s2200/index.html

Lake_M

SiblingChris

£3000!! That’s nearly 100 times more than I paid for the JVC off eBay!

Update - the old JVC is fixed and sounding sweet as a nut. An open cap on the left output module and a failed speaker protection relay. I couldn’t find a replacement so took it apart and realigned the contacts. Bingo! Just a recap and general service and she’s ready to rock for the next 40 years!

Next up will be an old Rotel…

CafeNoir

Sounds like you had a great older brother…and the Go-tina was a big upgrade, lol!
Current non hi-fi music system is a compact all in one Marantz (M-CR502, iirc) with a set of Paradigm Atoms.
I’ve been hi-fi free for 15 years now and some days are harder than others, lol lol!!!

Pompeyexile

Like any ‘hobby’ there is spending money on it and then there is having to sell your soul for it….I remember these or something quite similar but at 57,750 quid for the Bowers & Wilkinson’s Nautilus speakers, I’d not only expect them to make the artist sound as if they were in the room, but actually transport the chuffer in the flesh once a week for the rest of my life for a private gig in the comfort of my home.

And let’s be honest here, just how much difference can one hear spending that much? The gentle whistle of air passing over the gossamer hairs up an artists nose as they breath in and out?… hardly adds to the musical experience now, surely?

DavecUK

Pompeyexile The biggest problem is your hearing once you are old enough where you can afford it.. I suspect as we get older, the speaker requirements reduce massively.

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