Pete's Audio Adventure

we dreamed of Sanyo, had to make do with Saisho. I used to put the speakers as far apart as the captive speaker cables would allow.

It was better than nothing but when I think how that compared to what I have now it's a different world, different universe.

I still listen to all the same albums as I did back then so that's not changed although my tastes are a bit wider now.

I remember my dad had a dansette type record player which he donated to me when I was 14 as he'd been out and bought a Pye music centre which I loved as it meant I could record the charts direct in one un instead of with a mic via, my mono Sony portable cassette. I would also record friends albums when they brought them round. At 18 I finally upgraded from the Dansette to a stereo record player (the speakers joined to form the lid) but any recording had to be done on dad's music centre. At 21 I progressed to a Sharps midi system with pseudo separates look (record cupboard with gless door as the bottom half). It was at this point I discovered I'd wasted my time recording all my mates records as they could only be played on the music centre, on my Sharps unit they all sounded like the bloody chipmunks as his cassette deck ran slow. It wasn't until I got married and bought my 1st house and heard my neighbours Rega 3, A60 & Kans that I realised what I'd been missing all those years and so the hifi desease took hold.

Good story.
I started with a red Dansette record player (loved the glow of the valve and waiting for it to warm up) in my shared bedroom (me and my brother) and stacking the 45's on it (Chubby Checker, Beatles, Buddy holly etc - would have been around 5 or so (50 plus years ago)

So, picking up from earlier, the DIN lead made all the difference, and will reappear a couple more times in my journey.

Because the Stereogram had a DIN output I thought I could plug in direct and record from the radio and Garrard record deck.

To digress, my grandfather told a good story of how he used to make packing cases for the Garrard factory in Swindon, in the 1960s. So if you have one of the decks, and a wooden packing box, he may of been making it all those years ago.

So, on my first attempt I had not allowed for one important fact. My father's guided pride for HIS Stereogram. He pounced, shouted, and demanded I withdraw the witchcraft that is a DIN lead, he was convinced that it would destroy the Stereogram. I withdrew and considered my next attempt.

Sadly, his arrival home was somewhat later than my school boy determined appearance beside the Stereogram. Here I was, ready for my second attempt. Phillips recorder, WH Smith C90, DIN lead and a Top of the Pops LP, on of those with a woman wearing surprising little clothing in the snow. Everything was plugged in, I released the pause button, lowered the arm and I was off, recording a decidedly dodgy 'sound alike' of Pepper Box by The Peppers. Everything was perfect until I went for replay. Disaster, for some reason the output of the Stereogram was different to the input range on the cassette player. Failure, I could not record from the Stereogram, unless I went back to the microphone and a silent room method. I needed another plan.

I needed another plan.

I was starting to buy my own records, pretty bland stuff initially, think the first single was 'Life is a Minestrone' by 10CC, possibly because I quite liked Italian food, I did like how the rhythm changed during the track though. I persuaded my mother to take me to that renowned store for great music reproduction equipment: Dan Evans, Barry - a department store on the High Street, for non-locals! I eyed up a really poor, 100% plastic record player. Can't remember the make, but it had a 7" turntable and something like a knitting needle for an arm. It did 33 and 45 and its amplification was a very, bedroom friendly low level. At least, my parents considered it bedroom friendly, I thought it was pretty pathetic, any sort of volume and the plastic speakers seemed to be full of bees!

So, I was up in my bedroom, playing records, and being able to tape the ones borrowed from friends with my microphone, still not ideal. Especially when my younger brother would love to bang on the door to ruin any recording session. Also, any lp, not 100% flat, on the 7" turntable would look like the pacific in a storm, with the little arm pitching up and down, trying, hopefully, barely hanging on.... This lasted a little while, probably a couple of years, but another plan was needed and the little stereo was sold to Nigel Adams.

Why I thought a Decca stereo, with radio, and Garrard turntable was the best option for me, I don't know. I guess it was on display in Dan Evan's electrical dept. I think I even asked for a demonstration. Probably some bloke playing a stereo sampler record was about the limit of that - although, this is better. than some of the treatment that I have had in HiFi shops since then. Christmas, birthday, pocket money and paper round savings covered the cost. I think it was about £60.... I was upgrading! Bloody slippery slope.

Getting it home and setting it up, i.e. plugging in and taking off stylus protector and unscrewing transit screws, took about 1 minute. Record on the full 12" platter, volume up, and the bees were gone. What it did achieve was a new record for my father getting up stairs to shout at me to turn that bloody rubbish down. Fantastic, achievement, upsetting parents with musical choices. By this stage I had a few Slade albums, punk singles,T . Rex,. Sparks, and a mixture of other stuff that could be played loudish, and the bees were gone. I tentatively plugged in the DIN lead, TDK C60, needle dropped, pause off and record. Brother banging and parents shouting was not now able to penetrate the DIN lead and perfect recording, along with perfect playback. Thinks were moving in the right direction. I then discovered that the tape player could be set so you could record with the microphone while also recording from the lead, you could sing over records (bad, why would you want to do that), or you could do your own introductions, DJ style, also cringingly bad, thankfully those tapes are long gone.

Somehow though, after a little time passed I realised that the sound quality from the Phillips was not as good as vinyl, think I may have heard that few times since. I needed something that was stereo, and better quality, and without the ability to sing over stuff.

I needed another plan.

My father used to see Top Of The Poos and say 'They're all on drugs.' Or 'The tunes not too bad but the words are rubbish.'

He liked Little Richard and Fats Domino.

Funny really the generation gap with music. I think the current music is rubbish just like my dad did.

I don't think they're all on drugs though. Their music would be a lot better if that was true.

wow, a party time, amazing looking thing, bet it created a few party's in your house.

Laskys, I think, was at the top of Queen Street, Cardiff. Not nearly quite as far as where the Capital Cinema used to be, but not far away. As a teenager, it was the shop of dreams. I had been in with my friend Gareth to buy a Radio Cassette player and seen, what appeared to be, crowds of older men staring at stereo equipment.

By this time I had bought my first HiFi mag and spent hours reading it from cover to cover, cross referencing and checking what was the recommended equipment to go with what. A tape deck, Pioneer CT-200, I think, had caught my eye. It seemed a good buy, and Laskys sold it. My 16 year old legs had taken me to empty my savings account and I was on the train, with probably the best part of £100 in my pocket. I knew what I wanted, it was silver and sleek, it hade twin VU meters and I could use it to copy my mates Jethro Tull albums onto TDK SA tapes. I could easily connect it to the DIN socket on the back of my Decca record player.

In Laskys a spotty 16year old didn’t generally have staff rushing up to them to ask if they could help, so I had to ask at the counter. A bloke in a jumper, with a Magnum P.I .moustache grudgingly ‘helped’. My Hifi mag had said I needed to ask for a demonstration, which I got after lots of leads were moved around. It seemed ok, meters flickered, music came out of speakers. I was shown the leads that came with it. ‘The thing is… ‘, uttered Mr. P.I . These needle VU meters are being replaced and you should have one with these LEDs ones. I was shown, I think, an Akai CM-MO2. It flickered, it flashed, and I thought it is not the CT-200, but it is very 1980, it is the future, and P.I. told me it was great. I had the demo and it flashed and it made music. I paid and took my box home on the train.

Now, being an astute 16 year old, I had noticed that Laskys did a 14 day, no questions asked exchange. So, when I got home, at I looked up the CM-MO2 in my HiFi mag, and it didn’t’ feature as the CT-200 did, I felt let down. But I plugged it in and enjoyed it for a week. It sounded great, as it would. Tull was taped and LPs were returned. By next Saturday the CM-MO2 was doing the same. In Laskys, P.I. was not there, off for a day in his Ferrari, I guess.

I returned home with the CT-200, set it up, plugged it in, and …… I didn’t think it was as good!! Lesson learnt, the advice of some Private Investigator look alikes can possibly be trusted sometimes.

But I was happy, in my room listening to my music, and the music of my friends on the tapes.

I remember, that at the time, often, on inner sleeves, was printed Home Taping is killing music. Bet we all have loads of those sleeves. I never believed it to be true, as, whenever I taped something I liked I was off to by it on vinyl, somethings never change. Spotify is now the replacement of borrowing your mates LP, I recon.

To be continued!!

I can never remember Lasky's selling any 'real' hifi, thought it was all cheap shite. It was Comet for me, they used to do full page ads and had a newspaper with all the stock they carried, and there was a small hifi shop just 5 minutes walk from the town centre I liked to visit, well at least look in the window.

I remember my dad taking me to Comet to buy a hi-fi. I'd picked out the components I'd wanted from their full-page ad.

Got there and they didn't have any of it in stock, only stuff I could not afford, so I came home empty-handed. I'm still feeling disappointed about that.

I forgot to mention the Nagoka MP11 cartridge!!

It's amazing how we have different memories of these things.

Comet - now that really was cheap shite.

Laskys. Hmm, I guess you never went upstairs in the big Totty Court Road shop. Some stunningly amazing gear there. And it would still be that today with the same gear. Mahoosive JBLs, kilobuck Tandberg R2R, Japanese amp esoterica. Some jaw drop kit.

Wow, memories!

Yep he certainly made plenty from hawking Sh#t to the masses. I remember one Xmas being wowed by an Amstrad stack system my Uncle had bought and installed, I'd never seen anything like it, everything you could ever need and lights aswell. In the afternoon because my sister and I were the only youngsters (<15) amongst 17 crotchetey (the young should be seen and not heard) adults, he put on the latest record, Jean Michel Jarres' Oxygene. It did sound amazing to my ears and after I often went into Woolworths and drooled over this £139.99 marvel (£149.99 with graphic equaliser) along with the Tomas mopeds. The man certainly knew how to polish a turd and make money.

Never went there sadly. Maybe I've got the wrong shop but I remember them selling Realistic in Grimsby.