Technics ‘Professional’ Audio Line of the 1970s

View Comments

• Greetings. I just stumbled onto your site... I love it. So many detailed ads from yesteryear,. The same ads I drooled over in my teens as I realized that there were better stereo components out there than my Pioneer SA-550 and BIC Venturi Formula 4 speakers. It's kinda funny, but even today I can hear a song on the radio from back in the era, and mentally, I can anticipate the part of the song where the music started to fade out... then then inappropriately loud "click!" of the 8-Track changing tracks and the music resuming. Different times and technology for sure from todays .mp3, Lossless digital recording, and the ability to carry your entire album collection (times 30) around with you, all in a machine no bigger than 1/3 the size of a pack of cigarettes.
  Judging by the prices some folks are asking* (not necessarily "getting") on eBay and other sites, there are still many like myself out there that still desire the old electronic marvels that were advertised everywhere in glossy, pulse racing color and lighting formerly reserved for automotive brochures and bathroom fixtures.Flipping through the screens today of the internet auctions and other classic audio sites, I occasionally get flashes of memories brought on by a certain brand or model of reel to reel, an innovative (for it's time...) turntable, or one of the "Monster" recievers that weighed as much as a Volkswagon and had more bells and whistles on it than its predecessor. Girls my age had pinups of David Cassity, and The Monkees on their walls at 12 years old... I had audio dealer posters of the day, like the Nakimichi RX-505 whose cassette tape cradle, with a push of a button, shot the cassette out towards you, spun the tape around 180 degrees, and sucked it back into it's cradle where it was ready to play side B of your cassette. Or the BSR Accutrac turntable that had it's own remote control that had a whole gaggle of buttons with which you were tempted to call NASA during Apollo maneuvers and inform them, "I got this..."
  Seriously though... a turntable that enabled you to not only pick up and lower your tonearm, but to program which songs for it to play, in what order, all from your slightly abused Lazy Boy??? incredible for it's time. I had Stereo Review ads and articles Scotch taped on my folks expensive cheap panelling right next to Farrah Fawcett's unforgettable ummm... gaze... that fueled another part of my 14 yr. old mind. And the rock and Roll bands of the time, of course... posters and centerfolds from Creem magazine of Frampton, J. Geils, Kiss, Nugent and Bob Seger all had their places on my basement walls.At age 12, my older brother turned me onto CKLW AM and the sounds of the 70's (the DJ's said) That Christmas I got my first stereo. It was a "Capehart" all-in-one model that had a record exchanger on the top and a AM/FM tuning dial and 8-Track in the front. Two speakers, well, if you can call sawdust pressboard, a fake tweeter horn, and a 4 inch all-around, 1/2 inch thick (including magnet) a speaker... But I played the hell out of that thing. Replaced the needle twice in 6 months due to wear and the omni present battle that occurs when you have 3 older brothers living in too close a proximity. It was about the six month mark when the rattle started in my speakers. It was then that I noticed the ads in my brother Dougs National Lampoon magazines, Beautiful advertisements of brushed aluminum, weighted tuner dials, hulking amps with big cooling fins, and seemingly all these products had the beautiful wood casings of faux oak or other fake laminate over pressboard. Man... girls would have to wait,rock was a more immediate need. Touring the upper end stereo shops near Detroit became a full time time waster. I loved Alma's on Michigan Ave. but even Highland Appliance had a decent array of what was selling commercially.

• Sorry.Got cut off... Anyway, you get the idea. Happy to have found your site. Hope to come back often. Thanks, Tim Kelley