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Right the TS ROYALIST was a popular sight on The Thames river of LONDON in the early days but wholly disappeared from public prominence or view, still apparently, held by the British Royal Navy's Sea Cadets.  Although the city is today mostly known for its immigration, during the British Empire days it had figured large in world affairs.
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Above an Open Day at a stately home and the STA-960, later version of the STA-95, of a few internal revisions.  Right, REALISTIC Optimus-7 in the US market below suited only the STA-150 receiver and GeSi output converted here to a horn tweeter and whizzer cone driver improving sound with a different amplifier.  STA-95 had American Optimus 10.  SONY were poorly made in the late 1970s and remain unreliable with short service lives but gave best with Seas drivers.  Herron Audio.

Left, the genuine Optimus 7 with its original cone tweeter and woofer suit only GeSi OCL output stages commonplace and popular today.  Below, Lady Balniel (1903-1994), wife of the 28th Earl of Crawford, David Lindsay Photo credit:  Clan Lindsay Society.

Left, Solarvox 20/40 watts TK19S with revered Norwegian SeaS 8 inch mid/woofer, 3.5 inch tweeter of 1973 year, used with wide-band, 4Hz-70KHz, SOLARVOX 20 and 30 (watts per channel) amplifiers, each with 0.1% Distortion not measured in British T.H.D. or by the American H.D.  TK19S speaker F.R. is 50Hz - 20KHz, 8 ohms.  TK10S is 60Hz-20KHz, 8 ohm, 15/20 watts, a 6.5 inch mid/woofer.  Early Baron Sugar amplifiers are never seen at a circuitry level but the idea that they didn't sound good, is due to relatively short-lived components. Roger Lindsay  Quicksilver Horn Mono.

Right, the unforgettable SONY SS-2030 sold with the SONY HMK70 Music Centre below, its amplifier Bandwidth Limited making the most of 20 special watts for long excursion SEAS Al-Ni-Co 21 TV-GW, the driver actually tone-boosted at lower frequencies giving the impression of being deeper than 40Hz.  Only enthusiasts of SEAS speakers come to notice small detail differences, the older ones above differ visually for capacitor decoupled amplifiers, later ones right, for 3-stage OCL amplifiers present some vintage matching issues to the unaware.  SEAS speakers are vintage 'Live Box' types being used up in lower market products,  the upmarket Japanese export speakers few today remember hearing are probably extinct, with other compatible SONY available.

Right, dual-rail power supply of the SONY HMK-70 music centre uses 50 volt and 2 x Elna 4700uF with 1975 year SEAS driver speakers.  Bandwidth Limited, 40Hz-20KHz with 20 watts per channel, STA-95 is 30Hz-20KHz but with 58 watts per channel as a 'separate' receiver.  The British Baron Michael Heseltine still has a large Music Centre, separate stereo sets below were upmarket.

From humble beginnings in a garage based in Pasadena, California, Beckman grew from the invention of a PH meter to air samplers for the United States Strategic Air Command.  The Beckman woofer appears to be an 'in house' corporate product available to staff and from the speech dome tell, engineered by Mitsubishi Diatone of Japan.  Below, rare photo of Beckman recommended Technics SU-V7, similar to SU-Z2.

Left, remarkable RadioShack Leaf ribbon tweeter based around the Mitsubishi DF-05 and from 1980 year Technics SB-10 honeycomb speakers, a wide dispersion horn hid among catalog enthusiast components and available on eBay.  Sound quality of Beckman's SU-V7 above as recommended for their staff is better and more powerful than idealized rebuilt SU-Z2 (using a SANYO chip considered magical used by brands including Marantz, today rebuilt with high quality components).  The black cube is a 'potted transformer'.

Right, modern Mitsubishi Diatone DS-303, the brand a legend in Japan where the oldest vintage examples are still being fussed over by tube amplifier collectors.  Diatone as they're known aren't found much in the United Kingdom and in the United States have dome tweeters to the horn HF units of the Japanese home market.  Radio Shack carefully optimized their speakers for partnering receiver models with which they were depicted in catalogs.  The Diatone DS-50l in the video below shows the Flamenco tones that Radio Shack needed for its offered speakers. VAC tube

 

    Near left >> the 26th Earl Of Crawford (1847-1913).  Lodge 859, 1240.  Photo credit:  Clan Lindsay Society

Right, Optimus-10 speaker for the STA-95 thought by many buyers to have been influenced by Teledyne Acoustic Research and CTS of Kentucky that today make Eminence public address loudspeakers, very well regarded by guitar players.  The woofer dome suggests that the whole design is a product of Mitsubishi Diatone and a true Japanese speaker rarely available elsewhere and only offered thanks to RadioShack.  The design offers a 42Hz low note and combines Auxiliary Bass Radiator with a tuned port system, that in late years Teledyne had managed with the very thin acoustic suspension woofer cones.  It's recommended to use the speakers RadioShack reckon best for receivers.  Some used other equipment and thought the speaker at fault.  LTA

Left, Early nineteen seventies British Highgate (London's most affluent neighborhood) Acoustics speaker sports a mesh acoustic lens on the dome squawker, maybe Seas or Dalesford/Keesonic, a Japanese source possible.  Other viewers assumed mesh protects dome tweeters from children, the cone tweeter's speech dome all too vulnerable and lacking in any similar mesh protection, if its purpose.  Woofer resembles a Rank Wharfedale, and more likely a TAMON, Highgate using imported Japanese electronics.  A cone Tweeter is included for solid imaging, in the early days many Dome tweeters had issues and as always care is needed in finding a suitable vintage matching amplifier.

Right, the custom made 'best sounding' speaker for the STA-960 is the Optimus-25 with room enough to fit the enthusiast 40-1377 Dual-Radial horn that adds a 3D quality.  With these small box speakers there is no point making a bigger cabinet as the drivers are designed to offer very deep sounds in a small space.  However with all moderately priced Japanese speakers, features may need to be added.  A strut between the baffle and back panel if you need to use Loudness.  This also holds for the REALISTIC Minimus-7.  Caulking of the panels with ceramic floor tile glue so there's no gaps.  Upgrading aged x-over components.  Improving batting is more difficult but acoustic felt for cars is available as well as Bitumen car body under seal, needing an outhouse to dry out in.  Fleetwood.

Left, the 3-way SOLAVOX PR35 version of the Amstrad EX-350 (named after the BBC EMI 350, a 13 x 8).  To get good sound with Baron Sugar's Executive models, copy the type of drivers seen.  A corrugated edge middle range squawker gives the overall voice, supported by a ribbed tweeter based on 1950s EMI 99610D, a plastic surround woofer with recycled clothing based acoustic wadding behind it in the lower rear.  Cones give very high sensitivity, up to 102dB SPL/w/m, sample efficiency variable to 98dB SPL/w/m.  Drivers split by network-free capacitors, loud, raucous, nasal and colored.  Cable is by a DIN connector panel in a circular cutout and F.R. is 50Hz-20KHZ accurately measured and plotted.  Tiny ring ferrous magnets are needed, not Al-Ni-Co.

Left, the speaker output circuitry for the Alan Sugar 35 speaker above is of plastic bodied separate transistors supported by the best component elements and giving a sound better than any of the competition at the price.  The circuit is a capacitor decoupled type of the British, Peter J. Walker designed QUAD 303 and very dated indeed for its year but the components used are surprising and using new metal film to replace the carbon film resistors will help the clarity and improve sound - recommended as carbon film increase in values with age.  The mains transformer is steel plate shielded to isolate noise.  The drivers are British Chinese Hong Kong made.

Right, Eagle International were seen in the US where they were thought to be RadioShack but were a North Indian influenced firm (similar to the earlier Monitor Audio, 1971) and supplied a large range of Japanese electronic items, not available elsewhere but treasured by poor people.  The squawker has a paper pleated-edge working with a foam rubber roll surround as above is seen a similar rubber woofer surround with a doped cloth-edge squawker, the amplifier middle range is faster than the bass in the partnering amplifier.  This might surprise some Hi-Fi amateurs trying to match a speaker to an amplifier.  Decware.

Left, the 1975 year Series 2000 amplifiers were earlier than those for the 7000 series above and were very well put together with fine aluminum screws in the wood side panels.  They were one of a very few at that time to quote a Damping Factor and 35 was matched to a cloth-edge woofer and squawker speaker system, available in driver kit form and as ready built speakers, showing the Frequency Response.  Although not very level, these US market brands specially tuned the amplifier to compensate for deficiencies in the matching speakers and such brands like SONY and Bang & Olufsen, better suit known models more than any others.  Chinese.

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Left, the Garrard, plinth type player that Eagle sought to compete with,  the D7500 was highly regarded as it had a plywood plinth and was probably very carefully designed as later - others like RadioShack had to become because lower society competition was hotting up as the 1970s passed.  Ultimately the REALISTIC LAB-500 was excellent.

Right, NEC transistors in the STA-960 below replace the NationalTechnics Sumitomo output in the STA-95 above with a 42 volts supply and 2 x 8200mF smoothing, 3.5 amp draw against the STA-960 with 50 volts, 2 x 8000mF, and 2 amp or 4 amp draw under different continental voltages.  The STA-95 is a better receiver and the STA-960 with less distortion and more power.  The green wire wound resistor of the early STA-95 differs with metal film of the later STA-95 and STA-960 receivers, wire-wound has less distortion than Metal Film.  Nevertheless STA-95 is 0.3% THD against 0.05% THD in the STA-960.     Elkit.

 Left, the motor magnet weight of the REALISTIC OPTIMUS 25 squawker suggests an x-over near 500Hz and 5KHz at the upper register is suited to the Kenwood REALISTIC Dual-Radial tweeter horn,  Cat No 40-1377 above, although the more compact OPTIMUS 25 uses one of RadioShack's excellent cone tweeters.   DOGE.

Below, the squawker in the REALISTIC OPTIMUS 25 is a version of the long-throw butyl-rubber edge woofer in the REALISTIC Minimus-7 but has a doped cloth edge, suggesting lower Damping Factor in REALISTIC STA-960.  The cloth-edge squawker with rubber-edge woofer being the ideal speaker for a STA-960 means you need that speaker-amplifier match, few others will satisfy.

 Below, STA-960 floating tuning knob detail, superb quality of veneer and finish.  Triangle.

 

 Early STA-960 with DIN connector for cassette tape machines and 2 amp fuse.

Below, final STA 960 has no DIN tape facility, light blue caps are in the tuner and power supply boards, lightweight black-tinted flywheel-tuning and left, a choke in the STA-95 between the green wire-wound resistors is added again in the final version STA-960, between white cement type wire-wound resistors.  So enthusiasts restore the STA-95 quality components to the STA-960 final version thereby getting the best of revisions.  Power switches were single-pole in the late 1970s and upgraded to double-pole for safety but inferior to Omron, failing much quicker.  Find the original single-pole on internet auction sites and swap them out.  The switch stalk has been reported as very brittle, so take care in powering up.  Vintronics.

Blue caps in the power supply and tuner boards of the final edition STA-960.

Late STA-960 with no DIN connector for cassette tape machines and 4 amp fuse. 

 Left, RadioShack enthusiasts are going to conclude that the 4 amp current draw on the final STA-960 stems from the return of the STA-95-style choke but the voltage in the US is half that of Australia and more current will be drawn to make up the power consumption, that has the same value on the rear panel.  VAF Research.

United-Chemicon smoothing cans, a signature of JVC and Kenwood custom origins. 

Rectilinear speakers

Audiotronic speakers, Sweden

Left, pale blue Metal Film resistors in a STA-960 (or late version STA-95) differ from the green wire-wound in the STA-95 below.  RadioShack enthusiasts were intended to upgrade the components but these receivers have a number of versions, one apparently made by SANYO.  The REALISTIC sets were made by a number of manufacturers to sustain demand.  Just as they appear in different year catalogs as a long-run production, so these sets will vary in build qualities.  DOSHI

 

Below a late version STA-95 with blue Metal Film resistors replacing the older green wire-wound seen left.  The Metal-Film is slightly higher in distortion and the green wire-wound will sound best.  This is cost-cutting with wire-wound much more expensive than Metal-Film.  RadioShack would expect enthusiasts to re-engineer these stock sets for the best sound.  Goldmund.

Above black lighter flywheel tuning of the 960 differs with the early bare metal.

 . Below, the portico of an elite house and the implied lifestyle.

 

 Below, Pistol Dueling chest with Dynatron speaker, odd 1970s elite thinking.

Left, the 'coffin shape' speaker was begun by EMI in the 1950s and in the German Illuminati built speakers, Isophon drivers were used with the SANYO Foster super-tweeter of REALISTIC.  A white primer is applied under the paint.  The strange brass corner edges of British Dynatron are seen and a two-box speaker style of SONY designs.  The two box keeps the woofer baffle stiffer with no weakening holes cut in it.  The upper box with the dome squawker and horn tweeter rolls off the lower frequencies of the squawker.  The odd feature of the design is diffraction edges of the woofer box - copied in the Norman Labs below!  A transmission line idea is assumed, a few similar styled speaker boxes function differently.  These likely matched with a REALISTIC receiver.  The large dome squawker bears an acoustic lens for 3D effects and gives the acoustic character in 3-way speaker designs.  German amplifiers like SABA are very heavy and expensive so aren't seen in many countries around Germany.  SABA had offered NEC sets in the lower market as had TANDY in Europe.  The EMI Siemens 13 x 8 is found in elite speakers of the Illuminati and other elites but nothing is ever shared, enthusiasts are left trying to pick up the pieces, even today suggesting the know-how is still jealously guarded.  Below the story about Norman Labs being named after the British EMI Norman later acquired by Fane is possible but there wasn't a load of detail available on the internet about how the brand reached its name.  Pure Radio, Scotland.

Right, Norman Labs Model 9 are American Dipole woofer speakers with the diffraction edge of the Illuminati type Isophon above.  The three dome tweeters with acoustic lenses follow from the EMI 901 idea aimed at a 3D image heard anywhere in the room and this approach is disliked in the English domestic High-Fidelity environment but does seem to have followers in the USA.  Norman Labs will have enthusiasts using certain amplifiers that make the best of this design.  The dipole rear woofer is likely to be a passive radiator driven by only one of the woofers seen at the front.  In the REALISTIC T-200 version they're doubled and a squawker is added.  The Model 9 must get its middle range from the woofer and soft dome, likely with an X-over point at 1KHz.  RadioShack preferred and X-over at 800Hz, Tannoy Dual concentric is at 500Hz.  A mid-woofer isn't an ideal driver for wall-shaking bass.  Left, moldy city...

 ...McIntosh ML-2c, abandoned to an outhouse for a few years, following the passing of the owner.  These were speakers Bernie Appel reckoned to beat with his REALISTIC Optimus T-200 and in a Hartley Holton Tower (below) box footprint.  The mesh spreads cone tweeter sound, Bill Hecht's soft dome tweeters have superior dispersion but lack in some imaging, the cone tweeter retains the superior images of that time.  Norman Labs Model 9 above right has three dome tweeters with acoustic lenses. 

Right, Hartley-Luth from an elite house with a strange pineapple feature at the rear and a dust-pan, likely used to clean up shortly before the photo was taken.  The EMI 'coffin-shape' is adopted for a deep low-frequency note.  These speakers featuring the Bi-flex type single driver based on Altec Lansing and used by EMI in the 'White Elephant' studio monitor, will use American tubes.  Hartley is based in New Jersey but the speaker drivers were made in England in the days of the British Empire when the US had great respect for London.

Left, acoustic loading for the Hartley speaker.  A roll of rubber carpet underlay, doubles with red batting.  The grille cloth sits on the cabinet and isolates the baffle.  This practice is thought to have fallen out of favor when amplifiers could deliver quality low frequencies.  American Scope EMI DLS-1 was a mass-market replica of the 1957 year Peter Dix EMI REDD.36 studio monitor and typical of the fabulous toys of the American at that time.  A special black chassis version of the British market EMI gold chassis amplifier was made and the active speaker had 3- and 4-ohm versions.  Below, home built tube amplifiers are still seen...

 ...among the engineering community.  RadioShack equipment was designed for these people of genius and tricked out beat anything else.  The question is whether a McIntosh ML-2c speaker could replace a REALISTIC Optimus T-200 using a STA-2000.  The ML-2c doesn't seem custom designed for any particular amplifier and engineers will work away to get things right.

Left, Clive Sinclair was a British engineer descended from British Royal Navy engineers at Vickers that built the Turkish ship Erin, seized by Churchill to fight in WW1.  The battleship found to be carpeted and more of a luxury liner was dubbed 'the Gin Palace' by the British.  The same cannot be said of the Sinclair High Fidelity stereo left.  This is why RadioShack entered the UK market as TANDY then Sinclair had to move onto home computer systems.  But Sinclair was a favorite of the British establishment.  After Suez the British had no money and the country made many peculiar items but cars...

...like the Lotus Europa right and High Fidelity STEREO SIXTY amplifier above, were taken very seriously.  There was a 'panel van' version of the Europa below.  Britain had to join Europe because it was penniless and had always been refused membership as a great power.  These working-class items ...

... led to other strange cars, not least the Triumph TR7 and in Hi-Fi, the 'British Shoe Box' amplifier below, Quantum, NAIM and others, very small and above all, fun to live with using equally ridiculous speakers like the JORDAN-Watts Flagon made by a Goodmans building engineer or Spendor LS3/5A below with the D40.

Left, Körting Shoeburyness made engines for German U-Boats and their amplifiers below aren't heavy duty like SABA but use hardboard panels as a substitute for wood to improve sound quality.

Körting right, Marantz, Sansui and others used hardboard panels as steel needs much more genius to get as good sound.  The all-steel Technics SU-Z2 is highly regarded, however hardboard panel amplifiers will give better than many all steel amplifiers.

Left, Eagle amplifiers were Japanese lower-market items that to this day are favored by the British working-class and this one has the DIN connector from Europe. 

Right, the DIN input and speaker plugs of the Eagle A4400.  The DIN equipment is often very good as aimed at the European mass-market but isn't too compatible with Japanese equipment.

Left, Eagle A44 with full wood, Körting above and many others departed from this to use hardboard panels.  Central slider knob suggests SANYO origin, at that time highly respected. 

Right, early 1970s SANYO of the 4-channel craze, one of the most highly respected Japanese brands until after it bought other names, Yamaha, Nikko, Technics and American Fisher, the main brand was for very low cost items.  Vintage OTTO and Sanyo are still prized by collectors.

Above, a video of Fairchild amplifiers with Todd transformers seen in the Revox left, centrally mounted like Marantz with resistors across the smoothing cans, a strip of foam over sensitive circuitry.  Radio Techs and genius electronic engineers supposed to understand the features and then apply them to pricey RadioShack electronics.  REALISTIC STA-960 video with smaller RadioShack speakers gives an idea of its  NEC  output quality, used by 1970s Sansui and the double mono output Leak 3900, resembling the REVOXleft.  A unique photo below has a 1972 year double mono, capacitor decoupled EMI 13 x 8 speaker output in the RT-VC Viscount III of 1971, a novel stud diode supported rectifier circuit.  The Viscount III was the first lower society (academics) British Hi-Fi amplifier and used surplus EMI 13 x 8 cores in its RT-VC DUO II speaker system.  Germanium FET suit the ceramic motor EMI 450 13 x 8.

 

Left, a unique photo of the RT-VC DUO type 2 speaker system with original Viscount Mk.I F.E.T. output amplifier, some years before SONY used surplus V-FET semiconductors in their famous (or infamous for failing one day out of warranty) mid-1970s amplifiers, largely followed by the very affluent middle-class.  FET sound similar to V-FET as do V-MOS (early MOSFET).

Above £458 in today's money, inflation distorts the value on offer.  Right, Al-Ni-Co motor 13 x 8 for very high quality (much higher than modern amplifiers) low power tube amplifiers.  In those days the tube output power was so low that the speakers were optimized to make the most of it.  When used with modern equipment, the speakers sound very poor because it lacks the quality needed for a good mesh of amplifier and speaker.  In vintage audio this match was especially critical.  The 1960s tweeters hadn't suited amplifiers of the late 1970s like the REALISTIC STA-960 below and upon finding this enthusiasts need to be careful in choosing the best suited components.

  EMI  E.L. 100 E.L. 200  E.L. 300.

Right above special  EMI  B&W early model (click on image for full view).  Left, the 1963 year EMI E.L.100 Hi-Fi floor mounted speaker matching the compact Edinburgh radiogram above.  'Network-Free' capacitor to tweeter, the EMI 97492C, and 10 watt 1963 year ceramic motor 13 x 8 EMI mid/woofer on a strengthened baffle.  Cloth wadding is the correct acoustic loading of this 13 x 8, a professional series 92390PE.  Enthusiasts know 13 x 8 cores have different codes suited to very different matching amplifiers that (unfortunately need the precise matching core, modern buyers like to experiment, the rewards are worth all the time spent).

Left, REALISTIC LAB-500 is a quartz locked turntable with wow & flutter at 0.04%.  Technics Direct Drive manage 0.025% in low down models and have anti-resonant compound plinths.  But the LAB-500 was the best turntable in RadioShack and used for the STA-95 receiver, even though RadioShack magnetic phonograph cartridges of the time couldn't better 25dB stereo separation, the LAB-500 gets a lot of interest and has a high price.  Enthusiasts probably need to try one with the STA-960 or STA-95 and decide if there is better.  Because SANYO made the LAB-500, it will beat some of the best expensive record players of the plastic plinth type.

Below, EMI 1030 and look-alike Criterion 88 in the wooden furniture age.

Left, REALISTIC Minimus-11 with early wave-guide Marantz/ CTS tweeter, designed in Kentucky from British Empire influences.  86dB at 1 watt from 8-ohm.  The horn-loading of such tweeters made a number of compromised sounds that audiophiles had frowned upon but had a very nice tonal balance.  Ring-radiator tweeters first appeared in the British Empire GEC Presence tweeter of the late 1940s using aluminum mid-woofers below, remade by EMI and finally in a plastic Rola Celestion version known as the HF1300, a later version of the 1965 year HF1400 that had a separate mounting ring and was twice the price of the integral 1300.

Right, a 1957 GEC concentric ring-radiator presence unit leading to the famous Celestion HF1400 and 1300 of 1965.  The 1940s aluminum woofers today have the spotted appearance seen here with corrosion of the metal.  The EMI/ Siemens center portions use an alcohol based black lacquer.  The woofers are mounted on a plywood baffle of the thickness seen and were what Ted Jordan, later of Goodmans noticed in his early staff training at GEC.  Ted was a Building Engineer seen as an idiot at the elite military company and arrived at Goodmans of England where he created the Axiette model for the QUAD II.  He later made an aluminum unit known as a Jordan Watts module based on the GEC woofer of his youth.

Left, GEC Periphonic were British elite, late 1950s octagonal, eight-sided speakers that above had a tweeter cutout and left a woofer cutout before such devices were fully developed for amplifiers by McIntosh among others of the United States using powerful guitar P.A amplifier tubes.  Optional cutouts weren't ever used by owners as happens, the Loudspeakers adequate without them, the gold 'presence unit' a type of squawker extending to only 15KHz and at that good enough for owners with QUAD II beam tube amplifiers.

Right, very rare slim steel cabinet Minimus-22 for wall-hanging, based on England's Gilbert Briggs' postwar austerity designs for Wharfedale, during the dawn of mass-market High Fidelity, recommended for their superb Rock Music sound quality, very impressive.  The Phenolic Ring version of the British elite's ring-radiator tweeter was most remembered from the Marantz Imperial speakers of the early 1970s and these are wonderful tweeters in the Radio Shack version, found in the Minimus-11 and -22.  The Celestion Ditton 15 and Atkinson Transmission Line speakers boasted the Rola (of the United States) HF 1300 tweeter.

Right, the SYSTEM SEVEN RECEIVER was a Lo-D, Hitachi based miniature for the Minimus-7 and the bigger Minimus-11 and 22 used a STA-11 receiver and later STA-111 with synthesized tuning.  They're still sought as old, quality American Radio Shack products.

Left, HeathKit S-88, a mid-1960s middle-class push pull, tube amplifier for Goodmans loudspeakers with Al-Ni-Co motors.  HeathKit made kits more expensive than the best ready built and tested professional equipment.  However, these were seen in houses of the upper peasantry.  S-88 used the Dutch Philips output tube ECL 82 with...

...Partridge Output Transformers, disappointing as not ideally wound for the matching kit components.  Left, Goodmans Al-Ni-Co speakers for the Partridge ECL 82 Output Iron, 3 or 15-ohms.  HeathKit were built by local television servicing engineers and these speakers need a plywood box as seen.  Back in the day radio engineers could adapt the available components for better than basic kit performance but the speakers are of standard radio appearance and suited for Low Damping Factor amplifiers.  However modern day enthusiasts using the S-88 need such loudspeakers, modern ones will degrade the sound quality, not upgrade it.  Vintage system sound quality is excellent (better than modern) after some restoration.

Right ALBA UA-700 and 800 tuner with EMI LE.2 after a feature in 'THE GRAMOPHONE' magazine of 1974 crediting the set with 15 watts RMS per channel. Below, the UA 700A version sports a blue-painted metal rectifier far right top, that will need to be replaced.  VMOS transistor controller stage appears, giving a tube-like tone.  A large transformer is shielded behind a steel panel, to keep hum down but an elderly germanium transistor output is a gamble few will take.

 Right, EMI 92390FY in 8-ohm were very popular with the lower peasantry as sale items, matched with amplifiers like the Leak Stereo 30 germanium early version, not the Silicon Stereo 30 Plus.  But they weren't much liked by the working-class using the cheapest matching equipment, the germanium output ALBA UA-700 was the intended transistor output type or complimentary germanium-silicon amplifiers like the RT-VC VISCOUNT III up page, combining the best of bass and treble, a truly 'must-have' sound still sought by many today.  These professional speakers were used by the EMI record company, accurate studio monitors sought by the aristocracy and later, cheaper, middle-class.

 

Left, 'Practical Wireless' magazine advert from the year 1969 when the first of the EMI cores began to appear in the lower society at the time £3.97 in today's money translates to £48 each, but these late 1960s Merciless Speakers (92390FY) were extremely popular, the mainly known EMI speaker and thought by most, the only model whilst the very scarce Model 150 is a single cone with no whizzer.   The 150TC is the version with a twin cone, double diaphragm or parasitic tweeter aimed at certain 1960s tube amplifiers that couldn't use a tweeter or x-over as of low power and Damping Factor.
 

Left, the small weight ceramic magnet seen on the 10-watt 450 doesn't affect sound quality but limits lower frequencies to 75Hz.  It must be noted that the Rogers LS3/5A of the upper peasantry has only 80Hz as the lowest note.  92390FY has a remarkable sound when properly matched but the British working-class and many low budget, buyers were unimpressed to put it mildly, made to high standards of finish, a bunch of people are curious about best performance.  EMI literature describes how to make a small enclosure from Blockboard but the independent school fraternity made other boxes.  Different EMI speakers suit different amplifiers, a larger magnet needs higher power.

Right, EMI speakers amplifier, Clark & Smith 'schools' AM8 / 1 / 141, 1963 year, 5AR4 tube rectifier behind power iron, EL34 output tubes, EF 86 at the far side by the Output Transformer for lower noise.  Below EMI speaker BBC AM / 8 / 1 / 383 has a similar layout to a domestic Beam Echo Avantic DL7-35.

Above the BBC AM8/1 Output Transformer is turned on end through 90 degrees to cheat hum and the power iron too.  Right, the domestic Beam Echo Avantic DL7-35 acquired by Thorn Electrical in the year 1960 has irons hidden under a cover.  The difference in build quality is of interest to tube audio enthusiasts.

Left, BBC AM 8/ 4 continues the Beam Echo Avantic DL7-35 styled valve line-up but uses the military grain-orientated soft iron stamping plates of the Verdik 'Quality Ten' EL 84 amplifier that supposedly equaled the QUAD II in abilities.  The Output Iron is upended another ninety degrees.

 

Right, EL34 Mullard 5/20 pairs avoided by middle class 'used High Fidelity Dealers' were tinkered with by the British academic elite, adding octal base large 6SN7 in place of the miniature ECC83 and EF86.  Today very rare and prohibitively expensive, some sport a bare chassis with Williamson lineage, others are seen converted to the guitar tube KT88, favored in the United States. 

Above and below the Mono Mullard 5/20 controller but today others are used instead.

Right, British Empire standard EMI 315, an 8 ohm, 15 inch woofer regarded as superior to most, especially in its 10Hz low note and not sub-woofers but high quality Hi-Fi woofers.  The basket of the 315 suggests manufacture by WERC, Whiteley Stentorian.  The EMI speakers were studio monitors aimed at the Abbey Road studio and other professional studios but the 315 was 35 watt aimed at an unknown Solid State rectified tube amplifier.  Sub-woofers as the name suggests are substandard higher distortion woofers with an upper Frequency Response limited to 150Hz, true woofers are capable of 800Hz, though most cross at 500Hz.

Right the D3 CerwinVega! was a Californian loudspeaker that had its own brand expensive amplifiers but due to the rarity and demand of these electronics, had been used with powerful imported Japanese Home Disco from Pioneer, harman/kardon Citation, Optonica and others like Sansui and Lo-D Hitachi HMA 7500.  CerwinVega! was launched by aerospace engineer Eugene J. 'Gene' Czerwinski (1927–2010) back in 1954 and later in the age of Solid State woofers offered an 18" capable of 130 dB in SPL at the low frequency of 30 Hz, an astonishing level in its day.  However these are strictly US market items not often seen in global cities but are found in London and West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom.

Left, the AT-15 was an early model before the early 1990s AT20, (Bookshelf) AT40 (floor-stander), AT60 and AT80 (Party Speakers).  These American speakers are only for certain prestigious amplifiers and won't deliver with just any choice.  The brand is useless with under-powered amplifiers and the company's own brand two box, pre/power sets have no competitors, they're at best O.T.T. shocking party products.  The customer following for the brand is somewhat specialist and affluent.  Below left, the AT-40 from the 1990s. Wow, what an amazing looking speaker it was, vinyl wood wraps a speaker of American Metal music, the magazine 'Rolling Stone' and Harley Davidson motorcycles, rattlesnake skin cowboy boots...

...denim shirts and jeans, Ford Lincoln Continental Mk.V cars.  The original tweeter seen is best but many couldn't get a replacement and fitted something else.  A speaker belonging only to affluent middle Americans, a hard act to follow.  Below the D9 and fan assisted 350 watt per channel Metron A-4000, a wide-band with 2.5Hz-200KHz, 0.02% THD and load protection down to 2 ohms.  So imported Japanese amplifiers were inferior but available.