Stereo Review magazine

[Matthew C. Clark]

From December 1972, former "Stereo Review" magazine of The Raspberries debut album. Go to page 100 & click it: https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-HiFI-Stereo/70s/HiFi-Stereo-Review-1972-12.pdf 

[Matthew C. Clark]

April 1973, go to page 94 for "Fresh": https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-HiFI-Stereo/70s/HiFi-Stereo-Review-1973-04.pdf

[Raspbernie]

Curious reviews from a somewhat prestigious magazine. Their take on the band's first LP glosses over everything that makes it great!

Here are clippings from the two magazine. Thanks for the links, Matt.

[Matthew C. Clark]

There are NO reviews for "Side 3" & "Starting Over". 

[PowerPop72]

Back in the day, I was a regular subscriber to High Fidelity and Stereo Review magazines. They later merged into one periodical, HiFi/Stereo Review. I must admit that I never paid much attention to their reviews of new recording releases, instead burying myself in the testing and reporting of the latest audio equipment. It was a great time for audiophiles, and there were so many wonderful products to bring your favorite music to window-rattling, floor-shaking life. No earbuds with digital bit streams... just analog waveforms being boosted to incredible decibels. Life was good.

[Kirk]

Yes! I am still using the equipment I bought in the early 70's- Kenwood receiver, Philips turntable, speakers of my own design- 7 driver floor monitors- drives the termites right out of the walls!!

[PowerPop72]

8 hours ago, Kirk said:

Yes! I am still using the equipment I bought in the early 70's- Kenwood receiver, Philips turntable, speakers of my own design- 7 driver floor monitors- drives the termites right out of the walls!!

McIntosh 2505 power amp, C-28 pre-amp, MR-78 tuner, Dual 721 turntable with Shure V-15 Type 4, TEAC V970X 3-head cassette deck, Pioneer RT-707 reel-to-reel deck, Altec-Lansing Model 19 Voice of the Theater floor-shaking, I mean floor-standing speakers. 

[Kirk]

I left out the Kenwood dual-cassette deck. As well as the Sansui equalizer. And a Stanton 681 EEE cartridge. Oh, and don't forget the Burwen PMB6 and PMB8 headphones!

 

[PowerPop72]

Pioneer, Sansui and Kenwood were all part of the TRIO Electronics family. A splinter group of engineers formed Kensonic Labs and were responsible for the elegant Acuphase line of high-end components.

[Raspbernie]

Back when the quality of your stereo system was determined by the size of your speakers.

🤪

[LC]

 

10 hours ago, Raspbernie said:

Back when the quality of your stereo system was determined by the size of your speakers.

🤪

Lol—that was a thing. Size mattered when it came to speakers. 

My question to our audiophiles Kirk and PowerPop: You're both equipped with turntables and cassettes (and reel to reel for PowerPop). But what about CD players? You must have classic old boxy CD players, no? 

And what about an 8-track cassette player? 🤣

 

[LC]

 PS: Here you go: 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/194868203219?hash=item2d5f0cced3:g:QuoAAOSwb~1iFkaE

 

[LC]

And of course you'll need music with your high-end 8-track player:  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275085380315?hash=item400c5dcadb:g:dZMAAOSw5lZhzyXs

 

[LC]

Man, those old 8-tracks... How did those ever make it into circulation? They had horrible sound, and they had that big chunka-chunk noise when one program jumped to another, and they wore out so easily.

Then there was the jumbling of track listings so each of the four programs was the same length. (Note on the Fresh 8-track that "Let's Pretend" wound up as the last track.) If it meant fading out a song in the middle and then fading it back in on the next program, so be it.

Yet they had a little charm, didn't they? We had a big stack of them when I was a kid (still have 'em somewhere). 

PS: Even though it seemed like 8-tracks came and went within a couple years in the early 1970s, they hung around almost until the CD era began in 1983! I totally forgot about that until I stumbled upon this item tonight: the album with everybody's favorite cover photo. (Note that "Foolin' Myself" got the fade-out/fade-in treatment.)

[PowerPop72]

11 hours ago, Raspbernie said:

Back when the quality of your stereo system was determined by the size of your speakers.

🤪

Actually, the quality of your stereo system was determined by your paycheck!! It took me many years to obtain all my individual components because I never had the money to buy the pieces I really wanted. I was fortunate enough to locate used equipment at quite a savings. All of my gear is from the mid 1970's.

[Rhonda B]

Hey, Can girls play too? I bring pictures. My original 1988 speakers Aura Audio Inc... still in production today.  I always feel like I'm listening to a concert when I'm hearing music through these gorgeous speakers. I'm also obsessed with my old stereo equipment Akai AP-B20 turntable. Yamaha  receiver htr-5540.. hooked up to my DVD player and TV also. Kenwood dual/recording cassette player, Technics  SL-PD8 6 disc  CD player. My Panasonic 8-track player is part of a double cassette karaoke/microphone amplifier that I took everywhere to perform when they didn't have a piano handy.

I have a second more updated  Teac turntable that comes with CD player/flash drive/SD card. So any record or CD can be recorded to flash drive. I've been using the turntable quite a bit lately cuz I recently got these two new items in the mail as these 2 original albums  mysteriously disappeared.

Such a great thread ..I thought I was the only weirdo with the original speakers and equipment. Only difference is today I plug my phone into one of the outlets in the back of my amplifier so I still get to have a little bit of modern  with the old  when I play downloaded music.

LC  love the comments on the old 8-track the fade-in and fade-out.🤣 and the noise they made...not the best invention ever.

[PowerPop72]

1 hour ago, LC said:

 

Lol—that was a thing. Size mattered when it came to speakers. 

My question to our audiophiles Kirk and PowerPop: You're both equipped with turntables and cassettes (and reel to reel for PowerPop). But what about CD players? You must have classic old boxy CD players, no? 

And what about an 8-track cassette player? 🤣

 

I have a beautiful Sony SCD-C2000ES super audio CD player in my system. I never had an 8-track deck in my home system because the audio signal from this format has a poor signal to noise ratio, and high frequency above 8 or 9 kHz is virtually non-existent. In simple terms.... it doesn't sound very good. What amazes me today is how vinyl is making a comeback and CD's are vanishing slowly. I like them both. Also, the 8-track tape format was never meant to be part of a home audio system. These units were originally designed in 1964 by a consortium of Lear Jet, Ford Motor Company, RCA, GM, Ampex and Motorola to be used strictly in automobiles. This was before the improvements in cassette tapes had occurred and allowed for an entire album to be played continuously without turning over the cassette.  Below is a picture of the CD player I own. It is not an actual picture of my unit, but a picture I found on the net for expedience.

 

[Kirk]

I do have a single play cd player, but it was not part of my original set-up from the early 70's so I didn't mention it.

Before 8 tracks we had 4 tracks. I had The Beatles 'Hard Day's Night' on 4 track.

I'll post a picture of my speakers in a bit.

[LC]

Great stuff! I'm with you—I love CDs but never stopped digging LPs either. 

I think 8-tracks are so funny... but there was a time when they were a hot little gizmo for the music-buying audience. 

Nice CD player! I'm jealous. That's a multi-disc player (5-disc changer), I see. I had a lower-end CD changer for a while and absolutely loved it... until it broke. I never got it fixed. 😞 I

Hey, take a look at this quaint old thread, one where I asked about board-members' listening habits. It's so outdated (2006) that the LP hadn't made its comeback, and CDs were still the main format (though starting to get chilly). I searched for this thread after seeing your posts above, and got a kick out of reading it. There were some interesting replies. Most of the board-members have departed, but I did notice Craig Benfer commenting. And John Shaft, who still comes around now and then; shocked us with the revelation that he was still listening to cassette tapes. He also was buying up LPs and noted that he found autographed copies of Change of Heart and Fotomaker in a $1 vinyl discount bin. Also, former poster Julie made me laugh—her brother told her "8-tracks are illogical." And I think you'll get a charge out of the response by Florida Pilot. Check it out when you have time and you'll see what I mean (it's only a one-page thread): 

 

[LC]

PS: Rhonda—good going! Yes, "girls can play"! I bet "Waiting" sounds awesome coming out of those Auras.

[Kirk]

In the early 70's there were a plethora of high-end studio monitors from all the major speaker manufacturers. You could spend anywhere from 2K to 10K and beyond for a pair of state-of-the-art speakers. I spent hours in the listening rooms at the stereo stores switching the consoles from one set of speakers to another. Most had the grills removed so you could see what drivers they were using. 

I took measurements, wrote notes, and figured I could build my own for probably a quarter of the cost. There was a huge mark-up on high end speakers.

First, I had to find the components to match my receiver. My Kenwood had 75 watts per channel, so high-powered drivers with huge magnets were out of the question. I ended up at Radio Shack. They had a variety of component speakers to choose from as they were in their heyday at the time. I decided on a bass reflex design with a tuned port. I chose a 12" woofer that was right in the sweet spot for my power requirements. I noticed most speakers were let down in the mid-range. I chose soft-dome mid-range drivers, as well as soft-dome tweeters. I wanted an option for anywhere room placement. Bass is omni-directional, so those frequencies don't require a specific location in the room. But the high-end frequencies don't share those properties. I designed a cube that sits atop the speaker that features four piezo-electric speakers at 90-degree angles. This allowed not only the high-end frequencies to fill the room but also added some crispness to the soft-dome tweeters. I used cross-over networks that optimized the frequency range of the drivers. I tuned the port by using a tube that I cut to the optimum length to take advantage of the free air resonance of the woofer and the dimensions of the speaker box. 

The first time I played them, the hair raised on the back of my neck. I still have them, some 50 years later. They aren't much to look at anymore, but they sound just as good today as they did the first time I played them.

[Rhonda B]

 Oh yes LC....."Waiting" sounds absolutely divine on my speakers.

 

 

 

[LC]

Wow! That is truly impressive, Kirk. 

It's interesting to see how younger generations listen to music. It feels like "high end" audio just isn't important to them. Not that I'm an audiophile—I've always been middle-of-the-road and low-end in that respect. And maybe my perception is wrong, because there are still companies making high-end. But... quality doesn't seem to rank high in what younger folks require for music....

[Rhonda B]

Does anybody remember these cassette adapters for your car? I used mine quite a bit. Cars had cassette decks back then. So when CDs came out you needed a way to play your CDs in your car. So you plugged the end of this adapter into your portable CD player with your CD choice,  and then you put the cassette adapter  in the cassette player in the car and everything worked perfectly fine and you could control the volume and settings from either the CD player or the car stereo  settings. I thought it was a pretty neat invention. 

 

 

[LC]

I do remember those. Had one in at least one old car... yet I barely remember driving any car without a CD player. (Still have one! To which one might respond, "Why do you still have a CD player in your car?)