You know you're old when...

[Llarry]

Originally Posted by dradernh

Webcor, a brand name I'd long since forgotten, and a total flash from the past.

Back in the 50s, a family across the street from us in the Inner Richmond district had a Webcor reel-to-reel tape recorder that the mother used to record performances at Grace Cathedral. That was pretty exotic kit for our middle class neighborhood.

It's hard to remember now how little in the way of consumer goods there was available 60+ years ago. It didn't matter how well off your family was, there just wasn't that much "stuff" available to buy. That's a major reason why that Webcor reel-to-reel recorder stood out.

In my senior year of high school, I bought a Sony portable open-reel tape recorder with speakers for $120 in the base exchange in the Philippines. Man, I was living large then! I believe I sold it -- just about for what I paid for it -- and bought an Akai unit the next year.

Google is not my friend on finding a photo of that first Sony TC-120 deck that I had.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by dradernh

Webcor, a brand name I'd long since forgotten, and a total flash from the past.

Back in the 50s, a family across the street from us in the Inner Richmond district had a Webcor reel-to-reel tape recorder that the mother used to record performances at Grace Cathedral. That was pretty exotic kit for our middle class neighborhood.

It's hard to remember now how little in the way of consumer goods there was available 60+ years ago. It didn't matter how well off your family was, there just wasn't that much "stuff" available to buy. That's a major reason why that Webcor reel-to-reel recorder stood out.

In 1968, my college roommate was a guy I grew up with from age 3. He had just gotten out of the Air Force (stationed in Germany working on F-4 Phantoms), and he had a Heathkit stereo setup with a Teac 7" reel-to-reel. It's the first time I'd ever heard a decent system. One day, the local FM station said they were going to play the brand new Beatle White Album from start to finish with no commercials starting at 3am. This was days before it was officially released. We got up and recorded that amazing album on his Teac. We got finished recording and we said to ourselves, "we have the new White Album and its not even released yet....Let's have a party!" So for the next few days we had friends stop by and listen to this new album on that pretty amazing sound system. It was a special time indeed.

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by Llarry

Google is not my friend on finding a photo of that first Sony TC-120 deck that I had.

Did it look like this:

https://www.cassettedeck.org/sony/tc-120

[Llarry]

//snip// when all closed up it looked like a small suitcase. The speakers detached from the open-reel tape deck, exposing the reels and controls. It accommodated 7" reels.

EDIT: Ha! Found it! It was a Sony TC-200 (pictured); sort of a neat unit for me going off to university -- snap the speakers onto the top of the tape deck and off we go. Even had a luggage-style carrying handle.

[NealfromNZ]

Lol , these old portable units. Used to carry a mono tape player on my paper run as an early teen Think it had 2 watts of audio power about 4 hours of battery life..

I did make a retro styled Bluetooth speaker for daughter. Times have change. Roughly 200 Watts and can last most of the day at moderate power.

[JJ 911SC]

Got one of those when I join the Navy way back in 1975.

[3.0L]

Dad bought a Howard Shortwave radio when he was a kid, probably around 1940. He gave it to me when I was in Junior High School. I spent a lot of time listening to all sorts of weird sounds. Sometimes I thought I was spying on the Russians.

I still have it - in storage - and it still worked when I fired it up a few years ago. This image is an exact or very close likeness. Those big knobs were weighted, so spinning them made the tuning dials move quite a ways on one spin.

[Llarry]

Originally Posted by 3.0L

Dad bought a Howard Shortwave radio when he was a kid, probably around 1940. He gave it to me when I was in Junior High School. I spent a lot of time listening to all sorts of weird sounds. Sometimes I thought I was spying on the Russians.

I still have it - in storage - and it still worked when I fired it up a few years ago. This image is an exact or very close likeness. Those big knobs were weighted, so spinning them made the tuning dials move quite a ways on one spin.

My Dad had a Hallicrafters radio that I spent time listening to in a similar way. BBC overseas service, Radio Moscow, etc.

[Esteban]

You three guys are old. I guess my lawn welcomes all you older dudes, but I pride myself on being a younger, older dude.

[Car-Addicted]

I remember the days when “influencers” were coaches, teachers, ministers, police officers and Boy Scout leaders. Wow, I miss the old days!

[Llarry]

In the 1960s and 1970s I changed up my open-reel tape decks like most people change their underwear: Sony, Akai, Teac, Sansui, Pioneer, etc.

The deal was that if you bought them on base in the Far East, you could get them for about half the U.S. retail price. So you could buy a $600 deck for $300, use it for a year or two and sell it in the States for $300. What a great deal that was. I also did that with other audio components as well. Now that I am retired and staying put in the USA, I've had the same audio setup for twenty years.

And I've had the same stereo speakers for 40 years: Acoustic Research AR-90 towers. Every time I think about swapping them out, I do a search for the pricing of used AR-90s so I keep them.

Acoustic Research AR-90: 42" high, twin 10" subwoofers, 8" woofer, midrange, tweeter. I've replaced the subs and woofers once in the late 1990s and also replaced the tweeters. Now the subwoofer surrounds have deteriorated again, so I bought replacement surrounds but haven't yet replaced them. Two cats ago, the cat thought the subwoofer grille cloth made an ideal scratching post so I have some matching grille cloth; again, I haven't done the replacement yet.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by 3.0L

.....Those big knobs were weighted, so spinning them made the tuning dials move quite a ways on one spin....

What are we talking about again?

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by Llarry

And I've had the same stereo speakers for 40 years: Acoustic Research AR-90 towers. Every time I think about swapping them out, I do a search for the pricing of used AR-90s so I keep them.

Yeah, back in the day, it was always my (unqualified) opinion that ARs walked the dog. They just did.

I later married a classical and folk musician and we switched over to Magneplanars. No complaints there, either.

Originally Posted by sygazelle

What are we talking about again?

Right. I think it was old guy stuff, but I'm so old now I can no longer remember.

[UncleWede]

I watched all of Gran Torino last night, on commercial TV,



AND DIDN'T FALL ASLEEP

[Esteban]

Said the mean old man.

[NealfromNZ]

Just seen this years xmas present to myself

[sygazelle]

....when you decide you want to make a reservation for dinner at Benihana restaurant and you ask the wife what time is best. She says, "You decide". I respond with, "Let's do 4:00 or 4:30pm. That way we will get in early before the crowd and get home before dark." Damn I'm old!

[M_Six]

^^^That's us. Get in as early as possible for dinner. No waiting (usually) and fewer customers, so better service.

[TTV8M]

Roll up the windows, it's raining

[TTV8M]

Originally Posted by Llarry

My Dad had a Hallicrafters radio that I spent time listening to in a similar way. BBC overseas service, Radio Moscow, etc.

Reminds me of the stories about the heathkit

[3.0L]

I built my first Heathkit in early 1970, right after separating from the US Army. It was a 5-channel radio control system and I still have it and it still works. I put hundreds of flights on it.

[JJ 911SC]

You remember using one of these...