Music Centres

[remember]

From the likes of Ferguson and Grundig, Music Centres were the height of fashion for those with absolutely no musical appreciation, but longing for a sideboard that made noises. Primarily seen as a piece of furniture, at worst they looked like a coffin, complete with lift up lid. Tucked away inside was a cheap radio, turntable and cassette player (pre-CD of course) with the speakers behind grills at each end of the front panel.The sound quality was, well, less than good shall we say, and only surpassed in awfulness by the later (much later) launch of the Amstrad 'hi-fi', whose chief attraction was the CD loader that went in and out at the touch of a button. Well, for a while at least.

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[staffslad]

Re: Music Centres

We had a music centre, though nothing so posh as a Ferguson or Grundig. Ours was a Waltham from Woolworth's. It had a record deck, radio FM/AM and single cassette deck. I thought that the speakers were separate, or at least they were on our Waltham. It had a smoked, hinged plastic lid. It was handy for recording stuff off the radio or from record to cassette so we could hear it in the car. We got it about 1980 I would say and had it for a good 15-20 years. I can't really remember what became of it.

[Twocky61]

Re: Music Centres

We had a separates hi-fi system

My Dad worked for Rank Xerox at the time' part of the Rank network

It consisted of a tuner, twin speakers with facility of two more taking stereo to quadrophonic transcription record play whish had a weighted needle arm to place & take off manual player & Akai Cassette deck

[staffslad]

Re: Music Centres

I used to look at those separates systems in my mom's catalogue and dream about having one, but it never came to pass. I did get an Amstrad hi-fi unit for my 21st birthday, again from Woolworth's, and that is as far as my hi-fi journey got.

[Richard1978]

Re: Music Centres

I remember one of my Uncles had a Teleton music centre for many years, before replacing it with a Fisher midi system.

[Zincubus]

Re: Music Centres

I used to look through the window and dream of owning one of those designer / space age ones - name escapes me ..
Something like Bosch and Laumb ..


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[Richard1978]

Re: Music Centres

I used to look through the window and dream of owning one of those designer / space age ones - name escapes me ..
Something like Bosch and Laumb ..


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Bang & Olufsen you probably mean, Bosch and Laumb make contact lenses.

[80sChav]

Re: Music Centres

I recall Music Centres in the Argos and index Catalouge's (and not wanting one as such) but being in awe of them!

What splendid and majestic bests these systems sure was (and too what memories they bring back - thionking back now to days before the net and gleaming a picture/description etc etc of any given thing at all)!!!

80sChav

[Zincubus]

Re: Music Centres

Bang & Olufsen you probably mean, Bosch and Laumb make contact lenses.

You got it .... amazing designers although they probably sounded like all the rest


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[CrystalBall]

Re: Music Centres

They were not all bad. Some of the more upmarket ones (e.g. ITT) were built from decent components and actually pretty good. Also, the later ones from the 1980s tended to be budget models whereas earlier ones cost significantly more in real terms and were of better quality. They were not meant to be audiophile standard but for everyday use at an affordable price. If you wanted proper hi-fi then separate components were and are the way to go.

[George 1978]

Re: Music Centres

My parents had a Waltham one with a plastic lid on top to protect the tape and record player part - the days when they were called Music Centres rather than hi-fis or stereos.

I wonder if Waltham are still going as a company?

[Richard1978]

Re: Music Centres

My parents had a Waltham one with a plastic lid on top to protect the tape and record player part - the days when they were called Music Centres rather than hi-fis or stereos.

I wonder if Waltham are still going as a company?

Most of them had a clear lid to keep the dust out.

Waltham was mostly sold though Woolworths, so they might not be around.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Music Centres

One of our neighbours had one. I thought it was amazing, along with everything else in her house. I've spoken of this neighbour before. She was a widowed woman in her 60's who's flat was a shrine to the 1960's and Mediterranean holidays. Coming from a very conservatively decorated flat of the 80's with minimal flash content, I simply LOVED her flat. Everything was white and turquoise, and the things the 9 year old me coveted, aside from the big wooden music centre, included a Del Boy style mini bar, multi colour fibre optic lamp, big TV with remote control and teletext (we had neither on our TV), turquoise glass head, fancy beaded curtain, big swish executive chair that spun around and a big bowl of semi precious stones from around the world. Some of these things seem quite mundane now but I had never seen such things anywhere at that age. My mother used to say she had no taste.

[George 1978]

Re: Music Centres

Most of them had a clear lid to keep the dust out.

Waltham was mostly sold though Woolworths, so they might not be around.

Yes, that rings a bell (as well as other sounds of course). My parents used to get so much stuff from Woolies - records, tapes and that in the 1970s, even Christmas decorations as well. The W logo was not a million miles away from Woolworths' as well.

I certain that I had also seen Waltham branded radio cassette recorders as well as record players in 1980s Argos catalogues as well, so I don't think they were exclusive to Woolworths - a bit like how Chad Valley toys were sold by both those stores. I think that Waltham bit the dust (so to speak) a good few years prior to Woolworths closing down for good.

As I live in the East Midlands and got TV programmes from the Waltham transmitter (as well as the Music Centre having an aerial socket at the back where my family had a two way aerial plugged in there), I actually thought that there was some association between the manufacturer and the transmitter!

[zabadak]

Re: Music Centres

I had a National Panasonic one for my 18th birthday (although I had to pay half). I had it for years, even though one of the channels went about 2 years after I got it...