Monday, December 22, 2008

Encore from Gothenburg

Johan Persson has kindly provided several more photos of his collection.

First up are a pair of snapshots of the diminutive component that I commented on in the earlier post. It is another marque that I have never encountered (or even heard of!): Skantic. I love the simple elegance of these northern European designs. I must say I am still a bit perplexed as to whether this is actually an integrated amp or a preamp. The bird logo is very reminiscent of Fisher. The legend above the knobs and switches just cracks me up. I would guess volume, balance, bass, treble, phono, tape, radio (duh), and power...

The single external transistor really has me puzzled. It says stereo on the front??!! I really need to know my Din connectors better to sort all this out. It also seems to have 3 fuses, generous for such a tiny package. Update: it was actually easier to see via the blog. Interesting. The speaker connectors are far right and left, above the fuses. And Mike says the single external transistor is part of the regulator...

And last, but not least, is an absolutely gorgeous Ravensbourne tuner/integrated pairing from Rogers, down Angleterre way. From the photo Johan has the original literature as well. I am incredibly jealous.


The large screen on top of the tuner case would suggest this is a tube tuner?? It would seem to have a tuning eye to the right of the scale. These are just lovely. My semi-useless Orion Blue Book lists the amp as being produced from '73 to '77. I have my doubts, these would seem to be earlier items. I recall this is Orion's default time frame for those moments when they are clueless. Time to email Johan for some more information...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I owned a Ravensbourne Amplifier and Tuner from new in 1973. The amplifier never pleased me but I regret to this day giving away the tuner. The tuner is not a tube tuner - it was all transistor - the case size was a hangover from valve days. The item you can see at the right of the tuning scale is not a magic eye bur a red led that lit when a stereo signal was received.

alistair mackinnon said...

Hi there
Have acquired both of these units and am on my way to restoring the caps and wiring. I have the schematic for the Amplifier, but I do not have the Tuner schematic.

In your friends literature is there a possibility of one
I know this is a bit of an ask, but it would be great.
alistair