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Forum 141

Beethoven TV...

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Marc
 Marc
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I thought it was Woolworths? I'm sure I saw the Waltham brand in their stores back in the 70's and 80's. Perhaps it was also sold through catalogues. :aab

Woolworths definitely sold Waltham goods, I got a pair of Waltham headphones from there back in the mid 70's....and boy were they rubbish ! :cch

Marc.

Marc
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Posted : 15/03/2016 12:54 pm
Cathovisor
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"Waltham" is a brand I use to compare and contrast the boot fair my mate attends at Wimbledon, which seems to throw up all sorts of treasures - and my local ones, where the nearest to electronic treasure you're going to find is a Waltham music centre with the arm snapped off the seized BSR turntable, a cracked lid and one loudspeaker... :aaj

 
Posted : 15/03/2016 1:44 pm
wd40addict
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The rather long link below leads to the 4/2/82 edition of New Scientist. This has an article on all the electronics companies then setting up in Ireland including Waltham. Costs were being minimised by assembling Korean made modules.

Reading this article brought back the time when Ireland was getting lots of, mainly US, investment. These days no-one seems to build screwdriver plants - just ship it all in from China.

Regards,

Paul

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XQw ... cs&f=false

 
Posted : 15/03/2016 2:22 pm
Nuvistor
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At that time in Ireland (1980) the government were helping companies build plants to help employment prospects. I worked for a International company that had a factory in Ireland, used to really enjoy visiting that factory, great people. The main product was built in the factory, parts imported from were they were available.
The factory was in a free trade area, I think that was the term, goods came in and went out without paying duties. Duties only becoming payable if the goods were delivered to an Irish address. The IDA Irish Development Authority also helped with grants of some form. When the factory closed there was lots of discussions of how much of the grants to pay back. I had no involvement with any of that though,quite glad I didn't.
Hope I have terminology correct, great memories of the people there, glad I had the opertunity.

Frank

Frank

 
Posted : 15/03/2016 4:39 pm
Till Eulenspiegel
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In my last post about Beethoven TV I mentioned that a certain Beethoven branded TV set was similar to an Emerson model, the E704.
The question is, did the American company manufacture their sets in the Raymond works? Looking at the circuits of those 1958 Emerson sets there appears to be elements of Raymond design in them.
Emerson TVs were made between 1958 to 1960.

Till Eulenspiegel.

 
Posted : 15/03/2016 5:38 pm
TheBub
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Hi

I know this is a very old thread but we used to have an old Beethoven TV - just checked the make with my mum. This was in 1964 - our first TV!

 
Posted : 25/03/2021 3:42 pm
Nuvistor
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@thebub

A few photos.

http://www.thevalvepage.com/tvmanu/beethoven/beethoven.htm

 

Frank

 
Posted : 25/03/2021 5:42 pm
Till Eulenspiegel
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The earlier models such as the TV50 were made by the original Beethoven company. The firm made good quality products. Later on the company merged with Raymond Electric. Both brands seemed to disappear about 1958/9. However, some of the design elements can be found in Emerson TV sets made about 1959/60.

When I came into the trade I'd hear blokes complaining about Beethoven and Raymond TVs but we now know these were ones that couldn't fix anything. I do believe there was an issue with the line drive adjustment in some sets, the B106 for example which used a trimmer capacitor to adjust the operating point in the line output stage.

Till Eulenspiegel. 

 
Posted : 25/03/2021 6:01 pm
Nuvistor
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@till

I didn’t see any Beethoven or Raymond sets but did know their name. The line drive control had been dispensed with by the late 50’s in the sets I saw. By the second half of the 1950’s 405 set design had stabilised and many sets were decent ones.

Frank

 
Posted : 25/03/2021 6:27 pm
TheBub
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Thanks for your replies.  It could have been a secondhand one. Thanks for the pictures Frank. It actually looked most like the (half) one on page 1 posted by @CrustyTV but it could have had the knobs at the bottom rather than the side.

 
Posted : 25/03/2021 7:59 pm
Katie Bush
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Posted by: @marc

Woolworths definitely sold Waltham goods, I got a pair of Waltham headphones from there back in the mid 70's....and boy were they rubbish ! 

That just as I remember Waltham products too! Those headphones were about as good as having two cheap and nasty transistor radios stuffed in each lughole! 😝😽🙀

 
Posted : 26/03/2021 8:55 pm
Marc
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@katie-bush Two cheap transistor radios ! That was positively "HiFi" compared to those headphones.

Marc
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Posted : 26/03/2021 10:17 pm
Katie Bush
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@marc

Ah, yes, I wasn't thinking of those radios! I was thinking of the ones with speaker the size of milk bottle caps!

 
Posted : 26/03/2021 10:20 pm
Katie Bush
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Posted by: @marc

@katie-bush Two cheap transistor radios ! That was positively "HiFi" compared to those headphones.

Actually, I think my kid brother had a pair of cheap Waltham headphones for the radio on his tractor. They weren't up to much in the way of volume, and distortion was horrendous. That said, I think I have still got a Waltham radio/cassette player that was more or less par for course with others of its ilk. Maybe, like so many others, it was a victim of badge engineered cheap rubbish bringing down the name - not that it needed a lot!

 
Posted : 26/03/2021 10:29 pm
Marc
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The might of Alan Sugar's branding empire !

Marc
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Posted : 26/03/2021 10:41 pm
Katie Bush
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@marc

That's probably why they didn't sound too good, if they were the ones that the "Amster 'ad".

Wasn't Waltham also a brand name sold by one of the mail order catalogue companies? Littlewoods, Janet Fraser, or John Mills etc?

 
Posted : 26/03/2021 10:45 pm
Marc
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Yes Marion, I think your right re the catalogues etc.

 

Marc
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Posted : 26/03/2021 11:20 pm
Katie Bush
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Posted by: @marc

Yes Marion, I think your right re the catalogues etc.

 

I thought so, and I've just found a Waltham radio cassette hiding down the side of the wardrobe. It's actually quite a heavy lump, feels solidly built and sounds not unreasonable for what it is. Obviously not in the same league as the Japanese offerings of the day, but would suggest that even a budget brand like that comes in varying shades of quality.

 

 
Posted : 26/03/2021 11:34 pm
Till Eulenspiegel
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Circuit diagram of the line output stage in the 1956 Beethoven B94 series of TV sets.  A similar line drive circuit was employed in the B106 model which employed a 90* CRT.

Beethoven B94 LTB

 Till Eulespiegel.

 
Posted : 27/03/2021 11:16 am
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