Classic Indian amps of late 70's

[venkatcr]

I remember being face to face with these sansui speakers when i would visit a sansui service centre in Juhu, it was called V.V. & Sons....

Are these guys by any chance the original of the VV & Sons in UAE who specialize in HT and audio systems? TheKinge, any idea?

Cheers

 

[changappa]

norge ,cosmic and sonodynes are so called audiophile companies of india.
I feel PAGARIA and T SERIES is not in their league.

OR YOU MAY BE CONSIDERING THEM IN SAME LEAGUE ,PROBABLY EVIDENT FROM YOUR PAST POSTS. Like if you "upscale" mp3 and burn it on CDand play it on pagaria connected norge,it will sound better than Orignal CD playing on Marantz +MA system ...RIGHT!!!:licklips::licklips:

After all u r audio engineer from USAhyeah:hyeah: u r right

 

[hemantwaghe]

After all u r audio engineer from USAhyeah:hyeah: u r right

why usa?u are such a mental slave of that country ..that you cannot think any other audio equipment from other country???

i am certai you never heard but fantastic equipment like Audire,Cadence and Rhythm Saadhna is MADE IN INDIA.

How about Naim from UK,Jadis from France,MBL from Germany,Sonus Faber from Italy etc

BTW I ALREADY LOST AN ARGUMENT WITH YOU AS I SAY IN OTHER THREAD

Never Argue With A Fool They Will Drag You Down To Their Level, Then Beat You With Experience!

Have a life...listen to good systems,check better home theatress ,in fact there are many members who helped me auditioning their systems ....

OPEN YOU EYES..

___________________

Neo: Why do my eyes hurt?
Morpheus: You've never used them before.

( From Matrix)

 

[sonosphere]

Hi babloo,
I was a little surprised at your reaction quoted below. Please take my comments below as personal opinion, not meant to offend

I believe as long as a member doesn't go very off-topic, it's ok to talk about a gear that may not be around the same specs /quality as other stuff being talked about in a thread.

I am sure Changappa's post was not with intent to confuse anybody. I suppose he contributed a bit of trivia that was pretty harmless at the worst. Personally I don't think his post will make anybody think that Pagaria and T series is audiophile stuff... I have seen even newbies taking due precaution before making opinion about unheard brands.

As far as somebody thinking that Norge is very good company, there is no harm in letting them have that belief. Asking them to answer why Mr. Shyam is directly dealing etc is like asking an outsider. Only Mr. Shyam can answer that question. I believe there are many excellent amps worldwide, that are being sold directly to customers than thru dealerships... that doesn't automatically mean that they have something less than the amps being sold thru dealerships. BTW going by the posts on this forum, I believe Norge is the majority-preference of forum-members, at "that" price point (purchased new).

regds,

Dear Changappa Please suggest as per the hi-vision standard.Do not unneccessarily waste your time and confuse others on unwanted threads and posts Comparing Local products with High-ends.If you know abt the product then give your suggestions.If you think that norge is a very good company and manufactures good amplifiers then why do only Mr.Shyam bajaj is Directly dealing in India,and sending to every consumer by courier,why none of the dealer having stocks like other Brands?

Think and reply
take care
cheers

 

[babloo64]

Dear Sonosphere,
I am sorry for that if i have hurted anyone unknowingly.My intention was not to pull down anyone's feelings or i am not against Norge brand.But as our friend changappa in all his threads comparing Norge with big brands and suggest why you spend unneccessarily,you can donate that and this,So i had replied.

Once again i am sorry friends.

Cheers

Babloo64

 

[KDM]

Sonodyne also manufactures cd players

No they don't - at least there's NOTHING on their site that indicates that they're manufacturing CD players, at least CD players for home use.

Sonodyne

 

[hemantwaghe]

No they don't - at least there's NOTHING on their site that indicates that they're manufacturing CD players, at least CD players for home use.

Sonodyne

there may be.
around 10-15 yers back companies try rebadging too..like get a completly built unit,or kit from known /unknown manufacturer and just put your label on it!
For that matter BPL,videocon and Onida also had CD players ,in fact all had one or two system of sepraters in their arsenal! Philips was relatively big in standalone CD player market due to their international heritage.

In chor bazaar I was once surprised to see a local small brand CDP ( i think it was either Dome or DNM.)!

 

[babloo64]

No they don't - at least there's NOTHING on their site that indicates that they're manufacturing CD players, at least CD players for home use.

Sonodyne

They manufacture CD Players and the model is BGM TCD and BGM DCD.

 

[hemantwaghe]

They manufacture CD Players and the model is BGM TCD and BGM DCD.

Current manufacture?
Any links?

 

[tejasnaidu]

We had arphi mini monitor speakers that were connected to an Sony amp and akai tape deck. All were purchased in 1982 with the amp and deck from germany and speakers from India. The amp died within 6 months and the speakers were in cold storage till 10 yrs back. Do not know how the arphi`s sounded as i was 4 yrs old then.

My dad gave away the akai deck to a friend. Unfortunately i have no pictures of the deck since i was young then. The deck was amazing- feather touch tape deck operation, fluorescent bar graph display --other features i do not remember.

The Sony deck was based on STK series chip with o/p of 40+40 watt RMS. Again it had a SMPS power supply (Ligato linear- pulse power supply) which was new then. The amp was covered with cloth while playing and the PS died due to overheating. I have the manual for the amp and specs are amazing. The amp is still with me.

10 yrs back powered the arphi with diff amps but the sound was terrible. The paper cones deteriorated and soon all drivers died and were replaced with boltons. Now the sound quality is acceptable. It was a 2 way speaker with 8" woofer and passive radiator at the top. It is my main setup now.

In comparision cosmic deck and speaker combo was amazing. Heard it at a cassete dealer in 90`s who used it as a demo unit for playing tapes. The deck was mechanical with gaudy LED bars for level display. Was not expecting much but during a demo the sound quality blew me away. The bass was very deep and clear midrange- music i had never heard before.

Still find good amps from 80`s at chor bazaar. Recently saw a hitachi and a sony (Model same as mine) amps in excellent condition. I bet they were working models which could be had for less than 1K.

 

[heynownow]

More pictures of Sonodyne's Uranus I & II from 1988 - 89 product brochure

Thank you so much for the memories. My family back in Kolkata still has this, We have the 520 series dual deck, the 400w amp, the equilizer, the 3 way speaker systems ( but not the turntable & the tuner. We bought the system at the then astronomical sum of about 18-20K. My parents don't use it any more, but whenever I go to Cal for a visit, I fire up the system. You'll be amazed that despite the system being 20 years old, the amp and teh equilizer still works and those beautiful speakers still belt out stomach churning bass. One of the reason I don't invest much in hi-fi now is due in part of this system. The depth, clarity and the manual sound settings of that divine 12 band equiliser was unprecedented. The sound was analogue and pristine. my bro and I used to be on the lookout for chrome/metal blank tapes, which was the ultimate in terms of recording fidelity back in teh day. I remember hooking up our 1st CD player in the mid 90's and putting on Enigma. The return to innocence, and as a kid I was in hi-fi heaven. This was during the pre-liberalization era, but we got compliments from people who owned more modern grey market imports on the quality of sound our "desi" Uranus produced. As a kid being exposed to that level of fidelity back in the days where a music system usually meant a stereo 2-in-1 was beyond amazing. Hence now I am nonchalant about hi-fi gear now (I use a basic onkyo bookshelf mini-system now) , and am no longer amazed or enthralled easily by highend audio systems. That Sonodyne did spoil me in my childhood, and I'll always miss those days and will always bet on Sonodyne as a brand. When I do shift to my "own" house, you can bet that I'll invest in a Sonodyne home theater system, since I know this brand believes in sound perfection beyond all else (design, gizmos etc)

 

[bpbagchi]

I too have the same catalog, The cassette revolution followed by the digital age destroyed them, now we have the cacophoney of MP3 striking the death knell of whole bodied sound

 

[mrunalrane]

hi anil
nice to c u
i to am in the same boat that ur
nice to c cosmic old 70s brochere . with pict
i to am fan of cosmic systems and still use it
i ahve a brchr which came in 90s
i to have a cosmic 100 amp old with 6000 spk co gram 4000 tt
709 deck/ 6500 deck

nice sound quality
cosmic was boom in 70s to 80s in market
bye cu

 

[just4kix]

Our first (so called) hi-fi system was a simple Philips turntable+amp+spk (late 70s). Later I used to have (well, my father owned it) Cosmic CO-30 with Covox-1000 in 80s. From the local Philips dealer got the preamp out from the TT and connected to Cosmic. The sound used to be divine. We had over 45 LPs.

When my father retired and we moved to Pune (I had just settled in Pune), he sold off the Cosmic. No one would buy the Philips turntable. It is still with me somewhere in the storage area.

Thanks for opening the nostalagia.

 

[sachu888]

Technics Su8022.

 

[reubensm]

Brands like COSMIC & SONODYNE were kings back in the day. I remember Sonodyne Jet Line speakers. Small buggers with some serious sound pressure levels.

There was a time Onida came out with a component Hi Fi system based around a Stereo Integrated Amplifier, Graphic Equalizer, Twin Well Tape deck, Mid Tower Speaker & small surround speakers. They were an exact copy of the Sonodyne Uranus 2B & they kicked ass.


Then there was Optonica that came out of the blue with two models of integrated shelf systems & proper floor standing speakers. One of the models had a CD Player too. A first for its time. The components were intergated into the rack & you could not pull out an individual component from the system. Do not know if they sounded good but I have see them at stores.

Sonodyne & Onida systems were way superior when compared to the junk Power House series that Philips launched.

Man there was a time i collected every half page/full page ad that came in the news papers. I dumped them just a few years ago. BPL advertised they D1000 in the Sunday supplement of The Hindu. I remember this so well cause the speakers looked menacing & were proper towers. It was basically a Mini System paired with floor standers.

Sad that those glory days are over. All we have now is insanely priced stereos. Back in the 80s spending 10K bought you the best. Now even a lac for some is not enough.

Check out my signature...i have the 700T speakers that were supplied with the D1000 (the buyer had a choice between the 4-way 700T and the 5-way 1000T floorstanders)

 

[linnhifi]

In 1971 a comparison was made by me between Cosmic CO-40 Deluxe

and Sonodyne SC 700 the sound was excellent and also parised about

these two amps in one lndian Audio Mag (Black & White). Leaving the

STK models of Sonodyne the company had also realeased equally good

amps. But I clearly observed that upto mid 1970's Norge was maintaining

better standards compared to Cosmic and Sonodyne. Even today the limited

models of Norge are all value for money.

linnhifi

 

[linnhifi]

Apart from Cosmic, Sonodyne, Norge

We are forgetting the other great companies like Enbee, Afco,

and Bevox (by Bajaj) of those years which had substantially

released amps and speakers in India.

Afterwards may be we wanted to shift to the cassette combined

portables arrived.

linnhifi

 

[reubensm]

Philips India also had some component amps, cassette decks and speakers running into the late 1980s...turntables were supplied during the early to mid-1980s...

 

[mrunalrane]

hi folks
after listening to cosmic from so many yrs .
trying to use some diff amp
did any body tried pioner sa 9100 amp 60 watts rms at 8 ohms spk jack a/b/c
3 pair of spk i wanted to connect to my pioneer cs 405 spk
mostly 90% i use phono on amp
any best amp for phono
i used sansui 317 amp is something better than that
thanks