 | |
| Industry |
|
|---|---|
| Founded | 1932 in Birmingham |
| Founder | Daniel McLean McDonald |
| Defunct | 1985 |
| Fate | Dissolved |
Birmingham Sound Reproducers (BSR) was a 20th-century British manufacturer of record player turntables, and, for a time, housewares.
| | |
| Industry |
|
|---|---|
| Founded | 1932 in Birmingham |
| Founder | Daniel McLean McDonald |
| Defunct | 1985 |
| Fate | Dissolved |
Birmingham Sound Reproducers (BSR) was a 20th-century British manufacturer of record player turntables, and, for a time, housewares.
Daniel McLean McDonald (1905–1991) founded Birmingham Sound Reproducers as a private company in 1932 in the West Midlands of England. By 1947, the company chiefly manufactured communications sets (intercoms), laboratory test equipment, and sound recording and reproducing instruments including phonographs.
In the early 1950s, Samuel Margolin began buying auto-changing turntables from BSR, using them as the basis of his Dansette record player. [1] Over the next twenty years, Margolin manufactured more than a million of these players, and "Dansette" became a household word in Britain.
In 1957, BSR, also known by the name BSR McDonald, became a public company which by 1961 had grown to employ 2,600. It supplied turntables and autochangers to many of the world’s record player manufacturers, eventually gaining 87% of the market. The company also manufactured their own brand of player, the Monarch automatic record changer, which could select and play 7", 10" and 12" records at 16, 331⁄3, 45 or 78 rpm, automatically intermixing various disc sizes, although the speed had to be changed manually. [2] By 1977, BSR's various factories produced over 250,000 units a week; the majority of record changers installed in console stereos and bookshelf stereo systems during this era were manufactured by BSR. [2]
BSR also made tape recorder mechanisms. [3] Bang & Olufsen used BSR's TD2 tape deck in their Beocord Belcanto from 1962. [4]
During 1975, with the help of Pico Electronics, BSR started the manufacture of a new upmarket turntable for its ADC line called the Accutrac 4000 at its Garratts Lane factory in Cradley Heath. This turntable had individual track selection capabilities, allowing the user to play specified individual tracks from an LP side in any order desired. It had a direct drive turntable motor, and a high quality ADC LMA1 cartridge and stylus. This was further developed into a record changer called the Accutrac 3500 which, in addition to track selection, handled a stack of up to six singles or LPs. Both machines were equipped with an ultrasonic remote control.
Changing home audio trends affected BSR in the early 1980s. Although the company produced reel-to-reel tape decks in addition to their turntables and changers, consumers began to expect portability from their music players, and BSR faced competition from eight-track and cassette tape players, particularly Sony's Walkman. In the first five years of the 1980s, BSR closed several factories and made thousands of workers redundant.
During the 1980s, BSR manufactured the Rotronics Wafadrive for the ZX Spectrum range of computers.
In the 1970s, BSR diversified by acquiring houseware companies Goblin Vacuum Cleaners (who also made Teasmades), Judge International Housewares Ltd (pots and pans), and Bulpitt & Sons, who made kettles and irons under the "Swan Brand" name. [5] Goblin was sold to US company Shop Vac in 1984, [6] and Swan was sold to Moulinex of France in 1988. [5]
After producing their last turntable in 1985, BSR McDonald closed all divisions except for Astec Power Supply; they maintained investments in various entities including dbx and X10 (another partnership with Pico Electronics). dbx is now owned by Harman International Industries. BSR later moved its headquarters to Hong Kong, as Astec (BSR) plc, and continued there until 1998, when Astec (BSR) plc was fully acquired by Emerson Electric Company of the United States.
BSR became the shirt sponsor of West Bromwich Albion for the 1981/82 season and continued the sponsorship under the Swan brand until 1984.[ citation needed ]
The 8-track tape is a magnetic-tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when the compact cassette tape, which pre-dated the 8-track system, surpassed it in popularity for pre-recorded music. The format is obsolete and was relatively unknown outside the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Japan. The main advantage of the 8-track tape cartridge was that it did not have to be "flipped over" to play other tracks.
A cassette deck is a type of tape machine for playing and recording audio cassettes that does not have a built-in power amplifier or speakers, and serves primarily as a transport. It can be a part of an automotive entertainment system, a part of a portable mini system or a part of a home component system. In the latter case it is also called a component cassette deck or just a component deck.
A variable speed pitch control is a control on an audio device such as a turntable, tape recorder, or CD player that allows the operator to deviate from a standard speed. The latter term "vari-speed" is more commonly used for tape decks, particularly in the UK. Analog pitch controls vary the voltage being used by the playback device; digital controls use digital signal processing to change the playback speed or pitch. A typical DJ deck allows the pitch to be increased or reduced by up to 8%, which is achieved by increasing or reducing the speed at which the platter rotates.
Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the supply reel containing the tape is placed on a spindle or hub. The end of the tape is manually pulled from the reel, threaded through mechanical guides and over a tape head assembly, and attached by friction to the hub of the second, initially empty takeup reel. Reel-to-reel systems use tape that is 1⁄4, 1⁄2, 1, or 2 inches wide, which normally moves at 3+3⁄4, 7+1⁄2, 15 or 30 inches per second. All standard tape speeds are derived as a binary submultiple of 30 inches per second.
Nakamichi Corp., Ltd. is a Japanese consumer electronics brand that originated in Japan and gained a name from the 1970s onwards for innovative and high quality audio cassette decks. Nakamichi is a subsidiary of Chinese holding company Nimble Holdings.
dbx, Inc. is an American producer of professional audio recording equipment owned by Harman International, a subsidiary of South Korea-based company Samsung Electronics. It was founded by David E. Blackmer in 1971.
A record changer or autochanger is a device that plays several phonograph records in sequence without user intervention. Record changers first appeared in the late 1920s, and were common until the 1980s.
Sansui Electric Co., Ltd. was a Japanese manufacturer of audio and video equipment. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, it was part of the Bermuda conglomerate.
A teasmade is a machine for making tea automatically, which was once common in the United Kingdom and some British Commonwealth countries. Teasmades generally include an analogue alarm clock and are designed to be used at the bedside, to ensure tea is ready first thing in the morning. Although crude versions existed in Victorian times, they only became practical with the availability of electric versions in the 1930s. They reached their peak in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then their use has declined, but they are now enjoying a revival, partly as a retro novelty item.
Bang & Olufsen (B&O) is a Danish high-end consumer electronics company that designs and manufactures audio products, television sets, and telephones. It was founded in 1925 by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, who designed a radio to work with alternating current, a product of significance at a time when most radios were still running on batteries.
Dual is a brand name of audio and video electronics.
Goblin Vacuum Cleaners was a British brand of vacuum cleaners made from the early 1900s till the early 2000s.
Dansette was a British brand of record players, radiograms, tape recorders, and radio sets, manufactured by the London firm of J & A Margolin Ltd,
Luxman is a brand name of Japanese Luxman Corporation (ラックスマン株式会社), a company that manufactures luxury audio components. Luxman produces a variety of high-end audio products which include turntables, amplifiers, receivers, tape decks, CD players and speakers
Optonica was a subdivision of Japanese electronics manufacturer Sharp that made high-end hi-fi products systems.
Voice Of Music was the premier brand of V-M Corporation, an American audio equipment manufacturing company.
Technics is a Japanese brand name of the Panasonic Corporation for audio equipment. Since 1965 under the brand name, Panasonic has produced a variety of hi-fi products, such as turntables, amplifiers, receivers, tape decks, CD players and speakers for sale in various countries. It was conceived as a line of high-end audio equipment to compete against brands such as Nakamichi.
Bulpitt & Sons Ltd was an electrical goods manufacturer and limited company in Birmingham, England, established as a brass founder in the late 19th century.
Collaro was the name of a major early British manufacturer of gramophones, record players, and tape decks, throughout the early years of sound reproduction.
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