I imported my Quad speakers from a London dealer in 1985. The ratio of pound to dollar was extremely favorable and I was able to buy the speakers plus Quad a,p and preamp and FM Tuner for less than the US retail cost of the speakers.
I had them rebuilt in 2017 and then In 2022 a just rebuilt pair of US monitors came to my attention and I snapped them up.
Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4004 Turntable
Fully rebuilt in 2023. Sounds and looks great.
Aurender N20 Streamer
A big upgrade that obsoleted my NAIM Uniti Core and Audio Al+hemy DMP-1
Berkeley Audio DAC Reference Series 2+
Almost a Series 3
Nakamichi DR-1 Casette Tape Player
Ayre DX-5 DSD SACD Player
Makes a great backup option to my Oppo UDP-205, lacking only 4k capability and sounds better.
In the mid-eighties, the dollar was at parity with the pound, a boon time for audio dealers/customers. I remember the 63's well. I own 57s, but one needs repair. But what caught my attention was your B&O 4400. Back in the seventies, it was a dream table for me in high school, but just too expensive. I now own a restored one, plus an 8200 with the Tacho motor, a Beosystem 7700 and a Beosystem 10(a portable receiver has a phono stage) that I picked up with CX-50 speakers, literature, all for twenty bucks at a local resale shop that couldn't figure out how to turn it on. The 4400 was purchased from a salesman at a recent new audio store(at the time), promising the most in Hi-end audio that closed as fast as it opened. You would not believe how he altered the DIN plug to RCAs(I'll enclose a photo). All of this stuff I had serviced by B&O's head of technical support, now retired, for all of North America. He had a photo memory of service manuals of every component B&O ever made. https://imgur.com/a/gnAXikY https://imgur.com/a/gnAXikY https://imgur.com/a/gnAXikY
Many thanks for the compliments!! I started out with the Pioneer SX-1050 in 1973, which gives you a clue I’ve been around for awhile. Couldn’t afford speakers so joined a bunch of fellows where I worked and we made ourselves exact copies of the big rear projecting Bose 901 speakers. Then a few years later, fate smiled on me when I read a review in Opera News about how perfectly ideal the Quad ESL-63s were for opera and I knew I had to have them. Wound up importing them from England along with Quad amp and preamp which saved me a ton of money because they were not only priced much cheaper in England but the dollar to pound ratio was highly favorable at that time. I was pretty lucky. One other piece of gear I had and I truly loved was a Meridian 508.24 CD Player which I splurged on and it was a perfect mate for the Quads. Still am furious that it is out of commission because a replacement transport is unobtainable. Well, I still have my Quads and I still love my Quads!
