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Old 7th Nov 2021, 10:59 pm   #21
SiriusHardware
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

The only Amstrad item I still have myself is a boxed Grey 'Sinclair' Spectrum 128 +2. I confess I have an ambivalent attitude towards it and would much prefer that it was an original Sinclair built 128K machine.

Many years ago I inherited a pair of modestly sized Amstrad speakers which I think had three drivers (woofer, mid and tweeter) and had originally come from an Amstrad 'tower' audio system and SWMBO has those stashed in her loft but the last time I saw them the chrome surrounds on the drivers had turned to rust.
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Old 7th Nov 2021, 11:08 pm   #22
duncanlowe
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard_FM View Post
The basic spell checker used to attempt to correct everything not in the not very comprehensive dictionary, mangling proper nouns of personnel & names of planets & monsters with amusing results.
Now that takes me back. In my first job the only WP was the 8256. I wrote up a report of some reception testing we had been doing. The PCW decided that Sutton Coldfield was actually Suction Compiled.
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Old 7th Nov 2021, 11:30 pm   #23
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

I have to mirror other opinions, in that at the time, I did everything I could to avoid Amstrad and find the extra cash to buy a Japan-made item (I regard the 70-90s as a golden era for mass-produced Japanese electronics). I once saw inside one of their midi 'hifi' systems and was horrified to witness the amount of MDF and chrome-plated plastic. As AS himself said in an interview, he deliberately analysed Japanese products and looked for ways to bring the costs down - power supply sharing being one of them.

One product I will speak up for, though, is the Amstrad Studio 100. At the time, an entry-level Japanese 4-track portastudio cost upwards of £3-400, and if I recall correctly, the Studio 100 came in at around a third of that. Admittedly, it was nowhere near as robust and sound quality didn't rival Yamaha or Fostex - but the fact is that it functioned well enough for a significant amount of artists to get their first contracts off the back of it. You could argue that the hifi and VCRs were false economy, in that by spending a few extra quid on a Hitachi or Panasonic, you'd get better performance, as well as exponentially better durability. But the Studio 100 fulfilled its intended purpose well enough for singers and writers to get noticed, which gives it a place in history. The story I heard went that AS was offered a job-lot of 4-track heads, which was too-good-a-deal to turn down. His team dreamt up the Studio 100 as a way of using the heads post-purchase!

(not sure how true that is, but it seems plausible enough, knowing AS's penchant for a bargain)

NB - the hard drive failures were due to Seagate, and many yrs after his PC business shut down, he successfully sued them.
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Old 8th Nov 2021, 12:01 am   #24
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

I had a PCW8256 which I upgraded with extra RAM, 3½ drive and RAM pack with serial port and Centronics printer port. Then in 1995 I bought an Amstrad 75MHz Pentium PC with Windows 95. This worked well until the 1G hard drive failed. It was still under the manufacturers (Seagate) warranty so was sent off and a replacement 1.6G drive was sent. I'd already fitted a 2G drive partitioned into C & D drives so the replacement drive was used in a PC I put together for my son.

I finally scrapped the PC a few years ago when It wouldn't boot up after being in storage for a few years and the PCW system went to a forum member back in 2008.

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Old 8th Nov 2021, 12:54 am   #25
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

I have none... Terrible stuff from a company owned and run by a man with very iffy ethics who I believe once said, “If there was a market in mass-produced portable nuclear weapons, we’d market them, too.”

Horrid.

Steve.
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Old 8th Nov 2021, 12:15 pm   #26
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

The only Amstrad item I ever bought was a CB900 back in 1981, still got it somewhere.
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Old 8th Nov 2021, 8:21 pm   #27
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

I had an 8000 amplifier years ago that was OKish, I gave that gave away. Recently a customer brought in an RP10 record player, the one with disco lights in the lid - appalling build quality with a little 2W/channel IC amp and a bargain basement turntable.
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Old 8th Nov 2021, 8:43 pm   #28
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

It's interesting that many electronics brand names which were familiar in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s - such as Akai and Sharp - have been bought up and have resurfaced, usually on a similar range of products to those they would have graced originally - but not always. 'Polaroid', I'm looking at you.

But Amstrad isn't one of them.

Is the Amstrad name still being put on anything made today? Does Amstrad still exist as an entity? I read somewhere recently that Amstrad still technically hold the rights to the firmware used in Sinclair computers, so I suppose Amstrad must still exist in some form.

To be fair there are certain other historic British brands, such as Fidelity, which also don't seem to have attracted the attention of brand buyers, probably for the same reasons.
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Old 8th Nov 2021, 8:57 pm   #29
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

"It was announced on 2 July 2008 that Sugar had stepped down as Chairman of Amstrad, which had been planned since BSkyB took over in 2007. Amstrad was taken off the Stock Exchange on 9 October 2008. Amstrad has ceased operations as a trading company, and exists in name only. Under Sky, Amstrad currently only produce satellite receivers for Sky, as doing so allows them to reduce costs by cutting out the middleman. Amstrad's former offices are now a Premier Inn Hotel "

Amstrad held the IP rights to the Fidelity brand. I guess AMS is rightfully enjoying the benefits of a well-invested pension as well as income from his aviation and property businesses and payments for "The Apprentice" involvement.

He really does disprove the popular narrative that the UK is not a good place in which to get rich.
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Old 9th Nov 2021, 8:10 am   #30
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

I've never thought that the UK was not a popular place in which to get rich? Plenty of opportunities for those with vision, nous and intelligence. The latter not always being a prerequisite. Good luck to anyone who speculates and makes money I say, and hard luck to the many who have tried and failed, that's life. It's easy to talk about AMS's pensions and investments etc in a fat cat kind of way, but I'm sure he burnt the candle at both ends for years to get there. He came from a poor family and worked hard to get what he's got. Like him or loathe him, he's a grafter for sure.
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Old 9th Nov 2021, 12:11 pm   #31
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyDuell View Post
I still actively use an Amstrad PPC640 'portable' computer, the one that is wider than a 19" rack panel. I've modified it so that the second floppy drive bay contains a DC37 socket to connect to an external drive, I use it with a little device called a 'microtest' which is used to test and align floppy disk drives.
I persuaded an employer to buy me one of these, primarily for site visits. The PPC was an interesting and unusual design and mine saw plenty of use. It was very clear that there'd been a design imperative that it should run on batteries as well as mains - given the technology of the day and the cost constraints, this meant 10 alkaline C cells which cost a fortune, weighed a ton and only lasted an hour or so.

I still have it in the loft somewhere, though it hasn't been booted up for decades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPC_512
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Old 9th Nov 2021, 4:55 pm   #32
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

Was it ever proven that AMS was behind 'Billy Bass the Singing Fish'?
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Old 9th Nov 2021, 5:13 pm   #33
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

I certainly don't know of a connection. It's a bit tacky even for Amstrad, and AMS was never shy about branding his products.

Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mouth_Billy_Bass
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Old 9th Nov 2021, 5:28 pm   #34
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

I've got an IC2000 mk3 amplifier somewhere, just not sure where!
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Old 9th Nov 2021, 5:45 pm   #35
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Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
I certainly don't know of a connection. It's a bit tacky even for Amstrad, and AMS was never shy about branding his products.

Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mouth_Billy_Bass
I have been caught peddling fake news! That's a strike against me. I hope AMS doesn't send the lawyers in!
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Old 9th Nov 2021, 6:30 pm   #36
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

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Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
"It was announced on 2 July 2008 that Sugar had stepped down as Chairman of Amstrad, which had been planned since BSkyB took over in 2007. Amstrad was taken off the Stock Exchange on 9 October 2008. Amstrad has ceased operations as a trading company, and exists in name only. Under Sky, Amstrad currently only produce satellite receivers for Sky, as doing so allows them to reduce costs by cutting out the middleman. Amstrad's former offices are now a Premier Inn Hotel "

Amstrad held the IP rights to the Fidelity brand. I guess AMS is rightfully enjoying the benefits of a well-invested pension as well as income from his aviation and property businesses and payments for "The Apprentice" involvement.

He really does disprove the popular narrative that the UK is not a good place in which to get rich.
I regularly use the modern incarnation of an Amstrad product each time that I visit our local Shell petrol station. There’s an ‘Amscreen’ display at each rank of fuel pumps. It even talks to me, welcoming me to Shell and providing a much better and more convenient display of litres and £ than the pump itself. Their reliability though does seem par for the course for an ‘AMS’ product.

Martin
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Old 9th Nov 2021, 7:35 pm   #37
knobtwiddler
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

There was (is?) another branch to AMS Holdings that advertises to those unfortunate enough to be stuck in waiting rooms via screens. A lack of reliability would be a distinct benefit in this case!
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Old 9th Nov 2021, 8:02 pm   #38
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

Yes, AMSCREEN are big in advertising displays, both inside and outside(I.e. Bus stop displays).
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Old 9th Nov 2021, 8:03 pm   #39
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

Oh yes, the Amstrad 'portable' PPC. Had one of those too. Although it was my own (purchased used at Elvaston) I used it at work. It meant I could have my own PC on my desk, and therefore use it for housekeeping (diary, contacts and so on) as everyone else on the team had to share one PC. I sold it to someone else when I got hold of a Zenith Minisport which must still be hiding in the loft.
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Old 9th Nov 2021, 10:29 pm   #40
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Default Re: Amstrad.What stuff do you have?

I currently own a CPC464 with both colour and the green monochrome monitors, and a DDI-1 3'' disc drive add-on. Also have both grey and black +2's, and the +3 ZX Spectrum's.

In the past I have owned a PC1640 computer, the 901 CB radio, GX4000 games console, TS-88 hifi tower, and lastly the SM104 vertical linear tracking hifi, which turntable was strange how it functioned. It's tone arm would advanced along every 2 rotations of the platter. I noticed when playing back some LP's like a compilation album with several tracks on, the tonearm would advance to too quickly and pull the stylus accross the grooves.
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