Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time.

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Re:

Posted by DavidLD (A) on June 30, 2005 at 11:10:12

In Reply to: I am surprised no one's responded to your request posted by mhardy6647 on June 30, 2005 at 09:21:35:

The Allied 395, sold as that after the 1970 Allied buyout by Radio Shack, was clearly a Pioneer product, using those same funny speaker connectors the SX X2X receivers used at the time. I think there were others as well. Hitachi had a lot of the RS contracts as the 70s progressed as well. It gets complicated because RS let receiver contracts one receiver at a time during at least part of the 70s, and who the manufacturer was depended on the power output. That's why the RS receivers of the period bear little family resemblance in any given year. Cosmetics provided some clues to manufacturer. I THINK most of the units from the period with the dual sliding volume controls were Hitachi-made, but a balance control you turned denoted a different manufacturer, perhaps even Pioneer. Both Allied and Radio shack were doing similar contracting on house brand receivers, and RS for a short period of time (A couple years) even tried to keep alive the popular Allied models from pre-merger days. Then they started selling under the Allied Radio Shack (ARS) label, then Realistic, then after the Optimus speakers took off they adopted tht name for electronics too. Its a curious, checkered history, and a marketeer's nightmare because they changed strategies and brand names endlessly. Some of the stuff they contracted like the Allied 395, was quite good, a lot was so-so, and some was marginal. And that was part of the problem. Consumers didn't quite know what to make of it all. I still don't know what to make of it all.

One day not too long ago, they decided they wanted something other than a house brand, so they started marketing electronics under the Memorex brand. Then they started marketing speakers that said RCA on them, a brand owned by a giant Chinese electronics firm. Then suddenly RCA speakers disappeared and Sony speakers showed up. It's crazy.

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