Fund drive month continues. First of all thank you everybody who has donated, I am sure Moka is busy building the personalised playlist by now. (haa haa ..., have fun Moka.)
Back to business. I think it would be fun as a historical note to see what certain amount of donation can buy in term of consumer electronic gadget. For $48.37, people could by the first transistor radio,
TR-1. It was actually listed at $49.95 and at today's dollar would be around $395.
"
Consumer Reports had a one-page review in April, 1955 (p.171). In using phrases such as "toy-like novelty" and "has made use of the transistor's small size, but...offers no other advantages" in comparing it to tube sets, they rain on an otherwise revolutionary parade. Their comparison of two transistor and one hybrid (a transistor and tube combination) radios in July, 1955 (p.305)
panned the TR-1 again. Most listeners would probably agree that the also-ran Raytheon 8-TP (at a whopping $79.95, approximately $550 today) sounded better. With 8 transistors and a larger speaker, it should, and did. But the smaller form factor of radios like the TR-1 was irresistable, and would be here to stay. In time, small radios would supply much of the performance of the larger sets, at least in terms of sensitivity and selectivity, although they would almost always compromise tone quality. Another review, somewhat more favorable, appeared in the same month in
Consumers' Research Bulletin (July, 1955, p.29). " (
more)
Playlist: Something upbeat and fun for weekend morning, mostly courtesy midheaven mailorder
site. I made this list for small speaker, so might sounds not as smooth on headphones. but hey... I'll make headphone list, next, once there is enough money to write a story about expensive headphone. :P So don't forget to donate people, things ar going fast. Click
donate page here.
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Weekend Morning. It was the Golden Age"
Damon & Naomi -
The Robot SpeaksHelms -
The Kindness of Automatic DoorsVert -
VelocityAntarctica Absence -
Absence+/- {Plus/Minus} -
Let's Build A FireDaedelus -
SundownLavender Diamond -
You Broke My Heartsee also: history of
transistor radio at wiki.
image credit: SR
We're successfully inside dreamhost plan now so that means that this may be one of the last posts inside this motel's address. Over the weekend I shall remain home for the most part hopefully aided by ex-contributor issa and local friend annie working on the new site. According to issa new site could very well be complete before Tuesday... I have finished mailing all of our kind donators today so if you check your mailbox and there's still nothing from me please check your spam or mail me at motelmoka(at)gmail.com.
