Comet

[mangerton]

The Sinclair Micro 6 radio was rather good at the time too - 59/6 for the kit. Then you had to assemble it very carefully, using a small soldering iron.

Yes, I built one of those. 59/6! You'd just about get a pint for that nowadays.

I also had a z12 power amp to which I added homebuilt preamp, tone controls and power supply. It made a quite good guitar amplifier.

My first foray into stereo was the Project 60, and I also had a Sinclair calculator.

[mangerton]

My son had fun with his Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3. I had borrowed a BBC Model B from school during the Easter holiday and he had been using it (aged 8), playing a game called "Kingdom". On acquiring his own Spectrum, he then rewrote the program(me) for his new computer. I don't know how, for he was only just 10 and had no access to the data used for the BBC computer.

(Is there a : proud dad: emoticon?)

Sounds as though there should be.

[Cornet IV]

With Comet being the latest company to go into administration, I recall my youth when I was absorbed and fascinated by Comet's mail order adverts for hi-fi equipment. This was long before it became a high street name.

Comet was a very different company then. I think it was in 1961 that I bought a pair of large Tannoy speakers from them at a price dramatically less than that asked by the likes of Largs and Imhof. I have acquired other stuff from Comet in the intervening years but not recently - their stock overwhelmingly seems to have been sourced in the Far East and of a quality I'm not prepared to suffer. In this last regard, I'm still smarting from having paid two hundred quid for a wretched toaster but this is at least British and works, which is more than can be said of the catalogue of short-lived bits of junk burning my toast in recent times. I suspect that a large opportunity for the "big box shops" came when the vile Ted Heath removed retail price maintenance.

But I still have the speakers, albeit now in rather larger cabinets. In fact, I'm listening to them as I write - Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Kempff - so they once sold quality material. Nevertheless, it's a pity they are going.

[Vile Consort]

No, it certainly wasn't. It's worth remembering too how Comet has changed. Initially they were a warehouse operation with no goods on display. You went in, asked for an Acme 17" TV or whatever, and it was brought to you in a cardboard box.

Not only that, but if you paid by cheque they took a mug shot of you using a camera in the till. I think it combined a picture of the customer with one of his cheque. They sold stuff much cheaper than you could get it in traditional shops. I bought all my hifi stuff to go to university with from their Rochdale branch in 1972.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

My son had fun with his Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3. I had borrowed a BBC Model B from school during the Easter holiday and he had been using it (aged 8), playing a game called "Kingdom". On acquiring his own Spectrum, he then rewrote the program(me) for his new computer. I don't know how, for he was only just 10 and had no access to the data used for the BBC computer.

(Is there a : proud dad: emoticon?)

Good lad!

Now you know how Leopold felt when little Wolfie rewrote the Allegri Miserere!

[BBMmk2]

About the best thing Mozart ever did, imo!!

I found their staff could be rather pushy. Me and the wife were looking for fridge freezers their once, and some guy was following us around!! I mean, you do have to look at the products before you buy, without the hinderance of the staff!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

About the best thing Mozart ever did, imo!!

[MrGongGong]

Good lad!

Now you know how Leopold felt when little Wolfie rewrote the Allegri Miserere!

hummm

Rewriting a computer program is much harder than remembering Allegri's Miserere IMV
not that Mozart wasn't phenomenally talented or anything

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

hummm

Rewriting a computer program is much harder than remembering Allegri's Miserere IMV
not that Mozart wasn't phenomenally talented or anything

What? On one hearing?

[MrGongGong]

What? On one hearing?

Yes

Allegri's Miserere doesn't contain much development or variation
it's very repetitive so that on "one" hearing you actually hear the musical ideas many times
and it's not a hard piece to recall, also the text would have been very well known so nothing to memorise there

which is not to say that it's not a great feat BUT I do feel it is often over stated

(Allegri's Miserere is also a wonderful piece IMV so i'm not casting any qualitative judgements on that or Mozart )

I'm sure that you have worked with students on dictation where the secret is not to try and write the thing out after the first hearing but to take it in and have it in your head so you can recall it as much as you need to ? I've met A* A level students who are more than able to do that and they are definitely NOT Mozart.

[Stillhomewardbound]

Just how bust is this company? Not that much, apparently. It seems they have considerable reserves held by a separate company (part of the same group) based a cash-cow bunch of warranties sold on the back of Comet products.

You know the kind of thing ... over-priced peace-of-mind insurance policies for products which these days hardly ever fail.

This is hardly a cash strapped organisation at death's door. Rather, it is a considerable market player looking to discharge its debts, with a view to emerging debt-free under some new banner such as Comet-Online.Inc, or such.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9654595/Investors-behind-Comet-sitting-on-50m-cash-pile.html

[Pabmusic]

Yes

Allegri's Miserere doesn't contain much development or variation
it's very repetitive so that on "one" hearing you actually hear the musical ideas many times
and it's not a hard piece to recall, also the text would have been very well known so nothing to memorise there

which is not to say that it's not a great feat BUT I do feel it is often over stated

(Allegri's Miserere is also a wonderful piece IMV so i'm not casting any qualitative judgements on that or Mozart )

I'm sure that you have worked with students on dictation where the secret is not to try and write the thing out after the first hearing but to take it in and have it in your head so you can recall it as much as you need to ? I've met A* A level students who are more than able to do that and they are definitely NOT Mozart.

Interesting post. The trick of memorising is in developing recall strategies, since we are most of us good at taking in information, but nowhere near as good at regurgitating it. Derren Brown has covered this quite a lot - with tricks such as knowingly 'placing' information in certain 'rooms' in the brain.

[scottycelt]

... I found their staff could be rather pushy. Me and the wife were looking for fridge freezers their once, and some guy was following us around!! I mean, you do have to look at the products before you buy, without the hinderance of the staff!

He probably suspected you and the wife were about to run off with one, Bbm ...

Again management commonly instruct the staff to do this sort of thing so that the slightest possibility of a sale of an AAA battery is not lost. I'm afraid there is no way way to avoid it in some shops. Management in such stores does not listen to the views of either customer or shopfloor employee. It has its own agenda, based on being seen to have a 'hands on' and 'pro-active' approach.

Until the culture of retail management in the UK changes nothing else will ... it's a bit like a section of BBC management instructing its R4 Today interviewers to constantly interrupt and badger interviewees as surely that can be the only reason even the previously gentlest of interviewers all seem to end up like John Humphrys?

[MrGongGong]

You mean you dare to buy an AAA battery WITHOUT taking out insurance ?

[IRF]

My friend heard on the news on Saturday morning that they were having a clearance sale, so he raced down to the nearest branch to snap up some bargains.

And found, apparently, that even with a sale on they they are still the most expensive retailer in town