Back to the Future

[french frank]

Posting this comment from a listener who emailed FoR3, FYI:

"Since the BBC dropped out of broadcasting on the digital platform windows audio which I received through my music server as R3 HD, I have gone back to FM full time. The day after R3 was replaced by a voice telling the surprising news, I bought an old (43 years) portable radio called a Hacker Super Sovereign.

For those who have spent their lives with Roberts radios this will come as an astonishing improvement in sound quality. As FM looks set to stay for the foreseeable future an investment on eBay is worth considering.

Hacker were far more expensive than Roberts in the 1970s and a less well known brand."

Any Hackers here?

[Richard Tarleton]

I had a Hacker Sovereign in the 1970s and 1980s, latterly used as a tuner in conjunction with my then Creek amp. I can't remember exactly what happened to it.....To my non-specialist ears it was great, certainly in a different class to Roberts.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

always thought that Roberts over rated; a fan of 70s Panasonic FM radios myself...

[Beresford]

I have the Hacker Sovereign lll as a kitchen radio - significantly better sound than a Roberts or the Pure Evoke my wife uses for recording Everyday stories of country Folk. I use a wall-wart (regulated) for 12volts, and switch it on/off at the wall, as the volume + on/off on the radio is in danger of expiring. The tone controls are dodgy - it goes louder if I hit the Treble knob like a naught boy. Anyone know how to repair (or bypass) the tone controls? Or how to get a the headphone output from a tiny DAB radio into the Hacker? I've done this very successfully with a Tivoli FM/AM radio (nice for music - not quite as good on speech).
Also the tuning uses a long string thing with a spring which slips when rotating clockwise.

[Ferretfancy]

I have a Roberts in the kitchen, it's a "block" model,very solidly built. I didn't need it to be portable, and the black slab on the worktop looks attractive.
Although it has DAB I much prefer FM.

My nice old Quad FM in the living room system was finally showing signs of old age, I've had it for more than forty years! Working on the supposition that anything new will probably see me out, I decided to splash and invest in a new Naim tuner, FM only, and superb. If only the BBC would abandon Optimod on its daytime transmissions.

[Dave2002]

In the early 70s a friend of mine bought a Tandberg portable FM radio. It was a lovely set.

[Ferretfancy]

In the early 70s a friend of mine bought a Tandberg portable FM radio. It was a lovely set.

Ah! Tandberg! I have happy memories of owning one of their 4 track recorders back in the 1960's, and very handsome it was. Unfortunately 4 track on quarter inch tape was rather hazardous due to dropouts. You had to be very fussy which tape you used, but nevertheless I amassed quite a collection, mostly recorded off air.

I should have saved up for a Revox77, which was one of the best available at the time.

If I could recover the cost of all my audio mistakes back then, I would probably have quite a bit in the piggy bank by now!

Tandberg also made some of the best colour TVs during the teething period of colour performance,