Happy 40th Birthday to the Amstrad CPC464!

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Comments

  • When you see whats inside that system (above) it was pretty cheap and nasty.


  • I used to have this same Amstrad hifi with the matching tall speakers.

    https://youtu.be/HJbnax998Gw?si=7LZbIbxHwKsFcXDV

    I got it in the early 90s. It had a couple of issues. I had to replace one of the pressure rollers on the recording cassette deck. I actually got the replacement from a spare Commode C2N datacorder as it used the same mechanism. The record deck which was the biggest let down needed a new belt and stylus got both from my local Tandy. The deck was a very cheap plastic BSR belt driven unit, with a Tetrad ceramic pick up cartridge. I remember the stylus model was T30 MD. They cost £1.49 for a new replacement back then, and £4 for the belt.

    I've repaired a few Amstrad systems in the past, including the SM104 with the vertical linear tracking turntable that Vampyre posted. That turntable in those was derived from the same cheap plastic BSR mech, same ceramic pick up, and not a true linear tracking arm. Basically for every 2 rotations of the platter, the tone arm moved slightly. It didn't know if it was ready to or not, and sometimes the stylus would get dragged across a grove or two, because the stylus didn't keep up with the arm. Think of a K-Tel compilation LP which had about 12 songs a side on. These had to be cleverly engineered to fit all those songs on one side. This was done by increasing the groves per inch on the record, but at a cost in sound quality. If then more groves the longer time it will take the stylus to track the record. If the arm which it did in SM104 moved on more quickly than stylus on those compilation albums, you got jumps and a scratched record. It was only used on that one system, and there don't seem to be many of them about these days.
  • dmsmith wrote: »
    When you see whats inside that system (above) it was pretty cheap and nasty.


    To be fair they weren't the worst. The plastic belt driven BSR record deck was the biggest let down of them. Amstrad wasn't the only manufacturer that used them either. Binatone, Alba, even Hitachi used them in their budget systems. The cassette mech was good solid, all metal parts unit. Mine went quite loud with the tall speakers, certainly remember blasting out some KLF and other rave tunes on it. The worst hifi for quality was the ones made by Sentra. I think they was made in Korea. They had an all plastic cassette mech that if you looked at it funny it broke. It was that crap.
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  • Here you go for a hifi comparison. Sentra £99 v Amstrad £199 v Fisher(Sanyo) £299.

    907d17aa2b73948ebfb67c05d6126d49.jpg
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  • edited April 18
    Thanks for those catalogue pictures.

    SENTRA was that Dixons own Brand?

    Post edited by dmsmith on
  • edited April 19
    dmsmith wrote: »
    When you see whats inside that system (above) it was pretty cheap and nasty.


    To be fair they weren't the worst. The plastic belt driven BSR record deck was the biggest let down of them. Amstrad wasn't the only manufacturer that used them either. Binatone, Alba, even Hitachi used them in their budget systems. The cassette mech was good solid, all metal parts unit. Mine went quite loud with the tall speakers, certainly remember blasting out some KLF and other rave tunes on it. The worst hifi for quality was the ones made by Sentra. I think they was made in Korea. They had an all plastic cassette mech that if you looked at it funny it broke. It was that crap.

    Ok well, I've maybe been a bit harsh on it. You're comment is more balanced.

    While I like the drawer based turntable, spending money on that feature may have taken away from giving the end-user a better turntable. In the end you get what you pay for. If something has lots of bells and whistles, and flashing LEDs, that will likely mean they'll have spent less on some other part.
    Post edited by dmsmith on
  • I bought the Amstrad 4600 Vcr. Probably one of their better products, as it lasted a long time without any problems. Quite solid.
    Sod it!

    @luny@mstdn.games
    https://www.luny.co.uk
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  • dmsmith wrote: »
    When you see whats inside that system (above) it was pretty cheap and nasty.


    I actually had one of those I quite liked it, but yeah it wasn’t really that great now that I think back.
    Every night is curry night!
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  • Luny wrote: »
    I bought the Amstrad 4600 Vcr. Probably one of their better products, as it lasted a long time without any problems. Quite solid.

    Was that the one with the barcode reader? We had one of them.
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • zx1 wrote: »
    Luny wrote: »
    I bought the Amstrad 4600 Vcr. Probably one of their better products, as it lasted a long time without any problems. Quite solid.

    Was that the one with the barcode reader? We had one of them.

    No, I think the 4600 was the first model they released. It was fairly basic, with LP and a 4 memory timer.
    Sod it!

    @luny@mstdn.games
    https://www.luny.co.uk
  • edited April 20
    Ok, so based on the comments in this thread, AMSTRAD products were not all crap. Some were maybe quite decent, others fair-to-middleing.
    Post edited by dmsmith on
  • dmsmith wrote: »
    Ok, so based on the comments in this thread, AMSTRAD products were not all crap. Some were maybe quite decent, others fair-to-middleing.
    For the most part they were reasonably well made. They were definitely all built to a cost specification though and Amstrad weren't above using cheaper parts that got the job done. Reasonable products for the masses was always the goal and they mostly succeeded at that.
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  • The Amstrad CPC464 was a fine machine, loved it almost as much as my Speccy.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
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  • edited April 20
    dmsmith wrote: »
    When you see whats inside that system (above) it was pretty cheap and nasty.


    I actually had one of those I quite liked it, but yeah it wasn’t really that great now that I think back.

    They probably were not that bad really for the price.

    How long did it last?
    Post edited by dmsmith on
  • The Amstrad CPC464 was a fine machine, loved it almost as much as my Speccy.
    Did you get a bit of sick in your mouth when you typed that?
  • The Amstrad CPC464 was a fine machine, loved it almost as much as my Speccy.
    Did you get a bit of sick in your mouth when you typed that?
    Nope, it's a wonderful machine to code on (and for). It had development tools I wish the Speccy had, like external ROMS that held assembler and code editors.

    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • Nope, it's a wonderful machine to code on (and for). It had development tools I wish the Speccy had, like external ROMS that held assembler and code editors.
    Yup. Protext + MAXAM on ROM with a disk drive was pretty much the ultimate dev environment you could ask for on any 8-bit hardware. There's a reason it was a firm favourite for Z80 development before PCs running PDS took over.
  • edited April 21
    -
    Post edited by dmsmith on
  • AndyC wrote: »
    Nope, it's a wonderful machine to code on (and for). It had development tools I wish the Speccy had, like external ROMS that held assembler and code editors.
    Yup. Protext + MAXAM on ROM with a disk drive was pretty much the ultimate dev environment you could ask for on any 8-bit hardware. There's a reason it was a firm favourite for Z80 development before PCs running PDS took over.
    Still got my Protext & MAXAM on ROM, suspect it would still work today if I fired it up.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
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