If you think that everyone in the 80s can afford to buy a Hi-Fi audio system, you are wrong. The equipment was quite expensive, especially for young families and students. Today we will discuss an interesting solution from Binatone International provided in the 80s. The slogan of this British company was "You can afford tomorrow's world today". Binatone's involvement with consumer electronics began way back in 1958, and ever since then, they have been at the forefront of technology. Apart from advanced technology, you found two other important factors in every Binatone product. One of them is quality. They designed it right at the start and exercised rigid controls right up to the point where the product reaches you. Value-for-money is the other important factor. Their efforts were constantly directed towards bringing you the latest, highest-quality technology at the most reasonable prices. They have been able to do this because Binatone products were sold in 52 countries the world over they were able, therefore, to pass on the cost benefits of mass production to you: designed in the UK and produced in the Far East. The product range was portable radios and radio cassette tape recorders, clock radios, hi-fi systems, music centers, calculators, TV games, car radios and stereos, TV receivers, telephone answering machines, etc. It is not the end of the story. The main trick was the way of the distribution via post catalogs or special clubs. When you subscribe, you do not need to pay the full price to get the device, only regular monthly payments. For example, if you wanted to purchase this Music Tower MK2 in the Netherlands in the '80s, you had to join the N1 Shopping Club, sign the agreement, pay the deposit of 249 Dutch Guilders, and...Bingo! The audio tower is at your home! All you need is to pay monthly 62.75 Dutch Guilders during the next 18 months. As for the Binatone Music Tower MK2 Model 01/77 with a remote control, it consists of the following units: • A stereo amplifier with volume, balance, treble, bass controls, and LED power indication. The DIN power is no less than 25 watts (2 x 12.5 watts per channel). • 7-band equalizer for optimal timbre control of the music. Binatone instructed the users on how to set it up for Talking, Piano/Soprano, High Rytm, Latin Music, Orchestra, Drum, Background Music, Light Music, Disco, and even Noise (Hiss, Scratches, etc.) Reduction. • Stereo tuner with crystal-clear reception of LW, MW, and FM stereo and LED indicator lights. • Double cassette deck for continuous music of superb quality. Ability to record from one cassette deck to another. • Record player with belt drive and ceramic element. Binatone used BSR models P269 or P275 turntables for their towers. •Two-way speakers (bass and twitter) from the Graciasound brand The whole is in a black or walnut-colored audio rack with a smoked glass door. The retail price for such music centers in 1980 was around 1000 Dutch Guilders, which is approximately equivalent to 1670 Euros today.
Nice looking unit! Quite expensive to buy it via the shopping club: 18*62,75 + 249 = 1378,50, a whopping 378,50 on top of the asking price.
I agree! However, 62.75 Dutch Guilders per month was an affordable payment for the wide audience, it was a solution for many customers.
We had similar audio and furniture rent to own companies. They made the weekly payments cheap but at the end you were paying about 2x the normal price. I don't think Binatone was ever here, I've never seen it. The system looks very similar to a Pioneer I owned shortly, that look was huge for a short time in the 80's, then the LED computer displays started taking over.
Looks a LOT like Amstrad in the UK. Never have seen this in North America, but on Techmoan, I saw a similar unit from Amstrad.
Amstrad claims to have invented the one piece HiFi stack. It saved money by not needing a separate transformer for each unit e.g. the tuner.Later with their computers they did the same thing by putting the PSU in the monitor. For audio it can't have been that bad an idea as the likes of Sony would later copy it. I'm not really sure about Binatone quality but I'm sure it was a step up from the portable record players many people were replacing. I have just looked through a load of catalogues and found dozens of Amstrad stack systems before finally finding some Binatones in the 1983 "Shoppers World" catalogue
I don't know about Amstrad's Claim but I've seen early Pioneer and Fisher, even the little Marantz CH5 was around 1983. I'd even count the early compos, I think one or two have ribbon cables but can't remember for sure. On a side not, I was just moving a mini-Denon Stack, those cables don't make it easy to move and the little guy is kind of heavy.
