Armstrong reviews

Jim Lesurf wrote:


I was prompted to do this by being contacted by someone about the Wikipedia
page on Armstrong Audio. This may be 'deleted' because of an absense of
'references'.


** The desired references are gonna be ones that serve as sources for information presented in the Wiki article.

Your past connection with Armstrong as a design engineer makes you a primary source - but only if your recollections and research have been published somewhere, preferably not by you.

Although Wiki's rules are made in the interests of objectivity, their unintended outcome typically excludes those with first hand or inside knowledge in preference to pseudo academic reviews of whatever is already in the public domain.

Must be the way professional Historians and Enyclopedia editors work - and you know what Henry Ford said about History ...

Nevertheless, published reviews of Armstrong products at least confirms their existence, plus you can omit ones that are highly erroneous.

IMO, a token Wiki page that points to your web site should be enough to satisfy most folk's curiosity.

BTW, the Wiki on Quad is rather sad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_Electroacoustics


.... Phil

In article , Phil
Allison wrote:


** The desired references are gonna be ones that serve as sources for
information presented in the Wiki article.

Your past connection with Armstrong as a design engineer makes you a
primary source - but only if your recollections and research have been
published somewhere, preferably not by you.

Although Wiki's rules are made in the interests of objectivity, their
unintended outcome typically excludes those with first hand or inside
knowledge in preference to pseudo academic reviews of whatever is
already in the public domain.

Yes. It's strange that if I'd recounted my history to someone else who
published it, that would then be a Wikipedia reference! But my saying it,
isn't.

FWIW I've never been interested in contributing to Wikipedia as I prefer to
write under my own name, make my own mistakes, and accept that its up to
others to decide for themselves what to make of it.

Looking at some of the documents I do have I can find all sorts of examples
that would presumably baffle Wikipedia. e.g. a photo of a prototype mocked
up in wood which is described on the back. I can tell the handwriting is
that of Barrie Hope who used to work with Armstrong. But you'd need to be
able to recognise his handwriting because he didn't sign it, just wrote
some notes in pencil describing what's in the photo, etc. Similarly I have
emails from people who worked at the company, but wonder if Wikipedia would
assume that those from the now-dead can't be 'verified'.

I did start trying about 20 years ago to nag people who'd worked in UK
audio to write down/publish their recollections, save documents, etc. But
at the time most clearly though I was bonkers to be thinking about trying
to stop the history of HiFi manufacturing and development from being lost
as we all fell off our perches. Alas, all too many are now gone. As has
most paperwork. :-/


Nevertheless, published reviews of Armstrong products at least confirms
their existence, plus you can omit ones that are highly erroneous.

TBH I'm planning to use the opportunity to blow the gaff on a few of the
dafter reviews. 8-] If nothing else, it may at least help people to be more
doubtful of current examples of poor 'reviews'.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

I've now got to the point of adding a new page dealing with reviews from
the valve days.

http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong.../ValveEra.html

It only contains some examples, mainly in the 1950s and early 1960s. I'm
sure I have not found many other reviews. as they made many sets in the
earlier decades.

The next page I do will probably cover from then onward. But I am hoping
soon to go to the Museum of Communications at Burntisland in Fife. Alas,
not an easy place for me to travel to/from. But they have a big collection
of both early items of audio/radio kit and a large series of early back
issues of Wireless World. So I'm hoping to obtain more reviews, etc, and
perhaps also find an early feature article. Plus even get some colour
photos of early radios, etc.

The snag for me is getting there/back. I visited them a couple of times
years ago, but stopped because it was too much for me. But I'll try again.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html