Tír Na HiFi

That's amazing Fran, because my collegue is convinced that his TT was made in Ireland. I expressed skeptism at first, so when we googled on the www the Michelle engineering came up as listed in the UK. Hence we concluded that the TT was made in UK.

Looks like we were wrong and Keiths memory is correct. Thanks for pointing that out. Amazing how small the world is at times!!!

So is Transcriptors still going? Are they still made in the old Sod?

EDIT>>> go to the link at the bottom, the full history is there and my memory is a bit faulty apparently!

No, as far as I remember the fella that came up with the design was english, and started making them in england. I don't know what exactly happened, but the company kinda went down a bit. At that stage I think he came and set up shot in Carlow and continued there for a good while. As I mentioned, he died a few years back but his son now carries on the business in the UK. The designs pre-dated the JA Michell designs - I think he worked for the company then went out on his own.

The big design was the transcriptor skeletal TT, and there was a fluid damped arm too. I have read people saying that although they make very good money on ebay (collectable due to the film), the sound is a bit off the mark of what is now available much more reasonably. Thats hearsay of course.

From the WWW:

product history:


Transcriptors Arm/Fluid Arm (1960 - 1973)

Transcriptors Sweep Arm/Stylus Brush/Stylus Scales (1960 - 1980)

Transcriptors Reference (1963)

Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference (1964 - 1973)

Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference (1973 - ?/ Produced under license by J A Michell)

Transcriptors Electronic Reference (1973 - ?/Produced under license by J A Michell)

Transcriptors Saturn (1968 - 1973)

Transcriptors Skeleton (1973 - 1977)

Transcriptors Round (1975)

Transcriptors Transcriber (1977 - 1980)

Transcriptors T6 (2003 - Present)

Transcriptors Spyder (TBA)

website: http://www.transcriptors.net/


but looking again, I wonder if your friends TT is an early Michell rather than transcriptors....



Fran

Hi,

Michell did not start making turntables until 1973 when my father issued him a manufacturing deal to produce the hydraulic reference under his company. My father was to get a percentage form each turntable he produced. Michell had a small unit which he just produced components from drawings. Between 1960 and 1973 my father had around thirty small engineering companies working for him including Michell. dad's original plan was to take the hydraulic to Ireland to produce, but this would have seen the Michell company go bust as this was 75% of Michell's work, so dad let him produce them. You may notice on a few of the early badged Michell hydraulic's they are fitted with the round Transcriptor feet, this is due to the fact that dad left Michell parts for them to be getting on with. dad also designed the electronic reference but due to the agreement already signed they were only produced under the Michell company. In Novemeber 1977 dad ceased the agreement between Michell and himself as they were trying to pass of the hydraulic reference as there own design. My father never worked for Michell it was the other way round

We currently produced the HYdraulic Reference, T6 and Spyder turntables

Michael Gammon (Son)
Transcriptors Limited

Welcome aboard Michael,

Good to have you with us, that's very interesting history about your company. Long may your company keep up the great work.

Adrian.

Lovely to have your input Michael. Many thanks.

Yes, delighted to have you on board - and sorry for the rubbish I spouted above - good to see the accurate account on your website.


Would you care to talk more about the connection here? Were many made in Ireland, models etc?


Fran

Hi All

We moved to Ireland as the goverment were inviting UK based companies over. So my dad decided to move to Carlow and into a new factory. The following turntable were made in Ireland up to 1981:

Transcriptors Skeleton 1973 - 1977

Transcriptors Round 1975

Transcriptors Transcriber - 1977 - 1980

Late 1979 dad went ot a German hi-fi show and saw the first working cd player, being a clever business man he returned to Ireland and closed the factory down. He did toy with the idea of making servo motors but all the tooling had become very tired and would have cost approx quarter of a million pounds to re-tool so he retired.

When i restarted the company in 2000 i tried to get him to come back on a part time business but he said he had been there, done that and got the t-shirt.

Sadly he passed away in 2005 from lung cancer

Best


Michael