Amstrad - The Mug’s Eyeful
Added 2023-01-22 11:25:26 +0000 UTCI’m revisiting a painful collective memory, one that’s shared by many people my age in the UK…the 1980s scourge of the Amstrad ‘Hi-Fi’.
After I slept on this last night I feel that the video could do with being cut down by a few minutes to make it flow a little quicker. If I get the chance I’ll be doing a re-edit to snip some stuff out before the final version of this goes live. However as a Patreon subscriber you get to see this original edit and without adverts.
It’s been a bit of a struggle getting back into the swing of things this year. After my holiday was followed by the Christmas break and all the disruption that goes along with that, I’d almost forgotten how to do this. In addition I've been spending time trying to move things along regarding the sale of my fathers house. This involved an unplanned two day trip across the country.
It’s also a rather fallow time of the year for interesting new tech, although I have just invested in the new DJI wireless mics. Those are more something for behind the scenes, although you might see one pinned on a shirt at some point. I need to spend time testing them first though before I could trust them in a real video.
Oh and I also ordered a car to replace the Smart, I’ll talk more about that nearer its delivery date - and perhaps I’ll go into why electric cars didn’t make it to my shortlist.
Finally I’ve also been for some tests relating to my possible medical trial. I’m currently filling in a daily electronic diary and with any luck I’ll hear about whether I’ve been accepted on this in the first week of February. I’m pinning all my hopes on this working out, so fingers crossed.
I hope you’re all well, and if this is relevant to you in your part of the world…please take extra care on those icy surfaces. Both my mother and father in law broke their collar bones in separate incidents falling over around Christmas. I fear their jugging act aspirations are now in tatters. Take care.
UPDATE
I’ve finished the final edit - it’s a bit shorter but also incorporates the updated patent information (thanks Michael). I think it’s better video as a result. If you’re interested, here’s the link https://youtu.be/Zqzrm_4_B94
Comments
You’re conflating what was happening ‘behind the scenes - and unknown to the public’ with ‘what is presented to the customer’. You’ll never find an advert where Amstrad says “we pile them high and sell them cheap”. The customers, public, weren’t advised that Amstrad HiFi was in any way suboptimal. If I ran a seafood restaurant cooking out of date food but it was a bit cheaper than the other seafood places in town, it might well attract more customers. After a few people got stomach upsets they might not go again. Other people were fine and thought it was good value. However if years later the owner wrote a book where he said that all the ingredients were bought cheaply because no one else wanted them and they were classed as pig food…you might have a good reason to feel that you were taken advantage of.
Techmoan
2023-01-29 12:23:36 +0000 UTCI do think this was a little harsh on Amstrad. The concept of Amstrad was to (by Alan Sugar's own admission) "pile them high and sell them cheap". While of course nobody can deny these machines were made from cheap components, it did allow people who wanted a piece of equipment which looked the part and which could be placed in their living room to have that. They could show it off to friends and use it for the basics. Some people didn't actually care about the specs, they just wanted it to look the part. In addition some people could not afford anything better. It is the same today. Buy cheap, buy twice, this idea is as old as the world. The first computers I owned were cheap tosh, if anything that made me more interested because I kept having to repair them. I can't condemn Amstrad or Sugar for that. All options are my own.
2023-01-29 12:14:47 +0000 UTCWhen you opened up that speaker I fell about laughing. I’m surprised there wasn’t a dead animal in there tbh.
Sam Parsons
2023-01-28 11:47:20 +0000 UTC
