Hello,
Pop open the hood of a Thaedra, and you will
see: Intellegently laid out card frame construction
(if you have a JRC HF communications receiver you
have an idea -- like a computer's plug in boards).
Despite the number of controls and switches, the
wiring is at a minimum. In fact, I cannot see one
shielded wire (there are some wires with a ground
wire twisted around it -- but not many). Wonderful
Noble tone, balance, and volume controls. Glass
epoxy boards, high quality sealed switches, precision
resistors, EVOX capacitors, an INCREDIBLE Leviton
power switch, a BIG transformer surronded by a thick
aluminum cage -- the list goes on and on. This was
pretty amazing stuff in 1977 and virtually unheard
of in commercial applications. There may have been
some Military communication receivers with that kind
of build (but those cost $5,000-$10,000 even then!).
Today it is still amazing!
On the outside there are solid, heavy, machined knobs
(nine, to be exact). A heavy gauge steel chassis with
a fully plated bottom and back panel. Six, yes SIX
auxilary AC plugs, scope outputs, two front panel
tape jacks, and two front panel headphone jacks. Whew!
I can't think of a single high end preamp (tube or
solid state) today (maybe McIntosh) that has these
features.
James,
What difficulties did you encounter in obatining
parts for the Thaedra in 1977? Today there are
scads of precision capacitor and resistor manufacturers
but what about then? Was mil-spec parts the primary
source?
Best regards,
Paul Bigelow
