Quote:
Originally Posted by barrymagrec
The cost would have put it beyond most people in 1956.
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This model, the 3034, was listed at 275 gns. It is history now that the system was a commercial flop, in spite of its considerable technical virtues. There was a dearth of affordable playback equipment - Spectone made an expensive console, but apart from that you were stuck with a Ferrograph 3S and a Stere-Add unit - and the tapes cost much more than the equivalent disc, even without the purchase tax applied to records.
I think it also became borne in on EMI quite early on that the system would bankrupt them if it did succeed - the time involved in producing each copy was not inconsiderable, compared with pressing a disc, and they were much more prone to QC issues. Even at the prevailing prices, they probably sold at a loss. Mass-market stereo had to wait for the introduction of the 45/45 disc system in 1958.
Stereosonic issues petered out by the end of the 'fifties, with a final release in 1962. The plant saw out its days duplicating the obscure Stereo 21 series for World Record Club, an EMI subsidiary by this time (1964).