Fidelity AVS2000

[Heatercathodeshort]

Yes a great tool. By the time you got the back on the LOPT had flashed over and taken half the chassis out..Reach for the power screwdriver. I think I would have rather done a month in prison than struggle with one of these. At least you would be fed and to me, that would be a holiday. I was too busy to mess with them.

I can't believe so many have survived! Maybe they were too heavy to lob over the balcony.

I hope it keeps going Michael. I think health and safety laws would prevent you from casting it off the 23rd floor of Skyscraper House. Regards, John.

[KeithsTV]

I don't want to alarm you but there's another survivor at the Beamish museum spotted last October.

Keith

[Heatercathodeshort]

I'm going to have a word with the SAS to see if we can eliminate the rest of these. They are a public nuisance. J.

[AC/HL]

You'll only drive them underground, best encouraged to surrender.

[Welsh Anorak]

In a museum? A museum of what??

[Sideband]

I used to help out a mate of mine on Saturdays when he had a repair business. He bought a 'job lot' of these.....I think they were catalogue returns or something like that. At one point he had about 50 of these in various states and it was a 'rob Peter to pay Paul' repair exercise. Out of the entire stock we must have got around 40 of them working and they were actually very popular. Reliability was not good however but most of them kept going long enough to outlast the six month guarantee. Awful things to work on and I was glad to see the back of them....well actually the back was mostly what I saw!!

[KeithsTV]

Originally Posted by Welsh Anorak

In a museum? A museum of what??

See http://www.beamish.org.uk/

Well worth a visit but you'll need at least a whole day there.

Keith

[OldTechFan96]

A second hand shop I used to go to before lockdown had an Fidelity AVS1600. It had been there for a long time.

To me, they are reminiscent of the big all in one teleradiograms that were around before and after WWII.

[Richard_FM]

I think there were some Amstrad badged versions of these, with an all silver cabinet.

[Heatercathodeshort]

That has backed up my thoughts. You cannot leave a single one of these alive. They should be placed on the pavement awaiting a local authority sealed lorry with full Hazmat regulations. Be warned, they will be turning up soon badged HACKER, ROBERTS and B & O. Be careful how you remove the back. There maybe something lurking awaiting escape.
John.

[Michael Maurice]

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

I'm going to have a word with the SAS to see if we can eliminate the rest of these. They are a public nuisance. J.

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

That has backed up my thoughts. You cannot leave a single one of these alive. They should be placed on the pavement awaiting a local authority sealed lorry with full Hazmat regulations. Be warned, they will be turning up soon badged HACKER, ROBERTS and B & O. Be careful how you remove the back. There maybe something lurking awaiting escape.
John.

Dont be unkind! This is the third time I've repaired this set and the owner loves it. (no accounting for taste) Still it keeps the Rolls Canardly going (Rolls downhill, can hardly get back up again) and gives me funds for Prosecco mixed with Grand Marnier!

[Chris55000]

Hi!

Trouble is I'll see one going cheap and then there'll be one more crawling out of the woodwork. . . !

Chris Williams

[Red to black]

These were always a bit of a "marmite" set, anyone who owned one always wanted them repaired.

[slidertogrid]

Originally Posted by Sideband

I He bought a 'job lot' of these.....I think they were catalogue returns or something like that.

Snap.. A mate of mine was a Freemans mail order 'jobber' that meant he bought a job lot of returns once a week. this was usually a large pallet of misc returns the whole lot wrapped. He would sort the electrical stuff out and test it then all the faulty stuff came my way! He never wanted to spend much preferring to take what I could repair and leave me the crap "for spares". I repaired lots of these and the other tall upright version. I did get a few for parts which ISTR were handy for the tubes but I can't remember what we used them on... possibly TX9s?
Judging by the amount of returns Freemans must have sold loads! They always bought out the guarantee from the manufacturer so got a good price but the returns were their problem/junk!

[Techman]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

I think there were some Amstrad badged versions of these, with an all silver cabinet.

I think that the one shown in the museum picture in a previous post is actually an Amstrad version, as it looks too 'silvery' to be a Fidelity, and the speakers on top of it are the wrong ones for a Fidelity, which should be slightly shorter with two drivers and not the typical Amstrad three driver units shown.

I've got both the AVS2000 and the AVS1600 in my "collection" They both work, but unfortunately, with the AVS1600, I got it from a forum member and we met half way to swap the set from his car to mine, and when we met up he found that he'd removed the glass door and forgotten to put it in the car with the set, so it's missing its glass door. I wasn't bothered too much at the time, as I only intended to use it for spares for the AVS2000, but as it worked so well on all modes, and it's "rare", I decided to keep it in one piece - well at least for the time being, or until I need parts for the AVS2000 model at some point - I'm still surprised that there's another survivor out there!

[Heatercathodeshort]

Well I think your all softening up. Cute pink poodles are rare but I don't think I would walk down the street with one.
Quite a number of these were purchased for over indulged kids bedrooms. The flimsy record player, and tape units were soon wrecked so over the balcony it went..

To be honest they were not a reliable job. Maurice admits he has repaired his example three times. Great if the customer is willing to pay but the repeated breakdowns can y reflect unfairly on the guy repairing it.

It's just a matter of confiscating what are left of these monstrosities. Maybe the mention of Health and Safety will do the trick. I will write to the relevant minister involved with saving the planet suggesting that this matter should take first priority.
John.

[Red to black]

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

Quite a number of these were purchased for over indulged kids bedrooms. The flimsy record player, and tape units were soon wrecked so over the balcony it went..

To be honest they were not a reliable job. Maurice admits he has repaired his example three times. Great if the customer is willing to pay but the repeated breakdowns can y reflect unfairly on the guy repairing it.
John.

Most of the ones we sold back in the day (ex-rental/second hand) went to students in bedsit land, far from overindulged kids then, sure they were far from the most reliable sets but not that bad either, they did have a predictable fault pattern.

It was only later when maybe late nineties/early 2000's Students became over indulged kids (debt burden on their parents/themselves?) when they wanted top end stuff instead of the rather mundane, go figure

Ps. As MM states "no accounting for taste"

[Techman]

Originally Posted by Red to black

Most of the ones we sold back in the day (ex-rental/second hand) went to students in bedsit land,

Hence most of these would have ended up being trashed and then scrapped. This now makes the few that are left rare and collectible items.

Well it's true - stop laughing. Show me where else there's an example of a TV, radio, record player and tape recorder all in one unit.

[Heatercathodeshort]

I give up! The Martians have landed. They have put 'something' in the food.
I like Marmite
Be careful who you talk to. Careless talk costs lives.

The problem with the AVS is service accessibility or rather the lack of it. If they had made the TV chassis detachable/working it would have been a different story. The CRT remained in the cabinet. To be honest I had so many service jobs in the 1980's that I simply did not have the time to spend on this junk when there were G8's, 3000/3500's and many more decent chassis to work on. My service turn over was truly amazing.

Why were they always on the 99th floor? Even the ones in students bedsits usually had to be hauled up flights of stairs if workshop attention was required.
The mail order delivery drivers must have hated them. All that drama just to get it to the customer then a week later it went pop and had to be collected and another one delivered.

There certainly were a large number of these that were bought new via mail order catalogue for kids bedrooms.

Can you imagine renting these out! The companies must have been desperate for customers. Oh well, all water under the bridge now. It's just a matter of rounding up the stragglers to turn them into Christmas snow balls. Cheers everybody. John.

[MickMcmichael]

We used to repair these things for Debenhams when Visionhire service turned into Serviscope back in the mid 80's.

I remember the trundling of the van into our yard at Cambridge to deliver the next load to us and pick up last weeks' repaired ones.

They always delivered more than they picked up. I'm still a wreck to this day.

It wasn't too bad when we had a Fidelity service rep live not too far away, (Bedford, I think) but he fell out with them and slung two fingers in the air. After that we were on our own with them.

Would somebody close this thread, it's making me very depressed!