Ferranti 045 restoration: Part 2 - the cabinet

[Yorkie]

I think th FenmanII is considered superior and hence more sought after than the Fenman1, but I don't know in what way. Franly, neither the Ferrantti 045 nor the Fenman would have caught my eye but on completing the restoration of the Ferranti, I've grown quite fond of it and will be sorry to let it go. I know it's a large table model meant ot be plonked down and left there, but I have to say that the superior sound from the 10" speaker in the large open cabinet does highlight the compromise that arose between sound quality and the transportabilty of smaller, lighter sets with smaller speakers.

One of the things that's surprised me down the years is the extend to which we've become accustomed to small speakers and unexceoptional sound quality from TVs, but maybe that's because for the most part, it tends to be speeach rather than music on TV progs. I know that thee are 'home cinemas' and 'surround -sound' Dolby set-ups, but I'm talking about the average bog standrd TV. We recently bought a 22" flat screen TV on impulse from M&S for the bedroom, where we only really use it for late night/early morning news, but the sound quality is really quite appalling - it sounds like it's coming from inside a tin can - maybe it is? We could have sent it back, but I guess that small TVs are much of a muchness so I couldn't be bothered.

I mentioned ‘STUK’ 'rapid spray glue' fabric adhesive which I’ve found to be excellent for fixing speaker grille fabric, in that unlike most contact adhesives, you don’t have to wait for it to start ‘going off’ and when you do apply the fabric it’s stuck fast and you can’t adjust it. With ‘STUK’ you spray just the firm surface, then apply the fabric, and you have several minutes in which you can stretch it taut and line up the pattern vertically and horizontally so that it’s just right. It sets firm in about ten minutes. It’s transparent, and you can clean up any ‘overspray’ with white spirit. A 500ml aerosol covers 60 sq ft, so it goes quite a long way. I bought mine from a northern chain stores known as Boyes, but the STUK website is here:

http://www.stukproducts.com/aerosol.php

Lots of firms sell it and you can get it on ebay. EG £5.75 nc P&P here:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Stuk-Rapid-Spray-G...0276458768

I also mentioned earlier that I’d got four NOS Russian made EM80 magic eyes for £24.00 ‘buy it now’ from a seller in Siberia. In fact they were only $24.00 US + $9.00 US for postage. That came to £21.00 GBP all in, so they were only a fiver each inc P&P. The link is here – they look as though they’ve all been sold (no surprises there then!), but the seller has other valves and might be worth keeping an eye on.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270797272251?s...K:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649