Ruined Radio - Hi-Fi Made Low

The other great love at that time was Hi-Fi. Even then, it seemed ridiculously expensive and had a certain snobbery by being priced in guineas.

The PYE Concerto was the classic KT66/GZ32/ECC33/ECC35 line-up in an ultra-linear configuration. The pre-amp used ECC41s. Noisy, especially in the GRAM mode. It was profoundly microphonic, ringing out like church bells when you tapped the case.

The tuner was a QUAD, almost ignored as there was only LIGHT, THIRD and HOME on VHF. I knew if you were running KT Series valves in the output stages, you were up there with the Big Boys. My idea of housework was to remove the valves now and again to clean them. Made them sound better. This sounds daft but reading today's audio press where you can buy a CD cleaner spray for £35, a plinth for the player to sit on, a mere £450 and special cables - sorry, interconnects - for anything up to £1000. My stupidity came in a lot cheaper.

Disaster. Broke off the locating spigot on the GZ32 valve base. Putting back incorrectly, it linked the raw AC HT over to the reservoir caps resulting in an explosion that rocked the place. It did £25 worth of damage. You may have bought your Hi-Fi in safely up-market guineas but repairs are the work of an artisan so you are back to honest working-class pounds.