| | A little history and information about BSR (BSR McDonald) | BSR (Birmingham Sound Reproducers) was founded in England in 1932 (or 1933) as BSR Limited (Ltd) by Dr. Daniel McLean McDonald. BSR was also known for a long time, and by many people, as BSR McDonald. Some of our BSR literature says, "Precision engineered by BSR (USA) Ltd., McDonald Division, Blauvelt, N.Y." Some of the BSR literature is printed such that it is difficult to tell precisely what is a particular model number really is.
Example: The service manual for 40A receiver shows BSR McDonald 40A in such a way that one can't be certain if the company name is BSR McDonald and the model number is 40A, or whether the company name is BSR and the model number is McDonald 40A. Inside the manual, the unit is referred to as McDonald 40R. many of the turntable manuals present equally confusing information. But whatever, it is clear that the "McDonald" part was at some point a division of BSR (at least in the USA) and that the McDonald name was closely associated with BSR for a very long time.
In 1951, after producing various electronic products, BSR Limited of Great Britain began to design and manufacture automatic and manual turntables and changers for record players. They rapidly became the leading manufacturer in the world and expanded rapidly during the 1960s and 1970s. During their peak year in 1977, they were producing 250,000 units per week. About 90% was for export because they enjoyed a more than 85% market share in producing changers for the world's leading record player manufacturers.
When BSR of the U.K. established BSR Japan in 1972, it was the first audio equipment manufacturer in Japan to be completely financed by a foreign company. BSR Japan expanded their product line in 1975 when it began supplying ADC (Audio Dynamics Corporation) in the USA with cartridge, stylus and tone arm products. It is unclear to us at this time whether BSR really owned ADC or not. But we know that some ADC equalizers were marketed under the BSR name. Also, ADC's logo for some length of time was: ADC - A BSR Company.
BSR of the U.K. experienced an extraordinary decline in turntable orders in the late 1970s and that forced factory closures within a couple of years. During that period, BSR Japan acquired the USA based DBX company from it's founder, David E. Blackmer in 1979. In 1980, they begin the manufacturing and distribution of DBX company products. Until then, DBX had produced only signal processing products such as dynamic range expansion and noise reduction units. By 1985, BSR of the U.K. produced their last products. BSR Japan expanded the DBX line with other consumer electronics products and continued until about 1988 - 1989.
In 1988, Sanju Chiba acquired BSR Japan and changed its name to CTI Japan. In 1989 CTI Japan sells the DBX business and acquires all rights to the Laser Turntable from the Finial company of the U.S. CTI Japan begins development of the Laser Turntable and later changes it's name to ELPJ. DBX ceases production of it's consumer line and becomes DBX Professional Products. |
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