| About Us Section - Manuals Philosophy |
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| We began our business buying and selling on eBay in 2001. At that time, we purchased more than a few copies of manuals from other sellers. Their descriptions were usually something like... *MINT*, Excellent, In Original Format, In Original FORM, Professionally Copied, HIGH QUALITY, Clean, Crisp, Scanned, High Resolution. Digitally Printed, Exceptional Clarity, Scanned at 600 dpi, Printed at 1200 dpi, etc. But honestly, upon arrival, the majority (not all, just 90+%) turned out to be just another disappointment. They were some combination of: poorly printed (sometimes very poor), or printed scans with irritating pixelated images, or small print in schematics that were unreadable, or 11" x 17" pages chopped to 8.5" x 11", or poorly constructed, or not constructed at all... a stack of loose pages. | | Common Problems found with copies of manuals.
(Hint: Extremely UNcommon with ours) - Copies made from poor quality originals.
- Copies made from multi-generation copies instead of an original.
- Printing with poorly maintained copy and printing machinery.
- Dark smudges and streaks or text that is so dark that it has lost it's detail.
- Weak or unreadable text (especially bad in schematics).
- Advertised Hi Res prints of Hi Res scans have the small print "jaggies".
- Failure to properly detail, clean up and prepare originals.
- Dirt, stains, handwriting and other flaws are printed into your new manual.
- Double-side printed originals reprinted as single side copies.
- Oversize pages chopped into letter size page sections.
- Folded pullout pages not done properly (or at all).
- Page spanning content that does not line up properly.
- Distorted text from pressing bound manuals on scanners or copy machines.
- Loss of page content due to incorrect enlargement or reduction.
- Loose pages shipped unassembled in any way,
- Pages out of order, pages missing, etc.
- Some places put their own "business name" covers on your manuals.
| These are but part of the problems many people experience in trying to find a copy of the original documentation for their audio gear. Perhaps you can identify with this. We GUARANTEE that you will NEVER... EVER!!! receive an unexpected pile of crappy pages from us. We endeavor to provide an accurate and complete description with an assigned Quality Rating to you before you purchase. We are focused on quality instead of how fast we can crank something out to make a dollar.
Our belief is that as much as possible, just being able to read something is not good enough. It ought to be cleanly reproduced, well-constructed and look good. This is a major part of the reason we started this business. As fans of classic audio gear, it's our goal to supply great reproductions to other vintage audio fans. A lot of old manuals are not particularly special as far as appearance goes. But a lot of the latter 70's manuals *were really great looking*. In those days, many audio companies provided not only great product documentation, but good looking manuals that played a part in the audio enthusiast's satisfaction. | We offer satisfaction to the collector part of you. Our reproductions of those great looking old manuals are done exactly like the originals as much as "reasonably" possible, including double-side printing, folded (and properly trimmed) pullout pages, and card stock front and rear covers (some printed in color when we deem appropriate). When you receive your StereoManuals reproductions, we hope it will cause you to shout with glee, smile so hard your face hurts, sit on the floor half the night playing with your gear again like when you were young, invite your friends over to look, have a party and go dance in the streets!
We do not intend to imply that every StereoManuals reproduction is a *work of art* because they are not. Large numbers of the original manuals were not either... they were just functional. While we can't usually redesign what the original manufacturer provided, we do make excellent reproductions of what they did provide. |
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