 |
Optronics |
OPTRONICS
Product CatalogueOptronics was founded By Graham Thirkell in the late 1960's. Previously Graham had been involved with electronics design of Plessey/Rola magnetic recording products and before that with Byer Industries, in fact he started work at Byer in 1952 while studying in the evenings.
Optronics produced open reel tape recorders in various formats up to 2", 16 and 24 track versions of the 2" machine. The product catalogue indicates that the 24 track machine was available using 3" tape but this format was never used commercially.
Other Optro audio products included mixing consoles, compressor/limiters, noise gates, graphic equ, spring reverb and other specialized products.
Many Optro products were originally protected by two forms of low cost "patent", the "Epoxy Patent" and the "No doc Patent", circuits encased in epoxy and no schematic. Graham Thirkell started using the "Epoxy Patent" when he was working for Rola, part of the Rola Auto Q circuitry was protected this way. In the chat rooms dedicated to pro-audio here in Australia various people ask for Optro schematics, if any schematics still exist I will try find them and make them available on this site.Below is a table with some of the model numbers of Optro equipment. On one forum there was a comment that I need to be taught about Optro gear, well come on guys teach me, send me information, model numbers, images, schematics if you have them.
| MODEL | FUNCTION | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| Mixing Console | 22 Channel | |
| Tape Machine | Full Track mono 1/4" | |
| AMS 102 | Monitor Amplifier | 100W into 15 ohms |
| 202 | Graphic Equalizer | 10 Band |
| 302 | Limiter-Compressor | |
| 303 | Limiter-Compressor | |
| 305 | Limiter-Compressor | |
| 306 | Limiter-Compressor | |
| 666 | Spring Reverb | |
| 710 | Mixing Console | |
| 1000 | Tape Machine | Multi-track, various formats |
| 7000 | Synthesizer | |
| 7500 | Mixing Console |