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TELETON HIFI
VINTAGE
Brand
story
Teleton
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Translation of text in French directly
online.
Adventure of a brand of audio devices
from the 70s, Teleton was for many people of the time
THE first high-fidelity channel. This
site does not claim to know everything about this
brand, but simply to share technical information,
photos and repair schemes.
First era ?
In the late 1940s appears an American
brand called Tele-Tone, specializing in radio and
television sets. Posts such as
the Tele-tone 195 or the 190 are still maintained by
passionate clubs, especially in Holland.
Is this an ancestor of Teleton?
Nothing leads to believe it ...
Second period :
Registered in the Commercial Register
in 1964 under No. 823621, the new company Teleton
Electro Ltd. (66-68 Margaret Street, London, UK)
specializes in the import and distribution of hi-fi
products in Europe.
Third period :
In July 1970, the British press announced that
Mitsubishi, the Japanese industrial giant, has just
acquired 50% of Teleton Electro Ltd, its official
distributor for Germany.
Mitsubishi announces its ambitions: to generate a
turnover of £ 9 million the first year, £ 25 million
the following year ... The brand new company, simply
called Teleton, markets under its name Japanese
products "General
Corporation".
But Mitsubishi sees bigger: the Japanese wants to
occupy the market of video recorders, car accessories,
microwaves and office machines.
Mitsubishi claims to hold about 50% of the UK
television market and aims to introduce color.
London's Teleton team is joined by a small staff of
Japanese expats, Saito Yoshiki and Matsumura Hideaki.
Via Teleton, the various Mitsubishi electronic
products will be sold throughout the 70s in Europe.
In 1977, there were Teleton branches in Germany, the
United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and
Switzerland.
Mitsubishi & Teleton, the winning
partnership!
At the beginning of this new
partnership, the young firm Teleton produces very
classic models, largely influenced by the historic
Teleton Electro, with a facade and aluminum buttons, a
wood veneer, as for the model SAQ 206B.
For its part, the Japanese giant
Mitsubishi designs electronic circuits;
among the first Teleton devices are the
RA300L receiver, or the rather sober SAQ202.
Another series has
rotating knobs instead of linear knobs.
But all these models like the SAQ408
and SAQ307 will have almost identical electronics.
In the early 1970s, the arrival of the
German firm Rommel & Schoen Design influences the
design office and the look of some devices feels ...
With lines that recall those of his Germanic
contemporaries (Grundig ... ), the
Teleton TFS70 receiver is a remarkable witness of this
era.
(Class
A)
In 1973, the A300 amp will make a
remarkable entrance thanks to its technical qualities
but also because of its attractive price.
In the same series, in 1975, the A400
amp and its 20 watts on the meter will also be much
sought after. The 1978 A401 will be the
last in this series.
From 1971 to 1978, again thanks to the
Rommel & Schoen touch, the range of devices is well
expanded and the brand takes advantage of the rise of
the "King-Music" distributor.
With the TFS301 or the TFS80, Teleton occupies a
prominent position in mid-range input. In March
1975, the test bench of the handset CS400, in the
review "the Speaker" is quite laudatory and emphasizes
"a very meritorious effort of the manufacturer to the
benefit of the French clientelele".
In 1977 the firm Fujitsu and its
subsidiary General Ltd enter into the design and
manufacture of some of the new Teleton models such as
the A330 A350 A380 A500 A600 and A3 A5 series.
The General / Teleton Electro Co
Limited group will even manufacture air conditioners.
The group will produce many TVs like
the CT252, at the same time Fujitsu gradually take the
lead while gradually Mitsubishi will now focus on its
own high-end production hifi.
Teleton & General Ltd, new and last
partnership
In the early 80's the style of the group changes and becomes more Japanese, as evidenced by the 500 and 600 series and all their versions 660 and 380s, until the A3 and A5 series this time purely General Ltd design and manufacturing and which will inspire the line of models to come and will also probably be the last to wear the Teleton brand, comes the new look of the A800 series and the superb A850 A900 and A1000 with timeless design but this time the mark "General" is needed on the face of the devices, to date the series 1000 seems to be the last series of devices from General ltd and it also seems that the last chain stamped Teleton was a compact black plastic self-contained, with dual cassette, amp, tuner with LP deck on top; model far removed from the beautiful past series.
The last owner of the Teleton brand registered on January 3, 2005 was Teleton Electro Co. Limited.
General is still in business and still manufactures air conditioners.
Good visit
I wish you a pleasant visit, hoping you
will like this great brand of hifi, and who knows,
maybe you will find information for your device
repairs ... Teleton hardware is easy to repair and
good Opportunities are not lacking on the
Internet, especially as the countries of the East seem
to have a good stock of small treasures in reserve!
It is possible to enlarge some images while
passing on them.
Encouragement will
of course be appreciated, as well as remarks, and if
you have any documents or information to complete the
site, please share.
elektro.teleton@free.fr
THANKS,
Thanks
to Patrick and Mathieu for their technical and
computer help.
Thanks also to
Gérard (gégé) of the Vintage Audio Laser forum for his
help in electronics
and Mr.
Goussaire R for the TCR330M documents.
to M. Le Fevre A for the GA203
documents.
to Ms.Guizard M
for the GA203 and A400 documents.
serge Tainoff for the A400 user guide
and for his help in electronics.
at the NVHR club for the SAQ307 scheme
(Holland)
Dirk Kloeck former
Teleton Europe technician for part of the documents on
Teleton (belgium)
to Metal_u
for the TFS70 receiver user manual
to Mr Kali Kumar for documents on the
CMS400
to Mr Bernard D. for
the many benches technique of apparatus
to Mr Muller marcus (Germany) for the
A330 manual
to Mr Poirot Paul-Philippe for the user manual of the
P100 board
Thanks again to Jamas31 for beautiful pictures of
the GT101
and to
Hencot for the GT101 tuner schematic all two forum
members
"VINTAGE
AUDIO HERITAGE"
to Largo from the
"TSF-RADIO" forum for the diagram of the A390
amplifier
to Mr Bride Pascal for the TF182 service manual
thank you again
to Mr David B. for the A480 C480
T380 P340 user manuals
Many thanks
to ES in Holland for the GT202 A401
and TFS200 user manuals
Always
a big thank you to Margaret in England for
the manual of the SAQ206
thanks to Mr Dirk Buffel for the TFS50 user manual
thanks to Fred in England for the SAQ 307 user manual |
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