The Eprad Super Starscope 70mm System

[Steve Guttag]

Who needs fancy-schmancy Doubley See Pee two hundred systems?

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[Sascha Roll]

"We want 70mm, but make it cheap"

[Tj Hopland]

I remember seeing it in catalogs but never saw one in person or any details like a manual. Looks like that one is even in a Eprad yellow rack. 70's like the Sword Cooperator era was blue then there was that early 80's yellow, then the final silver gray with the blue labels in the later 80's. That exciter supply looks odd, its not the brushed aluminum of the rest, it kind has the LP yellow look to it. Or was that the look of the Problemattic automations and such? Its been just a couple years since I saw one and for some reason I don't have a clear memory of what they looked like. I don't think I ever saw those amps other than in the Starlets. I suppose the also offered a 4 channel version to compete with the likes of Peterson and Kelmar that had a similar modular design?

Seen one with the cover off? I don't remember the regular Starscope being fully stuffed but it didn't seem like there was that much extra space in it to add all the 70 stuff. You would think that would add at least a couple cards even if there wasn't much for NR or EQ for the mag and extra channels. IIRC the regular unit had their own NR built into one of the cards but there were empty slots for a Cat 22(or compatible NR cards, Dynaspan anyone?). So were you stuck with the Boudorius NR for everything and they used those slots for the mag stuff? Would this do Academy 6 channel or just Dolby? If it was just Dolby the Le Re channels would not have needed much so I could see a bodge or daughter board on their usual format card vs creating a whole actual 6 track path through the system.

Ever see the USL 70 system? I have pics and a catalog somewhere. I remember the MPU and I think it was with the CS10/100 processor, I just can't remember if there was another chassis involved for NR.

[Tj Hopland]

"We want 70mm, but make it cheap"

I mentioned USL but if you really wanted cheap you went to Smart, that is where you went if the likes of USL, Eprad, and Kintek was too much for your budget. Their optical stereo was in a fairly compact 1u chassis and sold for $100's when a Dolby was $1000's. That entire rack pictured probably cost less than just a CP50 and that was a 50, not even a base spec 200. Pretty sure Smart also offered a 70mm system in the era too, I think I have an old catalog somewhere or at least a price list that mentioned it.

What else was offered around the world other than Dolby? Seems like there would have had to been a Smart/Eprad/Kintek sort of company to serve other markets or did everyone else just do Dolby? Was Kintek North American? Or were they from Europe? Did Eprad and or Smart end up escaping the USA in any reasonable numbers?

[Steve Guttag]

That Eprad system is actually in our possession! So, yes, I've seen one. I even knew a theatre that ran one...and then got a CP200. And yes, it is in the genuine Eprad mustard yellow rack. Somewhere, we have the promotion photo and we loaded it like it was in the picture. For quite some time, in our previous shop, it sat on display (with a bunch of other yesteryear equipment that didn't always have the best reputation).

[Scott Norwood]

This seems like the worst idea ever.

What format(s) was it supposed to support?

[Steve Guttag]

It supported the formats of the day. The CP200 equivalents of 01 (Mono), 04 (Dolby SVA) and 42 (70mm magnetic with bass extension on tracks 2 and 4). I'd have to look closer at it to see what else it supported. I didn't see too many of them around. In fact, I think I've seen 2 total. I saw a lot more standard Starscopes and Starlets (with both gold and silver faceplates).

[Tj Hopland]

Did they stick with the RCA jacks on the back or did they switch to something a little higher density? There was already what 16 so adding at least 14 more would start to get a little cluttered back there. It would start to look like a early 2000's AVR when component video was king. Or did this not have the mag preamps in it? Just use your existing preamps or did they have a not pictured preamp that handled the changeover?

[Gordon McLeod]

Eprad never made a MPU the three I used to look after used OpAmp Labs cartridges for preamps