This would have been great if NAD had built a tube amplifier. It shared a lot of DNA with the ubiquitous 3020, having been designed by Peter Bath (who worked for Dolby, AR, and even NAD), and built by IEEE in Taipei (who used to build Cambridge Audio, Luxman, Proton, and NAD devices). While the […]
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Like fashion, hi-fi formats come and go. When they’re on top, they appear majestic and unstoppable, ready to conquer the world. On the way down, no one seems to mind. This happened in the instance of Sony’s Digital Audio Tape format over the course of eighteen years. Pundits predicted it would “wipe out” Compact Disc
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The M-301 microsystem was “refined to the essence of hi-fi perfection,” according to Aiwa’s 1980 brochure. It went on to say, “The 35 Watt System: Refinement, Ingenuity, and Performance.” It’s easy to chuckle at the marketing hype, but once you get past that, it’s a very astounding piece of gear. This is largely due to
Although Compact Cassette was first introduced in 1963, it was not until the 1970s that the format properly matured. It was still quite low on the evolutionary scale at the start of the decade, being the domain of small mono cassette portables that found their way into cars, toilets, children’s bedrooms, and gardens. It’s even
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Few other Japanese names were as intimately connected with tape as Aiwa, save from Nakamichi. Sony, JVC, and Pioneer all made excellent specimens of the breed, but there were other outstanding models as well. Aiwa produced a wide range of equipment, including some unusual and unusual items such as the LP-3000 turntable and AT-9700 tuner,
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Small-scale specialty producers have a lot to offer. Their products are frequently more innovative, concentrated, and tailored to the demands of a fast changing market. However, big businesses can perform just as well, if not better, in other areas. Consider the enormous engineering resources available to the large international Yamaha brand, which is responsible for
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In the grand scheme of things, this tuner is famed for its superior design and ergonomics. It features classic aesthetics that Yamaha has lately reintroduced for their hi-fi separates; only a small patina of age on a CT-7000 indicates that it was designed in 1973 rather than 2013. It’s regular size at 436x144x352mm, but it’s
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The original Wharfedale Diamond was rumored to be the result of research for the company’s high-end TSR102 project, but it was actually just its treble and midrange unit housed in a tiny, handmade bass reflex box. The end result was a small loudspeaker with only 5.2 liters of internal volume to work with. A 19mm
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This is one of the most cheap tiny speakers in recent memory. It’s a two-way reflex ported bookshelf design, as expected, but that’s where the routine ends. It has an Usher UA25-10 25mm silk dome tweeter and a KSW2-5029B 125mm mid/bass unit with a polypropylene cone; the latter is an interesting choice; this material was
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Beryllium has a lot of advantages. Only Hydrogen, Helium, and Lithium are lighter (more stable) metals in the Periodic Table. This results in an extremely sturdy structure for any given weight, which is ideal for loudspeakers! It is significantly more adapted to moving air than anything constructed of heavy old Magnesium or Aluminum, which may
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