A top Marantz engineer once told me, “The original Bitstream players sounded horrible.” You understand that this is strictly not for publishing, yet it is refreshingly open all the less. Others used more diplomatic terminology at the time, but it’s worth noting that the company didn’t release a flagship Bitstream system until 1994’s CD-15. This […]
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Lee Taylor received BAFTA and Palme d’Or honors for his work in recording and mixing for television, music, and film prior to founding Leema, while Mallory Nichols had previously worked in the manufacturing of MAGTRAX monitors for recording studios and mastering firms since the early 1990s. It’s no surprise that the two men started their
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We’ve all heard about how fantastic the Leak Stereo 20 is. It was a superbly designed ‘do-it-all’ stereo valve power amplifier with enough power to drive most loudspeakers of the time when it was introduced in 1958. It was a development of the original mono TL12 Point One, using the same fundamental circuit as Harold
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Few could have predicted how popular the JBL L100 would become when it was initially introduced at CES 1970 in Chicago. It was a consumer version of the professional 4310/4311 monitors, with the same driver lineup and powerful Alnico V magnets. For the midrange and treble drivers, a basic crossover was used, with the bass
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The famous 845 power triode began life as a radio transmitting vacuum tube, with a physically huge anode dissipation of 75 watts and an anode voltage of 1,250V. Because the thoriated tungsten filament – which shined like a lightbulb – was powered at 10 Volts and 3.25 Amps, any transmitter running a large number of
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This was a superb affordable audiophile valve amplifier that was launched in 2012 for the princely sum of £1,700. “The original Stereo 40 was born in 2000, and was at the heart of what we do, top quality amplifiers at a reasonable price,” said chief designer David Shaw. This is a jumble of ideas with
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Tube amplification was viewed as an extreme niche in hi-fi in the late 1990s, similar to how most petrolheads thought of kit cars (i.e. “interesting, but not for me”). So maybe it’s a sign of the times that we’re suddenly getting more new valve items than transistor products. Icon Audio happened to be in the
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Hitachi’s discovery and production of MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Silicon Field Effect Transistor) had a major role in the hi-fi world that was just around the corner in the mid-1970s. The world had only been in solid-state for fifteen years and was still on a long and steep learning curve. However, Hitachi’s new power MOSFET output
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Almost every major development in turntable design had occurred by the time the Heybrook TT2 was released in 1980. Although we had quartz-locked direct drive, British manufacturers usually avoided it due to cost concerns. As a result, the majority of UK decks were variations on the Linn theme, which was itself a variation on the
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With a number of specialist tonearm producers, the United States was a thriving market for turntables. Rabco, based in Maryland, was one of these companies, selling its complicated SL-8 and SL-8E tangential-tracking tonearms from the late 1960s onwards. Powered by two small electric motors, they amassed a small but devoted following, prompting the company to
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