Amplifiers

When you talk to Antony Michaelson about his vast product portfolio, there are a few designs in particular that he adores, one of which is the A1000. It’s a two-box design, with the first housing the amplifier and the second housing the power supply (11kg and 7kg respectively). Two sets of eight substantially heatsinked transistors, […]

Michael Maloney explains, “We were aiming to develop an amplifier that was well manufactured.” “When we started in the late 1970s, the quality of the components was fairly bad. In the signal path, they were still utilizing ancient carbon resistors and electrolytic capacitors, and the printed circuit boards were still Bakelite. We were among the

The original NAIT was the product that kicked off the ‘super integrated’ fad in the 1980s. Whereas “integrated” was formerly considered the poor relation of their high-end pre-power brethren, it became fashionable to opt for a high-quality one-box design with the same level of attention paid to internal component quality and circuit design. As a

Nytech’s iconic ‘Calculator Tuner Amplifier’ is virtually forgotten these days, although it made a big impact on the British hi-fi market when it was hot in the late 1970s. When it was first released in 1972, calculators were practically the width and depth of an LP record, and they, like the Nytech, were connected into

Philips, don’t you simply adore them? Whenever this inventive Dutch consumer electronics behemoth ventured near serious hi-fi, everything went horribly wrong. The company’s portfolio of avowedly high-end late-1970s esoterica, the ‘Black Tulip’ collection, was designed to take on both the Brits and the Japanese in one fell stroke. Unfortunately, it had about as big of

It all began in a Cambridge bedroom – Audiolab’s bedroom, to be precise. Philip Swift, along with Derek Scotland, left his “day job” as a director of Lentek Audio to found a company that would have a big impact on the hi-fi sector for the next fifteen years. In the autumn of 1982, while Duran

Let’s be honest: Bang & Olufsen’s philosophy isn’t ‘sound first, everything else second.’ However, if we’re being honest, it’s difficult to say the same about the majority of so-called “true hi-fi” makers, to whom we serious audiophiles happily grant house room. Can you honestly state that the ordinary Arcam is solely concerned with sound, ignoring

The UK hi-fi market was a different country in the mid-1970s. Pioneer, Sony, JVC, Hitachi, and Wharfedale dominated the inexpensive end of the market, while KEF, Quad, Tannoy, and Celestion dominated the higher end. Even at the top end, names like Linn and Naim had yet to enter the vernacular. Japanese manufacturers were booming, and