Farad Azima founded Mission Electronics in 1977, and the 770 loudspeaker, the first to use a polypropylene mid/bass driver, appeared in 1978. It received a lot of positive feedback and projected a picture of a bold, forward-thinking, modern corporation in a historically conservative industry area steeped in history. Henry Farad, Farad’s brother, was a skilled […]
Mission 760 Review Read More »
The Amplification and Recording Company of Cambridge (A&R Cambridge, later ARCAM) began work on a line of high-quality inexpensive moving magnet cartridges not long after introducing its award-winning A60 integrated amplifier. The P77, which cost £45 in 1977 and featured a (then) trendy parabolic (extended line contact) stylus, was the first to reach retailers. The
Let us not forget that the Compact Cassette was a convenience media. But it was a medium on a mission: to dethrone open reel as the most popular recording format on the planet, and to do so, it needed to sound fantastic. As a result, we saw some extremely genuine initiatives from companies like Sony
Bang & Olufsen Beocord 8000 Review Read More »
Cyrus was founded in the 1990s, having previously been a sub-brand of Mission, a loudspeaker specialist. As a result, it was an exciting moment – a lot of items appeared that demonstrated the company’s ideas, some of which were short-lived. The Cyrus dAD7 is one such example, as it represents the company’s final attempt at
Few people have ever seen or heard of this piece of Plexiglas perfection, which first debuted in the mid-1970s. It was allegedly designed and constructed by IMF Electronics, and a deeper examination reveals why… The deck featured an electronic speed controller to drive the split-level podule platter through a fine rubber belt, which was unusual
IMF Transcription 300 Review Read More »
Arcam has a track record when it comes to digital-to-analogue converters. In reality, the Black Box was the first ‘offboard DAC’ (as they were known at the time) when it was released in 1989. The idea of removing the DAC from the CD transport was revolutionary at the time, but it’s now commonplace, so what
The more Japanese-dominated hi-fi became in the 1970s, the more flamboyant it became. Despite the fact that the mass market was flooded with big, brushed aluminum-fronted steel boxes adorned with knobs and flashing lights, some more discerning purchasers gravitated to Bang & Olufsen, and it was this product that won many over. It was a
Bang & Olufsen Beomaster 1900 Review Read More »
With its transport, DAC, clock, and upsampler, the flagship four-box dCS Vivaldi system is a magnificent thing. It is, however, exorbitantly expensive and difficult to set up, and it necessitates a considerable quantity of living space. The Debussy entry-level model, which shares most of its technology, is a simpler, slimmer, single-box design that doesn’t sound
dCS Debussy Review Read More »
For audiophiles of a particular generation, the term “direct-drive” conjures up images of a whole generation of cheap, poor Japanese turntables that swamped mass market retailers like Laskys and Comet in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The British hi-fi press did not have much good to say about them at the time. There was
Inspire Monarch Review Read More »
Arcam began to redefine itself a few years after Linn’s Classik came by launching a line of sleeker, less specialized music-making equipment. The Solo was the first, and it was a sort of ‘next gen’ Classik, with cleaner and leaner lines than the Linn, a lovely finish, and a host of extra features. A year
Arcam Solo Mini Review Read More »
