Closing up the 1980s, Philips announced four new CD players, ranging in price from £149 for the entry-level model CD380 to about £500 for the flagship model Philips CD880. Made in Belgium, the Philips CD880 is built on a heavy die-cast frame with a thick steel baseplate on trendy ‘drum’ feet, a copper-plated steel rear […]
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The Marantz CD-17 KI Signature is the epitome of the Marantz philosophy: always striving for that little bit more. Last year, I tested the CD-63 KI, the first in a small series of special uprated versions of established Marantz goods overseen by Ken -Ishiwata, Marantz’s design wizard. This entailed taking a simple machine, dismantling it,
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Even if we exclude the several other brand names (Mission, Meridian, Marantz, and others) that utilize the Philips chassis and mechanism, Philips had always maintained a commanding position in the sales numbers for CD players in Europe from their collaborative creation for the format (alongside Sony, of course). They had a tendency to focus their
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Whest Audio’s PS.30RDT was released in 2009 as a near descendant of the company’s flagship MC REF V, and it cost a whopping £2,799 when new. It comes in a single 430x280x72mm box with a Whest MC REF V Hybrid filter and an ultra low noise bipolar opamp DIP8 chip severely biased towards Class A.
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If you’ve been paying attention over the last few decades, you’ve probably heard of Yamaha’s legendary NS-1000M loudspeaker, which was first released in 1978. It had an unforgettable sound, thanks to highly inventive Beryllium midrange and treble dome drivers that were a tenth of the weight of standard designs, housed in a super-thick sealed cabinet
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The Zu Druid, made in Ogden, Utah, is one of the more intriguing floorstanding loudspeakers I’ve seen. This specific fourth generation model, from 2006, is a fan favorite. The one-and-a-half-way speaker is equipped with a full-range driving unit and a super tweeter that eliminates the need for a crossover. The impedance quoted is 12 ohms
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Since smartphones took over our life five or so years ago, there has been little interest in something that seemed to be the very future of technology just ten years earlier. Back in the day, Apple’s iPod was regarded to be the most astonishing invention of the millennium. Generations after generation were smaller, cuter, and/or
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The Technics SL-1200 was never just a disco fashion statement. To people who had only only seen Regas and Linns, the Technics would appear to be a flimsy ornament, but once you see one in person, you’ll realize why it was always remarkable. It has a sophisticated diecast aluminium upper portion, as well as a
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The 1970s were known as the “Golden Age of Vinyl,” and Sony played a key role in establishing it. Although belt-driven British superdecks like Linn’s Sondek and Dunlop’s Systemdek dominated the specialist audiophile market, the larger turntable world was dominated by quartz-locked, direct drives from Japan with high levels of automation. Sony, like every other
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In 1883, Herman Thorens founded the company in St Croix, Switzerland. It began as a maker of musical boxes and related equipment, then manufactured its first Edison type phonograph in 1903, before concentrating on horn gramophones for the new shellac records. The company made cigarette lighters until 1964, and only stopped selling harmonicas in 1952
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