Although no cassette deck has ever been compared to an oil painting, early specimens of the genre were particularly unappealing. Top-loaders from the 1970s were fiddly and unwieldy to operate, with controls strewn about indiscriminately, whilst front-loaders appeared bold and threatening. Forget about the physics of the machines. They were crude and clumsy, confirming cassette’s […]
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Pioneer’s legendary PL-12D is often regarded as the best cheap belt drive ever produced, and for my money, it’s not far off. However, as with so many items, something else comes along a few years later that is superior in many aspects but doesn’t completely outclass it. The SR-222/II from Sansui is one such deck.
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Sennheiser spent millions of Euros researching and creating the new HD650 in 2003, using technology created for its £1,000 MKH40 broadcast microphone to eliminate distortion and enhance clarity, while the sound balance was reported to be based on the Sennheiser Orpheus, which costs £10,000. It all added up to one of the company’s most popular
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The early 1980s were a period in which everyone was enamoured with new technology. From the video recorder to the ‘microcomputer,’ it appeared that anything with an LED display and an 8-bit silicon chip inside might solve all of the world’s problems. Sharp agreed, and applied its digital wizardry to the issue of LP track
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The TC-399 came in Sony’s Autumn 1978 catalogue at a time when the domestic open reel tape recorder was already on its way out. Only two years prior, the Akai 4000DS had stunned the world by selling in significant numbers, delivering outstanding sound-per-pound from the (at the time) dormant open reel format. It was as
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Linn’s second-ever turntable design, dubbed “Son of Sondek,” had a lot to live up to. Linn’s attempt to entice silver disc customers back to vinyl was launched in 1987, just as Compact Disc was finally gaining traction. This means it had to outperform decent CD players, be simple to set up and use, and have
Tim de Paravicini, a bright former Lux designer who had previously worked with Antony at Michaelson and Austin, was the logical choice when Antony Michaelson needed his first Musical Fidelity integrated amplifier. Tim told me that the A1 started out as “a breadboard that I created for myself” in order to “replicate in transistors the
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The Philips-supplied laser pick-up system was meant to be separated from the CD12’s main chassis, making it immune to extraneous disturbances like loudspeaker vibration (both mechanically coupled and airborne). High-speed DSP was employed to control the CD control/servo circuits, and a puck was used to control them. The spindle motor was brushless for electromagnetically silent
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,
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In 2002, the Classik bridged the gap between audio and hi-fi by combining a CD player, amplifier, and tuner in a midi-sized box for £995. This is where the company’s issues began, because customers who were interested in ‘lifestyle’ systems were unlikely to have heard of Linn, and even fewer were likely to visit one
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