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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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
Apart from the LP12 turntable, Linn has always collaborated with other firms to produce its analogue goods — the first Ittok tonearm was called after one Mr. Ito, the Japanese co-creator, and the majority of the early ones were built in Japan. The cartridges have also been outsourced; the most recent Linn Kandid moving coil
One poster on a Naim-friendly internet forum adds, “Naim Audio makes musical instruments, other manufacturers build hi-fi.” It’s an intriguing proposal since it captures the essence of what Naim Audio devotees see in the brand. Of course, flippant remarks like this aren’t entirely accurate, but they do provide some insight into why people love this
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The narrative of this renowned record player begins in 1972, when it first emerged from the Castlemilk factory, blinking into the Glasgow sunlight. That was a long time ago, and the Sondek has been chastised in recent years for being “old hat.” It may lack the acres of gleaming Perspex and fancy gold-plated finery that
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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
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Arcam hi-fi separates have always been geared at the mass market, but they’ve frequently turned out to be a little odd. Always well-engineered, the company frequently tries bold engineering techniques, sometimes with tremendous success — as evidenced by this high-end CD player introduced at the turn of the century. The FMJ CD23 was a development
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Do you recall the birth of the Squeezebox? It was introduced in 2003 as the SliMP3, an MP3-only gadget with a connected connection that required a computer programmer to interface it with its host computer – or so it seemed. Two years later, the Squeezebox a proper arrived, with Wi-Fi, a digital output, and native
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Compact Cassette was still considered a novelty media in 1973, having been invented by Philips a decade before for dictation purposes alone. It was absurd to think it could deliver true hi-fi performance. Serious tape users possessed Revoxes, particularly the A77, or one of a growing number of high-end Japanese decks from Sony, Akai, or
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