One of the most iconic names in British hi-fi, Harold Joseph Leak founded this now-defunct company in London in 1934, later selling it to the Rank Organisation in January 1969, when its fortunes began to falter. Between these times, and particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, the brand was known for high-quality amplifiers, radio tuners, […]
When NAD’s 3020 initially arrived in the early 1980s, it blew past all other cheap integrateds, as well as innumerable amps costing much over twice as much. The hi-fi market cried out for something with a comparable astonishing mix of price and performance, but at a higher level, over the next few years. Then, in
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It’s not just about listening to music when it comes to hi-fi. Of course, its primary role is to sound good, but it also serves an aesthetic purpose. There’s no shortage of gear that excels at one of these functions, but it’s unusual to find something that excels at both, such as Lecson’s famed AC1/AP3
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In some ways, the decade of the 1980s was a difficult one for loudspeaker design. Despite the appearance of a handful of ‘milestone’ products, such as Celestion’s SL6 and Acoustic Energy’s AE-1, it’s difficult to say that these were entirely successful designs in and of themselves. Rather than being remembered for what they did, they
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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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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
