State of the art, circa 1970?
- Thread starter crouse
- Start date
Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
Pio1980 has the names.
The Sony TA-2000, TA-3200 and tuner were in the group at the top, too. Maybe less known than the US brands but they were the targets for the Sony gear.
Cartridges were the standard top units, Shure V-15 II, Stanton 681EE and others. This is when the SME 3009 was mated to the TD-125 to make a classic table that still performs.
Add the JBL Paragon speaker, Bozaks, Rectilinear.
Kenwood's KT-7000 was a great tuner but that Marantz 10B was the one.
No specific gear listed but there is a list of the 1969 Washington DC Hi-Fi Show manufacturers in this thread: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/in...r-hilton-hotel-1960s-70s.733314/#post-9929070
The Sony TA-2000, TA-3200 and tuner were in the group at the top, too. Maybe less known than the US brands but they were the targets for the Sony gear.
Cartridges were the standard top units, Shure V-15 II, Stanton 681EE and others. This is when the SME 3009 was mated to the TD-125 to make a classic table that still performs.
Add the JBL Paragon speaker, Bozaks, Rectilinear.
Kenwood's KT-7000 was a great tuner but that Marantz 10B was the one.
No specific gear listed but there is a list of the 1969 Washington DC Hi-Fi Show manufacturers in this thread: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/in...r-hilton-hotel-1960s-70s.733314/#post-9929070
The oft recommended in UK Hi-FI magazines circa early 1970's was Garrard 401 SME 3009 arm Shure V15-III, Quad 33-303 with probably Celestion Ditton 66 speakers. Until the "Flat Earthers got their way in the late 70's with Linn LP12 Grace 707? arm and Grace F9L cartridge and Naim amps Linn Isobarik Speakers (Yuk!)
Have not owned a ton of gear this old (most of my stuff is TOTL from the late 1970's-1980's...KEF 107's), but I'd have to 2nd the Quad ESL speakers (I own some "57's"). Having heard and owned some older Bozaks (B-305), agree with those as well! Concert Grands must be amazing.
I'd imagine if you owned either of these speakers back in 1970, it was about as good as it gets!
I'd imagine if you owned either of these speakers back in 1970, it was about as good as it gets!
twiiii
Lunatic Member
Ortofon was a name to recon with and in some ways and I preferred Empire turntables, but owned Thorens because I could easily change arms, which I did quite a lot. If you liked Horn Speakers Klipsch was still a force back then. JBL, Altec, EV, Frazier, Tannoy were continually updating their products. Mcintosh was building the MC 3500, one of the best tube amps ever built, that easily reached 440 watts. Mac started introducing the 2000 series SS amps and their ML series speakers. Straight line tracking turntables were just around the corner. marantz 7T pre-amp and series of SS amps were great sounding units. JBL came out with newer ring radiators, the orginals were horrid. EV was trying to upgrade their consummer sales with the Interface models and the Bose was starting to introduce the 901. You either loved them or hated them.
Some where in there Panel speakers and the KLH 9 grabbed everyones attention. Japanese where entering the market in a big way and the power wars were just around the corner. As others have said Nakamichi was making waves and so was Stax Earspeakers. Koss was making their electrostatic head phone, ESP 9. Tandberg with its bias head was a real leader in performance if not in long lasting duration. Ampex had introduced the AG series SS professional recorders and the Nuvistor MR-70 was being phased out. The most important happening was the advent of high out put audio tape started by the cassette recorder scene that made R2R machines with built in reserve capable of a magnitude of increase performance. Increasing signal- to- noise, reducing distortion, and reducing tape saturation at lower speeds. Dolby came along with a noise reduction system that helped FM broadcasts and helped improve audio tapes. DBX was new with its much anticipated systems. Sheffield was introducing DIrect-to-Disck LP's. Original Masters was introducing Soundstream digital to analog LP's. Quad, 4-channel was coming, as was the disco craze!
Some where in there Panel speakers and the KLH 9 grabbed everyones attention. Japanese where entering the market in a big way and the power wars were just around the corner. As others have said Nakamichi was making waves and so was Stax Earspeakers. Koss was making their electrostatic head phone, ESP 9. Tandberg with its bias head was a real leader in performance if not in long lasting duration. Ampex had introduced the AG series SS professional recorders and the Nuvistor MR-70 was being phased out. The most important happening was the advent of high out put audio tape started by the cassette recorder scene that made R2R machines with built in reserve capable of a magnitude of increase performance. Increasing signal- to- noise, reducing distortion, and reducing tape saturation at lower speeds. Dolby came along with a noise reduction system that helped FM broadcasts and helped improve audio tapes. DBX was new with its much anticipated systems. Sheffield was introducing DIrect-to-Disck LP's. Original Masters was introducing Soundstream digital to analog LP's. Quad, 4-channel was coming, as was the disco craze!
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MaxxVolume
Lunatic Member
Phase Linear amps
Large Advent , Magneplanar, Acoustic Research (AR) speakers
Dual, Empire, Garrard (Zero 100), Linn, Thorens, Beogram turntables
Stanton, Pickering, Shure, Empire, Sumiko cartridges
Anything with the name "Crown" or "McIntosh" on it....
Large Advent , Magneplanar, Acoustic Research (AR) speakers
Dual, Empire, Garrard (Zero 100), Linn, Thorens, Beogram turntables
Stanton, Pickering, Shure, Empire, Sumiko cartridges
Anything with the name "Crown" or "McIntosh" on it....
mhardy6647
Lunatic Member
So -- 1970 was a few years before I got really interested in hifi (more like ca. 1974).
But, thanks to www.americanradiohistory.com, which has expanded its archive of Audio magazine scans (I just learned this from another AK thread), you can probably make some educated guesses yourself.
Tape decks: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Audio/70s/Audio-1970-01.pdf (issue pg. 38)
Loudspeakers: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Audio/70s/Audio-1970-03.pdf (issue pg. 32)
Annual product directory: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Audio/70s/Audio-1970-09.pdf (issue pg. 28)
But, thanks to www.americanradiohistory.com, which has expanded its archive of Audio magazine scans (I just learned this from another AK thread), you can probably make some educated guesses yourself.
Tape decks: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Audio/70s/Audio-1970-01.pdf (issue pg. 38)
Loudspeakers: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Audio/70s/Audio-1970-03.pdf (issue pg. 32)
Annual product directory: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Audio/70s/Audio-1970-09.pdf (issue pg. 28)
Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
You're welcome. Heck I was surprised with all the new additions but I did see that High Fidelity had gotten past the 60s a few trips back to that site.
mhardy6647
Lunatic Member
Yes, thank you -- last time I looked (and downloaded!) Audio scans only went into the early 1960s.
Audio was the best ever (I'd opine) of the hifi magazines overall. It started out as a fairly serious (professional) audio engineering journal, and never lost its technical focus. And ETC was a heck of a writer!
Audio was the best ever (I'd opine) of the hifi magazines overall. It started out as a fairly serious (professional) audio engineering journal, and never lost its technical focus. And ETC was a heck of a writer!
sheltie dave
Addicted Member
Please, Nakamichi was not making cassette decks in 1970. No one was. Reel decks... a different story.
mhardy6647
Lunatic Member
Sure there were cassette decks in 1970:
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Audio/70s/Audio-1970-01.pdf
Start at page 42.
The harman/kardon CAD4 may even have been Nakamichi OEM.
http://www.nakamichicaraudio.com/article.php?AId=5
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/harman-kardon-cad-5.460423/
(at least the transport)
source www.alliedcatalogs.com (1970)
The Wollensak transport shown above would soon find itself stuffed with Heathkit and Advent electronics and sold under those brands
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nigelwright
Member
I bought 3 different Maplin amp modules in the late 1970's.
The big one was used on a mobile disco.
I also bought 4 off Fane 12-50 WRMS speakers to go with the amp module.
The big one was used on a mobile disco.
I also bought 4 off Fane 12-50 WRMS speakers to go with the amp module.
mhardy6647
Lunatic Member
The Nakamichi 1000 dates back to 1972 -- which is pretty astonishing. It was a heck of a cassette deck.
sheltie dave
Addicted Member
MHardy, the Advent 200/201 were actually Nakamichis, but they were out in the market in the first quarter of 1971. The tape decks that were released prior to then were without Dolby B and did not have Cr2O2 tape equalization, so they were essentially for voice recordings. The Nakamichi 1000 was 1973, an equal of the better reel to reel decks, and that deck gave Nakamichi their stature for the next 15 years.
