State of the art, circa 1970?

[sheltie dave]

This one, Pio. 5 dB down at each end of the spectrum on a quoted 40 to 10K bandwidth is horrible, which puts the utility at lecture hall level. Every single other part of the audio chain was hitting 20 to 20K for high performance, so the cassette is the red headed stepchild, until Nakamichi and Cr2O2 tape and Dolby B really hit the stride.

 

[Pio1980]

Thanx, interesting!
Also a stacker changer!!

 

[stevo137]

Epicure M1 and M4.

I still use mine!

 

[tubed]

 

[bikehomero]

TOTL 70s gear? Here it is:

 

[Sansui77]

Turntables: Technics, Linn, Thorens, Sansui, Sony, Pioneer,
Amplification: Sansui, Technics, Pioneer, Macintosh,
Speakers: IMF, Kef, Spendor, BW, JBL, Kliptch, Tannoy,
Tuners: Sansui & Kenwood,
Tape decks: Nakamichi

 

[Dr Tinear]

Some thoughts.
Amplification. McIntosh, Marantz.

FM reception. Fisher, McIntosh, Marantz, Scott.

Speakers. AR-3a, QUAD electrostatic.

Turntables. Thorens TD-125, AR XA.

Tape decks. Ampex, Studer/Revox, Crown, Tandberg as a single motor deck.

That's a very good list. Here are a few more components that would have been state-of-the-art, or nearly, in 1970.

Turntables: Empire, Thorens TD-124/II (at the end of its model run)

Tape decks (reel-to-reel): Roberts (made in Japan by Akai) and Viking

Phono cartridges: top models from Shure, Empire, and Stanton

Electronics: Some of the Heathkits of the era were superb, especially their FM tuners and the tuner sections of receivers. I personally think that Heathkit hit its stride as a solid-state design house a few years later, with the 1972 AR-1500 receiver and the slightly later AA-1640 200 WPC power amp.

 

[AlTinkster92]

Our Hootch in Nam (*1970), reel to reels were cheap in the PX

 

[Connor G]

This is a very subjective question but Accuphase, Luxman, Sansui, Marantz, McIntosh, SAE, Kenwood and JBL are some of what comes to mind.
The list goes on.

 

[tubed]

 

[Nat]

That picture is cause for thought - the state of the art in the 70s probably was what the state of the art was in the 60s (and late 50s), and may still be even now. Probably no speaker would get more votes as best of all time than the Quad 53.
More contentiously, other products of similar vintage - the Garrard 301 or Thorens 124, and the Decca cartridges spring to mind - have been in that category for decades.
I recognize that not everyone can live with the Deccas (or the Quads), but for those that can, and got them early on, it has been a good long term investment.

 

[tubed]

That picture is cause for thought - the state of the art in the 70s probably was what the state of the art was in the 60s (and late 50s), and may still be even now. Probably no speaker would get more votes as best of all time than the Quad 53.
More contentiously, other products of similar vintage - the Garrard 301 or Thorens 124, and the Decca cartridges spring to mind - have been in that category for decades.
I recognize that not everyone can live with the Deccas (or the Quads), but for those that can, and got them early on, it has been a good long term investment.

The picture is "pause for thought".
The other speaker in the pic is even more deserving for its SQ

 

[KentTeffeteller]

View attachment 910219

This one, Pio. 5 dB down at each end of the spectrum on a quoted 40 to 10K bandwidth is horrible, which puts the utility at lecture hall level. Every single other part of the audio chain was hitting 20 to 20K for high performance, so the cassette is the red headed stepchild, until Nakamichi and Cr2O2 tape and Dolby B really hit the stride.

Advent for what it's worth, reliably broke the 10 Khz barrier and the reliability barrier with the 1971 introduction of the Advent 201, which used that Wollensak AV transport and better heads and electronics, and got 16 Kilohertz response out of CRO2 tape, when Nakamichi was still learning how to make a decent cassette transport which would last to the end of a USA warranty. Nakamichi got better but took them around 5 years to do it 1975-1976 is finally when Nakamichi made a machine which established them as the cassette state of the art for years. Open reel was better, but also took around $500 to get to the beginning of really good and reliable quality.

 

[Nat]

Nakamichi made the first Advent tape deck, before the Wollensak transport version. It is very rare because reliability was absolutely catastrophic and most of those sold failed. I repaired one for a friend, back in the nineties and wondered about about it because I'd never seen one. Then I came across a Henry Kloss interview where he said that the Nakamichi was better sounding than the Wollensak , but they dumped it and went to the less sophisticated (it was meant as a dictation machine, which of course was what cassettes were designed for) Wollensak because it was very reliable.
So tubed - what is that other speaker - it is the Pioneer with the cylindrical HPMs? It looks like it is angled at the bottom like it was. But I seem to remember some of the Jantzens were also. And the side vents are sort of Infinityesque. Clearly I don't know.

 

[tubed]

Yes Nat, it is.
The 1976 Pioneer HPM-200.
It does all the things that the ESL 57 can't do and does it well.
Even the HPM-200 midrange comes very close to the ESL goodness except with more soundstage excelling in the low and highest frequencies.
The ESL 57 is hard to beat for what it does so well.

 

[MCM_Fan]

When did Rectilinear appear?






Or were they not "serious" enough?

Not sure about "serious" enough, but they were definitely around in 1970. I have a very early pair of Rectilinear Highboys that were made in 1967. The date codes on the Philips midrange are 67 - 38 (September, 1967). I purchased them from the original owner who said he bought them in December, 1967.

 

[harman/kardon]

Bang & Olufsen

Beomaster 5000
Beolab 5000

(1967 - 1971)

 

[harman/kardon]

Arena 9000T

It looks a bit as the gear above but it is even more exclusive.

 

[sregor]

Infinity servo statics and 2000. HK citation. Rabco tonearms. Panasonic - later Technics turntables. Sony TTS-3000.Audio Research. AR LST. (in addition to all the goodies mentioned so far)

 

[Connor G]

Technics SE/SU-10000 circa 1972
http://www.technics.com/global/chronicle/se-10000/