The web of japanese contractors
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SuperToaste7
Active Member
Was looking for a post exactly on this topic. I was wonder what the EK meant. So it seems the M-06 can also be included into that list of last run units using the Alpine-EK tag. The first image is of my Luxman M-06 and on the back it's tagged, Alpine-EK but every M-06 I have come across are just marked Alpine with the same...I'll call it "print layout" of text in Japanese. While the later M-06a has the same layout as the one mine has, with no Japanese. It's really irrelevant since they could have just chosen one format over another for whatever reason between the same units but it was just something I noticed. The last thing I saw is mine has a serial number starting with H and not the common A (for Alpine I would assume?) *After some searching on the wayback machine link, I found the sort of explanation for the H front letterBrand-owned factories/corporations/outfits :
Alpine, Alpine EK & ALPS
Major parts manufacturer which gradually morphed into OEM supplier after the late 1970s ; ALPS also made most of the tuner varicaps used by JP manufacturers.
Bought Luxman in full and built for it between november 1983 and 1994... and almost everybody else since the 1950s, even if only with pots, sliders, switches, car and home CC mechanisms
Factories were scattered everywhere with a center in Saitama, where CEC, Akai, Sansui, Micro and many others were as well...
Like NAD or Rotel, Alpine also produced its own lineups (CC recorders only) but they were strictly for export, whether in "Alpine" or "Alpage" guises. DAT drives were used by (mainly) Teac, Tascam, Fostex, Sharp, Nakamichi, possibly Otari as well.
Alpine tags are simple : ALPS, ALPINE or ALPINE EK, the latter only used for the last runs of Luxman LX-360, LV-107U, L-570, L-540, DP-07 and DA-07.
"the ALPINE tag is clearly and simply, visibly, tagged on all Luxman units between late 1984 and 1994 : the "A" fronted serial-number is on all of the Alpine-period Luxman, from the M-03 to the M-06a, D-107u, DP-07, L-570 or D-500X.
There was however a brief variant : "ALPINE-EK" with an H front letter, as seen on some L-570..."
The power cord on mine says Onamba 1989; which might be the only way to possibly date the year of manufacturing for these amplifiers. If that's the case then this unit was part of the last runs of the M-06 which match what you said for that Alpine-EK tag and the M-06a were possibly being ready to be made or set to be made, hence the similar back panel as the M-06a? Thanks for the helpful post!
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This is the glory of Axel's hard work. Where else do you find this information?
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The legacy of Axel's hard work will be reaped by many over many years. I feel honoured to assist the rememberance and conveyance of the legacy. Thank you Axel.
Nowhere
The legacy of Axel's hard work will be reaped by many over many years. I feel honoured to assist the rememberance and conveyance of the legacy. Thank you Axel.
BigDaddy®
Member
Great info! My buddy gave me a Denon stack that includes a Columbia SA-3970 integrated. It seems like any time I search for info or photos of it, all I find are eBay listings from SE Asia. Oh well, it sounds like it might be more budget-friendly equipment but I still think it looks cool. Also included in the stack are Denon DP-1200 TT, Denon TU-501 tuner and Denon DR-350 tape deck.Columbia/Denon
Columbia is the origin, DenOn the later front name ; DenOn was by far the most present advertiser in Japan between the early 1970s up to the mid 1990s.
Production-wise, Columbia was originally (1960s/70s) delegated to low-end duties (compacts, boomboxes, small turntables etc) but the tag is the one found on most DH series open-reel (some based on TEAC drives) and many late 70s/1980s turntables like the DP-6700 (but the DP-6000 itself is Denon-tagged...), DP-47F or DP-59L/M, the latter also seing T.O.C. T-tags...
After the launch of CD, Columbia handled many Denon CDPs (high & low) and Denon all the rest. It's the same company in the end, just different routes regarding contracts, manufacturing and distribution.
Denon also built in the late 1980s for Hitachi with the Lo-D HA-9100D digital integrated amp which was a straight rebadge of the PMA-890D, down to the functions scripting ; also the Lo-D DAT-8000 which was a DTR-2000G (both with a Matsushita RAA1001 mechanismand the DA-505D which was a DCD-1290. Matsushita also provided Columbia with several lineups of LD players.
Worth noting, several early to mid 1970s PMA-xxx models have a very striking proximity with Monarch models.
Between 1970 and 1979, Columbia also organized a mainly-export (and mainly Europe) outfit to manufacture and distribute low-end lineups ; these components all have a sort of "pearly" logo (a round black dot is added to each D E N O N letter and the font is completely different) and were often made by KWAI (GA-65 for instance but also compacts, all-in-ones, turntables, receivers - etc). Some of these were released in Japan under the "LSA" brand name, before the DenOn outfit took over the "serious" audio segment of the entire Columbia production.
Strangely, for once, that KWAI T-tag was not omitted despite the fact all this was export-only ! This was probably set by Columbia to cash in on the Denon name without lowering the original brand itself. However, all components bear the "11" serial number prefix which denoted "in-house" Denon until the mid 1980s... Maybe a mix between Columbia and Monarch initiated by an ambitious Hong Kong marketing engineer.
Denon had another secondary/lesser lineup (PMA-255 for instance) which bore a very different scripting close the Fraktur font family (odd choice), the components of which had a "12" s/n prefix.
Recently, unlike Marantz since the second D&M sale, Denon has kept its own "Denon" T-tag, but builds more and more in China (like Marantz...).
CKK (Denon DP-50L/M /55L /60L/M /790 /1800 /30F, DRS-230 /300 /370 ; possibly independent at first then integrated into Columbia.)
T.O.C (Columbia, Denon CDPs, DP-59L/M, PMA-300V /390 /590 /715RG /1000G, TU-400 /290G /7.5E /7.5S, DRS-810G, SE-15 compact, AVC-700 ; also LSA sub-brand k7, Diatone compacts like MC-160, Hitachi a/v receivers like HA-V7 /V1 and amps like HA-9100D)
T-Denkai (Columbia, Denon CDPs and almost all Denon k7, PMA-1090 /1090G /1000II /S10II but also the... Nakamichi SR-40 or Hitachi HA-V6)
Niccol (or "Nicol" later on ; Nippon Columbia subsidiary producing in Taiwan, Korea, and now China Korea ; Denon CDPs and DP-38F, TU-F10G, Columbia CDV-550... but also Hitachi all-in-ones like HRT-231)
Kitsuregawa (DP-60M, DP-30L)
Columbia M (DP-51F /31F, DP-67L /67M)
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absinthe77
New Member
Thank you, this was helpful to know. Does anyone happen to know about the "T" version of the RT-707/701? It has a slightly different layout from the KKKG, for example it has no "meter drive board" and the numbering conventions on the PCBs is quite different. I can't actually find the schematic for the T version, I just end up winging it based on the other 2 available schematics floating around.
