Magazine Archive

Home -> Magazines -> Issues -> Articles in this issue -> View

The 12th Harrogate International Festival of Sound

Article from Electronics & Music Maker, November 1981

This recent event had plenty to interest the hi-fi enthusiast.


David Ellis looks and listens to new products at this popular hi-fi exhibition

Inside the Phillips LaserVision.


I have to admit that my last exposure to the hectic concourse of a Hi-Fi show was some five years ago, when, as a grant-conscious student, I went after my first slice of sonic excellence. I still have more-or-less the same system now, which either goes to show that I'm easily satisfied or else that I chose well in the first place! So, having remained blissfully ignorant of discussions about the musicality of turntables or the 'openness' of amplifiers, I think it's true to say that I approached the 12th International Festival of Sound with something approaching an open mind, if not an entirely unbiased ear.

In general, path-breaking innovations were on the scarce side, as also were those demonstrations offering the sort of sonic superlative that roots you to the spot, and the overriding impression was of continuing along well-trodden paths. This year, Japanese manufacturers tended to opt for the pathway of progressive miniaturisation whilst at the same time packing the front panel with yet more LEDs and soft-touch switches. Pioneer and Sony were both parties to this cause and the casual observer could be forgiven for thinking that they were looking at a miniature version of an Underground map complete with station indicator lights. Indeed, Pioneer went so far as to put an enlarged version of the front panel of one of their new cassette decks on the wall of their demonstration area, which tends to prove my point! Maybe next year's offerings will actually use a microprocessor to give a status indication of the functioning of every chip in the circuit.

Mission 776 Pre-amplifier and 770 Speaker.

At the opposite end of the multicontrol spectrum, at least when applied to amplifiers, there was the monolithic approach adopted by Mission Electronics with their new 776 pre-amplifier and 777 power amplifier. These looked and sounded mightily impressive, though the starkness of their design, and the egocentric front panel (controls and indentations spelling out the manufacturer's name), will probably tend to restrict its appeal to those that go for 2001-like blocks of granite. Their loudspeakers use a more traditional design, and, with the combination of competitive pricing and high performance standards, deserve the recognition they've received for being uncoloured and excellent negotiators of transients.

The Egliptic Loudspeaker.

A rather more unorthodox approach to loudspeaker design is adopted by Arnoldi Audio, essentially a one-man British firm, with their extraordinary egg-shaped Egliptic loudspeaker (I've heard of going to work on an egg, but this is ridiculous.) Seriously, though, the design principle is sound, in that a continuously curved surface, such as the inside of an egg, results in waves being reflected in all directions, rather than going off in one massive wavefront that then has to be tamed from its destructive behaviour with the judicious application of Dr. Bailey's long-haired wool. The Egliptic uses a high quality 8" Bextrene-coned woofer/mid-range unit and a Motorola piezo-electric tweeter, a combination which doubtless accounts for the outstanding transient response of the unit. Less impressive is the bass response of the Egliptic, which appears somewhat light to ears attuned to the more resonant sound of conventional loudspeaker boxes. All in all, a unit for baroque or classical music rather than heavy romantic or rock, and very expensive at £440.

Crown PZM Microphone.

Consideration of standing waves was also to be found in a product at the other end of the recording chain, the Crown PZM microphone, being demonstrated by Amcron Ltd. The PZM consists of a small electret capsule mike mounted a fraction of an inch above a 5" square plate. Within a few millimetres of a large surface, sound levels from a pair of equal signals add coherently, thereby eradicating phase cancellation effects between direct and indirect sound waves. As no signals can arrive on axis, but can only enter at the side, so the amplitude response is flat and independent of the position of the sound source. All this adds up to an incredibly sensitive mike that seems to reach the parts that other mikes cannot reach in those situations where sound waves are merrily colliding with each other. The demonstration I heard of the PZM being used for recording a pub rock session really showed how good it is at separating sounds, and it's no wonder that it's being used for sound reinforcement at the Hollywood Bowl. Recording studios seem enthusiastic about the PZM too, but, at £225, it's rather beyond the pocket of most amateur sound engineers.

Without wanting to stretch the point, waves, and the ways in which they can be pulled apart for the sake of our aural titillations, came into focus again with two ambisonic systems being exhibited at the show. The research by Michael Gerzon and his colleagues at Oxford into the nature of ambient sound resulted in the appearance of the Integrex quadrophonic decoder, a unit which is still available in kit or assembled form. The NRDC in fact backed the research and development of the ambisonic system, a strange horse for this normally cautious body to back considering the number of fingers that were burnt on earlier incarnations of quadrophonic techniques. Still, it's fortunate that the NRDC did have the foresight to do this, for the design team seem to have come up with a means of coding and decoding quadrophony that really works.

Minim Ambisonic Decoder Module.

In practice, quadrophonic decoding involves analysing phase relationships between the two stereo channels, and, either, in the case of non-encoded material, 'artificially' extracting ambient signals for feeding to rear speakers, or, in the case of specially encoded material, deciphering the ambient signals placed there as part bf the recording process. The crucial factor responsible for successful ambisonic reproduction lies in fooling the ear into hearing a smooth sound-field from just a few speakers. This is easier said than done and involves a pretty intense exploration of psychoacoustics and mathematical relationships between sound waves. Two decoders other than the Integrex unit are now being marketed in this country, and incorporate various improvements made to the system over the past few years. The Minim Audio decoders range in price from £99.95 for the basic AD 1000 model to £199.95 for the top of the range AD 3000. Both of these models accept either of the two current encoding standards (UHJ and B format) as well as allowing the ambisonic decoding of normal stereo signals. Minim have also wisely elected to make available a ready-made module with all the functions of their other units for just £49.45, a figure that seems very reasonable considering it also includes the NRDC licence fee, VAT and postage. E&MM will be looking at this decoder module in the near future and we'll be particularly interested to see what it does as regards the average stereo mix.

Minim Ambisonic Decoder AD 1000.


IMF Ambisonic Decoder.


IMF Electronics have also produced a ambisonic decoder which appears to offer the same facilities as the Minim units, although the price is somewhat greater. Wharfedale and Shure were also using the IMF decoder in their own demonstrations, and, although the ambience extraction from stereo LPs was impressive, the way in which the unit habitually routed pops and crackles to the rear speaker was rather unnerving. This also seemed to be true of the Minim decoder, and their demonstration also emphasised how important it is to have rear speakers that are compatible with the front set. Like many noise reduction units, successful ambisonic decoding obviously relies on the signal emerging from the pickup with the same composition as that when the original master was stamped. Similarly, when normal stereo discs are being played, things should be fine, ambience extraction-wise, as long as music is the only thing that's being decoded; otherwise, look out for a shower of rice krispies from the rear!

Sony M1000 Stereo Micro Cassette Recorder.

Very much in evidence at this year's show were the bevy, or, rather, bus-load, of blonde beauties doing their bit for home sun-tans, as well as, somewhat incidentally, the products they were promoting, and spread as generously amongst manufacturers' stands as butter on hot toast. This tribe were well trained in the art of the seductive gaze, but, after the tenth in a row, one started to get the sneaking feeling that the next in line would turn the hapless gaze to stone as snakes sprouted from her hair. Such are the delights awaiting those in 'the trade', and whilst flutter (apart from that of the overladen eyelashes of the above) was nowhere in evidence, cassettes, in all their shapes and forms, were well and truly on the rampage.

Starting off at the smallest end of the spectrum, the new Sony M1000 stereo micro cassette recorder (RRP £115) seems a pretty remarkable piece of design, and, even though there is at present quite a lot of noise and some tell-tale high frequency compression, the quoted frequency response of 80 to 8,000 Hz on standard ferric tape at 2.4 cm/sec is a real achievement. And it's light on the track suit waistband too! If only these small recorders/players also included noise reduction... What about it Sony?

Koss Sound Partner and Music Box.


A variety of manufacturers have been cashing in on Sony's ultra-lightweight headphones, but, as anyone who has been tempted to buy one of the cheap Walkman imitations will know, the similarity is usually only of a cosmetic nature. Koss have now produced their own lightweight (100 g) 'Sound Partner' headphones, which are likely to retail for the same price as the Sony MDR-4 headphones and offer a competitive sound quality. A significant point in their favour is that the design holds them off the ears by means of foam clamps above the drive units. This means that the Sound Partner is less likely to pivot on the ears, and therefore fall off, when you're sprinting or doing some other form of vigorous exercise. Furthermore, the Sound Partner folds up into a compact size suitable for putting in the pocket! Koss were also promoting their Music Box, a 'portable AM/FM stereophone receiver', though the only one to be seen was ensconced under glass rather than heard in the open. I suspect that this was Koss's jewel of the seven seas approach - tempting people with something they can't touch - but it may also have something to do with the poor stereo FM quality that would have been likely to ensue if they'd actually had people trying it out in the middle of the thick-walled Harrogate conference centre. I wonder how well it'd actually work as a stereo receiver in the centre of London - and without a three-foot telescopic aerial? Incidentally, Koss also make an ambience unit, albeit of an 'adding ambience' as opposed to 'extracting ambience' variety. The K/4DS actually uses digital delay to synthesise ambient sounds for a rear set of speakers, but doesn't seem to be available over here.

Tandberg 3004 Cassette Deck.


Moving back to the big boys of the cassette world, we come to the Nakamichi 1000ZXL and Tandberg 3004. Both of these decks use a microprocessor for logic control of the tape mechanism, but, in the case of the Nakamichi, there's also an ABLE (Azimuth, Bias, Level and EQ) program which analyses and automatically corrects all the above in a 20 second period before using any new tape type. The 3004 calibration procedure is rather more manually-implemented than with the 1000ZXL but still very straightforward. Certainly, the DYNEQ (Dynamic Equalisation) circuitry, which optimises the record EQ to the source material, produces exceptional recording quality, and the measured frequency response of 19 to 21,000 Hz +3 dB comes as no surprise.

Nakamichi 1000ZXL Cassette Deck.


The 1000ZXL includes a fascinating feature, called 'RAMM' (Random Access Music Memory), which records a 5 Hz coding signal on the blank section of tape between recorded tracks. The code is then used to determine the order in which the recorded sections are to be replayed, to select repeats and to indicate the EQ and noise reduction used during recording. All in all, a remarkable deck with proportions and appearance to match its capabilities. Perhaps £1,500 for a frequency response of 20 to 20,000 Hz ±0.75 dB is almost justified!

Fortunately, for those with more sense than money, Nakamichi have also brought out three new top-flight decks ranging in price from £450 for the 482Z to £700 for the 682ZX. The latter also includes the RAMM feature of the 1000ZXL, but all these new models also incorporate both Dolby B and C. Nakamichi have also introduced an add-on Dolby B/C noise reduction unit, the NR-200, which offers simultaneous encoding and decoding, and, at £185, seems a somewhat expensive addition more suited to owners of high quality reel-to-reel decks than those already with Dolby B cassette decks.

Aurex AD-4 Adres Noise Reduction Unit.


Rotel and Aurex were also showing add-on units offering one or another of the new generation of noise reduction systems. The Aurex AD-4 uses double ADRES encode/decode circuitry, which they claim achieves 30 dB improvement in s/n ratio and dynamic range expansion to 100 dB, and is likely to sell for around £149. A cheaper (£88) unit, the AD-2, is also available, but this only provides two channels of signal processing, which means that manual switching between encoding and decoding is necessary. However, as cassette deck manufacturers seem to be opting for Dolby C, rather than any of the other alternatives (with the exception of dbx which is now being incorporated in some Technics decks), the ADRES system doesn't seem to stand much chance in the noise reduction stakes.

Rotel RN-560 Noise Reduction Unit.


The two noise reduction units that have emerged from the Rotel stables go for Dolby B/C (RN-560) and High-Com (RN-500) systems. The RN-560 uses switched encoding/decoding and is therefore somewhat cheaper (RRP ca. £100) than the comparable Nakamichi unit. High-Com noise reduction seems to be attracting a good deal of interest, though not all of it is exactly favourable, but, as the RN-500 isn't available in this country, that point is rather academic.

Optonica RT 7070 double cassette deck.


Optonica came up with a rather sharp (!) idea in the shape of their new RT-7070H cassette deck (typical price £239). This model has two independent transport systems - one exclusively for recording and one exclusively for playback - each with its own compartment and electronics. Because of this cunning move towards functional segregation, Optonica have been able to optimise the tape heads for recording and playback. Instead of the usual compromise of a 1.5 micron gap on a combined record/play head, the RT-7070H uses a 3 micron gap for recording and 0.8 micron gap for playback. All this means that the frequency response is superb (30 to 19,000 Hz ±3dB with Fe-Cr tape), and, what's more, tape copying is just a one deck operation!

Revox B710 Cassette Deck.


Revox PR99 Reel-to-Reel Deck.

Revox's new cassette deck, the B710, certainly looks like upholding the tradition of the rest of the 'B' series. Apart from the processor-controlled transport, it seems a no-frills design without the user-programming of EQ and other tape-specific characteristics found in equivalent top class decks. What Revox do seem to have achieved is a superb transport mechanism with every aspect of tape motion under the same precise control as on their reel-to-reel decks. It's also very nice to see an LED tape counter that's synced via a quartz clock to the motors for really accurate track location. Another new addition to the Revox clan is the PR99. This reel-to-reel unit is really the professional update to the ever-popular B77, and incorporates such facilities as simul-sync, balanced inputs and outputs with calibrated or uncalibrated or uncalibrated level adjustments, a tape dump facility for immobilising the take-up reel and improved access to the playback head in the edit mode.

Bose Car Stereo System


A current tendency amongst manufacturers of In Car Entertainment (ICE) is to further miniaturise micro Hi-Fi units and then stack the whole lot in the console in front of the gear lever. With so many knobs, buttons, LEDs, or whatever, there's one thing you can be assured of, and that's driver distraction. Furthermore, however powerful the booster may be that's trying to compete with the 40 to 50 dB of engine noise, there's not much point in emulating small 'Hi-Fi' speakers with a car equivalent, as the average interior of a car just doesn't bear any acoustic similarity to a fixed listening abode. Of the various ICE systems on show, the one that seemed to make most sense to me was the Bose Car Stereo. Bose seem to have a gift at making small loudspeakers do extraordinary things, as if self-evident with the model 802 speaker, which now seems to be finding favour in just about every audio situation imaginable. Their car stereo uses four drive units, similar to those in the 802, driven from the 1401 Booster/Equalizer. The circuitry in this unit produces a signal for optimal loading of the speakers and incorporates spatial depth and low frequency boost controls to compensate for absorbent upholstery, absorbent passengers, and so on. Combined with the excellent CRC Tuner/Cassette unit, the booster and speakers produce a quality of sound that belies the size of the drive units, and the flexibility of the spatial image control really produces dramatic results. At a complete system price of around £250, the Bose version of ICE isn't cheap, but, if you're after more than rattling door panels, do investigate it.

Bose CRC Tuner/Cassette Unit.


The Oracle.


Mitsubishi MC8000 Music Centre.

Turntables are well and truly turned on their head with the Mitsubishi linear-tracking vertical deck used in their MC8000 Music Centre. As a piece of techno-sculpture, it certainly has its merits, but I really wonder how the humble LP can possibly benefit from being strung up like a wheel. Considering that the average standard of record pressings still declines, it becomes more and more difficult to see any future for the conventional LP. This hasn't prevented certain manufacturers from developing remarkably extravagant means of rotating a £5 lump of generally warped and noisy vinyl. Two of these turntables are 'The Oracle', a Canadian turntable priced at £678, and 'The Rock' from the British firm, Elite Townshend. They obviously do their job superbly well, or otherwise the Hi-Fi press wouldn't be making such ecstatic claims for their 'musicality', but I don't think I'd really care to share my house with one of these aggressive hunks of metal, and there's more than a hint of snobbish arrogance in the definitive assertion of their names. Coming rapidly down to the more affordable end of the market, there were some interesting new turntables from Garrard. As a proud owner of a 401, I've always had a soft spot for this firm and it's good to see that their take-over by a Brazilian company, Gradiente, has resulted in such a rapid resurgence onto the British scene. The turntables in this entirely new range of separates start with the B20 auto-return belt drive at £55 and extend to the D35 direct drive quartz lock unit at £104, and all with Ortofon cartridges fitted as standard. It's encouraging to see such value for money!

Garrard D35 Direct Drive Deck in see-through version.


Liquid Archival Sound Treatment.

Most owners of treasured LPs of some historic performance suffer the inevitable pops and crackles with the martyrdom of a saint, and the thought of coating such priceless objects with a fluid supposed to rejuvenate them would be almost unthinkable. But that does seem to be what LAST (Liquid Archival Sound Treatment) is capable of (within reason, of course), and, with new discs, is claimed to protect a record through 200 plays as well as enhancing the clarity and reducing the surface noise. £14 should purchase enough LAST to treat 50 records; try some and see!

Finally, a silly product for the silly season from Bibi Magnetics Ltd. (and I quote from the Festival Official Guide): 'New Love Dreams Musicassette of Dream Suggestions in counter gravity dispenser with SRP of £1.65'. Perchance to dream without technological intervention...



Previous Article in this issue

Industry Profile: Roland (UK) Ltd

Next article in this issue

Soundbooster


Publisher: Electronics & Music Maker - Music Maker Publications (UK), Future Publishing.

The current copyright owner/s of this content may differ from the originally published copyright notice.
More details on copyright ownership...

 

Electronics & Music Maker - Nov 1981

Show Report by David Ellis

Previous article in this issue:

> Industry Profile: Roland (UK...

Next article in this issue:

> Soundbooster


Help Support The Things You Love

mu:zines is the result of thousands of hours of effort, and will require many thousands more going forward to reach our goals of getting all this content online.

If you value this resource, you can support this project - it really helps!

Donations for March 2024

Please note: Our yearly hosting fees are due every March, so monetary donations are especially appreciated to help meet this cost. Thank you for your support!

Issues donated this month: 0

New issues that have been donated or scanned for us this month.

Funds donated this month: £208.00

All donations and support are gratefully appreciated - thank you.


Magazines Needed - Can You Help?

Do you have any of these magazine issues?

> See all issues we need

If so, and you can donate, lend or scan them to help complete our archive, please get in touch via the Contribute page - thanks!

Please Contribute to mu:zines by supplying magazines, scanning or donating funds. Thanks!

Monetary donations go towards site running costs, and the occasional coffee for me if there's anything left over!
muzines_logo_02

Small Print

Terms of usePrivacy