High-Fi!

It hasn't exactly become a fashion industry, but the high-fidelity-components field seems more than ever concerned about the cosmetics of its wares. Do not, however, read this to mean that if you buy a superstyled amplifier, you will be getting ripped off on performance. On the contrary; for the most part, there is a new happy constellation of good sound and good looks. The former virtue is based not on any space-age breakthroughs in the labs but, rather, on a rediscovery and (concluded overleaf) application of solid basics. The latter appeal is not a return to the chintzy blandness of equipment styling that brought on a so-what-else-is-new attitude several years ago but, instead, an advance to a new boldness of product concept in which units seem to be saying: Look at us; we're big and sinewy and good-looking and sensitive; we can make better sound than anything before and we're fun to play with.

This theme is echoed in visual tones of either subdued chrome or matte black. The black-is-beautiful idea is carried out in such high-end audio hardware as the new Model 2200 power amp from SAE. Rated for 100 watts per channel, which in the context of the kind of products this company makes is just medium-high power, the 2200 comes in matte black. It also sports front-panel handles, the kind a pro uses in a studio to pull a unit out of its rack mount or to replace it. The handles can be removed if the unit is installed in a home-type cabinet, but how many owners of this class of equipment, or of something like the larger Audio Research D-150 amplifier, are going to remove a symbol of "professionalism" from their equipment?

Complementing the spate of power amplifiers are many new preamp-control units, often boasting more elaborate and versatile adjustments than in the past (viz., the Marantz 3800, which contains a variable built-in Dolby processing option). For the stereo buff who wants less separatism than that provided by individual units for preamp and power amp, there are new integrated amplifiers, many of which yield relatively little to the all-out separates in terms of ultimate power capability or even versatility, since, with the rear-panel circuit-interrupt feature, it is possible to use such amplifiers as if they were separate units, with the signals leaving the preamp section and routed to wherever you like. Of course, with either setup--preamp cum power amp or integrated amplifier--you get no FM unless you buy a separate tuner. Many of the companies making amplifiers also make tuners; those that offer both invariably follow uniform styling, but there is no reason you cannot mix these components in terms of different brands for tuner and amp (or even for tuner, preamp and power amp) and emerge with a supersystem that is perfectly matched electronically, if somewhat patchworked visually. There is, in fact, a doughty breed of hi-fi buff that prides itself on owning no two components made by the same manufacturer.

At the other extreme, of course, are the receivers, or all-in-ones, that combine tuner with preamp and power amp. Once looked down on by the all-out sound nut as a product strictly for the timid, the receiver, over the years, has gained in popularity and prestige, with increasing evidence of the desiderata sought by the sound enthusiast who does not go for the all-separate approach, such as high power, ample control functions and options and improved FM reception. The price spread here is enormous, ranging from something like the $260 Advent 300, which has a nice balance of features and capabilities for a modest or compact stereo system, to something like the Tandberg TR-2075, whose price is now about $1100. The "superreceiver" area, in particular, has become a new battleground among manufacturers trying to outdo one another within the single-chassis format. Among the new biggies here, for instance, you will find the $750 JVC JR-$600, offering 110 watts per channel and a built-in five-slider "graphic equalizer." The same price tag and the same power output rating apply to Sansui's 9090, which includes conveniently worked-out switching for a versatile tape-dubbing and monitoring option. Also at $750 is Kenwood's KR-9400, which manages to squeeze out 120 watts per channel, while another $50 gets the Marantz 2325, with 125 watts per channel and a built-in Dolby system. In this top receiver group. Pioneer, which had the field to itself with its SX-1250, priced under $900 and offering--for a receiver--a prodigious amount of power, 160 watts per channel, has been joined by Technics by Panasonic with its SA-5760, costing $800 and claiming 165 watts RMS per channel. Well, that's showbiz, or horse racing, or something.

Among turntables, the trend to the single-play or manual type continues unabated, with the emphasis on the direct-drive mechanism by which the platter spins on an extension right from the motor instead of via intervening belts or idlers. A unique offering here is the Accutrac 4000 from ADC, a BSR of England company, which adds to this basic type of machine a "memory bank" you can program by push buttons to get the arm to play any sequence of individual cuts on one side of a record.

In tape, the basic pattern of choice among open-reel, cassette and cartridge has not changed, but more people--in and out of the industry--seem to have caught on to what's actually happening. And that is, simply, that the high-end cassette deck--with such advanced niceties as built-in Dolby, switching to optimize the unit for handling various kinds of tape, peak-reading meters, quick-acting controls, smooth tape movement, and even, in a few models, a "third head," for direct off-the-tape monitoring--has just about taken over the consumer tape market. The anticipated supercartridge from the 3M Company has not yet materialized. Open-reel tape remains, of course, the preferred medium for the advanced recordist or "semipro" who hankers after such studio options as the large-sized tape reel running at 15 ips, synchronized multitrack recording, the facility to "punch in" new material onto a recorded tape, really precise adjustments for both bias and equalization, and so on. The open-reel format also is the only one you would choose for serious four-channel use, although the extra channels today probably would be used for add-on material instead of quadraphonic sound.

As you might expect, speaker-system design is following the general big, bold look set by electronic components. So-called bookshelf speakers probably will be with us indefinitely, but most of the new models this year want to stand on their own pedestals or feet or, as in the case of one model (the Sonab OA-2212), on small wheels, an eminently useful solution to the problem of moving a pair of monsters about to, find the best locations for stereo in your room. The old dominance of walnut finish is being challenged by a return to lighter woods, such as the oak used for the Contrara P from Jennings Research, a floor-standing model nearly three feet tall. An effort to match amplifier power to speaker response with regard to room acoustics is seen in a new twist in the B.I.C. Venturi line: A power monitor and overload indicator with adjustments to regulate the signal input to the speaker is included under a lift-up flap along the top front of the speaker cabinet. There's also evidence of a renewed interest in full-range electrostatics. In addition to the oldest line on the scene (Acoustical Manufacturing's Quad), new models have been announced by Dayton-Wright and by Koss, the headphone manufacturer.

In most of the new speaker systems, regardless of size or operating principle, there is an emphasis on smoothness of response that many insiders take to mean a reaction to the so-called rock sound or West Coast sound (translation: beefed-up midbass and overly forward upper midrange). It's not that rock is being slighted; rather, it's an admission that rock listening ought to be rid of the kind of distortions that can fool you into thinking you are hearing more than is actually on the record. For years, conscientious sound buffs have been saying that the best speaker is one that favors no one kind of music but, rather, permits whatever is in the signal to be reproduced honestly and fully. The same virtues that make a speaker OK for classical music make it equally OK for rock. The fact that this simple formula is being applied to more speaker systems than ever before is a tribute to the listeners' growing maturity of taste. Congratulations.