Playboy's Audio Update

Good News, fidelity freaks. The hi-fi industry has never been sounder, offering an all-things-to-all-buyers pool of electro-acoustic goodies from megabuck systems for serious sound men to dollar-value components for less demanding but still devoted stereo enthusiasts.

The common denominator in all this is less a matter of technological breakthroughs than of pulling all the stops in product design. Quality of sound is still paramount, but there are more options than ever for enjoying it.

Take, for openers, the (text continued on page 184)Playboy's Audio Update(continued from page 181) one-brand-system trend. Having spent nearly 30 years taking apart the phonograph, many hi-fi companies are busy putting it back together. Mix and match gives way to ensemble. The result is still a system made up of components, but now they come neatly stacked, preconnected and ready to play. Clearly, this kind of system is aimed at a much broader market than the one-time hero of hi-fi, the intrepid audiophile who actually enjoyed agonizing over which component worked best.

The promotion for these new systems emphasizes total performance rather than the particular virtues of their individual parts. You are invited to invest in high-quality audio gear not because you may understand all of its ramifications but in spite of the fact that you may not.

As expected, the one-brand systems are offered by companies that produce most or all of the components needed for a stereo system. At last count, that roster included more than two dozen well-known names, and the list is expected to grow. Specialization may no longer be good business. Prices, performance and features vary. For example, Scott's Slimcom series (the name suggests the upright vertical look shared by most of these systems) runs from $800 to $1900. A typical setup contains a rack or shelved housing on casters with amplifier, tuner, cassette deck and, sitting topside on shock mounts, the turntable. Speakers, of course, remain separate--this requirement is still the sine qua non of good home stereo.

A large portion of Pioneer's extensive product output has been devoted to its Syscom series, in which performance limits exceed what has normally been the standard for systems. Moreover, these systems do not (as preassembled systems once did) limit you after you have bought one. You can add more gear if you care to--such as an equalizer, or a noise reducer, or an ambient enhancer, and so on. In fact, some systems include such sound processors already fitted into the panoply.

Probably the most posh of these systems is one from Revox. With linear-tracking turntable and optional professional-grade open-reel tape deck, its cost comes close to $10,000.

While the system makers would prefer, of course, that you buy their speakers to go with everything else, there is no technical reason you can't use other speakers--something that the companies that make only speakers are very happy about.

Most systems are stacked vertically, though at least two companies lay them out horizontally. One is the Kenwood Spectrum, in a sleek two-door cabinet. The other is the Bang & Olufsen Beocenter 7000 and Beosystem 8000, which feature a stylish Danish contemporary open cabinet.

Coming on with Components

Despite the popularity of the one-brand systems, the industry is hedging its bets with literally hundreds of new products in all categories. Here are the highlights.

Disc recordings remain the single most popular program source, but tape, especially cassette, is coming up faster than anyone could have predicted a few years ago. It's no surprise, then, that a major effort is under way to make the tape format more appealing. One obvious sign is the addition of those features on low-to-medium-priced decks that were found on only the top-priced units a short time ago. Soft-touch controls, some degree of microprocessing and easier-to-read signal meters are becoming fairly standard. These niceties make it easier, and perhaps more fun, to use a cassette deck, but they do not in themselves assure higher performance--except for, maybe, the fluorescent bar-graph meters. (Bar-graph meters are more accurate than needle pointers, they respond faster, they eliminate parallax errors and they cast no shadows to give false readings.) These features are important if you do a lot of your own recording; they are less important in playing prerecorded cassettes.

In addition to the familiar Dolby B noise-reduction system, there's now a Dolby C, which extends the frequency range over which the noise reduction takes place while also suppressing more tape noise. Its major exponent now seems to be Nakamichi, which has seven new cassette decks ($595 to $1800) that include Dolby C and a separate add-on processor for use with any other recorder (the NR-200, $450).

Yet another variation of an earlier Dolby system is the Bang & Olufsen HX Professional system, which claims a dramatic increase in high-frequency headroom and which processes each stereo channel separately. According to B & O, ordinary ferric-oxide tapes (normal bias) thus can sound as good as costlier metal tapes. The new B & O Beocord 8002 deck ($1100) has it and the system probably will be offered for general use.

The most radical innovation in deck design puts twin cassette bays in a single unit, thus expanding its versatility. In the Optonica RT-6605 ($550), one tape compartment records, the other plays. This setup lets you duplicate and also electronically edit from one cassette to another on a single deck. In Onkyo's version of the double-cassette deck (TA-W80, $370), you can dub the new cassette at 3 3/4 ips to cut duplicating time in half, and you also can play back two cassettes sequentially--or rather the same sides of two separate cassettes. That adds up to 90 minutes of uninterrupted music from two C-90 cassettes used side by side.

For open-reel enthusiasts, the big news is the high-bias cobalt-treated ferric-oxide tape developed by TDK and Maxell. Used on an open-reel deck with the proper bias and equalization, this tape is said to provide sound at 3 3/4 ips that compares to that of any other open-reel tape at 7 1/2 ips. New decks to handle this tape are expected from Teac and Akai, though only Akai so far has announced anything definite. One model is the GX-77 ($775), with seven-inch-reel capacity and bidirectional record and play via automatic reverse and six heads (three for each direction of tape travel). For more ambitious tape buffs, there's the Akai GX-747 ($1250), which does it all with professional-size (10 1/2-inch) tape reels.

For the Record

As with cassette decks, what was regarded as innovative several years ago now seems to be fairly commonplace on most new turntables. Niceties such as direct-drive platters (for steadier speed and quieter operation) and low-mass tonearms (for better tracking, especially of the recent spate of superdiscs) are included in the Dual 607, priced at only $220. Incidentally, in Dual's, as well as in most other new lines, the automatic changer is an endangered species. The emphasis is on single play, often with some touch of automation such as arm set-down and lift-off.

Actually, the question of direct drive versus belt drive remains a standoff, with fine examples of each type being offered. This debate continues among insiders along with another one--that of the S-shaped arm versus the straight-offset head arm. The latter type seemed to have won out in terms of sheer numbers (all of Pioneer's turntables, for example, use them, as do those of Onkyo, Aiwa, Nikko, Sanyo and Philips, among others). On the other hand, the S-shaped arm is on turntables from JVC, Akai and Technics.

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The true radial or linear tracking arm (the kind that does not pivot but moves across the record in a straight line) has never enjoyed much popularity, but it keeps showing up on some turntables. One is the Pioneer PL-L800 ($450), with operating controls conveniently mounted on a sloping panel up front. Akai has two such models, the AP-L45 ($400) and the AP-L95 ($575). The latter unit includes a microprocessor that enables you to select different cuts for any playing sequence. The new Benjamin 4100 has linear tracking plus front loading, which means you don't have to lift the dust cover when putting on or taking off a record. A really novel use of linear tracking is found in the Sharp VZ-3000, which is a complete stereo system ($750) whose turntable can play both sides of a record without turning it over. The trick is accomplished by using two tone-arms, with the record inserted vertically. And there's the Technics SL-15 that's not exactly brand-new but still an eye (and ear) catcher with its ability to play up to ten cuts per side, in any order, and even when installed upside down--if that turns you on.

Up-front controls for turntables with more conventional arms are found on other new units, such as the Marantz Gold line ($130 to $310), the ultraslim Aiwa AP-D60 ($245), and the Akai AP-Q80 ($475), which can be used with a wireless remote control for cueing up from across the room. JVC has developed an "electronic" tonearm that adjusts stylus weight and antiskating with a built-in microprocessor. Instead of fiddling with weights, you merely set dials that adjust internal circuitry.

In phono cartridges, there is little that is new. Existing models are very good, and most cartridge manufacturers are marking time, awaiting the impending tide of digital discs that will require a complete retooling. Even then, of course, there still will be a need for today's cartridges, since it is hardly likely that everyone will consign presently owned analog discs to the junk heap. In today's cartridges, the emphasis remains on low mass and more critically shaped stylus tips. Both ADC (well known in the U. S.) and Goldring (better known in the U.K.) are featuring a superelliptical stylus tip in their top models. The new tips are about as close as you can come to the shape of a record cutter without actually making it one.

Electronics

Many buyers are still in a quandary over whether to buy a receiver or a separate amplifier and tuner. This is not a choice of performance but more a matter of personal inclination, product cosmetics, available installation space and anticipated needs. The most prominent aspect of the latest amplifiers is their styling, some of which has taken on a functional yet attractive turn. For example, Pioneer's A series ($225 to $800) has front panels that combine operating controls with visual displays of signal paths to the speakers, plus indicators that show whether or not tone controls are involved in the action. For those whose taste veers to the esoteric, the new Denon POA-8000 power amp provides 200 watts (mono) with distortion of 0.003 percent and a signal-to-noise ratio of 122 dB. If you can hear the supposed difference attributed to this kind of amplifier and can afford its $2600 price tag, live it up. And if you really want to wallow in watts, there's the 01 series by SAE, which includes a 500-watts-per-channel A-1001 amplifier ($1900).

Thanks to the proliferation and reliability of circuit chips, today's FM sets--including the FM sections of receivers--pull in more stations, and do so more clearly than in the past. There also are improved versions of the frequency-synthesized tuner that locks into a station by digital circuitry. Two notable entries are the Pioneer F-9 at $425 and the Luxman T-115 at $500.

Another promising development in FM is new circuits for extracting weak signals from their noisy broadcast backgrounds. One such circuit, known as the Schotz, has been licensed to NAD for the manufacture of tuners and receivers and to a new firm, Proton, for personal portables.

From Carver comes word of another circuit that has a similar action, plus a feature that reduces noise on stereo FM by countering the effects of multipath interference. It will appear in a deluxe tuner late this year. Carver, it may be remembered, is the company that made a stir a short time ago with its magnetic-field amplifier--a petite prodigy that furnishes 200 watts per channel and weighs less than ten pounds.

Format and cosmetic changes are rampant among receivers. One trend is toward slimming them down; its counter-trend has them bulging with more features and controls than ever. One thing that most receivers do have in common is the power-output capability once reserved for separate amps. The power race among competing brands has been cooled and today something in the area of 100 watts per channel is considered high power, probably because of the problems encountered in the past with receivers of much higher wattage than that, not to mention the increase in the efficiency of today's speakers, which in general produce greater sound volumes with less driving power. Even some of the options once available only with separates can be found on many of the new receivers--such as tape-deck dubbing, facilities for patching in sound processors and output-power metering.

Electronics today means more than amplifier and tuner. There are image restorers for improving the aural focus of the stereo program, noise-reducing devices, switch boxes for adding speakers to an existing system, equalizers for precisely tailoring response to suit room acoustics, and analyzers to determine what kind of tailoring is needed. You can, of course, enjoy music without any of these extras, though the multiband equalizer is probably the most relevant for most home stereo systems. Of these, one of the most remarkable is the DBX 20/20 ($1500), which analyzes, by computer, the response of a room and then automatically adjusts the music to it. It also can store up to ten such adjustments and even perform an averaging function based on the response in different parts of the room. A poor man's version of the analyzer/equalizer is the Sansui SE-9 ($700), which does a similar job but with somewhat less versatility.

Speakers

Like everything else in audio, speakers are getting both bigger and smaller. The larger models typify what has happened to the acoustic-suspension idea--by using larger cabinets than the traditional bookshelf (two cubic foot) size, it is possible to increase the system's efficiency. Acoustic Research, which launched the acoustic-suspension system 25 years ago and became famous for its big bass in little space, is now offering systems in which space is hardly a concern. You can still buy petite ARs, but the line is now headed by the nearly four-and-a-half-foot-high AR9 ($1800 a pair), which uses two 12-inch woofers. Where the early systems needed a minimum of 20 watts from the driving amplifier, the new one can get by with as little as 15 watts. At the same time, it can cope with much higher power, all in the interest of enhanced dynamic range.

This particular design criterion characterizes most new speakers, of whatever type. Along with it, there has been an across-the-board improvement in clarity and smoothness of response. Refinements, such as superior driving mechanisms and diaphragm material, and the recent spate of computer testing (which enables a designer to measure and predict a system's performance while it is being made) are responsible for better speaker systems of all sizes.

Cone speakers still dominate the market, but alternative designs garner a great deal of interest. Probably the best-known electrostatic is from QUAD. Its latest version, the ESL-63, goes for $3300 a pair. Another novel design is the Ohm Walsh 2 ($598 a pair), which uses an inverted narrow cone; the sound comes off the outer surface. The more familiar Bose 601 has been redesigned, with new drivers and loading. It's been renamed the 601 Series II ($890 a pair).

In contrast to just about all other audio products, most speakers are still made in the U. S. But there are some arresting entries from abroad--especially the units from such British firms as KEF, Celestion and Mordaunt-Short; huge Cabasse speakers from France; a triamplified self-powered Ergo system from Canton of West Germany; and supersleek Danish-built Bang & Olufsen systems. Prices for these generally run higher, since they reflect overseas shipping costs as well as the fickle state of currency ratios. But they all are top quality and merit audition by the serious sound buff.

As we said in the beginning, the hi-fi industry is going in all directions at once. Whether you're seeking a Lilliputian microchip bookshelf rig with crystal-clear fidelity or a Brobdingnagian setup that can shatter glass at 50 paces, you'll find all the components on the shelves of your neighborhood stereo store. Check the goods and then make your move. Just about anything you put your money on today is bound to be a sound investment.

"In turntables, the question of direct drive versus belt drive remains a standoff."