The 1976 Consumer Electronic Show in Chicago was held a bit later than usual...June 13 to 16...and as a consequence we suffered from the in famous Chicago summer weather, with temperatures over 90° F. and awful, energy-sapping humidity. Com pounding this misery were the difficult logistics of covering this show.
Oh yes, the official headquarters for the CES still is the cavernous McCormick Place, which more than ever reminds me of a misplaced hangar for B-52 bombers. All of the big guns in the industry were there ... Pioneer, Kenwood, Sansui, Panasonic/Technics, Superscope/ Sony/Marantz, and a host of barely lesser lights. But, as usual, the cacophony in McCormick Place precluded any meaningful audio demonstrations, so myriad hotel demonstration suites scattered all over town. Even with a stout constitution and plenty of taxi money, it is well nigh impossible to cover all of the suites, thus I freely acknowledge the assistance of several trustworthy surrogates in compiling this report.
What might be called the "hit" of the show was the Elcaset, the new large format cassette system, which I previewed in the July issue of Audio.
Teac showed a prototype Elcaset recorder, but gave few indications of price or date of production. Technics displayed a very elaborate Elcaset unit, obviously a "high end" model, but here again had little information on price or on production.
Sony/Superscope seems to have really jumped on the Elcaset bandwagon. They were showing two front-loading Elcaset recorders. Model EL-7 is the top of the line unit, priced at "under $900," and the EL-5 model is priced at $630. Both are slated for introduction into the U.S. market in September of this year. Both models feature sole noid-operated logic control mode change systems and Dolby-B noise reduction, including an FM Dolby position. The EL-7 has a three-motor, closed-loop, dual-capstan tape drive system, with three ferrite heads for "off tape" monitoring. The EL-5 is a single-motor system, with two ferrite heads (which I personally feel is a mis take, since one of the advantages of the Elcaset system is the ease of monitoring). The EL-7 is said to have a frequency response of 25 Hz to 22 kHz ±3 dB with the Type Two FeCr tape, a S/N ratio of 62 dB, and a wow and flutter spec of 0.08% (W DIN). Impressive figures, but Sony expects to better them with the Type Three tape, especially formulated for the Elcaset.
Superscope invited the press corps to Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion where a delicious libation of Pol Roger and orange juice helped us wax loquacious, and where I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Masaru Nagami, General Manager of the Sony Audio Technical Development Laboratory, and Mr. Yoshihiro Wada of the Inter national Division. Both men are deeply involved in the Elcaset project, and we had some interesting discussions on the subject. Best of all, they are rushing Elcaset recorders and Type 1 and 2 tape to me, so I should be able to give you an evaluation fairly soon on this interesting new tape format.
At McCormick Place, it would appear that the top receiver manufacturers are caught up in a horse power race. Current champion is Technics with its SA-5760 rated at 165 watts, with Pioneer close behind with its 160 watt SX-1250. Note that these are the watts per channel figure! Marantz has a 125 watt/channel unit, Kenwood a 120 watt/channel brute, and Sansui a 110 watt/channel receiver. No question about any of these units driving the low efficiency air suspension speaker systems to high SPL levels.
Shades of the Revolution!
The British hi-fi invasion continues, and many people commented on the attractive exhibits of the British group at McCormick Place, which included Alba, Armstrong, Decca, Expotus, Goldring, Jordan- Watts, Keith Monks, Linn Products, Metrosound, Monitor, Mordaunt-Short, and Rola-Celestion (Rocelco). Many of these companies have set up marketing organizations in this country, so you'll soon be seeing their cartridges, turntables, electronics, and speakers in the audio shops. Good friend Raymond Cooke of KEF had a demonstration suite at the Drake and was showing no fewer than six speakers to be marketed in the U.S., four of which are new, including the KEF 105 reference unit, whose drivers are arranged for minimum time delay distortion. Over at the Bismarck Hotel, that affable Britisher Keith Monks teamed up his new mercury-contact arm with the Linn Sondek turntables, along with NAIM pre- and power amps and Keith's own speakers, as well as a Linn speaker.
Speaking of the Bismarck, there was what was termed a "high end" group at the hotel, and it included such audio manufacturers as C/M, Dayton-Wright (ES speakers & pre- and power amp), Armstrong (British pre- and power amps & tuners), Dunlap-Clarke (amplifiers), and Quintessence (pre-and power amps). Hardly the least of this group was Mark Levinson Audio Systems. Mark was showing his new electronic crossover, which is now in production, and an incredible amplifier which really raised a lot of eye brows. Imagine a black anodized unit about 2 ft. wide by 3 ft. deep and about 18 in. high, which is absolutely festooned on each side with massive heat sinks. Must weigh over 200 pounds! This is a Class A amplifier with an output of...15 watts! No, I'm not kidding, and evidently neither is Mark. While it can be used as a stereo amplifier to power high efficiency speakers (it will deliver 50 watts into 1 ohm), its real purpose is as a tweeter amplifier in multi-amplified systems, such as Mark's own HQD monitor sys tem, which combines Hartley 24-in. woofers, with Quad electrostatic mid range (two stacked on each side in a special frame), and Decca ribbon tweeters. Overkill? I guess it depends on your depth of involvement and commitment to audio and the size of your pocketbook. Anticipated price of the ML-1, $1800 - $2000.
While on the subject of amplifiers, Yamaha was showing its new B-2 power amplifier, which is a 100 watt/channel unit, using a new type of vertical FET in what they call a cascode bootstrap circuit, said to give very low distortion, i.e. 0.08% THD at rated output, 20 Hz-20 kHz. Price of the B-2 is $850. A companion pre-amp, the C-2, is a new design, which features a phono S/N ratio of 99 dB below 10 mV (IHF-A, shorted input).
You can acquire it for $650.
Sony Corp. of America, the other purveyor of vertical FET amplifiers, has a new integrated amplifier, the TA-5650, which features true complementary push-pull V-FET output.
The unit is rated at 50 watts/channel and will sell for $500.
Four-Channel
Is quadraphonic sound dead? Per haps the situation is best described as "difficult." There was little activity at the CES, although behind the scenes (no plug intended) there were several new developments. Peter Scheiber, the matrix pioneer, has joined forces with the Deltec Company, a manufacturer of electronic components such as PC boards, and will produce a super-duper parametric SQ decoder, said to provide 35 dB of separation. In the same vein, the Tate SQ decoder, which was shown in "breadboard" fashion a couple of years ago, will now be available to audio equipment manufacturers in the form of three monolithic integrated circuit chips manufactured by National Semiconductor Co. The decoder is said to provide 30 dB separation in all directions with a 70 dB S/N ratio. Perhaps some of this SQ activity has been prompted by the announcements from Columbia Records and EMI in England that henceforth most of their classical recordings and selected pop material will be issued as single inventory items. In other words, no separate stereo and SQ recordings. Significantly, Pioneer introduced a new four-channel receiver at the show, Model QX-949A. This 40 watt/channel unit features an elaborate CD-4 demodulator with phase-locked loop and AGC, a new SQ full-logic decoder, and Regular Matrix decoder. Sansui introduced the QRX 5001, 6001, and 7001 four-channel receivers, all with their Variomatrix circuits for QS, CD-4 demodulators, and with SQ decoding through their phase matrix circuit.
The QS-D2 outboard decoder was also shown which uses basically the same circuitry as the receivers.
On the quadraphonic cartridge front, Shure made its long awaited en try into the field with the M24H CD-4 cartridge. I've already sampled one of these units, and it does an excellent job of reproducing CD-4 recordings.
Micro-Acoustics has entered the four-channel cartridge market with their QDC lab model which uses dual-electret transducer system coupled to a beryllium stylus assembly. Price, $150.
Lastly, JVC was showing their new CD-4 demodulators utilizing the new noise gating circuitry, which I described in my report on the Los Angeles AES convention. All in all, they haven't put the sod on the quadraphonic grave yet, and with these promising new developments, I don't think it will happen.
AKG introduced six new phono cartridges, their first entry into this field. All of them employ the "transversal suspension" system, described by its inventor, Dr. Fidi, in the March, 1976 issue of Audio. The top of the line model, the P8ES, is said to track in top quality tonearms at 0.75 gram.
Each P8ES cartridge is furnished with an individual frequency response curve.
Needless to say, there were tape decks, both open reel and cassette, in profusion at the show, far more than I can hope to cover here. One item that caught the eye was the new Teac 860 cassette deck that incorporated dbx noise reduction as well as Dolby B.
Nakamichi showed its "recording di rector" series, slant front cassette unit, with companion "pre-amp," which is specifically geared to recording functions including mixing facilities. An unusual item from Nakamichi was a very modern, sleek-looking power amplifier with a 100 watt/channel rating. The Model 620 is a class B design said to eliminate crossover and switching distortions. It is expected to sell for $600.
In blank tape, Ampex introduced what they call the "Plus Series," a high-end consumer tape, in open reel, cassette, and cartridge. I'm sure it's a fine tape, but more significantly, Ampex is making available its "Grand Master" professional tape to the consumer market, in 7-in. reels and on 10 1/2-in. NAB reels. Some tape ma chine manufacturers have been checking Grand Master for use with their high end recorders, and likely will bias and EQ for it.
My Kingdom for a Speaker
New loudspeakers? What flavor would you like? Ye gads, there were legions of them. The Koss Model One electrostatic speaker has been joined by the Model Two, which however is not full range, using an electromagnetic tweeter. Price is $675 each. The Acoustat X is a full-range electrostatic speaker, which uses its own built-in direct-drive tube amplifier. It is claimed that the unit cannot be made to arc by overdriving. Cost is $1895 for a pair. Duntech Labs was showing their DL-15 floor-standing, 3-way speaker, with its novel method of eliminating diffraction distortion.
They were also demonstrating a prototype all-FET pre-amp, with built-in head amp for moving-coil cartridges.
Infinity Systems was introducing a new high end, large column type speaker, which for mid-range and tweeter used a "sandwich" type of mylar diaphragm with magnetic drive.
Infinity's Class D switching amplifier has finally gone into production, and the 250 watt/channel unit should be in the audio stores just about now.
Janis Audio Associates was rattling the walls of the Pick-Congress Hotel with their new W-2 sub-woofer, a less ex pensive relative of the monster unit reported on about a year ago. They have a new companion electronic crossover network to make inter facing the unit with other speakers a more accurate proposition.
Tube amplifiers still have their adherents, as exemplified by the products of Audio Research. Now the Lux Co. of Japan is producing an advanced tube-type monophonic (!) amplifier, plus a tube pre-amplifier sans tone controls for the super purist.
If he wants control, there is a tube-type graphic equalizer available too! Finally, the Audiopulse Model One digital time delay unit was being demonstrated at the Drake. This garnered a lot of attention, and understandably so. The room in which it was being demonstrated was not too good acoustically, necessitating a little exaggeration of the delay effect. But there was no question that it worked, and worked well, and most people commented favorably on the "con cert hall" enhancement afforded ordinary stereo recordings.
That wraps up this years CES. The trade papers said that attendance was down 10-15%, but you would never know it from the crowds. The industry is evidently back in good financial shape, considering the lavish scale of entertainment that was laid on by many companies. As always, apologies to those whose products were not mentioned...just can't cover every thing.
(Source: Audio magazine; Bert Whyte)
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