18 September 2020

SONY Walkman (1989) - The Making of

walkman

In 1979 a burst of inspiration brought together two seemingly unrelated projects which were under way at SONY: incredibly light-weight headphones and a compact stereo tape player. The transistor radio offered a means to take broadcast music out of the home, to anywhere you wanted to be. The Walkman took the world a giant leap further by allowing individuals to "program" their own music and listen to it anytime, anywhere. Recording your favourite selection of songs onto a Compact Cassette(*) was the "program" used in a Walkman.

This short photo story focuses on the making of the 10th Anniversary Walkman, the SONY WM-701C. This factory tour was presented in a SONY document from 1989 dedicated to the 10th Anniversary of the SONY Walkman.

(*) The Compact Cassette was invented by PHILIPS in 1963.


SONY factory Japan
walkman

SONY robots on production line
walkman

walkman

First test
walkman

Pick-and-place machine for SMD components
walkman

Two identical circuit boards are ready
walkman

... more work at SONY
walkman

Final tests
walkman

Special packaging of the SONY WM-701C "10th Anniversary"
walkman

Ready for delivery
walkman



12 September 2020

PHILIPS FB1000 (1990) - World-Class Technology. European Excellence.

 

Loudspeaker

A little bit out of the ordinary, appealing to those with a specialist interest, those appreciative of the finest construction and materials. The FB 1000 is the pinnacle of PHILIPS loudspeaker design. Though incorporating four drive units the FB 1000 is basically a World-Class two way loudspeaker. The lower two drivers (a super tweeter and second woofer) are "contour definition transducers" to provide real bass below 150Hz and to extend treble out to 40kHz. The complete four-way package is a true high-performance loudspeaker with maximum 300W high-power handling. The computer designed cabinet is divided into two independent non-parallel compartments giving an ideal air load for the two bass drivers and minimizing internal standing waves further reducing colouration. 

All new bass drivers have been developed for this exceptional loudspeaker. A newly developed mix of polypropylene and chopped carbon fibres is injection moulded to form exceptionally rigid, lightweightcones. Low colouration, Isophase ribbon tweeters and super tweeters are used for fast transient response, low colouration and zero phase shift. A computer developed high-performance crossover integrates these drivers @ 500Hz/2,2kHz/13kHz. A rebadged version of this model was the marantz LS-95, part of their Music Link series products. Both loudspeakers were manufactured at the PHILIPS factory in Belgium. 

Specifications: 40 Hz -40 kHz (-6dB) / 47 Hz - 32 kHz (+/- 2 dB) / Power Nominal 180W / Max. 300 W / 1360*400*340mm / 70 kg

Loudspeaker
Woofer

Loudspeaker
Alnico magnet with copper shunt rings

Loudspeaker
Ribbon tweeter cast frame

Loudspeaker
Diaphragm of ribbon tweeter

Loudspeaker
Crossover frequency response

Loudspeaker



04 September 2020

LUXMAN C-02/M-02 - Status Series (1982)

power amplifier

Over the years, Luxman's strenght in engineering excellence has always been most evident in amplifier design. The M-02 utilize discrete output transistors and maintain high dynamic power even into low impedance loads. Lux's innovative circuitry "Duo-Beta" meant skillful utilization of 2 kinds of NFb. (Optimum Negative Feedback and DC Subsonic Negative Feedback) A slim but effective power transformer with outstanding regulation and far better efficiency than those with the conventional EI core is used for solid bass sound. Unprecedented speedy attack and decay are given in the actual auditory feelings thanks to the unique bias current circuit emplying LED's in lieu of normal diodes. The BTL selector switch provided makes it possible to take out an astounding monaural 320W into 8-ohm loads. Liquid-Cooled heat sink and Peak-Reading power meters with separate channel attenuators complete this very successful model. (LUXMAN M-02: 150 W/ch 8 ohm with no more than 0.015% THD, Frequency Response 10Hz-100kHz, 453*336*141 mm, 14.5kg)

power amplifier

power amplifier

power amplifier

power amplifier

power amplifier

power amplifier