Technics SL-Z1000/SH-Z1000 (1989) | Digital Reference

 

The SL-Z1000 grew out of Technics' vast experience in high stability, anti-vibration construction. Beneath its luxurious finish lies one of the highest precision, quickest access linear motor transport systems ever implemented in a CD transport, a masterpiece of digital audio engineering. Power transformers are located symmetrically to the left and right on either side of the centre disc tray so as to achieve optimum overall mechanical balance. Anti-Vibration/Anti-Resonance Design and Construction: The optical deck has a 4-point support floating construction using coiled springs and rubber dampers to shut out the effect of external vibration. Metal rollers using ball-bearings are employed in the vertical guide assembly of the traverse mechanism. Magnetic attraction keeps the rollers closely aligned with the guide, eliminating mechanical play, and improving anti-vibration performance. Player construction features a 2 mm thick chassis, 2 mm thick anti-vibration steel baseplate, 3 mm thick vibration-damping aluminum top, and 8 mm thick aluminum extruded panels. It also includes large TNRC insulators. Technics unique linear motor transport is a highly logical design that does not depend on gears or similar mechanisms. It uses a highly efficient and quiet linear motor design for high speed access. High-torque brushless motor and High precision pressed glass lens offer excellent reliability.

The SH-X1000 is a D/A converter unit with a state-of-the-art 3-chip MASH DAC LSI system which can handle multiple digital sampling frequencies. This allows it to accept virtually any home digital audio source including CD, DAT, and DBS (satellite). Its anti-jitter interface is a breakthrough which makes possible the reproduction of unstable digital signals with high potential fidelity. Top-of-the-Line MASH 1-Bit D/A Converter System. The MASH 1-bit D/A Converter System originated by Technics bypasses the manufacturing problems which were insurmountable with conventional DACS. It eliminates non-linearity and zero-cross distortion, while enabling faint music signal components to be reproduced with significantly greater accuracy. To maximize the advantages of this approach to digital fidelity, the SH-X1000 incorporates ultra-high performance MASH DAC LSIs. It uses three chips: a digital filter and MASH LSI (MN64730), and separate PWM LSIS (MN64731) for the left and right channels. The two components have the same size: Dimensions: 484 x 139 x 419 mm (WxHxD) Weight: 20 kg

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KENWOOD LS-1900 (1980) | State-of-the-art

 

The LS-1900 from Kenwood is a rare example of the art of high quality speaker design. Kenwood was not claiming another "revolutionary break-through" in speaker design but there's no doubt that the design techniques used to aid the creation of this remarkable system are state-of-the-art. To maintain linearity of the speaker cone movement at all inputs, the LS-1900 woofer features a 33cm diameter cone with an accordion shaped edge support, driven by a massive Alnico V magnetic structure encased in a pot yoke. Since the mid-range driver's area covers most of the frequencies we actually hear in music, it is one of the most important elements of a speaker system. For this Kenwood developed a mid-frequency driver with center support for linear cone movement. It is the high frequency driver that gives a high fidelity system its "presence" by its ability to reproduce musical overtones. Kenwood engineers designed a ring-diaphragm driver for wide dispersion and low distortion. In order to isolate vibrations produced by the woofer and its enclosure the mid-range and tweeter are mounted in a separate housing that can also be rotated for optimal sound in your listening room. The LS-1900 is designed to be placed directly on the floor. There are two ways of using the LS-1900 loudspeaker system.

One way is to use the loudspeaker normally with a stereo amplifier in which case one will use the dedicated inputs marked "internal network". A more sophisticated method is to use a cross-over network inserted after the control amplifier which will feed separate low-range, mid-range and high-range power amplifiers with dedicated input at the back of the LS-1900.

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