Fine Arts by GRUNDIG - The M100 System from 1996

Fine Arts by GRUNDIG were always special kind of audio components. The M 100 mini Hi-Fi system introduced in 1996 is no exception. These are all separate, idependently operable mini Hi-Fi components that consisted of three different amplifiers, two CD players, one tuner, one cassette deck and a bookshelf speaker system. List of components: 

M100-A 80W/ch Stereo amplifier with full system remote

M100-R 80W/ch Stereo RDS Receiver with full system remote

M100-ADPL 3x30 W + 2x15W Surround amplifier with full system remote

M100-CDC 3 Disc-CD-Changer

M100-CD single tray Bitstream CD player

M100-T HiFi RDS tuner with 59 presets

M100-CF HiFi Autoreverse cassette deck with Dolby B,C and HX Pro

MBX-100 bookshelf loudspeakers

All components measure 270 x 95 x 310 mm which makes it easier to stack them in any order or side by side. Add to this, convenience features like D.O.T. (direct operation technique) and you have a winner system. D.O.T. means that you can easily switch between components simply pressing the desired source key on any component or remote. So if you are listening to radio and want to switch to cassette you can achieve this by pressing play on the cassette recorder or remote. The amplifier will switch from tuner to cassette and play will began.

M100-A

M100-ADPL

M100-CF

M100-CDC

M100-T

M100-R

M100-CD

PHILIPS F 009 (1980) - Super HiFi-minisystem

This mini HiFi system was introduced by Philips in 1980. It was advertised as a "HiFi Jewel" or "Super HiFi-minisystem" while officially it had an ever changing name: 109, F 109, F 009. The components of this Super HiFi-minisystem are the N 5581 cassette deck featuring an open cassette compartiment, fluorescent VU meters, digital counter and Metal tape capability. The tuner was the AH 109 T, a Quartz Synthesizer AM/FM tuner with 14 presets. The amplifier section consisted of the AH 209 pre-amplifier and AH 309 power amplifier capable of delivering 55 W/ch at 8 ohm. Alternatively the power amplifier could be replaced with Philips MFB loudspeakers directly connected to the pre-amplifier. Dimensions of the components are 26 x 5(10) x 18.3 cm (WxHxD). All components have a one piece aluminium front - top cover.

Lenco C 2003 (1977) - 3 Head Deck Rarity

Lenco is mostly remembered for their turntables but in 1977 they introduced a totally unexpected model, a very special 3 discrete head cassette deck. The deck features a 2 motor transport with an a.c. servo-controlled direct drive motor for the dual capstan transport and an asynchronous motor for reel drive. The direct-drive capstan motor is provided with a 3 mm capstan spindle and controlled by servo. It drives the pre-capstan - which is designed as a flywhell - by means of a belt. If the pinch rollers are not engaged the two capstans rotate at approximately the same speed. Only when the pre-capstan is braked by means of the rubber pinch roller the flat belt allow a slip of about 2%. As a result the tape between two capstans is streched. During playback the tape speed can be varied by about +/-2.5%. The die-cast head support assembly includes the heads, tape guides and rubber pinch rollers. The deck is a 3 discrete head head construction with 1 ferrite erase head of double gap design, 1 ferrite record head (3 micro gap) and 1 hard permalloy playback head (1 micro gap), however the deck has no monitoring function, you have to use the switch on your preamp. 

The deck features both manual recording level setting with large illuminated level meters and ALC (Automatic Level Control) with time constant adjusted for optimal recording of speech. Automatic level control of music was deliberately omitted since the results cannot be satisfactory and would not be compatible with the high standard of the unit. The deck was adjusted at the factory for BASF LH super C 60 (standard), Maxell UD XL I C 60 (high output), BASF Ferrochrome C 60 (Fe-Cr) and Maxell UD XL II C 60 (CrO2 - auto select). In order to avoid the occurence of heterodyne frequencies and interference with the Dolby system a switchable 19 kHz Multiplex filter is provided. This filter is also active for the 30 kHz carrier used in the CD4 Quadro LP records. The headphoe volume can be adjusted by means of two separate knobs while the DIN microphone connectors have a 5 volt d.c. supply for electret microphones. Frequency response is 30-18,000 Hz +/-3 dB (FeCr and CrO2 tape), wow and flutter is +/-0.07% WRMS, dimensions: 460x285x85 mm.

(Some info kindly provided by M.E. from resus.ch )