JCR33

Absolute Indulgence

2012-01-12T17:40:00.000-08:00

Kondo Gakuoh

As the flagship of our Kondo power amplifiers, these provide an alternative to our other single-ended amplifiers. Gakuoh redefined the ultimate sound quality of Push Pull Circuit. Kondo's only high power amplifier rated at 30W of highly musical sound using 300B, hand made with in-house KSL-silver wired opt, in-house silver foil capacitor, in-house KSL-resistors, silver binding posts, non distortion power supply and handmade silver wire wiring.

Collection of 47 Labs classics

2011-11-17T01:43:00.000-08:00

Kondo Souga

2011-10-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

2A3 Power Amplifier

Similar to the previous KSL-Neiro but comes with SILVER OUTPUT TRANSFORMERS. This 8 watt amplifier can be ordered (or changed internally) to 4 or 8 Ohms. The 4 Ohm tap is especially good for some harder loading speakers, such as those with impedances lower than 8 Ohm.

The driving power of the SOUGA is much improved over the KSL-Neiro.

Silver wire wound output transformer
Silver foil capacitors
KONDO silver wires

Specifications:

Max. Output Power: 8 watts per channel

Frequency Response: 8Hz ～ 35kHz (+0dB, -3dB)

Line: RCA 1

Input Impedance: 100kΩVacuum

Tubes: 4 x 2A3, 2 x 12BH7, 2 x 6072 / 12AY7

Power Consumption: 130w

Size: W430 x H233 x D314 mm

Weight: 34 kg

BMW M5 2012

2011-08-27T16:20:00.000-07:00

A dream car, 2012 model will be launched in a few months.

The new M5 will be powered by a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 producing 412kW and a whopping 680Nm from a super low 1500rpm. Peak power is made between 6-7000rpm meaning the powerband is ridiculously wide. the new M5 is quite a big beast, tipping the scales at 1870kg. Still, it’ll launch and get to 100km/h from a standstill in just 4.4 seconds.

This is a funny video, not sure why Madonna did that...

Spun chair by Thomas Heatherwich

2011-08-14T03:13:00.000-07:00

A fun chair designed by the young and very creative architect from Britain.

Limited editions, all handmade and polished to perfection

So much fun

Virtual Laser Keyboard

2011-07-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

The Virtual Laser Keyboard (VKB - Magic Cube) is a revolutionary accessory (The only keyboard that operates in total darkness) for Iphone, Ipad, Smartphone, PDA, MAC & Tablet PC and any device that operates Bluetooth HID. The VKB (Magic Cube) is the perfect business / Christmas gift (and just what you want to take out of your inner suit pocket in front of your amazed business colleagues...:-)

In the size of a Zipo lighter and in an outer spaced "enterprise" style, it uses a laser beam to generate a full-size perfectly OPERATING laser keyboard that smoothly connects to your mobile devices.

I tested it in the shop and it works!

Life

2011-07-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take
but by the moments that take our breath away."
-Anonymous

Extreme Audio Exotica

2011-07-15T00:25:00.000-07:00

Talking about nuts, owners of these are proud to admit that they are!

Without the passion who would take the trouble to even contemplating something like these?

Most taken years and thousands of dollars, not to mention the knowledge and skills.

Hats off to these proud owners; my idols, without you, the world is boring!

Eccentric amateur street photographer or maverick? (The Telegraph)

2011-07-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

The work of Vivian Maier, the Chicago nanny whose extraordinary archive of photography was discovered at a junk auction last year, is on show in London for the first time. Read more ...

More about Vivian Maier

Zensation Teahouse in Redfern

2011-07-12T18:37:00.000-07:00

Walked past this small shop before meeting a client.

It was lunch time and I had an hour for something quick and light.

The place is very cozy and the interior decor is nice.

Friendly service, simple and fresh dim-sums.

Quad ESL57

2011-07-11T18:27:00.000-07:00

The Quad ESL was the world's very first full range, commercially available electrostatic loudspeaker. In spite of its great antiquity (some 50 years old to date) it was voted the "Greatest Hi-Fi Product of All Time" by Hi-Fi News and record review in the January 2000 issue of that journal.

The Quad ESL was first introduced to the public arena in 1957, although it was demonstrated on several occasions prior to this. It remained in production for some 25 years, being replaced by The Acoustical Manufacturing Company, Huntingdon, England in 1982. For many listeners and music lovers, this speaker remains the marque against which all other speakers with pretention to high quality are measured. Even it's successor in the Quad stable, the ESL '63 has never attracted quite the same following.

This speaker is often referred to as the Quad 55 or the Quad 57. If you respect the wishes of the designer, you call it the Quad Electrostatic Loudspeaker - that's all. IF you would like to investigate the origins of this confusion then go to Hard Core.

If you are devotee of this particular loudspeaker, or the electrostatic format, you should find this site particularly interesting. Even if you are not a fan, the historical and technical details contained in this site could be of some interest.

My Thought on Hi Fi by Hiroyasu Kondo - Part 1

2011-07-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

[Translations by Hiro Yoshizumi, Sibatech Correspondent in Calgary, Canada]

Part 1 (written early summer, 1999)

Particles and Wave Motion

Albert Einstein said that motion is energy. I believe that motion is sound. I am all the more convinced of my belief when I listen to the swelling mass of sound in the mildle of Wagner's Tannhauser overture. Especially so when listening to the same music performed by the great maestro, Arturo Toscanini at his last concert of April 4,1954. which sounds as if the particles of the sound were colliding with one another and whirling in a thunderous march. It seems to me that those particles made unimaginable movements. I can easily put myself in that scene where the 87-year-old maestro was giving everything he could to his farewell performance and the orchestra was responding to its fullest capacity.

Sound is said to be propagated as wave motion. This is only true in a large room with no obstruction. In reality, however, sound waves move in much more complicated way, colliding and jostling here and there, sometimes in a whirl. We audio engineers should try to visualize in our head how the sound waves are behaving, which cannot be explained by electrical theory. There seem to be still countless unknown factors challenging audio engineers. The more you think about audio, the deeper it appears to become.

Solemn Sound

Two hundred Zen monks begin prayer at five o'clock every morning at the Soji-ji, the head temple of Zen Buddhism. The monks sitting in the left and right files serenely recite sutra-chanting. What a solemn tone! This daily ritual invites people to the world of nirvana. What should I do if I am requested to express this solemnity with the sound reproduction equipment?

First off, I must think of how to collect the sound. According to the current recording method, a number of microphones would be placed in various locations like chessmen. But I am skeptical about this method, primarily because the more microphones are used, the more emphatically the original sound near the microphones is recorded, thus disturbing the sound wave harmony that most counts. Just imagine the noise emitted from a twin-engine plane. It may sound like "Brrr...", which is produced by subtle differences in frequency. Most musical instrumients or vocal congregations always produce "difference tone". It seems to me that this gentle trembling vibrates harmonics, further producing chords and as the result, a beautiful tone. If you want to produce a beautiful tone, you must first think of the mechanism in which it is produced.

Analog Sound Is Digital Sound

The analog disk does not always mean to have analog sound, nor the digital disk digital sound. To me the audio systems now available on market sound like digital even in their analog-processing stage. Each note sounds as sharp and acute as the square wave. It is Iike digital photo prints showing every detail of the object so clearty. Its first impression is superb and its resolution is of first rate, yet I wonder if this is the royal road to audio.

The kind of sound that I want to produce is such that its individual particles might have correlation. It is easy to produce so-caled "mellow" sound by choosing proper parts and circuits, but this "melow" property is tricky. It is a technique to gradate boundary lines. Vacuum tubes of 30 years ago happened to produce such a sound and this trend still continues. If any change ever occurred, it can be said that digital-like sound has been added. I cannot agree to this trend. I want to produce a sound in which its individual particles may radiate energy into the ambient space just like the sun and fuse into one. After all, I think I must go back to the stage of picking up sound.

Sound of Electron

Have you ever seen the movements of electrons? The textbook says that the electrons move around the protons with a furious velocity. Sometimes I can vlsualize those movements very clearly. They are the behaviour of the thermoelectrons. The sound produced by the efficiency-oriented vacuum tubes is heavy whle the one by the vacuum tubes of simple structure is transparent. I imagine that this difference might lie in the relationship of the magnitude of the emission to the plate voltage. The thermoelectrons float around the heater or cathode like a sea of clouds. The bigger the emission, the more the thermoelectrons. Each thermoelectron must be separated from the clouds and be made to reach the plate. This process is related to the voltage applied to the plate.

Let's think of the structure of the pentode tube. Electrons overflow from the cathode, forming huge clouds. As the primary grid with a fine mesh controlling the electrons stands up nearby, the floating thermoelectrons are at a loss with the electron and grid, both negative. It seems to me that this state might have something to do with the "melow" sound produced by the pentode tube. Then, how can you reduce the floating electrons? In conclusion, there will be no alternative but to adopt a coarse mesh for the grid like VT-C and raise the plate voltage, using the directly heated triode. But now the heater becomes shaky, rattling the electrons, which is to affect the sound. How difficult audio is!

Rey Audio

2011-07-11T02:49:00.000-07:00

THE HISTORY OF REY AUDIO by SHOZO KINOSHITA

Kondo - New Integrated Amp - Overture

2011-07-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

The Kondo Overture is Kondo's most affordable amplifier yet. Now more music lovers can experience the Kondo quality. Launched in Dec 2010.

High quality handcrafting with module style amplifier section, best component placements, signal wiring and ground layout.

Silver foil coupling capacitors are adopted in both driver and output stages. Decouplings are carefully placed along all stages for natural, stress-free music performance.

Newly developed CCB circuit guarantees signals purity. It stops signals from flowing through biasing trim pot. Tonal quality is drastically increased.

KONDO silver wires KSL-VzII and SSW are adopted. Many hours of listening and comparisons were spent for the selections of parts.

Kondo Ongaku - Glowing in the dark

2011-07-09T19:35:00.001-07:00

Kondo - Legendary with Great Vitality

2011-07-09T19:34:00.001-07:00