I was quite tempted by one of these for my DIY RPi streamer project, there was one on ebay ‘not working’ a while back. The location and space around the cassette door opening does limit ones options with the screen though.
I’ll get my hat!
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After my (obligatory) NAD 3020 I bought a Mission Cyrus 2 and still think that is a cracking piece of design
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I once had one of these, the Italian Audiotech turntable stand. It is such a great minimalist design and worked fantastically well. I also had a little shelf that sat inside it called the Pico, designed specifically for the original Linn Lingo.
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I had one of these back in the 80’s, I liked the large, opposing vertical orientation of the VU meters, which bobbed up and down in sympathy with the music! The dbx implementation left a bit to be desired especially when you consider that my main reason for a cassette deck was to record my LPs so that I could listen to them at uni without hoofing a turntable about and for listening in the car.
No dbx noise reduction in a boom box or car stereo!
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As the DM70 aged, the electrostatics lost sensitivity and they became a bit dull. There was a hack that I only discovered a year or so before I sold them and that was that there was a large autotransformer in the main cabinet (not in the power unit for the ESL - in case anyone who has a pair still reads this) and you could easily move the electrostatics up one tap which instantly rejuvenated the speaker’s overall performance.
The bass unit had a foam surround and eventually that did what foam does, which fortunately hadn’t happened before I sold them. But on the web you can find the odd company that will rebuild the bass unit.
This design which was indeed originally called Continental, was I believe adopted as the only available shape when B&W went from the original Model 70 name to DM70. The standard boxy shape Model 70 you can easily find on Google were not nice to look at!
Mine were the last iteration - DM70 (Improved) - and were white and black like in the photo. My father had a pair finished in walnut veneer and black cloth for the grills, but his were indeed Model 70 Continentals, but badged and sold by Sony as SS7000. A friend of mine bought those from him when he wanted to downsize, but discovered the hard way that the veneer wasn’t at all thick. Basically he made a right mess of them and didn’t keep them long! Actually Googling does turn up a photo of the SS7000 to confirm my memory. Someone seems to have sold some on eBay recently.
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Always liked the looks of the Revox B710 MkII – much more handsome than the B215, which was all buttons, no knobs or toggle switches. Boring LCD display too.
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You use a pencil to wind back in any tape that escaped… Sorry FR, I didn’t perhaps explain it well enough. A poor joke!
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I would not say I love the design but I find it much nicer than nowadays Cyrus.
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Conrad Johnson gear is passing through years with their vintage champagne colour.
I like a lot, specially that one.
Art preamp. Courtesy from Hifi Viêt Nam picture.
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Well, i understand now. It even reminds me bad memories, specially when the tape escaped from the tape recorded concerts with my past Sony WM D6 tape portable recorder.
I couldn’t understood your joke as you quoted « all those buttons… ». I was only focusing on buttons.
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Surprised this little marvel hadn’t been mentioned yet!
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I am surprised Cyrus 1 or 2 has not been mentioned before.
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Chacun a son gout FR!
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I had MA65 mono block power amps which were built using the same case as the A1, but with shiny chrome fronts. They offered 65 watts of tasty class A power. You needed two, of course, so you could fry eggs on the left channel and bacon on the right.
Roger
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I have a Nait 2 just like that, which sits on a shelf in my bedroom. It’s plugged in to the mains, but not connected to anything otherwise. I turn it on occasionally when I get into bed at night, as I think that it’a a lovely design and it looks great in an otherwise darkened room. (Very sad that I do this, I know, but true.)
It’s a great example of industrial design, and (I think) one of Naim’s best ever looking products. I have plugged it into my ‘main’ system occasionally, and it sounds fabulous driving a single pair of my Quad ESL57s. They are notoriously difficult 'speakers to drive (not many amps drive the Quads well), but I have seen a number of hifi press articles that single out the Nait 2 as one of the best for driving a single pair of the ESL57s.
I can’t tell from this photo what sources can be selected by the knob on the right of the unit. The earlier models had an ‘Aux’ position, but the late units (like my own) had one optimised for CD input.
A lovely thing, anyway!
PS: I am reminded that there is an unique Nait 2 version that was produced for a short while between the original Chrome Bumper and the later Olive models. This had a black opaque plastic front plate, in which the green Naim logo glowed through the plastic when the amp was powered. It is the only Naim product that I recall ever to look this way.
Was this some sort of prototype that was produced to test the water at the time of the switch from Chrome Bumper to Olive?
Can anyone shed any light? I imagine that it is highly collectable.
I think it was Badger that mentioned buttons but never mind. I think you do really well given that English is your second language. All good FR.
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My Sony TC 118SD Stereo Cassette Deck from about 1976. Picture is from a Sony brochure I still have.
Cassette had only started to be recognized as acceptable for Hi-Fi use for about 3 years or so when I bought this after being impressed with a friends non-Dolby version of this deck.
It was typical Sony at the time. Build quality was a notch above any opposition at around the same price, it looked more expensive than it was (about £120 if I remember correctly), sound quality was also better than most of the opposition & the unit was totally reliable for the 5/6 years I owned it before I succumbed to an expensive, £220, front loading, 3 head JVC machine which sounded a bit better but probably not £100 worth.
The real reason have included it in this post however is simply because I believe this style of player looks superb, better than any of the front loaders which wiped them out. I think it’s a great bit of vintage kit from a style point of view.
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