On the only forum I subscribe to, I was asked a question about my dream system. Here's my reply. You'll notice that some of the items are many years old. The plain fact is that in some instances, nothing, literally nothing made today can achieve the spectacularly wonderful sound from this bygone era. That type of sound is 'unfashionable' - apparently.
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Hmm. Yes. Well. (imagine me with a furrowed brow, looking serious momentarily). Every piece discussed below is in my view a true masterpiece in its respective field.
The Beveridge are in my opinion, and that of Helmut Brinkmann (yes, that one) and Ricardo of Absolute Sounds and many others truly the most musical speakers of all time. The slight disadvantage was that they were 8 feet tall, cylindrical and nearly 2 feet in diameter. Also, you sat between them rather than in front of them.
Also, the construction plans were placed securely by Harold Beveridge, but due to the effects of Alzheimer’s, from which I believe he died, the plans were never found. Not supposition. His son told me this. At one point he and I had discussions about me finding working capital to re-launch the brand. These talks came to nothing. Subsequently …
Ricardo funded an abortive attempt, with the late Mr Beveridge's son to reverse engineer the design. One pair were produced, and that was the end of that.
The Cello palette preamp is incomparable. That's it. Stereophile reviews are available on line. Mark Levinson was really on the case there.
Similarly with the Meridian 508.24. I very much doubt if a definitely more musical CD player has ever been built and, given the fact that apparently there are no CD-only drives in production these days (they are all hybrid designs) I am doubtful if there ever will be.
The Brinkman combination was one I owned for several years. Rendered any Linn combination utterly irrelevant. However, The Funk Vector offers far better value in purely sonic terms at 9% of the price, and I used the funds elsewhere.
The Trio (Kenwood) KT-917 I have owner for 27 years. It was $1800 at today’s prices back then. Other than the very top Sansui and the Sequerra, I know of nothing better. Marantz ST-10 might be contender. And yes, I had a few CT7000s – including a black one.
The Nakamichi CR7 needs no introduction. As sonically marvellous as the 1000ZXL and Dragon. I owned all 3. I now use a Nakamichi 680ZX two-speed machine.
TEAC made what I felt were the finest portable DAT machines.
The LAT cables were in fact a typing error on my part. I should have said LFD.
Best
Howard.
