Thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread, it was very helpful.
Thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread, it was very helpful.
Thanks Seawolf. I thought that I had missed a variation.
I worked with the first generation 4310's at a place called Schafer Electronics who built the audio portions of radio station equipment from the mixer to the transmitter input. Also NAB cart machines and automation systems.
Schafer had a demo room where they could show off how their gear sounded. The room was built to all current (1976) NAB and AES standards and produced a very good sound. If I located myself further forward than the "audience" section and went nearfield, it was apparent that the 4310's could produce very fine details on well produced music product. Maybe it was "cheating" to have early generation (from the master tapes) 15 ips reel to reel tapes played on Scully and other similar quality machines to showcase Schafer electronics, but the setup served its purpose. One could only be impressed with what was heard during those playbacks.
As far as I know the only thing different about those very early production 4310's was the foilcal art and knobs used which bordered on being ugly.
I am sure that any of the speakers you mentioned in your post would sound very satisfactory to you if located in that room, pointing out the severity of the limitations of our home listening areas and how much these limitations drive our quests for having the perfect JBL's. You most likely have had them.
"Why don't you Mine your own Bismuth, so you won't be mining mine?"
DE
I picked up a Sansui cassette deck (later verified to be made by Nak) at the Subic PX. It included a demo tape. Physical tape seemed liked nothing special, but it was the best sound I ever got from that deck . It even rivaled my 7 1/2 ips tapes from the Teac 4010s.
Always wondered how they made those demos sound so nice.
Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles
I 'accidentally' bought a pair of 4412a's. They were listed on eBay at a price that I thought was too high. Then one day the listed changed from 'Buy it now' to adding 'Make an offer'. I made what I thought was a lowish offer and it was accepted within minutes.
They will arrive next week but my pre-amp and amp will not be here until the week after. That will give me time to find some stands.
Thanks again for all the information.
The demos were not produced on mass duplication equipment. Some cassette duplicators I've seen ran at up to 60 ips for the source and duplicator tapes. It is specially formulated tape, but only as such to make it work in those conditions.
The early cassette machines and tapes leaned heavily on Dolby noise reduction as well. Club blow-fi.
Pioneer made some reel to reel quality cassette machines that "weighed a ton" and were top performers.
If you can enter the hi-fi mindset of well to do Japanese music lovers at the time when the quality of Japanese gear was at its apex, you will know that such discriminating equipment owners would accept no compromise in their gear. This drove the TOTL equipments' over the top research and build qualities that were as much art as they were copper, silicon, and brushed aluminum machinery.
At the time you picked up the cassette machine at the "Main 'Change", "Cubi Cubi Cubi!" 'change, or the B-6 Annex, your purchase fell right in that time frame.
Man, If I knew then what I know now, I would have bought every AU-9900 I could afford and a matching tuner there. I had no clue whatsoever that some of that Japanese gear was so darned good.
"Why don't you Mine your own Bismuth, so you won't be mining mine?"
stevejewels, I could accidentally buy a pair of 4412A's as well.
Only it would not have been an accident !
"Why don't you Mine your own Bismuth, so you won't be mining mine?"
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