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Japanese Audio

I've owned a few great low powered Japanese tube amps and wonder if anyone knows why this niche of low power class A and tube amps exists in Japan. Luxman, Leben, Airtight, Yamamoto, Almarro (no longer), SPEC, Accuphase to name a few. If your goal is building a low power amplifier, where does the inspiration come from? Did these brands spring up from western influence like other areas of Japanese culture or are there many unheard of Japanese high efficiency speakers?   
bjesien
puffball08's avatar
puffball08
311 posts
 
Regarding SE Triode amplifiers in Japan, it may be traced to a guy named Jean Hiraga who discovered the WE 300B while living in France then conveyed its magic in a magazine article in Japan.  This was 1973.   Later in the decade and into the early 80s, a flurry of single ended triode amplifiers appeared in Japan.  Some were based on Westrex 91A (designed by Western Electric) amplifiers using 300B triodes.

Read Eric Barbour's article "History Of The WE300B And Its Relatives" in Vacuum Tube Valley (begins on page 8) about the history of the Western Electric 300B and how it spread to Japanese audiophiles.

http://www.jumpjet.info/Pioneering-Wireless/eMagazines/VTV/VTV03.pdf
lukaske
307 posts
 
bjesien , you forgot the best one : Wavac : you do have them with p.e. 300B and 805 tubes . The best Japanese product I ever heard 
clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 
Note Miller has not posted here.
Nothing and no-one to troll.
We see him in his true colours.
oldhvymec
5,101 posts
 
What the heck is a Miller? And what does it have to do with the price of TEA in CHINA..

That's right we're talikn' about ity bitty amps and great big speakers..

What does a Miller have to do with true colours? Red White and Blue? or is it red and white? Colours is kind of a dead give away, AY??

What the heck is a Troll? You mean someone that acts UGLY and talks about people?

Ok I know one when I see one...Sittin' under a mushroom are ya?

Troll, what a weird word... LOL

Semi-Regards.. a 5 out of 10 Regards, so to speak..
bjesien OP
1,294 posts
 
The thread is about to get hit with the ugly stick. I appreciate the comments about culture and meditation SET and how room size and wall thickness influence listening level. I just still find it puzzling that most of us can easily rattle off a dozen low power amplifiers that we've owned from Japan bit no speakers. I've seen fine American speakers in Japan displayed on Facebook, etc. (mostly American and British speaker pages), but nobody here is presenting a case for a Japanese made speaker. Sure I can search google and find something but I'm just surprised I never see a speaker product that is "the best" coming across from anyone. Maybe one of the guys with a ton of time on his hands with 15,000 posts can go find something worthy of importing. No affiliation but if you search SPEC amplifiers you can see some old school speaker systems.     
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