From the Vault

As an increasing number of digital source components come equipped with variable output level one might think that line controllers – preamps without a phono cartridge input facility – are an endangered species. This will make sense to those embarking on an all-digital system, mixing a variety of digital sources and prepared to convert from the analogue disc domain to digital via an A/D converter function. Indeed, some digital control units are digital-only and cannot handle analogue signals at all.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the audio underground in the US and Europe finally picked up on the efforts of Japanese audiophiles two decades earlier, and started a revival of single-ended triode amplification. The American interest really got going when enthusiasts started salvaging dusty pre-war systems out of old movie houses. Western Electric's 300B triode, dating back to the dawn of cinema sound systems, became the tube of choice.

DNM's long-awaited update to the PA3 power amplifier has finally arrived. Fully regulated, the PA3 S reflects the uncompromising approach of its designer Denis Morecroft. Offering just 23W per channel but costing £3750, this stereo power amp has undergone a long gestation, the reasons for which Morecroft outlines in our interview boxout.

Conrad-Johnson's 'Anniversary Reference Triode' has been some time in the making. In fact, an early version was developed seven years ago which has since been used as a lab reference. The ART is simply a remote-controlled line preamplifier, which at £15,000 is priced far beyond any previous Conrad-Johnson offering in this sector. It will be made in a limited edition of just 250 – probably just right for a modest production run at this elevated price level.

Contemplating the Project T-1 power amplifiers from Marantz, I realise that nothing in hi-fi should surprise us any more. If, in 1990, someone had told you that, by 1997, the hi-fi community would be clamouring for single-ended triodes and horn systems, that Quad and McIntosh and Marantz would reissue their valve classics, that Mobile Fidelity would open a new LP pressing plant and that Krell and Audio Research would introduce integrated amps, you'd have had that someone committed.

Marantz is noted in the UK for its decade-long success in producing a chain of fine CD players at moderate prices. If sometimes contradictory on other matters, the audio press were almost uniform in singing their praises. But the success Marantz has enjoyed in Japan is less well known. By all accounts, high-quality audio remains very healthy there and Marantz engineer Ken Ishiwata has finely honed his skills in creating a range of high-end CD players that have achieved record sales in each directed market niche.

The US home market has such strength in depth that it can easily support a burgeoning digital audio sector. Any competently run company is capable of sustained expansion founded on a solid infrastructure in which both advanced research, and the development of high technology products, play a crucial role.