On the following pages you'll find an even dozen audio items that may have escaped your notice. Most are new; a few are not so very new, but certainly deserving of appreciation. They were chosen for their distinctive qualities within a field and those features are noted. The items themselves vary widely in kind and price. You'll find every kind of item represented from an arm to turntables, tuners, a speaker, receiver and even a new record care item. The prices also vary widely (perhaps even crazily) from $22 to over $3,000. Included, too, are several items we hope to report on in depth in the future. We hope you enjoy the selection. Happy browsing!

STRAIGHT ARM ReVox is probably best known in this country for distribution of Willi Studer tape decks. Studer is a master of both audio and design and J've known equipment freaks to do some very strange things after exposure, even for brief periods of time, to his gear. The B790 is a Studer designed turntable and arm combination and it's the arm that deserves special attention. It's a tangential tracking system using an opto-electronics servo drive. IT you're lookingfor a conventional arm, forget it. The cartridge is lowered to and lifted from the disc electronically and moved across the record by a beam of light and an over-head

AM IN THE PM

Here it is, all you Top 40 freaks. An AM-only tuner with real audiophile fidelity. It's McKay Dymek's AM 5. The AM section has long been the stepchild of even the top receivers and for those of us who long to listen to programming available only on AM, that's been a real problem. No longer. The AM 5 sports electronics that can give you sound so real the only limiting factor is the station's transmission. The AM 5 has a distant/local switch similar to ones found op FM tuners so you can alter the acceptable bandwidth. The tuner's sensitivity is listed at 3 microvolts for more than 10 dB signal to noise. The overall frequency response shows the tuner down 3 dB at the extremes of 15 Hz and 10,000 Hz. Distortion is listed at 1 % and the AM5 has a built in whistle filter at 10 kHz. McKay Dymek Company, P.O. Box 5000, Claremont, CA 91711. Suggested Retail Price: $295.

trolley. This tangential tracking system virtually eliminates tracking error. The stationary cartridge mounting and carrier mechanism essentially eliminates non-compliance and mass problems. The cartridge is advanced via an LED-triggered DC motor moving at the same rate as the grooves. The platter itself is a quartz control lea 33/45 r.p.m. unit with a +7% variable speed control. Speed itself is accurate within 0.01% and is read out on a four digit display. Wow and flutter measures better than 0.1 % with rumble listed at better than 45 dB. Studer ReVox America, Inc., 1819 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203. Suggested Retail Price: $799.

RECORD FACIAL

Remember those TV ads a few years ago for some kind of glop a woman would put on her face and it would harden into a plastic mask which she would remove some time later and have a cleaner, more radiant face? Well, folks, they've now got a similar product to clean your records. Disco Film is a new item in Empire's Audio Groome line of accessories. The applicator bottle has a sponge at its mouth and you just apply the goo the same way you would Chap Stick. Disco Film is watersoluble and harmless to vinyl, but should not be used on old "shellac" discs. Disco Film dries to a flexible film and can be peeled off the record taking with it all of the ground in goop and dirt both on the record's surface and in the grooves. Since the film takes 45 minutes to an hour to dry, you'd best plan to clean your records well ahead of time or go under a dryer. One container of Disco Film should handle35 discs. Empire Scientific Corp., 1055 Stewart Avenue, Garden City, NY 11530. Suggested Retail Price: $29.95.

A (3) GRAND TUNER

If your quest for the audio Holy Grail is the search for the ultimate FM tuner (for the AM version see the Dymek above), then you may find your search ending with the Sequerra Model I. Designed by Dick .Sequerra who was also responsible for the now legendary Marantz 10 B tuner, this bears a familial relation. The 'scope from the 10 B is still with us and the specs represent the frontier of technology. The 'scope not only acts as a tuning indicator, but as an internal and external vector separation analyzer as well. Digital station readout and Dolby systems are also part of the Sequerra's package as are muting, interstation muting and automatic mono circuitry. A few of the Sequerra's specs should give you an idea of performance: Sensitivity (IHF), 2 microvolts; signal/noise, 70 dB; THD, 0.07%; 50 dB stereo THD, 2%; quieting sensitivity, 2.8 microvolts; separation 50 dB; frequency response, +0.3 dB, 30 to 15,000 Hz. The Sequerra Company, Inc., 143-11 Archer Avenue, Jamaica, NY 11435. Suggested Retail Price: $3040.00

VIDEO'S AUDIO

How many times have you turned the tube on to a rock concert, only to find that the sound was so bad that the show was hardly worth watching? According to Pioneer, the problem is not the station's transmission, FM after all, but the mediocre-to-rotten quality of the entire audio section of most TV sets. Pioneer's first step into the video market can change that. The TVX-9500 is an audio tuner made to receive the audio signals put out by both VHF (2-13) and UHF (14-83) channels. As with any standard tuner, these signals are then fed into your stereo system. Pioneer claims that the sound being transmitted and forwarded by their tuner changes the entire experience of watching television. U.S. Pioneer Electronics Corp., 75 Oxford Drive, Moonachie, NJ 07074. Suggested Retail Price: $250. California based ESS (Electrostatic Sound Systems) is known primarily as the speaker company responsible for the development of the Heil AMT system. But the company is no longer simply dedicated to fine speakers; it now imports and distributes Dynavector (made by Japan's Onlife Research) cartridges and arms. The Dynavector DV-505 is a bi-axially designed tone arm with a number of innovative features. The vertical pivot is just behind the cartridge shell lowering the effective mass. A dynamic damping system provides low arm resonance while an electromagnetic damping system eliminates any remaining resonance and provides better tracking. The DV-505 has a heavy base and will operate free standing or can be permanently affixed to the turntable. ESS Inc., 9613 Oates Drive, Sacramento, CA 95827. Suggested Retail Price: $600.

STRONGARM

DE-AAA G WHEELS

One of the great unsolved problems of the late 20th Century is how to demagnetize the heads of your cassette deck. (As the deck is used, residual magnetism builds up in the heads and degrades performance.) CREEM can now report a solution for this serious problem. TDK has come up with a virtually foolproof (i.e. any fool can use it) head demagnetizer for cassette decks. The HD-01 Head Demagnetizer is one of a line of accessories from the well-known tape company. It's a battery powered demagnetizer built into a standard cassette shell. Just put the HD-01 into your machine (as you would a standard cassette) and a few seconds later you've got demagnetized heads. TDK's approach not only eliminates the magnetism, but the high probability of damaging the heads with conventional demagnqtizers as well. TDK Electronics Corp., 755 Eastgate Boulevard, Garden City, NY 11530. Suggested Retail Price: $21.99.

DANISH MODERN

Band & Olufsen is a name well known in both audio and art circles. There are eleven B&O products in the New York Museum of Modern Art's Permanent Design Collection. One of the company's current masterpieces from both an audio and art view is the Beomaster 2400 receiver. The sleekly-designed receiver has a lot more going for it than its good looks. It features touch sensitive (capacitance) tuning. Touch a spot on the receiver's panel and the volume goes up or down.. Function and any of five pre-settable stations can be selected in the same way. Raise the brushed aluminum panel and you'll find the bass and treble controls (whose position is reflected by illumination of the front panel), the pre-sets for the FM tuner and a random tuning disc. You can even operate most of the Beomaster 2400 by wireless remote control. Volume, four pre-set FM stations, tuner/ phono and on/off can be controlled by the

NO GENERATION GAP The second generation Accutrac turntable is here and it's the one many audio freaks have been waiting for. Sure, a single-play turntable where you can virtually turn a record inside out and play the last cut first, the first last and eliminate one in the middle (plus a host of repeats) is a great idea. But, really how many single discs do you want to do that with? Many of us got glazed looks in our eyes when we realized the possibilities of being able to reprogram a stack of records—the idea of hearing cut 3 on the first disc, cut 2 on the second, 4 on the third and them coming back to pick up a few on the first was very attractive. The Accutrac +6 is here. It will handle up to six discs, can be programmed the same way as ADC's original Accutrac 4000 single play unit and can be operated via wireless remote control. Audio Dynamics Corp., A BSR Company, Pickett District Road, New Milford, CT 06776. Suggested Retail Price: $349.95.

GOOD THING, SMALL PACKAGE As the old wheeze goes, "Good things come in small packages." This maxim has rarely held true for speakers. In fact, the maxim in the audio business has long been, "the bigger, the better." The conflict might well end wnen you audition a pair of ADS 200As. These small (6-3/4 x 4-1/4 x 4-1/2") speakers put out one whale of a sound. Within those dimensions you'll find a miniature 2-way air suspension speaker system with a 4" long excursion woofer and a 1 " dome tweeter. The crossover frequency is at 2,500 Hz. The ADS 200A has a nominal impedance of 4 ohms and has a power rating of 30 watts. Its frequency range is listed as 85 to 20,000 Hz -I- 3 dB and 50 to 22,000 Hz + - 5 dB. Analog & Digital Systems, Inc., 64 Industrial Way, Wilmington, AAA 01887. Suggested Retail Price: $105 each, sold only in pairs.

remote transmitter. While this receiver is not overpowering, its 30 watts per side into 4 ohms should be adequate for many systems. Other specs include a THD figure of less tban 0.2% with IM distortion listed at 0.15%. Signal-to-noise is shown at better than 60 dB. The tuner section shows usable sensitivity at 19.2 dBf for mono and 24 dBf for stereo. Band & Olufsen of America, Inc., 515 Busse Road, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007. Suggested Retail Price: $595.

WHAT THE EL?

Elcasets are a new wrinkle in tape. They have taken the cassette1 format one step further—or one stop closer to open reel. The tape itself is a quarter inch ana it travels at 3-3/4 rather than 1-7/8 ips. This combination leads to better ultimate fidelity and frequency response. The new Technics RD 7500US Elcast deck is a beauty. It's a 3-head system for monitoring and has three tape settings for standard, chrome or ferrichrome formulations. Other features include memory mic/line mixing and electronic muting. Specs for the deck include 0.06% WRMS wow-and-flutter; frequency response of 25-20,000 Hz +3 dB with standard tape and out to 22,000 Hz with chrome or ferrichrome. Signal-to-noise is listed at 60 dB for standard and 63 dB for chrome and ferrichrome tapes. Technics by Panasonic, One Panasonic Way, Secaucus, NJ 07094. Suggested Retail Price: $680.

FOUR PLAY FROM THE PAST The reports of quad's' death have been somewhat exaggerated. While four channel is certainly not the«most active part of the audio field, its departure from the scene of publicity was somewhat premature. There are a number of interesting items that could make quad a viable and important component in a well-stocked stereo system. One such device is Sansui's QSD-2 Decoder/Synthesizer. This

handy dandy toy will, of course, decode SQ and QS (how many of you own QS discs? For that matter, how many of you have ever sfen a QS disc?), but more importantly, it will create or synthesize rear channels from a conventional two channel source. There is no denying that quad sound is impressive and this kina of device might well be the ticket for filling out your musical spectrum. Sansui Electronics Corp., 55-11 Queens Blvd., Woodside, NY 11377. Suggested Retail Price: $140.