DESIGNER ELECTRONICS

DESIGNER ELECTRONICS

REWIRE YOURSELF

by Richard Robinson

Until the first small, transistorized, portable radio came out of Japan in the 1950s, electronics in America were considered as functional devices by their manufacturers and their users. American post-war mass production aimed at supplying everyone who could afford it with a TV set, a radio, an automatic washing machine, and other miracles of modern convenience. This mass production for mass-consumption equation pretty much ignored the aesthetics involved in the devices being produced. A TV set was a TV set, the screen size, color not black and white picture were the considerations, until, as I said, the Japanese came along.

•Japanese electronics manufacturers instinctively created devices that matched function with style. They understood that what a device does must be mirrored in what it looks like; they sought to achieve tactile relationships between man and machine; they made electronics into a personal experience. The result was and continues to be revolutionary. Japanese electronics appeal to the consumer by sight and touch before theyre ever turned on to reveal their function. And in the past 30 years of competition in the American marketplace, Japanese electronics have continually proven more desirable than their clunky, function-oriented American manufactured counterparts.

Aficionados of Japanese electronics are aware that each Japanese manufacturer seems to pursue a unique philosophical, psychological,and aesthetic approach to the devices they create and manufacture. So while its usually impossible to tell a Zenith from an RCA from a Magnavox, the aficionado has little trouble separating the JVCs from the Sonys from the Panasonics.

Function must be equal style for any personal electronic devices to provide satisfaction through use. An example of this is JVCs PC-5 ËœQuintet portable component stereo system. This five-piece mini-component unit is powerful and flexible enough to constitute a homes central system, but its portable so it can go where the listener does," says JVCs vice president of home entertainment, Harry Elias. He adds, Its a system that fits into all areas of life. It can be assembled in five different ways to fit the dimensions of any room or clipped together with its carrying handle for easy portability."

Please note that the considerations here arent how good it sounds or if it works at all—the Japanese are long past that. Of ^course it works, and works well, the important thing is how it works in relation to the user and his or her needs.

JVC, like other Japanese manufactures, carries its sense of device style and user lifestyle through all levels of its product lines. In their effort to put a JVC into every home they are aware of how user function must be related to price as well as style. The result is that there are almost always

several model options of any particular device offered to the consumer. This can be confusing to the uninitiated. One might, for instance, be taken by the space-age look of the JVCs stereo cassette deck with its top-notch internal engineering and multiplicity of external user controls, but then realize that JVC along with its competitors offers a series of cassette decks at different prices, each pursuing a standard of excellence in relation to price.

In the case of JVC this includes their DD-9, DD-7, DD-5, KD-D4, KD-D3, and KD-D2 stereo cassette decks.

One really shouldnt be confused by being given a choice by JVC, but it is necessary to be a little sophisticated about what is required of the electronic device in terms of use in order to decide which particular model of the device will provide the most satisfaction. For instance, the DD-9 JVC costs $900 retail while the DD-5 costs $390 and the KD-D2 costs only $180. Each of these decks conforms to basic JVC design-technology, but obviously the $900 device is designed with different performance parameters in mind that the $180 device. The interesting point here is that JVC is just as concerned that those who opt to buy the $180 cassette deck are as satisfied as those who will spend more for the higher priced models. JVC wants you to be happy with your machine. They I dont want to be thinking Ive got a cheap JVC," they want you to be pleased that you have a JVC." Again this relates back to their basic philosophical intentions. They proudly announce that all their cassette decks from the DD-9 to the KD-D2 come close to professional studio quality." As JVC national product manager George Meyer points out JVC engineers have concentrated on improving specific areas within each product. We have tried to achieve truly professional quality cassette decks that produce superior sound quality with simple operation."

No talk of stripped down cheap models from any Japanese manufacturer. Where American manufacturers think in terms of making a device for, say, $300, and then figuring out how to make a less perfect model for $150, the Japanese engineers seem to accept the challenge of making

many different devices with various levels of system sophistication, but each having its own integrity and style no matter what the retail price.

In this pursuit of stylistic user satisfaction, manufacturers like JVC never seem to exceed what they understand as the basic potentials of any particular type of device. They dont make 10 or 12 different models of a unit just to have lots of models to choose between. That isnt part of the theory. For instance, JVC has a line of moderately priced stereo receivers that consists of just two different devices, the R-1X and the R-2X ($240 and $330 respectively). Their goal is to match function to price to satisfy user aesthetic in relation to available technology. By not exceeding the particular mandates involved they can assure the consumer that he or she will get what was paid for.

The Japanese have discovered that designer electronics is the only way to attract the consumer in a manner that will make man and machine experience a pleasant cybernetic relationship. The results are fascinating, be they the plug-ins' walking down the street with their headphones in place and cassette decks strapped to their belts, or the music listeners at home who look to look at their stereo system even when theyre not using it.