Discontinued components that you wish the manufact


Hey, some friends and I were thinking, IF you had the
chance: "What DISCONTINUED components would YOU want the
manufacture`s to bring back"? Even IF it was a limited
time, like say 6 months to a year? I came up with some
as well as my friends:
1. Onkyo M-510 & M-588F Power amps. Trying to find one
of these bad boys is A REAL PAIN! AWESOME POWER AND
SOUND!
2. Audio Control R-130 Real-Time Analyzer (even though
they still make the C-131 EQ`s, they don`t make the
R-130). How can you set up your system without a RTA?
3. Sony CX90ES 200 disc CD Changer (The BEST SOUNDING
CD player for it`s time, and THE ONLY ONE THAT LETS YOU
INPUT CD TRACK NAMES)!
4. JVC S6700U S-VHS, and Panasonic S4990 S-VHS vcr`s,
because they had ALOT of cool features, and good picture
quality, along with RECORDING LEVEL METERS AND
CONTROLS (NOBODY HAS THAT FEATURE ANYMORE! EVEN THE NEW
DVD RECORDERS FROM PANASONIC AND PHILIPS DON`T HAVE THAT)!
5. Pioneer Linear Tracking Turntables with Direct Drive.
PL-L50 or PL-L70 or even the PL-1000.
6. Pioneer 3 head cassette decks CT-A9X, CT-93 WITH
the digital noise reduction of the CT-07.
7. Sony JA3ES Minidisc recorder, it sounds alot better
than the later JA20ES, it also has MIC inputs for the
left and right channels. Some CD recorders have
mic inputs, but only 1! WHY NOT 2?
8. Pioneer Elite CLD-99 Laserdisc player, yes I know
that Laserdisc IS a dying breed, but, there`s alot of
concerts, and music video laserdisc`s that
WILL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY ON DVD! Out of
31 concert and video laserdisc`s that I own,
only 5 are on DVD:
1. Rush-Chronicals,
2. Queensryche-Operation Livecrime
3. Queensryche-Building Empires
4. Lizzy Borden-Murderous Metal Road Show
5. Iron Maiden-Raising Hell
It`ll be a while before we see Rush-Exit Stage Left
or Queensryche Video Mindcrime, or even LIVE IN TOKYO!
Or any Malmsteen, or Iron maiden on DVD! Unless you want
to take your chances and by the bootleg versions,
which are just recorded from VHS anyway!
ANYWAY, you get the point. IF manufactures would just
STOP discontinuing ALL THE GOOD COMPONENTS, JUST SO THEY
CAN SHLOOP IN CRAPPY CHEAPLY MADE DISPOSABLE PRODUCTS,
THEN WE THE COSTOMER, WOULDN`T HAVE TO RELY ON EBAY SO
MUCH, OR EVEN RUN THE RISK OF GETTING RIPPED-OFF ON EBAY!
I`m curious to hear from other people as well.
Keep in mind, this is pertaintin to HI-FI, stereo and
Home Theater products ONLY!
jjsmith
Anything and everything from Kinergetics Research. A real shame that the company went out of business
The secret would be to have new ones at the price they were sold for new back then... NOT what they would cost now as a special limited edition!!!!
A whole flock of tube amps come to mind right off...
And the tubes for those amps too...
Here's Mine!!!!!

(01). Pioneer Elite PD-91 Compact Disc Player (now..... that was one CLASSY ASS player...... the glossy looking urushi finish on the front panel..... gold trim that is outlined on the panel and to the sides as well......rosewood panels on the sides...... an outboard power supply sticking out of the back of the unit....... and built like a damn tank..... DEFINITELY....... the best player Pioneer has ever built).

(02). Panasonic AG-1980 S-VHS Hi-Fi VCR (a "prosumer" deck that has every conceivable feature known to man, to make this one of the most complete decks ever assembled. And that is from the broadcast quality transport right down to the recording level indicators with recording level controls....... the decks from the 1980's up until the mid 1990's had this feature...... I noticed that the later decks did not have this feature...... even the high-end models (aside from the Sony SLV-R1000).

(03). Any and everything from Kinergetics (just like "Msilin" has said). But they're out of business.

(04). And any and everything from Meitner (I don't know if I spelled this company's name right...... but it was the one who produced the components with the simplistic looking front panels with the rosewood side panels........ unlike Bang and Olufsen...... this company has shown us that museum looking pieces can actually sound good).

--Charles--
Audiolab,a great value;Purist Audio-" water cables";Michael Green Audio original Chameleon tunable speakers with external crossovers.The new ones may be better but double the price.
Perpetual Technologies is one Mark L. Schifter(av123.com) of Audio Alchemy present offerings. He does reget selling AA to the big boys and seeing them kill his work that fast.
Spica, Nakamichi tape decks, the original Sony trinitron TVs that lasted about 25 years (we had one growing up ... it was a year older than my sister, and it finally died a couple of years after she graduated).
I would like Crown International (Crown) to bring back their 'audiophile' line of components. They were not only beautiful but offered extrodinary performance. Also, the old Marantz, Phase Linear, and Dynaco.
Not exactly discontinued, actually. The Audio Prism line was bought by Mark Levinson and renamed "Red Rose". Audio Prism sold this preamp for $2000, and a real street price of about $1700 new. Their silver version retailed for $3500, I believe. Now Mr. ML renames it and sells them for roughly twice the price.

This preamp was a real bargain at $2000, but probably has some handy competition in the current $4000 price point.

Enjoy,
Bob
DBX LPs, and the processor required to play them. This would make vinyl really live up to all the hype you see on this site.
Believe it or not, buy I CAN'T find good quality dual 100k log potentiometers (trimmers) with voltage switch attached
to the rear end.... No longer produced !!!
Philip_m_dev...You mention Log taper. What ever happened to "Audio" taper, which was slightly different? Log taper is an inferior substitute.
How about a Grundig monoural radio with the fake wood grain front. Great telescopic antenna. A rich warm sound that ran only on batteries. What I would really want to see back in production are 2 & 4 track tapes, best sound ever.
DBX consumer electronics, they went strickly professional quite a few years ago. Luckily, I still own a number of their last produced consumer electronics line.

Additionally, they were so well made that after 20 plus years of continuous use, they still look and operate as new!!!!

I would also add the full line of Sansui gear produced when the company first entered the consumer electronics field and was trying to make a name for themselves. They definitely succeeded