Your short list of most iconic audio products

In no particular order:

Altec-Lansing VoTT
Altec-Lansing 604 driver
Quad ESL-57 or 63
Dynaco 70
Marantz 8B or 9
McIntosh 50W-1 or 50W-2
Harmon-Kardon Citation I
Harmon-Kardon Citation II
Eico HF-60
Grommes 260A
Mark Levinson ML-2
Heathkit W-2 / W-3 / W-5
The Williamson amplifier design - copied and DIYed
Threshold 400A
Futterman H3
Krell KSA100
Audio Research ST-70-C3 / D-75
Audio Research SP-3/SP-6
Kef Q90 (first Uni-Q speakers)
B&W 801
VPI HW19 (Mark 1, 2, 3, and the Jr)
Sota turntable
Thorens TD-124 / 125 /etc
Quad II
Rega RP3

phew... I could go on here..

 

Like your list, very drool inspiring.
But, the Krell KSA100 ?
Do you not think the KSA50 was superior ? I owned both.

 

Before the Beomaster 2400, and its none remote controlled version, the 1900, all stereos, including theirs, were variations on boxes. It's not too much to say that it changed the consumer electronics industry. All stylish versions of a stereo came directly from this piece. In fact, it affected the entire consumer electronics industry. I think you can draw a direct line to early, innovative Apple designs like the Macintosh computer, from the Beomaster 2400.

The fact that they kept the design in two subsequent, ground up revisions, further cements its place as an turning point in audio. The changes were the opposite of skin-deep. By 1985, the Beomaster 3000 could drive 16 pairs of speakers in parallel and was capable of multi-room operation. Even the volume control on the 2400 was revolutionary. It varied the output of a light, which was picked up by an optical sensor, which raised or lowered its voltage depending on the intensity of the light, which changed the volume.

B&O is often looked upon as a pretty face but they are much more than that. They had the first time aligned speaker line in the world and did the original scientific research on that in the 1970s, proving that we could hear phase shifts of 60º at normal listening levels. Since then, B&O and others have discovered our ears are even more sensitive than that. Before B&O, phase response within a speaker box was considered unimportant. After their research, it was considered an essential consideration in speaker design. All tangential arm turntables after the Beogram 4000, introduced in 1972, used their way of moving the arm across the record. In the early 1980s, they were the first company to embrace multi-room audio and make a stereo control music throughout the house.

A definition of iconic is widely known for distinctive excellence. Among audio engineers and designers in the 1970s and '80s , that describes Bang & Olufsen, and the cusp for change within the company was the Beomaster 2400.

 

I think there's more of a direct line from Deiter Rams' designs for Braun electronics in the 1960s and '70 to Apple.

 

The 1960s and '70s were certainly heady times for industrial and commercial design all over Europe, with the region finally coming out of the hardships caused by WWII. I love Deiter Rams' work and if people don't know it, they should. Thanks for mentioning him and you certainly do have a valid point. Below are a three of his designs.

I've also included a couple of pictures of other B&O products from that era. The last one, the Beomaster 4400, was to my knowledge the first stereo receiver that addressed TID (Transient Intermodulation Distortion), which was rampant back then with the rush to create ever lower harmonic distortion specifications. They measured great but sounded like crud. If anything contributed to bad transistorized sound, it was TID.

 

What is your point here ?

 

My choices:

Technics 1200 turntable
Shure SM58 microphone
Sony V6 headphones

They're all indestructible workhorses.

(Except that I really did break my V6 headphones. I was DJing live on a carpeted surface, and zapped something in one of the headphone channels when I touched a metal part on my mixer. Static electricity? Who knows...)

 

Sorry if I offended you, it was not my intension. It's sometimes hard to say what ones thinking without insulting someone, which by the way I never want to do.

I've owned the Oppo 103 and 105 and found them less than iconic, no real problems, but very average sounding.

Sorry again

 

Good points.

 

Another one I should have added to my college dorms icon list along with the Klipsch Hereseys and the Nakamichi deck was the Technics SL-1700. That was the one everyone wanted back then even though it was only around for a few years... work horse and about as ubiquitous as anything on campus but for backpacks.

 

Forgot about the IRS system, only saw pictures of it but it must of been grand. As I recall the late Harry Pearson had one.
What do you do after a speaker system like that ?

 

Correct. The designer Steve Jobs hired was from Germany and a Rams disciple.

 

Do you know what vintage that unit was ? Lots of unique ideas there. I believe it was a Canadian company.

 

The Klipschorn, in production since 1948 and continuously improved subtly ever since. The longest continuous production run of any loudspeaker ever. Still among the finest high efficiency designs even now. A true Legend. The Technics SL-1200 Mk II, a turntable icon used by most every walk of life since the original model launched in 1972. The Shure M 44 cartridge lineup. Introduced in 1963 and except for a few years of unavailability, in production even now. Arguably the highest production run MM cartridge ever made. Still used by club and on air DJ, vintage record lovers, and used in jukeboxes even.

 

The Garrard turntable dates it to mid-late 1960s I think.

 

Good thing Atma-Sphere OTL came along for me, don't think I have enough brass-in-pocket to try Futterman either...

 

The Player Piano
Edison Phonograph
Victrola
Linn Sondeck LP12
Technics SL1200
Shure SM-57 and SM-58
Sony MDR-7506 Headphone
Sony Walkman
Sony Discman
Apple Ipod
Beats Pill (Yes it's stupid, but people will probably remember this thing as iconic.)

In that order.

 

Not sure about "iconic",...maybe just being nostalgic.

My first CD player, The Philips CD100

 

Oppo universal disc player and Furutech GT40 MC/MM phono preamp/ADC/DAC/USB/headphone amp. Both eliminated the need for owning several other devices to do the same things, while minimizing the need for more wall outlets.

 

That's pretty cool......looks like a fully featured answering machine!

 

Awesome!
I use one regularly in my system and just picked up its gold finished sibling, the Marantz CD63. Both players I had imported from England.
Beautiful machines and great sounding as well!

 

Finally! Thanks for uploading that sexy babe now under the alias Pioneer plx-1000.

 

I don't think that criteria works