Big In Japan

[cdwitmer]

You're right -- I had forgotten that Yamaha is pretty big in that area -- a logical extension of their electronic musical instrument business.

-- Chris

 

[Doedolf]

Diatone vs. Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi and Diatone appear to be working together... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatone

http://www.vintage-audio.com.ua/en/cat/310/1426.html

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-64400.html

I have a pair of DS-50CS's (collecting dust) with as brand name Mitsubishi, even though they were cooked up by Diatone.

http://audio-database.com/MITSUBISHI-DIATONE/diatoneds/ds-50c-e.html

Specs below:

MSRP: ¥90,000 (Rose Wood model); ¥88,000 (White model)
3-Way Bass Reflex system
Woofer: 12 inch driver
Mid-range: 4.75 inch cone driver
Tweeter: 0.9 inch dome driver
Finish: Indian Rose Wood Veneer; White
Physical Dimensions: 16.73 inches wide by 35.04 inches tall by 15.35 inches deep
Weight: 77 pounds 2 ounces
Production Years: 1975 to Unknown

Specifications:

Power Handling: 80 watts
Nominal Impedance: 6 ohms
Frequency Response: 25-20,000Hz
Sensitivity: 92dB at 1 meter with 1 watt
Crossover Frequency: Tweeter at 5,000Hz; Mid-range at 600Hz
Retrieved from http://www.modelnumber.org/wiki/index.php?title=Diatone_DS-50CS_Speakers

Interesting anekdote:

Ahh, the honeycomb woofer. The sales rep had the honeycomb piece of the woofer, which you could place on the floor like a cone and stand on the narrow end!! Very strong.

 

[joeling39]

The Mitsubishi Diatone 610MB...I hate it so much that I love it. Been trying to get rid of it for them last 5 year but still they are the main speakers in my 2 channel system I have tried a few speakers but still...

Some say this Diatone 610 is to Japan what the BBC LS3/5A is to UK (or the world for that matter).

Regards,
Joe Ling

 

[ARRAY]

Hey Graaf, do you know what these are? ;

http://www.niji.or.jp/home/k-nisi/s-f1-c.htm

Me Rikey... very interesting.

 

[cdwitmer]

I once owned a pair of those big suckers. I wish I had kept them longer than I did . . . I replaced them with an even larger pair of horn speakers that I ended up liking a lot less. I would have had to get rid of them eventually in any case, due to lack of space. And, given where I am now (very happy with a pair of small single transducer "fullrange" drivers) I probably would not want them back today even if they were still available. But as large multiway speakers go, they were pretty darn special. And the price was right . . . I paid 300,000 yen for a PAIR (close to 1/6 the list price) back around 1984.

 

[serenechaos]

No mention of GOTO or Ale?

 

[thoriated]

Just a guess. Maybe relatively confined living quarters in Japan mitigate against the success of really good speakers?

 

[cdwitmer]

I have never had the pleasure of owning a home stereo system ideally set up in a really large room, either in Japan or in the USA, so I can't speak from experience on the other side of the fence, but I don't think the room size is a really huge factor. Some people in Japan have very spacious rooms for listening, especially out in the countryside. Certainly many people have rooms that are "big enough." In my case, the main reason for the lack of space is seven homeschooled kids who are all musicians. We need to have more space dedicated to their educational needs, including two pianos, so my audio space has some very tight constraints: 1.4 meters wide, 1.2 meters high, 40 centimeters deep, flush against the wall, and I sit two meters away and listen. The room is a good deal larger than that, of course, but it has a lot of other stuff going on in it too . . .

Anyway, the short answer is that I don't think room size in Japan is a really critical factor for either loudspeaker development or audio enjoyment, although it is true that among apartment/condominium dwellers in the big cities you are going to find fewer people listening to massive speakers.

-- Chris

 

[ARRAY]

Hello Witmer, 300,000 yen was and remains no small chunk of change. Those speakers look like 3 way concentric planars. Did Sansui make those?


http://www.niji.or.jp/home/k-nisi/s-f1-c.htm

I once owned a pair of those big suckers. I wish I had kept them longer than I did . . . I replaced them with an even larger pair of horn speakers that I ended up liking a lot less. I would have had to get rid of them eventually in any case, due to lack of space. And, given where I am now (very happy with a pair of small single transducer "fullrange" drivers) I probably would not want them back today even if they were still available. But as large multiway speakers go, they were pretty darn special. And the price was right . . . I paid 300,000 yen for a PAIR (close to 1/6 the list price) back around 1984.

 

[cdwitmer]

Those are actually 4-way planars, and they were made by Pioneer.