Junji Kimura has got to be one of the most amazing engineering designers I have ever come across. Mind-boggling to say the least.
Check out the true meaning of high-end products.
Features:
World's smallest number of parts - 9 parts per channel ( excluding attenuators )
World's shortest signal pass length - 32 m/m ( including the length of parts )
World's shortest NFB loop length - 9 m/m ( including the length of the resistor )
World's smallest filter/condenser - 1000µF, (50W version - 2200µF)
Powerful voltage regulation with high capacity transformer - 170 VA cut-core transformer +-individual coils
Dual mono construction with each channel in a separate chassis.
Rigid and compact aluminum chassis construction to release vibrations smoothly.
Separate 12-position attenuators for each channel.
Can be up-graded into a pair of complete mono amplifiers by adding another Model 4700 Power Humpty.
^^^That^^^ is a mindfuck! 9 components!
His name is Junji Kimura, an eminent engineering designer in Japan.
A passionate audiophile and an established audio engineer, particularly that of LP playback systems and tube components, Kimura found himself more and more frustrated with the sound of CD playback systems. Unlike LP, which offers a rich and fresh musical presence with ambiance, CD, to Kimura's ears, sounded too thin and sharp, too electrical. Despite all the information it contains, CD was far from providing musical satisfaction.
Kimura was frustrated, also, by the cost and complexity of technological development and by the complexity of charts and graphs that track the measurements of sound but cannot reveal the quality of that sound. Instead of rejecting CD, however, Kimura decided to apply his proven engineering talents to the task of creating a CD transport that would elicit the best sound possible from CD.
After three years of experiments and developments, a prototype of his CD transport, a massive chunk of metal construction weighing almost 50lb, was presented at1995 WCES. It was enough to attract many dealers' attentions and offerings, but not complete enough for Kimura to release as a final product. Read more...
PS: Don't bother looking at the prices.