Ken bids farewell

I “ never thought this day would come…” says Marantz’s longstanding audio guru Ken Ishiwata, as he steps down from his role with Marantz, which appears to be part and parcel of the newly announced acquisition of Onkyo, Integra, Pioneer and Pioneer ELITE by Sound United, the parent company of Marantz (and Denon, Polk Audio and others). The ultimate owner Viper Holdings Corporation is rumoured to be seeking a turnover of US$1bn globally from the enlarged raft of products.

But the raft has no space for Mr Ishiwata, who has been the face and ears of Marantz for more than 40 years, as celebrated by the recent KI-Ruby series, the latest ‘Special Edition’ from Marantz to bear the Ishiwata ‘signature’.

Those ‘Special Editions’ and KI-Signature models have been great successes for Marantz ever since 1986, when the CD-45 Limited Edition was released at Ken’s instigation, originally to repurpose a large number of units left in stock — very successfully, as it turned out, shipping 2000 ‘LE’ units in its first two weeks of sale.

The CD-63 model number was another to get the special treatment, culminating in the legendary CD-63II KI Signature edition with Ken Ishiwata’s personal tweaks and sign-off, which in 1996 became the best-selling CD player Marantz had ever produced.

We asked Mr Ken if he had a message for Australia as he exits his longstanding role.

“I very much enjoyed my relationship with Australia…. It started in 1980 !!!! ” he replied to us, with his usual enthusiastic superfluity of exclamation marks. “I had a wonderful time over so many years with so many people down under…. I will never forget that !!! Please give my own words “Because Music Matters” to all readers. I came up with this so many years ago but it is still the tag line Marantz uses…. And hopefully it will stay that way, since it’s the truth in people’s lives….”

Ken Ishiwata’s departure will allow new light to fall on those in Marantz’s engineering department whose creations have been released under his leadership, and he certainly well deserves a happy retirement, being now 72. Though we have our doubts as to whether he’ll be able to stay away from the world of audio entirely in the years to come. Because after all, as he says, music matters...

Sony’s Glass Sound Speaker, the LSPX-S, has finally been released after a number of years being shown as a ‘concept’ in different sizes. It looks rather like a camping lantern, and indeed there is a light there, with 32 steps of brightness and two modes of flickering ‘candelight’ for subtle lighting to accompany its main raison d’etre, which is to function as a wireless speaker using three separate driver mechanisms. In the base of the unit there is an upfiring 35mm midrange driver and a downfiring passive radiator, but what makes this unit unusual (and contributes to its $799 price) is that the vertical tube of organic glass (acrylic resin) acts as a third ‘speaker’, being vibrated by three actuators so that it disperses the high frequencies from the full surface area in a 360-degree pattern.

The Glass Sound Speaker can receive music via Bluetooth (including Sony’s near high-res LDAC codec), by Wi-Fi in a multiroom context using Sony’s I Music Center (formerly SongPal), or through direct input to its minijack auxiliary socket. More info: www.sony.com.au