Ken Ishiwata, Poradniki Hifi

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//-->KI‘Have I really spent so long at Marantz?’Ken Ishiwata celebrates his 30 years with Marantz at the Ivy…………by Martin CollomsUnless a company founder and in a position toself promote, a product design engineer isoften an unsung hero. First at Pioneer, and forthe last 30 years at Marantz, Ken Ishiwata hasapplied his love of music, of audio, and hisengineering skills to guide and voice generallywell priced products to higher sound qualitystandards. ‘KI Signature’ products have beenthe stars of the range for years, right from hisfirst voicing of the original but unfashionable14 bit oversampled CD player based onPhilips technology, which while technicallyaccomplished, did not carry the marketnecessary ‘16 bit’ label which had beencaptured by rival Japanese designs. When themanagement got to the point of dumping acouple of thousand of these unsaleable 14 bitplayers Ken stepped in claiming that he couldmodify them for £8 each to create a superior‘voiced’ product which would win overreviewers. The rest is history, the consignmentthen sold out, and almost every ‘KI’ productsince has scored a performance advantagewith the critics.But we must go back to the beginning:The mono LP was announced to the world byCBS in 1947 and 10 years later Ken built hisfirst mono valve amp, when just 10 years old.At this time the stereo LP was released. He haslived through the mono LP, the stereo LP, andthen digital audio, including valves and solidstate, as he says ‘the golden years of highquality audio engineering’.As a teenager he experienced a high end, USbuilt Marantz based system and marvelled atthe sound quality of genuine Hi Fi and inparticular the musicality of the legendaryMarantz 7C, a triple triode pre amp.Completely unaffordable, US high end such asthis was only for Japanese millionaires at thistime but he managed to borrow that 7C andtraced out the circuit, noting as many details aspossible. After months of labour, searching forthe right parts or good alternatives his copywas finished. On turning it on there was nosound at all. He learned the hard way that thisdesign was a feedback type where fine detailsof the circuit, the build, specific parts and thewiring had to be just right otherwise is wouldbecome unstable and oscillate (whistle stronglyat inaudibly high frequencies). His version wasoscillating. More work finally led to itssuccessful operation. But the sound still didnot match what he had heard with the originaldesign. Here was another lesson, that highquality sound at the hands of an experienceddesigner was the result of many aspectsworking together, grounding technique, wiringlayout, structural integrity, critical selection ofparts, type and tolerance, and finally the circuitdesign itself. This was a lesson in voicingwhich was to stand him in good stead.By the mid sixties stereo was beginning toblossom and Pioneer was exporting strongly,producing car audio and some Hi Fi. WithPioneer Ken found himself stationed in theUK, his work to include reporting back on theperformance of products in the Europeanmarket and suggesting improvements. A lowcost turntable came out called the PioneerPL11 and Ken set about improving itsperformance and sound. His first great success,the PL12 became a huge hit selling by thehundred thousand for years to come. When theJapan HQ took over the then independent UKdistribution arm for a while Ken was out on alimb. Never a company jock, independent ofspirit, Ken is something of a fashionista, afashion photographer, and violinist.Ken Ishiwata at the Ivy telling of his audio career,May 6, 2009Headhunted by the Marantz Europe division hecharacteristically set out his own onerous termsand conditions. They could not agree. But notlong after Marantz HQ in Japan agreed to takeresponsibility, on his terms, and called himback to base for retraining. As was theJapanese custom, this now contaminatedoutsider from Pioneer, who worse still hadbeen years away in Europe, was treated withsuspicion and hostility. But Ken kept his headdown and set about learning the new set ofcomplex US originated and more advancedMarantz audio technologies.After some months he was ready to return toMarantz Europe, based in Belgium, near theFrench border. Together with extensivewarehousing there was also a sizeable Marantzspeaker production line delivering upwards of200,000 pieces a year to the market. His firsttask was to find out why the QA team inBelgium were rejecting so many Japan madeproducts, to the consternation of the MarantzJapan HQ. He QA’d the QA inspector’smethods and found them at fault, and in factnearly all products were actually meetingfactory spec. Marantz gained confidence inKen’s abilities and he gradually achieved morecontrol over the conception and performanceof product. The lead-into-gold story for theearly 14 bit player was just the beginning, andwith Marantz now operating as a division ofPhilips he was ideally placed to connect withthe advanced CD research at Philips labs andhelp create numerous exceptional CD players,and mostly at moderate retail cost.He has worked in all product areas,monitoring and refining sound quality, but hasbeen most influential in the stereo arena withCD, pre and power amps, both valve andtransistor designs, some carrying major inputfrom their conception, others identified by Kenas susceptible to his ‘KI’ touch, gainingrefinement as a result of painstaking balancingof the optimum sound through careful controlof the mix of electronic components.Regarding this 30thyear celebratory event hestated firmly that this was not a retirementparty but an expression of confidence in hispast work and a foundation for the futureprojects he aims to undertake. For Marantz itwas an opportunity to thank him for hisenduring commitment and also to launch twospecial Ken Ishiwata originated audiocomponents, a universal SACD player andpowerful integrated amplifier. Ken explainedthat they express some of the beautiful soundqualities he first recognised as a teenager whenhearing that Marantz 7C preamp in the early1960s.Ken Ishiwata’s KI Pearl 30thAnniversary Audio Components in a limited edition of 500 units each. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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