Kenwood Series 21 (Concept) System

This concept system [SE-A700 + SE-A900] created in the late 1990's still holds very well against today's current crop of hifi systems. The control centre [C-V301 + C-V350] is the brains of the separate system allowing one-touch source control from DVD, to LD, to radio, to CD (or whatever else you have plugged in!). The amplifier [M-A300] can deliver 600W of output power across six shielded 2-way speakers to create a range of bass and treble that even mid-range systems a decade later cannot replicate. The front speakers can replicate the surround speakers. The front speakers come with built-in subs to avoid the dependency on a dedicated subwoofer. The subwoofer can act as a bass center speaker. The centre speaker can act as two front speakers. Basically, Kenwood designed the system to avoid loss of sound if one-or-more speakers became broken… not that this has ever happened.

Kenwood pushed everything into the Concept Series 21 to make it 'future-proof' - voice activation, Dolby™ noise reduction, DVD/CD/VCD/MD/CD-RW playback, and the experimental SRS surround circle technology that converts a stereo source (e.g. FM radio) into surround sound, a technique that after a decade is still ahead of today's poor second-rate surround sound conversion attempts. The enhancements in 1999 [SE-A701 + SE-A901] included the brand-new and untested DD5.1 and DTS decoding and an optical input into the control centre [C-V351 + C-V751].

The tape deck was soon replaced during the 1999 enhancements with the minidisk media [DM-S500] recorder. This component has a built-in sampling rate converter to allow audio copying upto 48kHz (today's DAB radio signals). MD allows high-quality recording from analogue or digital source compressed via ATRAC encoding, and has amazing playback via the high-performance 1-bit DAC processor that is memory-resident to allow for what we call 'shock/impact resistance' nowadays. The convenient editing facilities of the minidisk recorder and CD-TEXT copy / title registration allow for automatic track re-ordering, dividing, and merging. Minidisk is a very specialist area that was hindered by the simultaneous mass-availability of compressed audio on the internet (MP3), yet is still a higher-quality audio recording and playback format that is still very highly regarded by enthusiasts.

The 5-disk CD player was also a new concept. All CD's placed onto the same carousel but uniquely you can change one disc whilst another continues to play! I tend to copy all my MP3's onto a CD-RW and with 5 discs into the player that works out at a little over 300 tracks, all at high MP3 quality (256kBps), all with CD-TEXT, and all can be auto-sorted via my MD player into categories. If I want some classical music I hear no tracks of rock/pop (will play only classical tracks off any of the 5 discs, randomly)! If the kids want to listen to 'High School Musical' only those are played from any of the 5 discs. Gimmicky yes, necessary no, not having to listen to the wife/kids saying "I don't like this one" - priceless!

Just try to purchase a hifi system today that has inbuilt SRS, DD5.1/DTS decoder, CD-TEXT reader, VCD/LD/MD/DVD/CD-RW playback, WAV/WMA/MP3/DAB conversion, bi-directional control commands, and has shielded speakers that deliver 600W of power and comes with a universal remote control. Well, I did purchase one and it was called the Concept Series 21 made by Kenwood and it has delivered faultless true surround sound from stereo or digital sources faultlessly for a decade.

PRO2: Magnetically shielded speakers to avoid degradation/contamination of sound quality: 600W of power that delivers bass even at low volume level.

SE-A700 + SE-A900: Series 21 concept system (1997 release) - small 100W speakers with stands.
SE-A701 + SE-A901: Series 21 concept system (1999 release) - tall 100W speakers floor-standing.