Hello, I was lucky enough to have a personal memory to share here. I met Susumu Sakuma at his audio concert in Milan, at the Hi-Fi Clinic Donzelli, in 1996. "Remembrance of Sounds Past". What a title! It creates a very peculiar mood for audio, I mean audio as culture and narrative that helps us hold the world together. In fact, I find it funny that many people take it as a "vintage audio" statement, overlooking the simple fact that it echoes the great work of Marcel Proust. I think tubes were Sakuma San's madeleines, and I wish I could have told him that on that occasion. I travelled by train from Florence to Milan with my father, who also died this year, just to hear how this strange approach to audio sounded. It was worth it. In fact, it's one of the few audiophile experiences I remember vividly and fondly. The sound of the Western Electric 555 in the tuba is something I will never forget. Limited bandwidth, but incredible realism within those limits. Voice and guitar sounded just like the real thing. The most important thing is the memory of the person: Sakuma San was calm, friendly, modest. He just asked us, "Do you like the sound?" and we said, "Yes. Let's meet again, in Japan!" Sadly, that never happened, although I've been to Japan many times since marrying a woman from Kobe many years later. If Concorde ever becomes an audio museum, I will be more than happy to pay a visit and honour the ashes of a great gentleman.
His designs were for his enjoyment . He championed large single ended triodes , direct and transformer coupling over capacitor coupling , and driving the power tube with the same power tube . Because of all the iron these were overly heavy amplifiers , and expensive to make using only the highest quality , sometimes custom-made , transformers . An innovator , not by the book .
Very touching video. Much respects for your belate father and you. I would like to learn his knowledge could you guide me? If there is any book or his articles?
Sorry, this is not high fidelity but mid fidelity at best. Very colored and boxed sound, no highs over 8 Kz , no bottom end but only a captivating (maybe) midrange. No power cords, no good connectors, no top notch internal wiring, no state of the art capacitors...
I'm sorry mister, but I must advise you that mr Sakuma's amplifiers did, absolutely, NOT matched ANY "top quality" nor "state of the art" standards. His design was purely based upon human perception and not in scientific resources. Aside of this, you must consider also that you're listening a mere camera mic recording wich much probably won't represent 10% of the produced audio. Unless you already heard one of his amplifiers in person, I shoud pose your comment as very unfortunate.
@@paolo60333 how come you can tell if it's hi fidelity or mid fidelity from a system. True music only comes from the instruments itself. As much as a good system can give to you, only the level of naturalness of sound can be obtain from certain system plus with you aging ear your evaluation is not accurate and subjective. By the way wiring doesn't change the quality of sound.....LOL caps do but only the tone we sometimes refer as quality...
