Denon SC-304 (c. 1980)
The Denon SC-304 is a 3-way, 3-speaker bookshelf system from around 1980, originally priced at ¥44,800 per unit. Its drivers were jointly developed by Denon and Peerless of Denmark. You can see that in the Nordic pulp cone material and in the Peerless-influenced midrange engineering.
The low end comes from a 25 cm cone woofer. Denon developed it with its proprietary "sound latitude" measurement technique alongside conventional methods, refining the vibration and support systems toward ideal linearity. The cone paper is Scandinavian pulp treated with an air-dry process, then coated with acrylic resin. The midrange is a 10 cm cone driver shared with the upper model SC-306. It sits in a light alloy die-cast chamber filled with ring-shaped glass wool. The highs come from a 3.2 cm soft dome tweeter on a die-cast plate, with a reduced effective diaphragm diameter to improve dispersion and power response. A continuously variable high-frequency level control is fitted.
The cabinet is an airtight (sealed) bookshelf design measuring 292 × 540 × 287 mm and weighing 12 kg. Rated impedance is 8 Ω, maximum input is 100W (program source), and the playback band is 40 Hz to 20 kHz with crossover points at 500 Hz and 4 kHz. Sensitivity is a healthy 92 dB/W/m. Total harmonic distortion is rated at 1.5% or less (100 Hz and above, 5W). The tweeter and woofer use a sandwich support system - aluminum plates and sealing sheets for the tweeter, an aluminum die-cast ring for the woofer. Aluminum-laminated butyl rubber is applied to part of the cabinet's back panel to suppress unwanted vibration modes.
The SC-304 appeared in Denon's July 1980 "System 80" catalog as one of the speaker options in a complete system built around the PMA-530 amplifier and DP-33F turntable, with the SC-306 as the flagship. Beyond that listing and the Japanese audio databases that preserve its specifications, little else is documented. No period reviews have surfaced. The only current market data is a Pakistani classified ad bundling a pair with a Denon AVR-1802 and a Sanui amplifier for Rs 45,000, and a Japanese Yahoo Auctions listing for a junk-condition pair that started at ¥1. Collectors have described them as rare and "detailed and powerful" sounding.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.
Related Models
- Denon D-5
- Denon D-9
- Denon DL-103 (1962)
- Denon DL-303 (1980)
- Denon DR-M1 (1985)
- Braun AUDIO-1 (1965)
- Braun AUDIO-250 (1965)
- Magnavox Component Systems (1972)
- Acoustic Research AR (1967-1976)
- Acoustic Research 11