Kenwood KT-2020 (circa 1984)
The Kenwood KT-2020 is a quartz-synthesized FM/AM stereo tuner from around 1984, originally priced at ¥74,800 in Japan. It's compact for its era - just 88mm tall and 4.5kg - and came in black and silver finishes. Today it's remembered mostly for the proprietary Kenwood circuitry packed into that slim chassis.
The headline technology is the DLLD (Direct Linear Loop Detector) IF stage, a design Kenwood had previously developed for the KT-1010. It's paired with a DPD (Direct Pure Decoder) MPX section. Instead of conventional square-wave switching, the DPD multiplies the detection output by a pure 38 kHz sine wave, which Kenwood claimed reduced distortion in stereo reception. The FM front end also uses a direct linear reception circuit to deal with the low-frequency linearity problems common in synthesizer tuners of the period. Measured performance was strong. Mono signal-to-noise hit 99 dB at 85 dBf input, stereo separation reached 70 dB at 1 kHz in wide mode, and THD at 1 kHz was rated at 0.005% mono and 0.008% stereo.
The front panel has a modulation level meter with a peak hold function, handy for judging broadcast quality at a glance. The AM section gets unusually serious treatment, with a variable circuit that lets you shape the frequency response. A two-station program function handles timed recording, and there's an auto stereo-blend control for long-distance reception. A related variant, the KT-2020L, appears in European listings. It's a distinctly labeled model, and the "L" is sometimes tied to a PLL-based design, though that spec isn't documented for the base KT-2020. Japanese sources note the KT-2020 was the predecessor to the KT-1100D, which shared a similar appearance.
Surviving documentation on this model is thin beyond the spec sheet. A service manual is available in PDF form. Used units have appeared on European classifieds - one KT-2020L was listed at €30 in the Netherlands, another at 70 PLN in Poland - and a Japanese auction saw a KT-2020 close around ¥3,800. No owner reviews, common problems, or detailed market history have surfaced in the record.
- FM sensitivity: 0.95 µV / 10.8 dBf (75 Ω)
- FM frequency range: 76–90 MHz (Japanese band)
- Dimensions: 440 × 88 × 331 mm; 4.5 kg
- Power consumption: 14W
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