Kenwood LS-770A (circa 1985–1986)

The Kenwood LS-770A is a compact 3-way, bass-reflex bookshelf speaker from the mid-1980s. It sold on the Japanese domestic market for ¥39,800 per unit. Kenwood described it as a small system honoring the various technologies unique to its LS series. It seems to have flown under the radar. One Polish owner on the Audiomaniacy forum called it "underappreciated," saying he'd owned a pair for six months and they surprised him every day.

The woofer is the most distinctive part. It's a 22 cm cone driver using Kenwood's "double voice coil" arrangement - a long voice coil bobbin carrying two stacked coils, driven by two magnets of opposite polarity. The claim is that a 37 mm voice coil extracts energy equivalent to a 75 mm unit, which extends the low-frequency limit. The opposing magnetic fields act as an electromagnetic brake, so the driver can handle high power without mechanical breakdown. The woofer also uses a new HR carbon diaphragm and what Kenwood called a "class A suspension."

The midrange is a 7.5 cm semi-dome type with a demagnetized magnet for anti-magnetic effects. The tweeter is a 2.5 cm hard dome with an ion-plated titanium diaphragm. The surround uses a "push-pull tangential edge" design, meant to address the weak restoring force of a standard tangential edge under pull loads. There's also an acoustic level control on the cabinet.

Specs as documented: frequency response 33 Hz to 40 kHz, 150W (EIAJ) maximum input, 6Ω impedance, 92 dB/W/m sensitivity, crossover points at 900 Hz and 4 kHz. The cabinet measures 280 × 510 × 261 mm (W×H×D) and weighs 11.5 kg. A YouTube video about the LS-770A describes it as "built in the Golden Hi-Fi Era," dated 1985.

Beyond the specs, the record is thin. No professional review of this model in the period press has turned up, and no production end year is documented. A used pair was listed on Russian classifieds at 28,000 rubles. A 2014 auction on HifiShark showed a bid of ¥2,900 for what appears to be a pair of the semi-dome midrange units rather than complete speakers. One German seller noted their pair "function without problems, but have signs of use and smell slightly of smoke." A forum user on elektroda.pl was seeking a budget amplifier to pair with theirs, feeling the bass was "withdrawn" on an old Technics amp.

• Type: 3-way, 3-speaker, bass-reflex, bookshelf, magnetically shielded
• Woofer: 22 cm cone, double voice coil, HR carbon diaphragm
• Midrange: 7.5 cm semi-dome
• Tweeter: 2.5 cm hard dome, ion-plated titanium
• Frequency response: 33 Hz – 40 kHz
• Max input: 150W (EIAJ)
• Impedance: 6Ω
• Sensitivity: 92 dB/W/m
• Crossover: 900 Hz, 4 kHz
• Dimensions: 280 × 510 × 261 mm
• Weight: 11.5 kg
• Original price: ¥39,800 (each, circa 1986)

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