Kenwood KA-1000

No need to present this well remembered piece of sci-fi-esque design.

Powerful, very powerful, tight, very tight with Sigma Drive and a very long Heat-Pipe to keep everything cool.
Heat-Pipes became en vogue around 1979 and almost everybody, from Sony to Sansui used them (Sony first in 1978 : in the Precise P7 TA-P7F).

After 1982, the system started to vanish rapidly : probably because the Freon gas held inside was deemed dangerous by some administration or another...
However, Luxman kept Heat-Pipes in high-end amplifiers like the L-550 series, the L-570 and L-540 1989 bestsellers which remained available until the mid 1990s. Or maybe it simply cost too much, too.

The non-magnetic chassis always is a suprise to discover "in the flesh"... it is made of plastic ! This explains the somewhat sloping parts and top covers one can see in the catalogs - plastic doesn't like heat nor does it age well.
The front windows of the KA-1000 are however made of real glass, not easy-to-scratch acryl or perspex.

But the KA-1000 was a fine example of high-end Hi-Fi navigating between the 1970s robustness and 1980s trendy trends in technology as well as design.
Despite the plastic thing, I want one.