Sony TA-N88B

Class D !
Huge power in small boxes, at last !

Long awaited and shown here and there throughout 1976, this amp had it all : PWM (Pulse Width Modulation), PLPS (Pulse Locked Power Supply, 20Khz chopping rate) and 4 pairs of complementary V-FET transistors!

Perhaps a little bold for many of the N88s still around are... dead. The slim-line box probably was too slim to hold all of these slick circuits.
The underlying technology inside the N88, however, showed the path we now use daily, digital Class D, as recently revived by Yamaha and Sharp !

TA-N88 = silver in Japan, withdawn rather quickly after 1980.
TA-N88B = gunmetal grey elsewhere but for the first late 1977 batch ; remaining available in Germany until 1984.
Also available as a Wega Lab Zero in black fashion, no rack ears and green LED meters added.

Do read the USER technical review to understand why so many TA-N88s fried all too quickly - a fate which had nothing to do with the V-FETs.

A real N88 here.