Toshiba ST-910

September
1 9 7 4 september 1974
1 9 7 9 1979

Those who have seen one raise your hand !
OK... never mind.

The commonly assumed release date for the ST-910 was 1978 but some japanese designs like the ST-910 or the Onkyo GS-1 took so long to make it outside their homeland, we westerners got to think they were present day's science-fiction when they really were yesterday's old salad.

However, the ST-910 was so advanced when introduced in 1974 that it still was hot new salad in 1978. I don't think this has happened too many times in the history of high-fidelity.

The FM-only ST-910 tuner is therefore not a contemporary of the Sony ST-J88B or the Revox B760 but more so of the Harrison components that had first used LEDs, ICs and "soft-touch" buttons (1976 S200 amplifier and T200 tuner) or of the Scott T33S.
If the 910 had been made available in '78, it would not have been really new salad. As made in 1974, it was neither salad or sauce, it was science-fiction made real.


Think of it :
C-MOS integrated circuits, digital tuning and display, PLL circuitry, sensitive glass switches and seven memory presets plus typically-japanese build quality : serious, clean and reliable.
In other words, the ST-910 was lightyears away from the Scott T33S released only a year earlier. In fact, it was ahead of everybody, from Aiwa to Yamaha, by way of Kenwood, Sony and Victor.

To boot, the ST-910 doesn't look like a pre-release lab contraption or an over-zealous effort on spaceship design : it is a magnificent object which despite its "no-knob" attitude remains sculptured... in signified volumes.

Only the big LEDs may remind one this was made in 1974 but then, any digital cable receiver of this here 2009 time sports LEDs just as big...
So the ST-910 really was ahead of its time, even by its most dated element.


Toshiba, Aurex in Japan, made throughout the 1970s extensive efforts in FM tuner developments, all largely publicized and remembered.
The ST-910 was the most technically impressive of those efforts yet it seems it was mainly developed as an export item : it was made available in Japan but finding a mention of it or even a one-off ad results in... almost nothing.
I also have yet to find a test or a review or an ad outside Japan before 1978 - nothing again.

The ST-910 is a technological tour de force, make that a triple tour de force, which seems to have remained unseen until just before it would start to smell like yesteryear's news... Strange move.

All I could find is a beautiful but undated USA catalog and two black & white appearances in 1978 and 1979 german general catalogs - by which time the ST-910 had vanished from the japanese landscape since very long...

The ST-910 nevertheless got a Good Design japanese award in 1975.



A full-size review is available at the Tuner Information Center, while the Aurex version of the 910 you can find at K. Nisi's website.

The magnificent USA catalog without which this post couldn't have been possible was donated by Stephen Lesser in june 2004.

Toshiba ST-910, image 1 Toshiba ST-910, image 2 Toshiba ST-910, image 3
Toshiba ST-910 specifications
Title Value
Frequency range : 87.5...107.9MHz
Usable sensitivity : 1,8µV (IHF)
Distortion : 0,2% (MONO, 400Hz/100%)
0,15% (STEREO,400Hz/100%)
S/N ratio : 75dB
Frequency response : 20Hz...15Khz (± 0,5dB)
Selctivity : 70dB (IHF)
Image rejection : 100dB
IF rejection : 110dB
Capture ratio : 1dB
Spurious ratio : 100dB
AM suppression : 65dB
FM stereo separation : 40dB (100Hz...8Khz)
Rated power output : 650mV (FIXED, 400Hz/100%)
0...1,5V (VARIABLE, 400Hz/100%)
Output impedance : 1kOhm (at the max. input)
Componentry : 9 FETs
110 ICs
32 transistors
100 diodes
PC : 25W
Dimensions : 45 x 14,7 x 34cm
Weight : 8kg.
List price : 280,000¥
Accessories : FM feeder antenna
FM coaxial connector
connecting cords
silicon cloth
felt pad
page online since : september 2004
page updated : march 2010
page type : LGT / KNB
page weight : 964.76 Kb / 740 Kb
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