(stylized as audio-technica) is a Japanese company that designs and manufactures professional

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publ ...

s, headphones,

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

s, phonographic

magnetic cartridge A magnetic cartridge, more commonly called a phonograph cartridge or phono cartridge or (colloquially) a pickup, is an electromechanical transducer that is used to play records on a turntable. The cartridge contains a removable or permanentl ...

s, and other audio equipment.

Company history

Audio-Technica was established in 1962 in Shinjuku,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan, by Hideo Matsushita as a phonograph cartridge manufacturer. Its first products were the AT-1 and the AT-3 MM stereo phono cartridges. Business rapidly developed and Audio-Technica expanded into other fields. The headquarters and factory moved in 1965 to the current address in Naruse,

Machida, Tokyo is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 428,851, and a population density of 6,000 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Geography Machida is located in the T ...

. In 1969, the company began exporting phono cartridges worldwide and launched the first

microcassette The Microcassette (often written generically as microcassette) is an audio storage medium, introduced by Olympus in 1969. It has the same width of magnetic tape as the Compact Cassette but in a cassette roughly one quarter the size. By using t ...

recorders. In 1972, Audio-Technica established its US arm in Fairlawn, Ohio, and started shipping VM phono cartridges to European manufacturers. In 1974, the company developed its first headphones, the AT-700 series, launched the same year. The AT-800 series of microphones were introduced in 1978 and in the same year the UK establishment in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

began operation. In the 1980s, with the growth in digital music formats threatening their core business of phonograph cartridges, Audio-Technica begun a period of diversification. Employee suggestions were solicited, with sushi machines among the ideas selected for further development. In 1984, Audio-Technica introduced the ASM50 Nigirikko, a

nigiri is a Japanese dish of prepared , usually with some sugar and salt, accompanied by a variety of , such as seafood, often raw, and vegetables. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is "sushi rice," also ...

-forming appliance for home kitchens, which incorporated a turn-table like mechanism to deposit the nigiri onto. The market success of this product led the company to develop a range of sushi machinery for commercial and industrial use. Audio-Technica remains one of the largest manufacturers of sushi machines globally today, with products marketed under the brand AUTEC. In 1986, the company developed

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

cables with high-purity copper produced from the continuous metal casting process (PCOCC), invented and developed between 1982 and 1985 by Atsumi Ohno. In the same year, the company launched the AT33ML/OCC phono cartridge, the first made with PCOCC materials. In 1988, another Audio-Technica subsidiary is founded in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. In 1990s, Audio-Technica introduced several large-diaphragm

condenser microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public ...

s for studio use: the AT4033

cardioid In geometry, a cardioid () is a plane curve traced by a point on the perimeter of a circle that is rolling around a fixed circle of the same radius. It can also be defined as an epicycloid having a single cusp. It is also a type of sinusoidal ...

microphone in 1991, the AT4050 multi-pattern in 1995, and the AT4060

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. The type known as ...

cardioid microphone in 1998; the AT895, a

DSP DSP may refer to: Computing * Digital signal processing, the mathematical manipulation of an information signal * Digital signal processor, a microprocessor designed for digital signal processing * Yamaha DSP-1, a proprietary digital signal ...

-controlled five-element microphone array providing adaptive directional audio acquisition, was introduced in 1999. In 1996, the Southeast Asian establishment began operation in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. In 2008, the company celebrated the 20th anniversary of supplying microphones for US Presidential Debates. For their 50th anniversary, Audio-Technica celebrated at Consumer Electronics Show 2012, debuting their AT-LP1240-USB USB DJ Turntable and ATH-CKS55i. In 2017, Audio-Technica Pure Digital Drive Wireless Headphone ATH-DSR9BT received CES Innovation Honoree Awards by using Trigence Dnote Technology.

Audio equipment supplier

Since the late 1990s, Audio-Technica supplied microphones and headphones for US television shows such as the '' Big Brother'', ''

Deal or No Deal ''Deal or No Deal'' is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which (launching the format) was the Dutch '' Miljoenenjacht'' (''Hunt/Chase for Millions''). The centerpiece of this format is the final round (a. ...

'', the '' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame'' inductions and several international events:

Technology

One of their most famous products was a battery-operated, portable record player called Mister Disc that was sold in the U.S. in the early 1980s. In 2005, Audio-Technica developed "Uniguard", a method for making microphones resistant to

radio frequency interference Electromagnetic interference (EMI), also called radio-frequency interference (RFI) when in the radio frequency spectrum, is a disturbance generated by an external source that affects an electrical circuit by electromagnetic induction, electrost ...

from cell phones,

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

devices, wireless computer networks and

walkie-talkie A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver (HT), is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, ...

s. 13 patents were involved in bringing the feature to fruition, as company engineers modified many different elements of microphone construction and operation. Over 50 existing Audio-Technica microphone models have been upgraded with the new RFI-resistant technology.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Audio equipment manufacturers of Japan Headphones manufacturers Microphone manufacturers Phonograph manufacturers Japanese brands Electronics companies established in 1962 Japanese companies established in 1962 Manufacturing companies based in Tokyo

Company history

Audio equipment supplier

Technology

See also

References

External links