Akai ( ja, 赤井, ) is a Hong Kong manufacturer of
consumer electronics
Consumer electronics or home electronics are Electronics, electronic (Analogue electronics, analog or digital electronics, digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for ...
. It was founded as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo, Japan, in 1946.
Grande Holdings in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
purchased the Akai brand, and now distributes various electronic products such as
LED TV
An LED-backlit LCD is a liquid-crystal display that uses LEDs for backlighting instead of traditional cold cathode fluorescent (CCFL) backlighting. LED-backlit displays use the same TFT LCD (thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display) technol ...
,
washing machines,
clothes dryers,
air conditioners and
smart phones, through collaborations with other electronics companies bearing relevant expertise.
inMusic Brands in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
took over Akai's brand, starting the ‘Akai Professional’ label, that distributes high-end audio electronics products.
Corporate history
Akai was founded by Masukichi Akai and his son, Saburo Akai (who died in 1973
[) as , a Japanese manufacturer in 1929][
][
] or 1946.[
Although reliable sources are not yet found, according to the several sources]
kotobank.jp
:ja:Akai Professional), Masukichi Akai established ''Akai Press Industry'' in 1923, then his son, Saburo Akai established ''Akai Electric Company Ltd.'' in 1946, and Masukichi served as the president of both.
The company's business eventually became troubled and it left the audio industry in 1991. At its peak in the late 1990s, Akai Holdings employed 100,000 workers and had annual sales of HK$40 billion (US$5.2 billion). The company filed for insolvency in November 2000, owing creditors US$1.1B. It emerged that ownership of Akai Holdings had somehow passed in 1999 to Grande Holdings, a company founded by Akai's chairman James Ting
James Henry Ting Wei (丁謂, born 1951) is a Shanghai-born Chinese-Canadian former business executive who was once one of Hong Kong's most successful businessmen before being charged with illegal business practices.
Early years
Ting was born in S ...
. The liquidators claimed that Ting had stolen over US$800m from the company with the assistance of accountants Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Delo ...
who had tampered with audit documents going back to 1994. Ting was imprisoned for false accounting in 2005, and E&Y paid $200m to settle the negligence case out of court in September 2009. In a separate lawsuit, a former E&Y partner, Christopher Ho, made a "substantial payment" to Akai creditors in his role as chairman of Grande Holdings.
History
Historical products
Akai's products included reel-to-reel audiotape recorders (such as the GX series), tuners (top level AT, mid level TR and TT series), audio cassette
The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Otten ...
decks (top level GX and TFL, mid level TC, HX and CS series), amplifiers (AM and TA series), 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 pub ...
s, receivers, 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, video recorders and loudspeaker
A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or ...
s.
Many Akai products were sold under the name Roberts in the US, as well as A&D in Japan (from 1987 after a partnership with Mitsubishi Electric), Tensai and ''Transonic Strato'' in Western Europe. During the late 1960s, Akai adopted Tandberg's cross-field recording technologies (using an extra tape head) to enhance high frequency recording and switched to the increasingly reliable Glass and crystal (X'tal) (GX) ferrite heads a few years later. The company's most popular products were the GX-630D, GX-635D, GX-747/GX-747DBX and GX-77 open-reel recorders (latter featuring an auto-loading function), the three-head, closed-loop GX-F95, GX-90, GX-F91, GX-R99 cassette decks, and the AM-U61, AM-U7 and AM-93 stereo amplifiers.
Akai manufactured and badged most of its imported hi-fi products with the Tensai brand (named after the Swiss audio and electronics distributor Tensai International). Tensai International was Akai's exclusive distributor for the Swiss and Western European markets until 1988.
Akai limited its consumer hi-fi product line in the United States and Europe towards the end of the 20th century.
Introduction of the on-screen display
Akai produced consumer video cassette recorders (VCR) during the 1980s. The Akai VS-2 was the first VCR with an on-screen display, originally named the Interactive Monitor System. By displaying the information directly on the television screen, this innovation eliminated the need for the user to be physically near the VCR to program recording, read the tape counter, or perform other common features. Within a few years, all competing manufacturers had adopted on-screen display technology in their own products.
Akai Professional
In 1984,[ a new division of the company][ was formed to focus on the manufacture and sale of electronic instruments, and was called Akai Professional.
The first product released by the new subsidiary was the MG1212, a 12 channel, 12 track recorder.][
] This innovative device used a special VHS-like cartridge (a MK-20), and was good for 10 minutes of continuous 12 track recording (19 cm per second) or 20 minutes at half speed (9.5 cm per second). One track (14) was permanently dedicated to recording absolute time, and another one for synchronization such as SMPTE or MTC. Each channel strip included dbx type-1 noise reduction and semi-parametric equalizers (with fixed bandwidths). The unit also had innovations like an electronic 2 bus system, a 12 stereo channel patch bay and auto punch in and out, among others. The unique transport design and noise reduction gave these units a recording quality rivaling that of more expensive 16 track machines using 1" tape. The MG-1212 was later replaced by the MG-1214, which improved the transport mechanism and overall performance.
AX series analog synthesizers
Other early products included the Akai AX80 8-voice analog synthesizer in 1984,[ followed by AX60 and AX73 6-voice analog synthesizers ca.1986.][
][
] The AX-60 borrowed many ideas from the Roland Juno series, but used voltage controlled analog oscillators (VCO) as a sound source as opposed to Roland's more common digitally controlled analog oscillators (DCO), and also allowed the performer to "split" the keyboard (using different timbres for different ranges of keys). The AX-60 also had the ability to interface with Akai's early samplers through a serial cable, using 12-bit samples as an additional oscillator.[
(archived on HollowSun.com).
“''The AX73 was a simple analogue synthesiser based around the Curtis CEM 3394 chips ... Internally, the AX60 had the same voice architecture as the AX73 and VX90 ... Common to all models in the range, however, was a proprietary 13-pin DIN socket that allowed you to connect an S900 for processing through the synths' analogue filters. ...''”
]
Digital Samplers (S, X, Z series)
The S612 12-bit digital sampler
Sampler may refer to:
* Sampler (signal), a digital signal processing device that converts a continuous signal to a discrete signal
* Sampler (needlework), a handstitched piece of embroidery used to demonstrate skill in needlework
* Sampler (surna ...
in 1985, was the first in a series of (relatively) affordable samplers already in 19-inch studio-rack format but in black color.[ It held only a single sample at a time, which was loaded into memory via a separate disk drive utilizing Quick Disk 2.8-inch ]floppy disk
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined ...
s. The maximum sample time at the highest quality sampling rate (32 kHz) was one second.
The introduction of a "professional" range of digital samplers began with the 12-bit S900 in 1986,[ followed by the X7000 keyboard sampler in 1986,][
] and the S700 rack-mount version in 1987.[ Unlike the single-sample S612, however, they allowed the use of six active samples at once, had a built-in disk drive and could be extended with six individual outputs via cable and a flash memory extension which added another six samples to the memory for multisample playback. The S700/X7000 sampler series were light-grey colored, which didn't change throughout the whole "professional" range of Akai samplers.
The 16-bit Akai S1000 series followed in 1988, adding the option to read CD-ROMs and write to hard disks via SCSI. This range was superseded by the S3000 series in 1993, with optional built-in CD-ROM drive, followed by the S5000 and S6000. Additional releases of note were the Z4 and Z8 24-bit 96 kHz samplers.][
Sampler Models
*S612 - 1985
*X7000 - Keyboard Sampler - 1986
*S700 - 1987
*S900 - 1986
*X3700 - Keyboard Sampler - 1986
*S950 - 1988
*S1000 - 1988
*S1000KB - Keyboard Sampler - 1988
*S1000PB - Playback only device - 1988
*S1100 - 1992
*S01 - 1993
*S2000 - 1995
*S2800 - 1992
*S20 - Drum Machine-styled device - 1997
*S3000 - 1993
* S3000XL
*S3200 - 1996
*S3200XL - 1996
*S5000 - 1998
*S6000 - 1999
*Z4 - 2002
*Z8 - 2002
]
MPC
Akai also produced several Digital MIDI sequencers and digital synthesizers such as the MPC MPC, Mpc or mpc may refer to:
Astronomy
* Megaparsec (Mpc), unit of length used in astronomy
* Minor Planet Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
** ''Minor Planet Circulars'' (MPC, M.P.C. or MPCs), astronomical publication from the Minor ...
range, a line of integrated drum machines, MIDI sequencers, samplers and direct-to-disk recorders.
New ownership of Akai Professional
In December 1999, one year before the application of Civil Rehabilitation Act to Akai Electric Company Ltd., the brand of its musical instrument division, Akai Professional was acquired by a company of the United States. The new company was dubbed "Akai Professional Musical Instrument Corporation".[
] (''AKAI professional M.I.'') was established in the same year, however it was bankrupted in 2005.[
Teikoku Databank Yokohama branch, by the 7th (December 2005), Akai Professional M.I. received a bankruptcy proceedings decision by the Tokyo District Court. ... Akai Professional M.I. was established in December 1999 to focus on the manufacture and sale of electronic musical instruments, by a company of the United States who acquired the brand(s) of musical instrument division of Akai Electric Company Ltd.]
]
In 2004, following a US distribution deal, the Akai Professional Musical Instrument division was acquired by Jack O'Donnell, owner of Numark Industries and Alesis. In 2012, inMusic Brands was formed as a parent company for O'Donnell's companies, including Akai Professional.
Current products
In early 2003