Inspired by the depth of emotion he witnessed at vinyl listening sessions organized during his tenure at the Bridgestone Museum of Arts in Tokyo, Hideo Matsushita was determined to enable more people to experience the warmth of analog listening. In a small Shinjuku apartment, he established Audio-Technica and began developing cartridges. His first two products, the AT-1 and AT-3, achieved success and enabled Hideo to expand his business. He opened a larger headquarters in Machida, where the company still operates today.
"When I started Audio-Technica in 1962, our first product introduction was the AT-1 stereo cartridge. During that summer, the recording equipment & technology magazine, “Record Geijutsu”, featured the AT-1 cartridge in their special edition “All About Stereos”. In the meantime, my brother-in-law introduced me to the head of Columbia Records who placed an order for 100 cartridges, the specifications of which were so stringent that it took us over a month to deliver! At this time we were working in a single, rented room in Tokyo’s Shinjuku 1-chome district – we’d started out with three employers, but that number had now grown to 20. We all worked late into each night, stopping only to eat dinner at a ramen noodle shop just in-front of the premises. We stayed there for two years before the need for more space took us to the third-floor of a building in the Higashi-Okubo district. Then just one year later we’d outgrown these premises and moved once more to our headquarters at Naruse in the city of Machida," recalls Hideo Matsushita (1919- 2013)
Alongside cartridges, Audio-Technica began producing headphones in 1974 and microphones in 1978 – beginning every process with a transducer and aiming to deliver a pure, natural sound. At the core of every product is the art of analog, as a delicate vibration is transformed into sound – both in the listening and recording processes.
Kazuo Matsushita, son of Hideo, became president in 1993, and the business continued to expand, opening offices throughout the world and developing iconic products such as the modern VM series of cartridges, the ATH-M50 headphones and the AT2020 microphone.
In 2010, the production of Audio-Technica cartidges was relocated to the state-of-the-art Technica Fukui facility in Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture, Japan. Fukui integrates the three pre-existing Audio-Technica branches into one location, consolidating and streamlining design efforts with increased collaboration among Audio-Technica’s global design teams.
Today Audio-Technica is an integral part of the audio industry, with products used at global events, on screen, in studios and in homes – retaining the "audio for all" philosophy and ensuring future generations can experience the joy of analog.
The brand will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a series of events across the world on the theme of analog living. Speaking about the occasion, current President Kazuo Matsushita said, “It is an honor to provide a quality audio experience to millions of people throughout the world. What begins as a simple vibration – a subtle movement – results in an emotional connection, whether that be when listening deeply to an album or sharing your voice with the world.”
www.audio-technica.com
