Private KK | |
Industry | Audio equipment manufacturing |
Founded | Shinjuku, Tokyo (1962 ) |
Founder | Hideo Matsushita |
Headquarters | Machida, Tokyo, Japan |
Key people
|
Kazuo Matsushita (President) |
Website | audio-technica |
Audio-Technica Corporation (株式会社オーディオテクニカ Kabushiki-gaisha Ōdio Tekunika?), is a Japanese company that designs and manufactures professional microphones, headphones, phonographic magnetic cartridges, and other audio equipment.
Audio-Technica was established in 1962 in Tokyo, 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.
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. Their booth also featured a dubstep dance video, "Audio 911", by dancer Marquese "Nonstop" Scott produced by video production company The DVI Group.
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 from cell phones, Bluetooth devices, wireless computer networks and walkie-talkies. 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.