Akai
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Akai (Akai Electric Company, Ltd.) was a Japanese consumer electronics producer founded in 1929. The brand is now owned by the Grande Group of Hong Kong, who also owns Japanese brands Nakamichi and Sansui. It is now used on rebadged electronics manufactured by other companies.
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[edit] Historical products
The manufacturer's most notable product was of reel-to-reel (most notably, the GX series) audiotape recorders, tuners, audio cassette decks, amplifiers, video recorders, and loudspeakers.
Many Akai products were sold under the name Roberts in the US. In late sixties, along with Tandberg, Akai has pioneered Cross-Field recording (using extra head), which facilitated high frequency recording. Later they switched to Glass-ferrite epitaXial (GX) heads, famous for reliability.
The most famous open-reel models are GX-747, GX-77 (unique model with auto-loading).
Prominent cassette decks included three-head, closed-loop GX-F95, GX-9, GX-R99.
The company limited its consumer Hi-Fi product line in the United States in the 1990s.
[edit] Akai Introduces The Interactive Monitor System (On-Screen Display)
Akai was a leading brand of video cassette recorder in the 1980's. The Akai VS-2 was the first VCR manufactured to have an on-screen display, which was originally named the Interactive Monitor System. This innovation eliminated the need for the user to be physically near the VCR to program it to automatically record TV programs, tune in TV stations, read the tape counter and other common features by displaying the information on the television screen. It took several years for competing manufacturers to adapt on-screen display technology to their own products.
[edit] Akai Professional
In 1984 a new division of the company was formed focusing on the manufacture and sale of electronic instruments, known Akai Electronic Musical Instruments Corporation, or Akai Professional.
The first product released by the new subsidiary, the S612 12-bit digital sampler, was the first in a series of affordable samplers.
Some of their other early products include the Akai AX-80 8-voice analog synthesizer, and the Akai AX-60 and AX-73 6-voice analog synthesizers. The AX-60 borrowed many ideas from the Roland Juno-106, but used a real VCO, and had the ability to have a split keyboard.
The S612 was superseded in 1986 with the introduction of a "professional" range of digital samplers, starting with the 12-bit S900 in late 1985, the 16-bit S1000 in 1988, and the S3000, which notably featured writable CD-ROM and hard disk recording. An additional release of note were the Z4 and Z8 24-bit 96kHz samplers.
Akai also produces several Digital MIDI sequencers and digital synthesizers such as the MPC range (MIDI Production Center), a line of integrated sampler/drum machine and MIDI sequencers that look like a drum machine.
[edit] New Ownership
In late 2004 the Akai corporation was bought out of bankruptcy by Grande Group. [1]
Also in 2004, following a US distribution deal, the Akai Professional Musical Instrument division was acquired by Numark, which previously purchased the audio electronics corportation Alesis out of bankruptcy. The three brands operate under the banner Numark Industries LLC of Cumberland RI.
[edit] Current products
Beginning in early 2003 the consumer electronics company began undergoing a re-exposure, marketing various rebranded video products manufactured by Samsung. In the same year, Akai began to distribute home appliances such as HVAC units, vacuum cleaners, water filtration devices, and refrigerated store showcases.
During christmas season 06, BestBuy was selling Akai DLP rear projection televisions. Akai HDTV's can be found at select RadioShack locations, some of which also carry Scott HDTV's which are rebranded Akai TV's with a few added features.
[edit] External links
- Akai
- Akai Professional
- Akai tape decks
- Remove Akai DVD Region Restrictions
- Vintage Cassette Decks Collection of Akai Vintage Cassette decks and other brands.de:Akai
