The story
Corporate history
Akai was founded by Masukichi Akai and his son, Saburo Akai (who died in 1973), as Akai Electric Company Ltd. (赤井電機株式会社, Akai Denki Kabushiki Gaisha), a Japanese manufacturer, in 1929. Some sources, however, suggest the company was established in 1946.
The company's business eventually became disorganized, and it exited 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$1.1 billion. It emerged that ownership of Akai Holdings had passed to Grande Holdings in 1999, a company founded by Akai's chairman James Ting. The liquidators claimed that Ting had stolen over US$800 million from the company with the assistance of accountants Ernst & Young, who had tampered with audit documents dating back to 1994. Ting was imprisoned for false accounting in 2005, and E&Y paid $200 million 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.
The "Akai Professional" division, specializing in electronic instruments, became a separate business in 1999. It was acquired in 2005 by businessman Jack O'Donnell (later becoming a part of his inMusic Brands group) and is no longer associated with the main "Akai" brand.
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 decks (top-level GX and TFL, mid-level TC, HX, and CS series), amplifiers (AM and TA series), microphones, receivers, turntables, video recorders, and loudspeakers.
Many Akai products were sold under the name Roberts in the U.S., as well as A&D in Japan (from 1987, following 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 later switched to the increasingly reliable Glass and Crystal (X'tal) (GX) ferrite heads. The company's most popular products included the GX-630D, GX-635D, GX-747/GX-747DBX, and GX-77 open-reel recorders (the 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 under the Tensai brand (named after the Swiss audio and electronics distributor Tensai International). Tensai International served as 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 toward the end of the 20th century.
Innovative VCR features
Akai produced consumer video cassette recorders (VCRs) during the mid-1980s. The Akai VS-2 was the first VCR to feature an on-screen display, originally named the Interactive Monitor System. By displaying information directly on the television screen, this innovation eliminated the need for the user to be physically near the VCR to program recordings, read the tape counter, or perform other common functions. Within a few years, all competing manufacturers had adopted on-screen display technology in their own products.
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Their late 1980s/early 1990s VCRs heralded the first VHS quick start mechanism, the first VCR with on-board Dolby Surround decoder, circuitry that optimized picture quality depending on the quality of the videotape ("I-HQ") and – for their European models – on-board Teletext decoders for easier timer programming. Again, competing manufacturers followed suit and offered similar features in their decks.
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 specialized VHS-like cartridge (the MK-20) and could record 10 minutes of continuous 12-track audio at 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 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 featured innovations like an electronic 2-bus system, a 12-stereo channel patch bay, and automatic punch in and out capabilities, among others. The unique transport design and noise reduction gave these units a recording quality that rivaled more expensive 16-track machines using 1" tape. The MG-1212 was later succeeded 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 the AX60 and AX73 6-voice analog synthesizers around 1986. The AX-60 borrowed many design elements from the Roland Juno series, but used voltage-controlled analog oscillators (VCO) as its sound source, unlike Roland's more common digitally controlled analog oscillators (DCO). It also allowed the performer to "split" the keyboard, assigning different timbres to different ranges of keys. The AX-60 featured the ability to interface with Akai's early samplers via a serial cable, using 12-bit samples as an additional oscillator.
Digital Samplers (S, X, Z series)
The S612 12-bit digital sampler released in 1985 was the first in a series of relatively affordable samplers, designed in a 19-inch studio-rack format and finished in black. It could hold only a single sample at a time, which was loaded into memory via a separate disk drive utilizing 2.8-inch Quick Disk floppy disks. 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, these models allowed the use of up to six active samples simultaneously, featured a built-in disk drive, and could be extended with six individual outputs via cable. Additionally, a flash memory extension added another six samples to the memory for multisample playback. The S700/X7000 sampler series were light grey in color, a design choice that remained consistent throughout the entire "professional" range of Akai samplers.
The 16-bit Akai S1000 series followed in 1988, introducing the ability to read CD-ROMs and write to hard disks via SCSI. This range was eventually superseded by the S3000 series in 1993, which offered an optional built-in CD-ROM drive, followed by the S5000 and S6000 models. Additional notable releases included the Z4 and Z8 24-bit 96 kHz samplers.
MPC
Akai also produced several Digital MIDI sequencers and digital synthesizers such as the MPC 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 the Civil Rehabilitation Act to Akai Electric Company Ltd., the brand of its musical instrument division, Akai Professional, was acquired by a company based in the United States. The new company was named "Akai Professional Musical Instrument Corporation". Akai Professional M.I. was established the same year, but it filed for bankruptcy in 2005.
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 the parent company for O'Donnell's companies, including Akai Professional.
From Wikipedia’s article on Akai, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4