Audio-Technica introduces its 60th Anniversary products in "The HongKong Japanese Club".
17th April, 2022 was the 60th founding year with our company founder, Hideo Matsushita, with his first product of the brand – AT-1 Phono cartridge. It has been our origin and has always been our dedication to analog audio, which the founder’s son, Kazuo Matsushita carried on with this direction when leading AT. Kazuo-san expresses that “It is an honour 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.”
The first 60th anniversary product is the AT-MC2022, which is developed with 60 years of cartridge development experience in Audio-Technica. AT-MC2022 combines the specialty of a “musical and warmth analog sound” with the latest acoustic materials and precision engineering, resulting in this high performance moving coil cartridge that presents both the “tradition” and “future”.
AT-MC2022’s magnetic circuit is based on the latest flagship grade dual moving coil phono cartridge, the AT-ART20 with considerable upgrades. One of the most notable point on the AT-MC2022 is that the cantilever and the stylus is formed from one piece of lab-grown diamond, negating any artifacts caused by adhesion of diamond stylus on a metal cantilever in traditional construction methods. To enhance the artistic properties of the AT-MC2022, the black accents on the cartridge body are made with Shippo enamel, ensuring both a visual and audible feast.
The second product is ATH-W2022, a wooden headphone that pays tribute to AT’s first wooden headphone, the ATH-W10VTG. The wooden case is made with Mizume Zakura, finished with Japanese maki-e lacquer with the left side a hand-painted Sakura (cherry blossom) design, and the right side with a Phoenix while incorporating mother-of-pearl.
Besides the beautiful wooden cases, ATH-W2022 also uses a newly developed driver with new magnetic circuit and compound diaphragm. The shape of the arm of holding the wooden cases is inspired by the rooftops of Japanese Shrines, while the headband and earpads are made with Japanese deer skins. Echoing the sycamore wood that the phoenix inhabits, the storage box is made of "white paulownia wood", and the cover is made of the famous "Kiso cypress".
The third product is the fully manual, belt-driven turntable AT-LP2022. This model expresses the transparency of diamonds by utilizing high density, high transparency acrylic blocks as plinth and platter, echoing the theme of AT’s 60th Diamond Anniversary. At the same time, a limited Shibata exchange stylus AT-VMN95SH CL is also added to the package, with its ability to picking up the ultra-high frequency audio of the record, bringing you an unprecedented experience in audio.
Lastly, we have revived from our classic Sound Burger, the AT727 while incorporating modern functionalities to become the AT-SB2022. While we have preserved the classic appearance design from the 1980s, we have added in Bluetooth and internal lithium rechargeable batteries that better suits modern requirements. With the Sound Burger, users can easily share their love of analog audio when meeting up with friends and connect to their Bluetooth speakers and headphones.
The above is the 60th Anniversary product lineup, we will aim for the coming 100th anniversary and continue to work hard in always brining good audio experience to the users of Audio-Technica products.
