TEAC Corporation

TEAC Corporation (ティアック株式会社, Tiakku Kabushiki-gaisha) (/ˈtiːæk/) is a Japanese electronics manufacturer. TEAC was created by the merger of the Tokyo Television Acoustic Company, founded in 1953, and the Tokyo Electro-Acoustic Company, founded in 1956.[3]

TEAC Corporation
Native name
ティアック株式会社
TypePublic KK
TYO: 6803
IndustryElectronics
Founded29 August 1953 (1953-08-29) in Tokyo, Japan
Headquarters
Ochiai, Tama-shi, Tokyo, 206-8530
,
Japan
Key people
Yuji Hanabusa (President)
Products
  • Peripheral equipment
  • Consumer and professional audio equipment
  • Information equipment
RevenueJPY 20.3 billion (FY 2014) (US$ 185 million) (FY 2014)
JPY -1.8 billion (FY 2014) (US$ -16.6 million) (FY 2014)
Number of employees
1,046 (consolidated, as of 30 September 2015)
WebsiteOfficial website
Footnotes / references
[1][2]

Overview
TEAC A-2300S reel-to-reel stereo recorder
The TEAC 2340, a popular 1970s early home multitrack recorder, four tracks on ¼ inch tape
TEAC CRC 90 minute audio cassette. The tape reels resemble a reel-to-reel tape.
Phase-change Dual Drive TEAC PD-518E with medium TEAC PD-M650.
internal Floppy disk drive and memory card reader (USB)

TEAC has four divisions:

  • TASCAM - consumer to professional audio products, mostly recording
  • ESOTERIC - High-end consumer audio products
  • TEAC Consumer Electronics - Mass market audio products
  • Data Storage and Disk Publishing Products - Floppy drives, DVD and CD recorders and drives, MP3 players & NAS storage

TEAC is known for its audio equipment, and was a primary manufacturer of high-end audio equipment in the 1970s and 1980s. During that time, TEAC produced reel-to-reel machines, cassette decks, CD players, turntables and amplifiers.

TEAC produced an audio cassette with tape hubs that resembled reel-to-reel tape reels in appearance. Many manufacturers at the time used these TEAC cassettes in advertisements of their tape decks because the TEAC cassettes looked more professional than standard audio cassettes, and because reel-to-reel tape recordings were known to be of higher quality than cassette recordings.

History

The company that eventually became the TEAC corporation was founded in August 1953. Originally named the Tokyo Television Acoustic Company,[3] it employed Katsuma Tani, a former aviation and aeronautics engineer,[4] who established a reputation as a highly qualified creator of audio equipment.

In 1956, his brother, Tomoma Tani, brought home a hand-made, 3-motor, 3-head stereo tape recorder. This sparked Katsuma's interest in reel-to-reel tape recorders. Confident they could engineer a better tape recorder, the Tani brothers founded the Tokyo Electro-Acoustic Company on 24 December 1956.[5]

The Tokyo Television Acoustic Company and the Tokyo Electro-Acoustic Company were merged to create the TEAC corporation, taking the initials of the latter company as its name. The main focus of the new company was to design and manufacture tape recorders.[3]

In 1969 TEAC produced the first consumer four-track reel-to-reel tape recorders capable of playing pre-recorded Quadraphonic open reel tapes (Q4). This was the first format to play high quality four-channel quadraphonic recordings in the home. In order to keep costs affordable, home machines used slower tape speeds and narrower track widths compared to similar professional machines. Quadraphonic sound was not widely adopted by the public and the Q4 format died by the late 1970s.

In 1972 TEAC introduced the first consumer grade four-track reel-to-reel recorders with Simul-Sync that were capable of overdubbing. Musicians were able to use these products as the basis of home recording studios. With this advancement many consumers created sophisticated home demo recordings for the first time. TEAC, and its TASCAM division, as well as other manufacturers sold thousands of these machines to musicians well into the 1990s.

Some of TEAC's most popular home multitrack recorders with Simul-Sync:

  • The A3340 4-track recorder with 10.5" tape reels, 7½ and 15 ips speeds w/ manual direction toggle lever
  • The A2340 4-track recorder with 7" tape reels, 3¾ and 7½ ips speeds w/ manual direction toggle lever
  • The A3340S 4-track recorder with 10.5" tape reels, 7½ and 15 ips speeds, the 's' designation indicates an improved tape transport mechanism with solenoid control
  • The A2340S 4-track recorder with 7" tape reels, 3¾ and 7½ ips speeds, the 's' designation indicates an improved tape transport mechanism with solenoid control

In 2013, Gibson bought a majority stake in the company,[6] giving it 54.42% of the company.[7] After Gibson's bankruptcy in 2018, TEAC announced that they would continue to operate on their own.[8]

Computer tape memory systems

In May 1961 TEAC entered into a licensing agreement with IBM to create magnetic tape memory systems.

References
  1. "Corporate Profile". TEAC Corporation. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  2. "Company Profile". Nikkei Asian Review. Nikkei Inc. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  3. "TEAC Milestones". TEAC Audio Europe. TEAC Corporation. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  4. "TEAC Corporation - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History". ReferenceforBusiness.com. Advameg, Inc. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  5. Alberts, Randy (2003). TASCAM: 30 Years of Recording Evolution. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-634-01156-6.
  6. "Gibson Guitar to buy TEAC, add "Cool Japan" engineering technology". Reuters. Thomson Reuters. March 29, 2013. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  7. "Company Profile". 4-traders.com. Surperformance SAS. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  8. Teac Sees No Impact from Gibson Brands Filling for Bankruptcy [sic] on CDR Info, May 2, 2018
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