Audiolab is a British manufacturer of

audio equipment Audio equipment refers to devices that reproduce, record, or process sound. This includes microphones, radio receivers, AV receivers, CD players, tape recorders, amplifiers, mixing consoles, effects units, headphones, and Speaker (audio equipmen ...

. It specializes in affordable systems and has a range of

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

and surround sound systems. During its ownership under McLaren Group it was named TAGMcLaren Audio.

History

Audiolab was founded by Philip Swift and Derek Scotland in 1983. They met as students of Imperial College, and shared a common frustration of the high cost of hi-fi equipment and the difficulty of use. The first product was the 8000A

integrated amplifier An integrated amplifier (pre/main amp) is an electronic device containing an audio preamplifier and power amplifier in one unit, as opposed to separating the two. Most modern audio amplifiers are integrated and have several inputs for devices such ...

, followed by the 8000C preamplifier, the 8000P

power amplifier An audio power amplifier (or power amp) is an electronic amplifier that amplifies low-power electronic audio signals, such as the signal from a radio receiver or an electric guitar pickup, to a level that is high enough for driving loudspea ...

and 8000M mono-blocks. As the company grew, they developed new products including

CD players A CD player is an electronic device that plays audio compact discs, which are a digital optical disc data storage format. CD players were first sold to consumers in 1982. CDs typically contain recordings of audio material such as music or audio ...

, transports,

radio tuner A tuner is a subsystem that receives radio frequency (RF) transmissions, such as FM broadcasting, and converts the selected carrier frequency and its associated bandwidth into a fixed frequency that is suitable for further processing, usually be ...

s and digital-to-analog converters. Audiolab was taken over by TAG McLaren in 1998. The TAG McLaren Audio enterprise suffered adversely from the economic slump in the early 2000s, and announced that it ceased development in mid-2003 followed by a strategic review. The audio operations were eventually sold to the International Audio Group (headquartered in

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

), which owns other Hi-Fi manufacturers such as

Quad Quad as a word or prefix usually means 'four'. It may refer to: Government * Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States * Quadrilateral group, an informal group which inc ...

, Mission,

Wharfedale Wharfedale ( ) is the valley of the upper parts of the River Wharfe and one of the Yorkshire Dales. It is situated within the districts of Craven and Harrogate in North Yorkshire, and the cities of Leeds and Bradford in West Yorkshire. It is ...

and Castle Acoustics. In 2005 Audiolab re-emerged with a whole new range of equipment. In 2010, Audiolab unveiled a range of audio components that have been badged the 8200 series, as opposed to the traditional 8000 series. In addition to adding a larger monoblock amplifier, the 8200MB, the digital components also accept digital input from computers and other digital sources. The 8300 series was introduced in 2015 (including the integrated amplifier 8300A, the CD player 8300CD, and the power amplifiers 8300MB and 8300XP). A cheaper 6000 series (designed by Danish designer Jan Ertner) was launched in 2017. Audiolab was sold as ''Camtech'' in Germany and the

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Awards

Audiolab 8200CD player designed by

John Westlake John Westlake may refer to: * John Westlake (law scholar) John Westlake (4 February 1828 – 14 April 1913) was an English law scholar. Biography He was born at Lostwithiel, Cornwall, the son of a Cornish wool-stapler. He was educated at Lostw ...

- Product of the Year 2010 by What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision magazine.{{Cite web , url=http://awards.whathifi.com/winners/cd-players/2010 , title=CD Players | What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision Awards 2011 , access-date=2010-12-02 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111018162428/http://awards.whathifi.com/winners/cd-players/2010 , archive-date=2011-10-18 , url-status=dead The Audiolab 8200CD won the same Product of the year award for CD players from What Hi*Fi? Sound and Vision in 2011 and 2012. The Audiolab MDAC won Product of the Year for DACs (Digital to analogue converters) in the same 2011 What Hi*Fi? Sound and Vision awards.

References

External links

Official Audiolab website
Audio amplifier manufacturers Compact Disc player manufacturers Audio equipment manufacturers of the United Kingdom