() 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.

Overview

TEAC FD-CR7-002 sold from Weblink 20140616

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 High-end audio is a class of consumer home audio equipment marketed to audiophiles on the basis of high price or quality, and esoteric or novel sound reproduction technologies. The term can refer simply to the price, to the build quality of the ...

equipment in the 1970s and 1980s. During that time, TEAC produced

reel-to-reel Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is plac ...

machines,

cassette deck A cassette deck is a type of tape machine for playing and recording audio cassettes that does not have a built-in power amplifier or speakers, and serves primarily as a transport. It can be a part of an automotive entertainment system, a part of a ...

CD player 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 aud ...

turntables A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

and

amplifier An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost the v ...

s. 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 deck An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present- ...

s 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, it employed Katsuma Tani, a former aviation and aeronautics engineer, 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. 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. 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 Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...

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 Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...

. Musicians were able to use these products as the basis of

home recording Home recording is the practice of recording sound in a private home instead of a professional recording studio. A studio set up for home recording is called a home studio or project studio. Home recording is widely practiced by voice actors, narrat ...

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 Gibson may refer to: People * Gibson (surname) Businesses * Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment * Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based * Gi ...

bought a majority stake in the company, giving it 54.42% of the company. After Gibson's bankruptcy in 2018, TEAC announced that they would continue to operate on their own.Teac Sees No Impact from Gibson Brands Filling for Bankruptcy
icon CDR Info, May 2, 2018

Computer tape memory systems

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

References

External links

TEAC Worldwide

TEAC North America

Hajime Yamaguchi Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2005) {{Authority control Audio equipment manufacturers of Japan Manufacturing companies based in Tokyo Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Consumer electronics brands Portable audio player manufacturers Phonograph manufacturers Loudspeaker manufacturers Electronics companies established in 1953 Japanese companies established in 1953 Japanese brands