A few photos from the Hideo Matsushita, the founder of the Audio Technica gramophones collection. These iconic gems are not only extremely valuable but have a great cultural history. Therefore, they were exhibited and displayed in various places so that many people could experience the charm of the historical gramophones firsthand.
After the death of Matsushita, CEO Kazuo Matsushita donated part of them to Fukui Children’s History and Culture Museum, and everyone who visits it can enjoy the gramophone. About 130 gramophones, 2 recorders, records, horns, etc. were donated. Hideo Matsushita, the founder, worked with a collector who displayed a gramophone in a corner of a shopping mall in Ohio, USA when Audio-Technica US was established. He took over a number of old gramophones, more than 100 pieces. Later he meets the famous gramophone collector Schenker in Zurich, Switzerland.
Matsushita took over his valuable collection, partly because Schenker, then already elderly, was looking for a new owner for the gramophones he had spent half his life collecting.
The combination of a love of music and a desire to continue to protect traditional gramophones led to famous American and European devices coming across the sea and being displayed in the Audio Technica Gallery, which had just been completed at the time.
Analog listening began over 100 years ago with the recording and reproduction of sound. Preserving the history and traditions of musical culture and passing them on to future generations is one of the important missions of Audio-Technica.
Audio-Technica will continue its social activities close to history and culture, sharing the sentiment of its founder Hideo Matsushita, when he collected gramophones.