DENON

DENON traces its history to Nipponophone Co. (日本蓄音器商会, Nippon Chikuonki Shokai), founded on October 1, 1910, in Tokyo by the American entrepreneur Frederick Whitney Horn. In 1946 the company was renamed Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd., and in 1947 it merged with Japan Denki Onkyo (日本電氣音響) - which is when the DENON brand was officially formed as a contraction of Denki Onkyo. From 1951, Nippon Columbia began producing Japan’s first LP records and professional recording equipment, including the PT-12 reel-to-reel deck developed jointly with NHK.

In 1964, DENON developed the DL-103 MC cartridge on commission from NHK for FM stereo broadcasting; it reached the consumer market in 1970 and is still produced today, unchanged in design, at the Shirakawa Audio Works in Fukushima. In 1972, the company introduced the DN-023R - the world’s first 8-channel professional PCM recorder (13-bit, 47.25 kHz, 400 kg). Timed to the Compact Disc launch on October 1, 1982, DENON released its first consumer CD player, the DCD-2000, priced at ¥189,000. DENON-branded audio cassettes were sold from 1964 onward, with the DX series introduced in 1978.

In May 1992, DENON released the DTR-2000G DAT deck (¥128,000), also sold as the Lo-D DAT-8000 by Hitachi. In 2002, DENON and Marantz merged to form D&M Holdings.