Akai - MPD226

Akai was founded in 1929 in Tōkyō by Masukichi Akai and his son Saburo (who died in 1973). The first products manufactured were electric motors for record players. Strangely enough, when the first Hi-Fi products appeared, Akai did not sell record players. Its main speciality was analogue tape recorders in all the media forms available at the time (1/4-inch reels, 8-track cartridges, Philips cassettes), complemented by amplifiers, analogue radio receivers and loudspeakers. It was at the insistent request of its two largest distributors and subsidiaries (the Dutch company Fodor and Akai France) that Akai decided to produce record players from 1976 onwards. The brand also produced video recorders from 1969, well before the birth of VHS. These were models using 1/4-inch tape reels. Mainly portable, these VCRs featured a recording unit and a separate camera. There was also a fixed VCR with 21 cm reels. The first were in black & white, with colour (SECAM) coming onto the market in 1974. Subsequently, Akai became a member of the VHS group and abandoned the production of 1/4-inch VTRs. In 1982, the brand diversified into music creation, where it was very present with highly innovative products: the first integrated recording studio with built-in tape recorder and mixing, the first sampler in 1984, the first amplifiers without feedback for the general public (1985), the first digital tape recorder with hard disk for the general public in 1992.