The aim of this page is to have minimal information on some of the companies and trademarks that are now either defunct, not in operation for any reason or have exited the AV market altogether. The objective is to have information on each company similar to what appears on the links pages rather than a full history lesson, but pertinent, interesting or even just mildly unusual information may get thrown in as well. Also note that in most cases this is a company listing not a brand listing, brands listed here may have been sold or appropriated by other companies and may thus still be in use, but whenever possible links are provided to the previous and next brand owners. Due to the nature of the subject matter this page is perpetually under construction. Note that on this particular page are listed companies that have names that start with the letter A, for companies whose names start with the letters B to 9 follow the links at the top of the grey sidebar.
AAMP of Florida Inc.
Florida, USA based manufacturer and reseller of car audio accessories sold under the AAMP of America, Stinger and Peripheral brands. Bought by Recoton in Nov. 1997.
A & A Stereos
Tiny company based in the Elqui Valley in Chile, made high end audiophile power amplifiers to order, active in the mid 90's but has not been heard from since 1999/2000.
Abrahamson Audio Laboratories
Norwegian manufacturer of high end amplifiers based in Oslo, started manufacturing amplifiers using a slightly unusual transistorised single ended topology (fully class A) in 1995, like similar valve based amps they were fairly ineffective pumping out only 10 to 30W and fairly expensive but apparently sounded rather good. Nothing has been heard from the company since the latter half of 2001, but if anyone has further information we would be glad to hear from them.
A. C. Acoustics See --> Audio Classics
ACOS See --> Cosmocord
Acoustic Research (AR)
USA based producer of loudspeakers, founded in 1954 by Edgar Villchur and started out by producing acoustically suspended loudspeaker called the AR-1, strangely enough the company managed to get patents for the acoustic suspension techniques despite the fact that similar designs had been sold in the USA some 5 years earlier. The company is perhaps better seen as an innovator in the area of marketing were they pioneered such schemes such as a 5 year return to factory warranty and aggressive advertisements campaigns that emphasised innovation and technical superiority that was indeed there to some degree but was perhaps overemphasised, much in the vein of what Bose is doing these days. Due to this and excellent reviews in USA consumer and electronic magazines the company was a clear market leader in the loudspeaker field as early as 1958 but the rapid pace of expansion meant that the company often had difficulty in financing itself, this in turn meant that the introduction of some products were delayed until money had been found to pay for retooling and the updates of the production lines which in turn meant that new models were almost constantly late to market which was at that time evolving extremely rapidly due to the introduction of stereo records and consumer tape recorders, this did not help since AR had a tendency to announce new products early anyway and late shipments meant that some customers put off buying current products and instead waited for the new models. The stress on finances had other negative effects on the company, when the original plant manager of the company left to found
Acrosound
Small manufacturer of audio and valve transfomers based in Philadelphia, Pensilvania, USA and founded by Herbert Keroes and David Hafler with financing coming largely from Mr. Keroes'es family. The company also published amplifier designs as a tool to help with the sales of their transfomers. Mr. Hafler left the company in 1954 to form Dynaco, apparently after a long running dissagreement with his partner on whether to expand into the manufacture of audio electronics, and while the company appears to have survied for a few years after that I have not been able to find any mention of them after the late 1950's.
ADX See --> Analog Digital Technology
Agfa
Founded in 1867 as the Berlin branch of the Friedr. Bayer et comp. company which was a pioneering manufacturer of synthetic dyes better know today as just Bayer (or Baeyer). The branch started to use the Agfa brand name for their photographic products in 1897 and was merged into I. G. Farben in 1926 along with the rest of Bayer and re-established as in independent operation in 1952, although fully owned by Bayer. Started manufacturing audio tape later that decade, merged with Belgian company Gevaert in 1964 to found Agfa - Gevaert, thereby creating one of the worlds biggest manufacturer of photographic products, and moved their headquarters from Germany to Mortsel in Belgium. A-G was one of the leaders in the development of audio tape especially in the late 60's and early 70's when they produced what was arguably the best professional open reel tape on the market and managed to seriously erode the market share of BASF, Ampex and 3M without a lot of publicity, but the company was also noticeable in particular for the stance they took on tape erosion.
In the early 80's it became apparent that large amounts of professional grade tapes manufactured in the preceding decades were becoming unplayable due to a number of factors mostly chemical instability in the ferrite layer (Agfa et al) or the tape itself had a tendency to hydrate (Ampex etc.), BASF had been aware of this problem for some time prior to this after doing research on tape lifetimes and had taken appropriate action but most other companies were caught unawares and some, noticeably Ampex, choose to ignore the issue altogether and even continued manufacturing the affected formulations. Agfa on the other hand started an R&D program that not only set out to ensure that new tapes had extended lifetimes but more importantly they developed chemical compounds that allowed you to play back tapes that otherwise were unplayable due to flaking, this menat that a number of classic albums where transferred to high quality masters in the 1980's that would otherwise only exsist as duplication copys or even record transcripts. The company decided in the late 1980's to change direction from media supply to media technologies and sold the magnetic recording division to BASF in 1990. The more interesting tape formulations and/or updated variations thereof are still available from that Emtec. Official homepage.
Albert Ebner & Co. (AECO)
A firm started in 1919 in Bad Cannstatt, Germany by an engineer of the same name. Although the company initially made a variety of electric and mechanical products they are notable for the manufacture of the first practical electric motor designed especially for turntables later that same year. Taken over by Electromophon in 1921, but after that company had failed in early 1931 Hr. Ebner started AECO that continued the manufacture of high end gramophones and indeed pioneered the use of electric transducers. Hr. Ebner married Hermine Steidinger in 1936, but she was the daughter of Perpetuum founder Joseph Steidinger and one of the main owners of that company, shortly thereafter AECO was merged into the Perpetuum company which became Perpetuum-Ebner and Hr. Ebner became it's CEO. More info on this page (in German).
Alex. Eymann Apparatebau
A company based in Ostermundigen, Switzerland run by one Alex Eymann (or Alexander ?) that apparently made high quality products for the broadcast industry. We have seen a phono preamplifier from the 70's that this company made but have found very little further info.
All Channel Products
USA based manufacturer of indoor television antennas and suchlike, mostly sold using the Rembrandt trademark. Ceased trading in 1989 and their product line and trademarks taken over by Recoton later that year.
Altis Audio Ltd.
USA based digital audio specialist run by Howard Mandel and Bill Harris, operating from Newtown, Conneticut, USA. Primarily manufactured high end CD players and transports along with digital to analogue converters that utilise tube filtering but introduced a video switching device in 2000 and changed their name to Altis Audio & Video with further expansion into the AV market in mind. Sadly Mr. Mandel the main owner of the company passed away in Sept. 2001 and while the company initially stated that they would continue operating as be fore they sold the manufacturing rights to the video processor to ESI Electronics in late 2001 and offered the rights to the name and audio products in early 2002, but since their website was taken over by a cybersquatter in May 2003 it is probably safe to assume that no one took them up on that offer. It has been heard that a former employee of the company offers repairs and upgrades to at the least some of their products but we have been unable to procure his name or contact details.
Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Ltd. (AWA)
An Australian company created in 1913 by the merger of Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd (Australia) and the Australian Wireless Company (the local Telefunken lisencee), this merger was partly dictated or at the least encouraged by the Australian government which had a financial interest in the company. The company was active in making radios, hi-fi equipment, broadcast equipment and PA systems at the least into the early 80's and was one of the pioneers of the microgroove disks in the 1940's and the first company to make low noise 78'rpm pressings. Also made products sold using the Fisk and Radiola brands. Had by the 80's become a holding company with interests in Casino and IT services and changed it's name to AWA Limited in 1988. Official homepage.
Ambico
USA based maker of video accessories, bough by Recoton in 1992.
Ampco Industries
USA based manufacturer of products for car stereo installations and related accessories sold under the Ampersand brand, taken over by Recoton in 1995.
Ampex Electric and Manufacturing Company
Named after it's founder Alexander M. Poniatoff who started the company in 1944, was hired by Bing Crosby Enterprices to manufacture the first USA tape recorder (but they were actually beaten to that target by Brush Development Company and Ranger) and they delivered their first tape recorder to BCE in 1948 and branched into the manufacture of instrumentation, data and video recorders in the 50's, were from then on and into the 80's the biggest USA based manufacturer in the professional AV market but the company found it increasingly difficult to compete with Japanese and European competitors and exited that market segment in the latter half of the 80's in order to concentrate on the still profitable data & instrumentation markets, this resulting in a name change to Ampex Data Systems, more information can be had on their history page. The Ampex media division was sold in the early 90's and now exists as Quantegy. Official homepage.
Analog Digital Technology PTE Ltd. 
Manufacturer of car amps and speakers based in Singapore, their products were usually sold under the ADX brand but the company also was a large OEM for companies/brands like Hifonics. ADT designed their own loudspeakers but their amplifiers were designed by Zed Audio. Appears to have started up in the early 90's and active at the least into late 2001.
Antique Sound USA
USA based manufacturer that started out in 1994 as a distributor of the budget valve amps of Antique Sound Laboratory, introduced their own line of similar amps and kits in 1996 and branched into the world of high end valve amplifiers in the late 90's, although they continued to offer all their products in kit form as well. Note that we have seen references on other pages that ASUSA kit products were "outrageously expensive", this is simply not fair, their kits were typically under 500 USD which you can compare that to similar products on the market, valve based amplifiers are expencive if done properly. Sadly the owner passed away in 2002 and thus the company closed it's doors, the contact information is still listed here since they still have stocks of PP1 preamps and lots of valves for sale.
Antique Sound, PO Box 82404, Kenmore, Wa 98028, USA.
Phone +425 481 8866. Fax : +425 485 3836. Email : asusa at earthlink.net
AR See --> Acoustic Research (AR) (1954 to 1967), Acoustic Research (Teledyne) (1967 to ca 1992), International Jensen (ca 1992 to 1996) & Recoton (1996 to 2003).
Arthur Steidinger & Co (ASCO)
Founded in 1959 by A. Steidinger the son of DUAL and Perpetuum-Ebner founder Joseph Steidinger, operated primarily as a plastics moulding factory and indeed worked as such for several well known German hi-fi manufacturers, the company nevertheless put out some audio products on it's own such as portable record players and cabinets, the company ceased trading in 1976. More information on this company can be found on this page (in German).
Asahi Corparation
Actually a group of Asian based companies with headquarters in Japan, used to manufacture audio products, mostly budget and portable audio sold under the Asahi brand but also made some low end separates in their Singaporean Asahi Electronics subsidiary (est. 1972) under the Fair Mate trademark in the 70's and possibly the early 80's, the use of that trademark has been discontinued in the west but it is still used for some Brown Goods and communications equipment in the far east, I have been unable to establish if that trademark is still under the control of Asahi Corp. The later established subsidiaries of Asahi Electronics in Thailand and Asahi Industries in Malaysia have also produced some audio products but it is unclear under what brands they were sold. The group was best known for producing toys and "gadgets", it was bought out by Casio and the main Japanese company is now known as CASIO Creative Products Corp., the Ashai Electronics divisions in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia however are still running under that name as independent subsidiaries of Casio. Please note that there are quite a few Japanese companies that bear the same or similar names that are not related to Asahi Corp. (and in fact there are another Asahi group of companies or 2).
Astatic Corp.
Incorperated in 1933 by Creed McKinley Chorpening, F. H. Woodworth and Charles E. Semple in Youngstown, Ohio, USA and started to sell microphones under this name a year later but actualy had sold mics under another name at the least a couple of years prior to its incorperation. Started manufacturing phonographic pickups in 1938 and other audio related transducers a little later. Moved into a purpose built factory in Conneaut in Ohio in 1944. Appears to have gone ot of business in early 1987. Note that the current trademark owners have no relation to the original company they appear to have simly appropriated the trademarks.
Audio Access
Originally founded in 1987 as a manufacturing offshoot of a custom installation company in the San Francisco Bay area of the USA. Originally manufactured centralised keypad control and routing units and other devices to remote control audio components in multiroom situations etc. Later the company added video routing and control of lighting and security systems to their products in order to create an integrated system for control of home electronics. Taken over by Harman International in 1993 and when they took over Mardigal in 1996 the AudioAccess brand and products were made a responsibility of that company.
Audio Analyse
French high end company founded in the early 70's but mostly active in the 80's, famed for it's hybrid class A/T amplifier designs. It's director of research Mr Guillaudeau went on to form DRG and Siemel companies.
Audio Classics
Based in Hindley, Lancashire, this was a UK reseller and repairer of vintage Hi-fi that was started in 1988, branched into the resale of new equipment in 1993 and in 1999 (?) into the manufacture of high efficiency loudspeakers in the form of the Model C that was sold under the A. C. Acoustics brand and featured a custom made wide range driver and unusually (these days) a cone tweeter. A series of inexpensive valve based amplification was announced in 2002 but website went down later that year and we have not been able to contact them since. You can find a review of the Model C here.
Audio Spécialiste Industrie Inc.
Canadian loudspeaker manufacturer based in Québec. Run by Mr. Martin Galarneau and sold high end loudspeakers in addition to providing loudspeaker enclosures as an OEM, dissapeared without a trace in 2002.
Aura See --> Teslar
Aurex
Brandname used by Toshiba in the 80's in an attempt to create a mid/high end brand for the company.
Avantic See --> Beam-Echo Ltd.
AWA See --> Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Ltd. (AWA)
AW Audio
French manufacturer of loudspeakers and cables based in Paris, active in the mid 1990's and not heard from since 1998 or so.
A2 Ingenierie
A manufacturer of visually stunning horn loudspeakers and hi-fi furniture that was based in Chatou in France, the loudspeakers in particular have to be seen to be believed but the company also made a funky combination of both, i.e. a hifi/general shelving system that incorporated a pair of horn loudspeakers. Turned up for a few hi-fi shows in the mid 90's but has not been heard from since.
A-16 Audio
Canadian high end loudspeaker manufacturer active in the mid to late 90's, their speakers got good reviews but limited distribution but their string suspended speakers stands gained a bit of attention in NA since that type of suspension platforms are almost unknown over there.
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