"AUDIO NOTE" talks about making things.Face the work of art and culture of music, explore all possibilities in its reproduction, and pursue "beauty"

Commitment to silver wire with founder Kimiyasu Kondo

Current president, Masaki Ashizawa inherits audio philosophy

Mr. Masaki Ashizawa, Chief Executive Officer of Audio Note Co., Ltd.

Born in 1967. Born in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. From an early age he has been fond of playing musical instruments, practicing organ, electone, saxophone, flute, accordion and more. When he was in middle school, he formed a band with his friends and also worked as a performer. At first, he started listening to records on the compact stereo that he had at home, but he was interested in technology-oriented things such as why one needle produced different sounds on the right and left. He was also in a band, so he also made his own effector. He graduated from the Institute of Sound Arts, Department of Electronic Music. Here, he met Mr. Kimiyasu Kondo (founder) who was a lecturer and decided to work part-time at the company. He officially joined the company in 1990. He becomes president in 2004.

Yoshiyuki Hirokawa, who directs development design and sound design

Audio Note Sound Director / R & D Manager Yoshiyuki Hirokawa

Born in 1972. Born in Saga prefecture. When I was in the third year of middle school, I was fascinated by the lively sound of the audio system (Altec 604-8H, Marantz 3300 + 510, etc.) introduced by his brother. When he was in high school, he started playing audio with a combination of AR3a, Alpine / Luxman LV105, and Marantz CD80. After that, he moved to Tokyo and happened to enroll in the same Department of Electronic Acoustics as Mr. Ashizawa. Before graduating, he was interested in his particular attitude toward manufacturing, so he called Audio Note and decided to join the company after having an interview with Chairman Kondo and Mr. Ashizawa (1996). He left the company in 1998, but rejoined in 2005. He researches old products in detail and uses them for subsequent development work.

Typical model of audio note

Analog player GINGA

The company's super-dreadnought analog player "GINGA" (¥ 7,854,000 / tax included) has a body base (28 kg) that effectively uses six types of materials: aluminum, stainless steel, brass, gunmetal, chrome copper, and acrylic, and 18 kg. The feature is that it is equipped with a platter that extends to. The bearing that receives this heavy-weight platter uses a unique high-point support mechanism that includes an extra-thick centerpole with a diameter of 25 mm, a hard ball bearing placed on the top of the centerpole, and a large spindle rotor. The platter is driven by a thread drive system using a special knotless thread, and a unique idea is injected into the power supply circuit of the 4-pole synchronous motor. Comes with a SME custom Kondo V12 tone arm.

Top-end power amplifier "Kagura 2" pursues a sound attitude that pays homage to music

Brand New Product latest model

Power amplifier Kagura 2

This unit (¥ 15,620,000, pair / tax included) is a parallel single monaural power amplifier with a large direct heat triode 211, which was developed by fully investing the company's technology and know-how. Seven years have passed since the previous work Kagura released in 2013, but it is said that it has evolved to Kagura 2 with further improvements in musical expressiveness and functionality. The main improvement is the adoption of a newly designed output transformer (adopting a dedicated output of 4/8 / 16Ω and a winding structure with a high degree of adhesion by changing the bobbin shape). Furthermore, the degree of perfection has been improved by fully adopting the original vacuum tube socket and fine-tuning the CR parts. It is also a 2020 "Stereo Sound Grand Prix" award-winning product.

8 reference desks to use when deciding the sound

Calling You / Holly Cole Trio (CD, Blue Note)

Footprints / Casper Viyom Trio (CD, Marshmallow Export)

Art of Piazzolla / Astor Piazzolla (LP, Globe)

Cantate Domino (LP, Proprius)

Two Angels / Hina Maria Hidalgo (LP, Microfon)

Belafonte at Carnegie Hall (LP, RCA)

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Henryk Szeryng, Haitink Conductor Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra (LP, Phillips)

Woman in Red Stevie Wonder (LP, Motown)

AUDIO NOTE

The world's first audio notebook that uses sterling silver for audio equipment. Developed and manufactured for the best music playback in the world.

Issue of this article "Stereo Sound No.218"

Stereo Sound No.218 2021 SPRING

Stereo Sound No.218 (Spring 2021) compares 8 models of 4 brands of speaker systems from about 100,000 yen to 300,000 yen, focusing on Special Feature 1 with the theme of "how to listen" to the sound of audio critics. We will deliver a lot of contents as usual, such as the special feature 2 that we listened to and the new series "Visit to the Audio Shop". The speaker on the cover is Parker Quintet Diamond Edition from MARTEN, which is headquartered near Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city. Encro with slightly inclined front and back ...