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| TD-102 |
TEAC Corporation was originally founded as Tokio Television Acoustic Company on 8th of August 1953 by Katsuma and Tomoma Tani. The two brothers in 1956 founded Tokyo Electronic Acoustic Company and finally merging the two in 1964 to form the modern day TEAC Corporation. The first mass produced product was the TD-102.
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| TEAC founder, Katsuma Tani, and the TD-102 |
In 1957 the CEO and the chief engineer of Lafayette Radio Electronics visited the newly estabilished Tokyo Electronic Acoustic Company where Tani showed them the prototype of the TD-102. When they saw the prototype they said “Add a playback amp, turn it into a tape player and change the casing in to a cabinet and we’ll take it!”. And with that, they ordered 25 units.
The second help came from engineer Bretz from radio manufacturing firm Philco who invited TEAC to perform a demonstration of their products at the Far East Audio Club where 50 TD-102 were sold. After the TD-102’s initial success, TEAC’s open-reel tape decks gained wide commercial notoriety when an influential American consumer magazine, Consumer Reports, listed it as no. 5 out of 17 tried and tested audio products.
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| The TD-102 production line in the late 1950s |
TEAC founded TASCAM, the professional division of TEAC and it was the TASCAM 80-8 tape deck that was used to record the voices of R2-D2 and C3PO in the making of the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope in 1977. This was not the first time that a TEAC recorder was used to record important events in history. The call sign “I am Seagull” (Ya Chaika, Ya Chaika) of the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova was also recorded on a TEAC recorder, the TD-330.
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| TASCAM 80-8 |
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| TEAC TD-330 |
TEAC's A-4010 4 track home tape deck became TEAC's best selling product with sales in excess of 200,000 units with the A-6010 securing TEAC's position as one of the best tape deck makers in the world. At the TEAC HQ in Tokyo, the very last A-4010 series model produced is on display at the entrance, with a special commemorative badge.
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| 200,000 units sold |
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| An original wooden box used for the 25 year anniversary export model and TD-102 inside box |
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| The very last A-4010 |
The last home tape recorder created by TEAC was the X-2000R. TEAC also made many successeful compact cassette recorders and digital recorders but more about them in another part dedicated to TEAC history. (Source: TEAC Corp.)
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| TEAC X-2000R |
