Finding your groove: getting into vinyl with Audio-Technica
I’d like to think that I could’ve been friends with the late Hideo Matsushita, founder of Japanese Hi-Fi powerhouse Audio-Technica. If I could, I’d travel back in time to 1960’s Tokyo, where a young Matsushita curated “vinyl listening sessions” at the Bridgestone Museum of Arts, exposing visitors to the sounds and possibilities of high end audio and the warmth of vinyl records. I imagine sitting with him in a mod coffee shop, listening to the stories of what he witnessed in those sessions, the conversations he had with visitors, and what ultimately motivated him to head back to his small apartment above a ramen restaurant and start an audio company of his own. In the histories I’ve read regarding AT’s humble beginnings, Matsushita’s motives seem clear. Produce high end audio at affordable prices, bringing audio excellence into spaces and to customers that simply didn’t have access to it before. His first two products, the AT-1 and AT-3 phono cartridges did exactly that, and...
Dec 6, 2023
After reality set in (i.e., finishing school and getting a reliably paying job), the custom sleeves see much less frequent use. Airline travel mainly. And then I lost one sleeve while walking around an F1 track (I thought it'd be nice to use them as earplugs and listen to the race broadcast). I'm contemplating getting a replacement soon. I think my molds should still be on file at Sensaphonics, and now I have the means of getting a multi-driver set rather than just sleeves. For me, sound quality with the Shures was good but not mind blowing. It was accurate enough for what I needed. But a multi-driver CIEM is very tempting now.