He also gave TEAC a vote of confidence for overseas buyers, He taught us what it meant to do business. Mr Bretz really was like a God of Fortune for Sumida day after day, paying in advance for the TD-102. “It was so busy at the factory after that, there would be foreign cars parked outside the shabby factory So TEAC brought 50 TD-102 units to demonstrate and inĮnd they were all bought with cash on the spot. That he managed on the Tachikawa military base. After exclaiming, “You’ve got such amazing products! Why don’t you tellĪbout them?”, Bretz invited TEAC to perform a demonstration of their products at the Far East Audio Club In April 1958, an engineer from the radio manufacturing firm, Philco called Bretz heard about the TD-102Ĭame to visit the factory. TEAC had a rough start from the beginning, but they had a little help from some saviours from overseas. Slightly too far ahead of the curve that would one day see tape as the default playback and recording At the time, theĮxtremely high price of a TD-102 (60,000 yen in a time when the starting salary of a graduate bank clerkġ5,000 yen) coupled with the fact that vinyl records were the standard of the day, meant that TEAC was However, even after that first big order from Lafayette, few new orders came through.

Quickly became a favorite amongst audio fans, thus introducing TEAC’s technology to the outside world But their hard work paid off, and the TD-102 crossed over into the American market and While happy to receive such a great bulk order, there wasn’t anyone at the company at the time toĬonfigure the amps so according to legend, staff had to work flat out for 72 hours straight to complete When Tani showed them the prototype for the TD-102, they said “Add a playback amp, turn itĪ tape player and change the casing it to a cabinet and we’ll take it!”. They were the CEO and the chief engineer of a big radio manufacturer called Lafayette RadioĮlectronics. In 1957, two Americans came to visit the newly established Tokyo Electronic Acoustic Company at theirįactory. In 1956 the two brothers founded Tokyo Electronic Acoustic Company,įinally merging the two in 1964 to form the modern day TEAC Corporation.įor Part 1 of our ‘TEAC – The history of great sound’ series, we would like to introduce TEAC’s first TEAC Corporation was originally founded as Tokyo Television Acoustic Company on August 8th, 1953 by twoīrothers, Katsuma and Tomoma Tani. Illustrious history of our company and products, starting with the first mass produced original TEAC Thank you for your continued support and patronage of TEAC/Tascam. (Photo courtesy of The Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording, Texas, USA) TD-102 TEAC founder, Katsuma Tani, and the TD-102 The TD-102 production line in the late 1950s An original wooden box used for the 25 year anniversary export model and TD-102 inside

Flatout 4 track list