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
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-x-koss-porta-pro-x-headphones/talk/1790498
I've just about finished up my theatre room setup, and I'll share some pictures of the whole thing on the gear thread. But despite the fact that I have a lot of great modern gear that may sound better, these guys are still my most beloved headphones because of the sheer luck of finding them, and their ties to the very beginning of the hobby.
I may be a sentimental fool, but just wanted to share where they landed.
You can see some images from when these were in their prime on the Koss history site: https://www.koss.com/history/