In 1988 audio Note Japan introduced the single-ended, no-feedback, directly heated triode amplifier to the world audio marketplace. Since then, Audio Note Japan has become the largest manufacturer and most famous purveyor of this type of amplification in the world.
Audio Note Japan was founded in 1975 by Hiroyasu Kondo. Mr. Kondo was the second son of a Buddhist priest. He was an artist, a father, a professor of electronic engineering and molecular metallurgy and most important, he was the Picasso of contemporary audio design.
Mr. Kondo founded Audio Note Japan to share his discoveries with the larger audio community. His own research grew out of a deep dissatisfaction with the recording equipment he was using in the studio at SONY/CBS where he worked in the 60′s.
At Audio Note Japan they understand that the music and signal are a continuous dynamic shock wave that has electro-mechanical, electro-chemical, electro-static and electro-magnetic effects as it impresses on the amplification chain. Minimizing the disturbances in each of these areas allows more of the delicate aspects of the signal to pass unaltered. In other words, what is often forgotten is that music starts from silence and the music signal is therefore MUCH MORE than just voltage and current. It is energy expanding from a void. It is a complex, pulsating, expanding wave of energy that effects everything it comes in contact with. At every juncture in the audio chain, some of this energy is stored and later released OUT OF TIME with the original signal and impressed on the new, virgin signal.