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Kondo Audio Note Japan
Website:https://www.audionote.co.jp/
Est. year: 1976
Kondo, formally Kondo Audio Note or Audio Note Japan, is a Japanese maker of tube electronics, cartridges and transformers founded in 1976 by Hiroyasu Kondo after he left Sony. It started in a 50-square-meter garage, was incorporated in 1979, and became known for using aged, annealed silver in wiring, transformer windings and capacitors, which earned its founder the nickname Audio Silversmith.
Range & what it's known for
The best-known product is the Ongaku, a single-ended triode integrated amplifier designed by Kondo in 1989, whose name means music in Japanese. Current power amplifiers include the Kagura II flagship monoblocks and the Gakuoh II monoblocks, and the Overture PM2i is an integrated model. The M7 preamplifier comes as a line stage, a line stage with phono and a pure phono stage, joined by the G1000i preamplifier and the GE-10i phono stage. The analogue side began with a silver step-up transformer built in the garage and the IO moving-coil cartridge of 1979, and today includes the IO-XP cartridge and the KSL-SFz silver step-up transformer. Output transformers and silver-foil signal capacitors are wound and made in-house rather than bought in.
Who owns it and where it's made
Kondo Audio Note is privately held by Japanese shareholders. Hiroyasu Kondo has died, and the company is now led by president Masaki Ashizawa, with Katsura Hirokawa as chief designer. In 1981 it took over YL Acoustics, the horn driver maker founded by Sadao Yoshimura in 1953, adopted elements of the YL logo and went on to develop horn speaker units. Everything is built by hand at a factory in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo, where about ten people work without assembly lines and the president assembles the cartridges himself.
The lineup in this catalog
Amplifiers and preamplifiers, with prices running into five and six figures for the top silver-wired models.
Who it's for
Kondo suits owners of high-sensitivity speakers, including horn systems, who want a few watts of single-ended triode power and a complete signal chain from cartridge to output stage by one maker. The Overture PM2i opens the range, a buyer can then add the M7 or G1000i preamplifier and the KSL-SFz transformer, and the Ongaku, Gakuoh II and Kagura II are the final steps. Vinyl listeners can also pair an IO-XP cartridge with Kondo step-up and phono stages.
Range & what it's known for
The best-known product is the Ongaku, a single-ended triode integrated amplifier designed by Kondo in 1989, whose name means music in Japanese. Current power amplifiers include the Kagura II flagship monoblocks and the Gakuoh II monoblocks, and the Overture PM2i is an integrated model. The M7 preamplifier comes as a line stage, a line stage with phono and a pure phono stage, joined by the G1000i preamplifier and the GE-10i phono stage. The analogue side began with a silver step-up transformer built in the garage and the IO moving-coil cartridge of 1979, and today includes the IO-XP cartridge and the KSL-SFz silver step-up transformer. Output transformers and silver-foil signal capacitors are wound and made in-house rather than bought in.
Who owns it and where it's made
Kondo Audio Note is privately held by Japanese shareholders. Hiroyasu Kondo has died, and the company is now led by president Masaki Ashizawa, with Katsura Hirokawa as chief designer. In 1981 it took over YL Acoustics, the horn driver maker founded by Sadao Yoshimura in 1953, adopted elements of the YL logo and went on to develop horn speaker units. Everything is built by hand at a factory in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo, where about ten people work without assembly lines and the president assembles the cartridges himself.
The lineup in this catalog
Amplifiers and preamplifiers, with prices running into five and six figures for the top silver-wired models.
Who it's for
Kondo suits owners of high-sensitivity speakers, including horn systems, who want a few watts of single-ended triode power and a complete signal chain from cartridge to output stage by one maker. The Overture PM2i opens the range, a buyer can then add the M7 or G1000i preamplifier and the KSL-SFz transformer, and the Ongaku, Gakuoh II and Kagura II are the final steps. Vinyl listeners can also pair an IO-XP cartridge with Kondo step-up and phono stages.
- All
- Preamplifiers
- Phonostages
- Power amplifiers stereo
- Power amplifiers mono
- Integrated amplifiers
- Cartridges
