Pre/Power Amplifiers

If there's a tendency for some large Japanese companies to lack a sense of corporate charisma or personality, then Yamaha with its audio, musical instruments and sports utilities divisions most certainly bucks the trend. The brand has a long and illustrious history, starting when founder Torakusu Yamaha repaired a broken reed organ back in 1887. He then built his own, and founded his company Nippon Gakki Co. Ltd some ten years later, selling musical instruments. Yamaha was fascinated by Western science, as well as music theory and tuning, this eventually inspiring the three tuning forks that comprise its logo to this day.

After over half a century specialising in musical instruments, Yamaha entered the hi-fi market in 1954, closely followed by the launch of the Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. This was a period of huge growth for the company, and by the early '70s it was also a semiconductor manufacturer. That decade was a period of great innovation for Yamaha's hi-fi division with the launch of the groundbreaking NS-1000 loudspeaker range [HFN Oct '18] and the B-1 V-FET power amp in 1974 [B-2 from '76 pictured]. Forty-five years later, the 'Yamaha aesthetic', and corporate personality, is as clear as ever.