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| Founded | June 1944 in Benton Harbor, Michigan |
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| Founder | Walter Miller |
Voice Of Music (abbreviated V-M) was the premier brand of V-M Corporation, an American audio equipment manufacturing company (EIA manufacturer's code 857).[ citation needed ]
V-M Corporation was founded in June 1944 by Walter Miller in Benton Harbor, Michigan. The company originally manufactured only 78 rpm record changers and labelled them simply as "A V-M Product". The brand name "Voice of Music" was suggested by a V-M engineer and first used in 1952.
V-M designed a two-speed changer after Columbia Records introduced the LP in 1948, then added the 45rpm speed after RCA brought that innovation to market in 1949. In 1954, V-M added the fourth speed (16⅔ rpm) for "talking books." A new changer mechanism, used throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s was developed in 1950. The basic design was retained until record changer production was terminated and was updated throughout the years to keep V-M's record changers aligned with their competitors. The speed control mechanism was redesigned in 1961. V-M Corporation claimed that their record changers were jam-proof and enjoyed a reputation of being both well-built and reliable. These mass-produced record changers, while competitive with other manufacturers' products, i.e. BSR and Garrard, in both build quality and product specifications, were not competitive with professional record changers. Like other mass-produced record changers, the tone arms had heavier vertical tracking force (VTF), and poorer speed accuracy and rumble specifications than the professional record changers. V-M mass-produced record changers, like their competitors' offerings, were used in low- to medium-priced audio equipment - compact systems, console stereos, and portable systems. Unlike their competitors, V-M often customized their units for large OEM customers with uniquely styled controls, tonearms, and trim pieces. They were sold also as separate components. Most had ceramic cartridges with dual style, with a separate stylus for LPs/45s, and one for 78rpm records. Most had two pole synchronous motors. From the late 1950s onward, V-M record changers, sold to original equipment manufacturers (OEM), were either unlabeled or labelled with the OEM customer's trademark. Record changers sold to OEM customers were sold in two configurations; fully assembled or unassembled, requiring final assembly, at half the OEM fully assembled price.
V-M developed its first professional record changer in 1966. This record changer had a twenty-four pole synchronous motor and a separate motor for operating the tone arm and lowering the record to the turntable. This professional record changer was only a two-speed unit-it did not play 78rpm records. This professional record changer was marketed under the Voice of Music trademark and also sold to other manufacturers such as Sherwood, Philco Ford, and Westinghouse. V-M's second-generation professional record changers design was developed in 1971 and was sold to BIC. V-M's deteriorating financial condition did not permit V-M to market this design under the Voice of Music trademark.
Amplified phonographs were introduced in the early 1950s, and V-M introduced the Model 700 tape recorder late in 1954. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, tape recorders, phonographs, consoles, and components by V-M were popular with consumers for a variety of reasons. V-M Corporation's "Educational Systems" tape recorders and phones with rugged cases were popular with schools and institutions. A brief entry into the audiophile market in 1970 with the V-M "Professional Series" was technically successful - but by this point, V-M Corporation was too financially weak to back a successful marketing campaign, so these products are rare and sought after today.
First and foremost, V-M was a record changer and tape deck supplier (less the electronics) to dozens of familiar brand names of their day, such as Zenith and Motorola to name only two. V-M Corporation, from the late 1950s through 1968, was the world's largest record changer manufacturer. During the peak years of record changer production, V-M Corporation produced more record changers than all other record changer manufacturers combined. In the early 1960s, V-M Corporation advertisements were placed in an audio magazine, stating this fact. Also, in this advertisement, V-M listed their original equipment manufacturers, (customers), by name. BSR Ltd, a British record changer manufacturer, in the 1970s, copied the format of this ad. V-M produced over three million record changers in 1966. By 1969, BSR had surpassed V-M Corporation in record changer production to become the world's largest manufacturer of record changers. In several countries, V-M record changers were produced under license. Telefunken, of then West Germany, was an example, of one such manufacturer signing a licensing agreement with V-M Corporation, to utilize their record changer technology. [1] [ full citation needed ] [2] JVC is known to have produced a copy of the V-M 1200 series without a license. Large record-changer production volumes helped V-M keep its own Voice of Music brand profitable for many years. After 1965, the trend became clear that American audio companies were going out of business or shifting production overseas. As V-M's record-changer volumes declined, it became difficult for the company to remain profitable. Retailing began to change from small "mom and pop" stores (V-M's strength) to large electronics retailers where V-M was under-represented. At the end of 1972 year, V-M quit offering console stereos and terminated all tape recorder models, for sale to retail customers, with the exception of an eight-track player. At the end of 1974 year, all other remaining retail products, except record changers, were discontinued. After 1974, V-M record changers were the only consumer product sold to the retail market as components. Record changers continued to be sold to original equipment manufacturers up to the bankruptcy, in mid-July, 1977. Cassette decks still produced, after leaving the retail consumer market, were highly specialized professional units. Some of the companies that bought these professional cassette decks were New Century Education Corporation, Beltone, and Terra Technology. V-M also did contract engineering projects for various manufacturers, along with some assembly projects for outside companies. For the December 1976 Christmas Season, V-M assembled an electronic ping pong game for Factory Direct Marketing. V-M filed for bankruptcy in mid-July 1977 when a power failure in New York City prevented a wire transfer of critically needed funds.
At first, within the bankruptcy, V-M Corporation was regulated by the Bankruptcy Court and had to obtain permission for all activity, especially manufacturing. Customers had to prepay for any manufacturing or services performed since V-M could not use the creditors' money. V-M projects done, while under Bankruptcy Court supervision, included reworking 20,000 turntables for Thompson Electronics of France in 1978 and 1979. V-M also manufactured Model 270-6 monaural record changers, and a number of cassette decks for New Century Education Corporation, Beltone, and Terra Technology. (Assembly of cassette decks continued through the calendar year of 1989.) All manufacturing ceased by September 1979 when the bankruptcy auction occurred. Of the ten buildings V-M Corporation owned at the time of the bankruptcy, only a few were sold. Building number #17 did not sell and this was the building V-M operated out of from 1979 until it was demolished in September 1998.
After the bankruptcy auction, October 1979 through the calendar year of 1991, V-M Corporation had a small group of people employed rebuilding/repairing telephones for AT&T, along with other small projects. One such project, in 1985, involved Factory Direct Marketing having V-M repair a large quantity of Cobra feature phones, AT&T answering machines, and radio/cassette players. V-M also did some assembly of model 791/792 tape duplicators as late as 1989 for continuing customers. By 1992, none of these projects remained profitable. From 1992 to 1998, V-M Corporation's business activities were limited to selling parts and service manuals for V-M products manufactured in the past, and helping owners of V-M equipment to link up with qualified service shops. In September 1998, building #17, V-M Corporation's former office building, and building #1, the former record changer plant was demolished. [3]
In September 1998, the service parts and technical files were transferred to the care of V-M Audio Enthusiasts at the website shown below. The revival of "vinyl" (records) and tube audio in recent years has sparked a renewed interest in quality-built, easy-to-service V-M products, and the internet has facilitated buyers and sellers getting together. [4]
VHS is a standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes invented in 1976 by the Victor Company of Japan and was the competitor to the ill-fated Sony Betamax system. Originally VHS was an initialism for Vertical Helical Scan but was later changed to the more consumer-friendly Video Home System.
The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens and his team at the Dutch company Philips and released in August 1963, Compact Cassettes come in two forms, either containing content as a prerecorded cassette (Musicassette), or as a fully recordable "blank" cassette. Both forms have two sides and are reversible by the user. Although other tape cassette formats have also existed—for example the Microcassette—the generic term cassette tape is normally used to refer to the Compact Cassette because of its ubiquity.
Digital Audio Tape is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. In appearance it is similar to a Compact Cassette, using 3.81 mm / 0.15" magnetic tape enclosed in a protective shell, but is roughly half the size at 73 mm × 54 mm × 10.5 mm. The recording is digital rather than analog. DAT can record at sampling rates equal to, as well as higher and lower than a CD at 16 bits quantization. If a comparable digital source is copied without returning to the analogue domain, then the DAT will produce an exact clone, unlike other digital media such as Digital Compact Cassette or non-Hi-MD MiniDisc, both of which use a lossy data-reduction system.
A Dolby noise-reduction system, or Dolby NR, is one of a series of noise reduction systems developed by Dolby Laboratories for use in analog audio tape recording. The first was Dolby A, a professional broadband noise reduction system for recording studios in 1965, but the best-known is Dolby B, a sliding band system for the consumer market, which helped make high fidelity practical on cassette tapes, which used a relatively noisy tape size and speed. It is common on high-fidelity stereo tape players and recorders to the present day, although Dolby has as of 2016 ceased licensing the technology for new cassette decks. Of the noise reduction systems, Dolby A and Dolby SR were developed for professional use. Dolby B, C, and S were designed for the consumer market. Aside from Dolby HX, all the Dolby variants work by companding: compressing the dynamic range of the sound during recording, and expanding it during playback.
JVC was a Japanese brand owned by JVCKenwood. Founded in 1927 as the Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan and later as Victor Company of Japan, Ltd., the company was best known for introducing Japan's first televisions and for developing the Video Home System (VHS) video recorder.
A cassette deck is a type of tape machine for playing and recording audio cassettes that does not have a built-in power amplifier or speakers, and serves primarily as a transport. It can be a part of an automotive entertainment system, a part of a portable mini system or a part of a home component system. In the latter case it is also called a component cassette deck or just a component deck.
S-VHS (スーパー・ヴィエイチエス), the common initialism for Super VHS, is an improved version of the VHS standard for consumer-level video recording. Victor Company of Japan introduced S-VHS in Japan in April 1987, with their JVC-branded HR-S7000 VCR, and in certain overseas markets soon afterward. By the end of 1987, the first S-VHS VCR models from other competitors included Hitachi VT-2700A, Mitsubishi HS-423UR, Panasonic PV-S4764, RCA VPT-695HF, and Toshiba SV-950. It has been standardized as IEC 60774-3 and IEC 60774-4.
Betamax is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, followed by the US in November of the same year.
Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the supply reel containing the tape is placed on a spindle or hub. The end of the tape is manually pulled from the reel, threaded through mechanical guides and over a tape head assembly, and attached by friction to the hub of the second, initially empty takeup reel. Reel-to-reel systems use tape that is 1⁄4, 1⁄2, 1, or 2 inches wide, which normally moves at 3+3⁄4, 7+1⁄2, 15 or 30 inches per second. Domestic consumer machines almost always used 1⁄4 inch (6.35 mm) or narrower tape and many offered slower speeds such as 1+7⁄8 inches per second (4.762 cm/s). All standard tape speeds are derived as a binary submultiple of 30 inches per second.
Nakamichi Corp., Ltd. is a Japanese consumer electronics brand that originated in Japan and gained a name from the 1970s onwards for innovative and high quality audio cassette decks. Nakamichi is a subsidiary of Chinese holding company Nimble Holdings.
Betacam is a family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself.
dbx, Inc. is an American manufacturer of professional audio recording equipment owned by Harman International, a subsidiary of South Korea-based company Samsung Electronics. It was founded by David E. Blackmer in 1971.
A record changer or autochanger is a device that plays several phonograph records in sequence without user intervention. Record changers first appeared in the late 1920s, and were common until the 1980s.
Lafayette Radio Electronics Corporation was an American radio and electronics manufacturer and retailer from approximately 1931 to 1981, headquartered in Syosset, New York, a Long Island suburb of New York City. The company sold radio sets, Amateur radio (Ham) equipment, citizens band (CB) radios and related communications equipment, electronic components, microphones, public address systems, and tools through their company owned and branded chain of retail outlets and by mail-order.
TEAC Corporation is a Japanese electronics manufacturer. TEAC was created by the merger of the Tokyo Television Acoustic Company, founded in 1953, and the Tokyo Electro-Acoustic Company, founded in 1956.
Foster Denki KK is an electronics company that manufactures loudspeakers and audio equipment for other companies or sells them under the trade name Fostex. It is traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Technics is a Japanese brand name of Panasonic for audio equipment. Since 1965, Panasonic has produced a variety of hi-fi and audio products under the brand name, such as turntables, amplifiers, radio receivers, tape recorders, CD players, speakers, and digital pianos. Technics products were available for sale in various countries. The brand was originally conceived as a line of high-end audio equipment to compete against brands such as Nakamichi.
Birmingham Sound Reproducers (BSR) was a 20th-century British manufacturer of record player turntables, and, for a time, housewares.
Shintom Industries Co. Ltd. was a Japanese consumer electronics company headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, first founded in 1955 and ended in 2004, after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Shintom was engaged in the development, manufacture, and sale of mobile phone, car audio, transistor radio, videocassette recorder, measuring instrument, and medical equipment. Shintom had two factories worldwide, located both in Japan and Indonesia. Shintom first held a stake with Audiovox in 1980 as an OEM supplier for Audiovox car stereos.
The Nakamichi Dragon is an audio cassette deck that was introduced by Nakamichi in 1982 and marketed until 1994. The Dragon was the first Nakamichi model with bidirectional replay capability and the world's first production tape recorder with an automatic azimuth correction system; this feature, which was invented by Philips engineers and improved by Niro Nakamichi, continuously adjusts the azimuth of the replay head to minimize apparent head skew and correctly reproduce the treble signal present on the tape. The system allows the correct reproduction of mechanically skewed cassettes and recordings made on misaligned decks. Apart from the Dragon, similar systems have only been used in the Nakamichi TD-1200 car cassette player and the Marantz SD-930 cassette deck.
