Denon - History

History

The company was originally established in 1910 as part of “Nippon Chikuonki Shokai" (Japan Recorders Corporation), a manufacturer of single-sided disc records and gramophones. The company was originally called '日本電氣音響株式會社' - Nippon 'DENki ONkyo Kabushikigaisha' which was shortened to the name of DEN-ON in Japanese. The company is actively involved with sound systems electric appliance production and later the company has been merged with other related companies as a result of this the company name became "Denon".

There followed a number of mergers and tie-ins over the next few decades as firstly the company merged with Japan-US Recorders Manufacturing in 1912 and then in 1928 the brand “Columbia” was introduced when the company became “Japan Columbia Recorders”. A further change of name occurred in 1946 when the company renamed itself “Nippon Columbia”.

The Denon brand was first established in 1947 when “Nippon Columbia” merged with “Japan Denki Onkyo”. “D&M Holdings Inc.” was created in May 2002 when Denon Ltd and Marantz Japan Inc. merged.

Today, the company specializes in professional and consumer home cinema and audio equipment including A/V receivers, Blu-ray players, tuners and wireless music systems. Denon is also known for high-end AV Receivers and Moving coil phono cartridges. Two M-series models, the Denon M31 and M30, have been the most successful radio hi-fi's for the last 4 years. Since being released to the micro hifi DAB market, they have received several awards in Europe.