Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Noguchi Transformer Co. Ltd, Closing


Noguchi Transformer Co. Ltd announced that they are closing on September 29, 2018.😞😞😞


Located at the basement of Tokyo Radio Department Store in Akihabara, I was first exposed to their existence in the early 90s through their ads in MJ Audio Technology and Stereo Sound Tube Kingdom magazines. 

MJ 11-1994 

Back in the 90s they ran 2-page ads for Tamura, Tango and their in-house manufactured transformers.

Hashimoto

I was glad to see their store when I visited Tokyo in November 2015. They still had a good stock of Hashimoto, some Tamura and a comprehensive line of their house brand transformers. 

Noguchi + Tamura 
I am speculating that just like everywhere else in the world, the Japanese market for DIY/vacuum tube/single-ended triode amps is also shrinking. This explains why these manufacturers are closing shop, 😞 not to mention the fierce competition from China.

"mid-price" Finemet OPT ad in MJ 12/2015
  
The Noguchi Finemet models represented their finest quality output transformers.


Even if I stretched my budget a bit, it was a good call that I added a pair of PMF-10WS and PMF-15WS + a single Finemet FM3WS-H and a pair of Finemet FM6WS to my collection. ðŸ™‚


Sayonara!


!!UPDATE!!

As posted by "dan" in the comments section below, the entire line of Noguchi is now represented by General Transformer in the same location at Tokyo Radio Department Store in Akihabra. 





4 comments:

  1. That's too bad. I loved visiting Akihabara and shopping for parts for my projects. I always stopped by Noguchi's basement stall but didn't buy much from them. Probably that's why they've decided to close - too many visitors and not enough buyers. Last trip was 3 years ago and nothing planned this month, so it truly is sayonara, as you say. Thanks for letting us know.

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    1. Hi Gary,

      Nice to hear from a fellow DIYer who's been to Akihabara! Hopefully Kasuga and Toei will still be there if I get a chance to visit Tokyo again.

      Thanks for dropping by!

      JE

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  2. HI Joseph,

    A fellow audiodiyer posted that noguchi physical store replaced by https://www.gtrans.co.jp/ carrying some of the powermax transformer old product, although stock might be spoty as they setup the new store.

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    1. Thanks for the heads up! I just checked the URL and I see familiar model numbers. Hopefully some of the readers will get a chance to visit and take advantage of the discounted models like the PMF10WS and PMF15WS.

      JE

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