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.
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| MJ 11-1994 |
Back in the 90s they ran 2-page ads for Tamura, Tango and their in-house manufactured transformers.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| "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. 🙂
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.
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.
ReplyDeleteHi Gary,
DeleteNice 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
HI Joseph,
ReplyDeleteA 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.
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.
DeleteJE