Only six months ago, we wrote a little history of Audio-Technica, by way of celebration of the company’s 60th birthday in 2022. And as we passed through the information and memories of the 1980s, we were reminded of the time when the company came up with a bright red attempt at a portable battery-powered turntable, released in some markets as ‘Mister Disc’, but known to most of the world as the ‘Sound Burger’.
The Sound Burger could play both singles and albums, it came with a set of fold-up headphones, and was supported by some natty advertising. In our little history we ended that section with the comment: “How much do we want a re-release of the Sound Burger!”
Those in the know at Audio-Technica must have chuckled. They were already working on a re-release, and not just a replica, but an update. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome a Sound Burger for the 21 st century.
Sound Burger 1982
Compact Disc arrived in 1982, and to a company built on a thriving turntable cartridge business, it presented an existential threat. It took less than five years for silver discs to outsell vinyl for the first time, the beginning of what many believed would be the total demise of vinyl, and with it the cartridge and tone-arm business of Audio-Technica.
The Japanese company had been riding high after 20 years dedicated to providing affordable cartridges that would bring high-fidelity music into more homes. It was an idea that had grown in the mind of founder Hideo Matsushita as he spent his thirties conducting ‘LP concerts’ at Tokyo’s artsy ‘Bridgestone Gallery’, where an audience would listen to vinyl records played on high-quality audio equipment. In 1962, with a capital of one million yen and three employees, he
