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Nikko history, info...

thedelihaus

thedelihaus

Nocturnal transmissions
I'd like to get my facts straight- Nikko gear, who produced/manufactured it, who sold it, and was it a house, or chain brand?

Was it primarily East coast, or West coast, or both?

Any really big fans of it?

How do you feel it compared to other makers?

And what happened to them?

I personally think it's quite beautiful gear, and love the Gamma line, the 550 integrated-amp, and other pieces of gear.

I've heard some feel it's mediocre-made, but my pice of kit seems quite well built.

I'm just looking to expand my knowledge here and set my facts straight.

Thanks!
 
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IIRC, Nikko is a Japanese electrics company that made lots of interesting audio gear (usually with a compact form factor) in the sixties through the eighties (and early nineties?).

They got out of the consumer audio business and have focused on...

...RC model cars, where they are the world leader.
 
Paul,

Hope this enlightens you somewhat.

Nikko Audio
A division of the Japanese company Nikko Electric Works that specialises in manufacturing electric and communications equipment, company established in December 1948 and the audio division was closed in the early 1990's. Their line of hi-fi was noted for excellent value for money and in particular their electronics (i.e. amps and tuners) were considered extremely impressive on a value basis, however the company never got the hang of the glittery marketing tactics that other Japanese brands used and only gained limited distribution, mostly confined to North America and Australasia, the audio division was also know as ASTI Pacific. There is an highly unusual twist to the company's history, so unusual that I am going to include it here even it happened after the company left the audio business, when the Asian markets started to slump due to the "Asian Flu" of the mid 90's Nikko's chairman and principal shareholder Goto Tsunemoto was one of the first Japanese CEO's to try western methods to in responding to the slowing sales, he initiated a series of layoffs that were done without consulting employees and unions in stark contradiction to local tradition. This backfired spectacularly when the employees used a novel method of revolting, as collectively they owned just over 10% percent of the company due to bonuses and such, and under Japanese commercial law a shareholder with 10% or more of ownership can request a liquidation of the company the employees forced the company into bankruptcy protection even though the finances of the company were basically sound, so in 1998 Taunemoto-San was forced to resign from the company's board and it was taken over by a investment company controlled by the Rotchilds later that year. Please note that the company never made televisions or suchlike, the sets and video recorders that appeared with this name in North America were sold by someone that appropriated the trademark.
 
I was a devoted Nikko fan during the 1980s and owned both their preamps and amps. I didn't think their preamps were anything special but I loved their amps, owning an Alpha 230, Alpha 450 and the very rare Alpha 2000 (330 w.p.c./600W mono bridged). I did in-home comparisons of the Alpha 450 and Alpha 2000 versus a number of well-regarded amps and the Nikkos held their own and even bettered a couple of the other brands.

It is my understanding that Nikko became part of ASTI Corp. in the late '80s just before they stopped manufacturing audio equipment. In those final years, the styling of their components changed and their audio products began to be marketed in North America under the corporate name of ASTI Nikko Technology Corp. of America a/k/a ANTECA from the former Nikko Audio. The company is now into a variety of manufacturing. Here is a link to the company's history that includes a thumbnail sized pic of the Alpha 2000 amp.
http://www.asti.co.jp/e/co/co02.html
 
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It is interesting to hear what happened to Nikko Audio. I was the Western Regional Sales Manager for Nikko in 1978. The headquarters was on Raymer Street, in Van Nuys, CA, just east of the Van Nuys Airport. The East Cost Sales Manager worked out of New York. I still have a silver Alpha I power amp in the garage, with one dead channel. It put out 238 W per channel on the bench in 1978, and powered my Dahlquist DQ-10 speakers very nicely until I forgot to leave the cabinet door open and it overheated.
 
Used To Date Someone That Worked At Nikko

Denny Crane said:
It is interesting to hear what happened to Nikko Audio. I was the Western Regional Sales Manager for Nikko in 1978. The headquarters was on Raymer Street, in Van Nuys, CA, just east of the Van Nuys Airport. The East Cost Sales Manager worked out of New York. I still have a silver Alpha I power amp in the garage, with one dead channel. It put out 238 W per channel on the bench in 1978, and powered my Dahlquist DQ-10 speakers very nicely until I forgot to leave the cabinet door open and it overheated.
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I dated a woman that worked at Nikko around that time her first name was Sandy, for the life of me I can't remember her last name. She once offered to get me some Nikko stuff at the employee price, but since I had never heard of Nikko I passed, I was young and stupid.
 
thedelihaus said:
I'd like to get my facts straight- Nikko gear, who produced/manufactured it, who sold it, and was it a house, or chain brand?

Was it primarily East coast, or West coast, or both?

Any really big fans of it?
Click to expand...


I became a fan of Nikko separates back in 1980 at the age of 14. My cousin bought a new Nikko system back then for somewhere north of $1200.00 (unattainable for me back then) and I listened to it lots.

I believe he had an Alpha 220, Beta 20, and Gamma 20.

I've acquired a few pieces of my own over the past couple of years and now have:

(Main System)
Alpha II
Beta II
Gamma I

also have:

Beta 30
Gamma 20

From what I remember Nikko was the one of the totl brands for Tech Hi-Fi which I believe started out in the Boston Area and then expanded across the country before closing down in the mid 80s.

Here's a database of Nikko Rack Mountable Separates that I keep updated with new info as I acuire it:

Amps
Model WPC Years MSRP Comments
Alpha I 220 1977-82 675
Alpha II 120 1979 480 Dual Mono, analog VU meters, 30 lbs
Alpha III 80 1978-82 500 MOS-FET, DC
Alpha V 100 1979 3000
Alpha VI 300 1400 Dual Mono

Alpha 130 100 1985 ? 350 DC, servo, 29 lbs
Alpha 220 120 1979 535
Alpha 230 150 1983 470 dc servo hi-speed non-Switching, 30 lbs
Alpha 280 130 1987 500
Alpha 400 120 1988 555 invert polarity,
Alpha 440 220 1979 ? 1005 dc configured hi-speed non-Switching
Alpha 450 220 1983 900 Class AB, 47 lbs
Alpha 480 230 1987 900
Alpha 600 180 1988 765 invert polarity
Alpha 650 300 1985 1700 strappable to mono, 61 lbs
Alpha 800 250 1988-91 1300 invert polarity
Alpha 2000 330 1988 1800 alpha 2000 bridgeable to 650w, balanced inputs, invert polarity


Pre-amps
Beta I 1977-82 350
Beta II 1978 240
Beta III 1979 420
Beta V 1979 750

Beta 20 1981 300
Beta 30 1982 280 2 tone controls, dual input signal selector, 1 sound processor input, output, mm-mc, 8 lbs
Beta 30 II 320
Beta 40 1979 470 mosfet
Beta 50 1982 480 dual input signal selector, 3 sound processor input, output
Beta 50 II 1985 420 mm-mc, 11 lbs
Beta 400 1988 440 invert polarity, moving coil input, CD direct
Beta 600 1988 600 invert polarity, moving coil input, 2 record-out selectors


Tuners
Gamma I 1978 fm only, analog meters, MOS FET front end
Gamma V 1978

Gamma 20 1979
Gamma 30 1982 quartz frequency syn, variable muting, auto scan, 9 lbs
Gamma 40 1979
Gamma 60 1987 20-preset, auto-man seek, programmable, muting scan, muting
Gamma 80 1987 20-preset, programmable, muting, auto-manual seek
Gamma 400 1988 digital synthesized,
Gamma 600 1990 memory scan, stereo mute, MPX hold circuitry


Eq
EQ I 1979
EQ II 1979
EQ 20
EQ 25 1985 12 band, 11 lbs
EQ 30 1985 30 band, 11 lbs
EQ 500 1981 6 band, 9 lbs


Other

ATD-I Time Delay/Reverb Synthesizer
CO-23 Crossover
BTL-I Power Bridging Network
 
Can anyone tell me the year of manufacture of a Nikko 8085? Any feedback on this unit would be appreciated too. How does it rate?
 
scribby31 said:
Can anyone tell me the year of manufacture of a Nikko 8085? Any feedback on this unit would be appreciated too. How does it rate?
Click to expand...

Nikko 8085

2x48 watts RMS

1976-80

I've never heard one so I can't comment on how it sounds.


It looks like someone's got one parted out right now on Ebay (in case you're looking for any parts).
 
Hi,
I can't comment on the Nikko amps, preamps but they made some very good tuners. Specifically I have both the Gamma I and Gamma V. The Gamma V I just recently got off Ebay for <$80 shipped. This tuner unmodified/not serviced since probably new knocked my socks off sound-wise. The bass especially extended very low and was very accurate. I was so impressed with the sound I send it off to Mike Williams at RadioXTuners for extensive mods and complete alignment. This tuner unmodded was knocking on the door of some other modded/unmodded tuners I own, guys like the Mac MR67(restored)/MR74(DeWick restored)/MR78 (Modaferri modded), Fisher FM100B(restored), Sherwood S3000V (Terry DeWick restored), unmodded Yamaha
T-85/TX-930, and heavily modded Dynaco FM-3. I can't wait for Mike to finish with the Gamma V. I'm betting it will be the new king of hill when done since it sounded pretty darn good untouched.

The Gamma I is no slouch either, just that I can't remember another tuner like the Gamma V that hit me so pleasantly on initial listening. Both Gamma I and V are very solidly built. The V in particular has things like separate power supplies for the RF digital frontend and the backend audio section. This is something you usually don't see on more pedestrian tuners, even very expensive ones. Also as you can tell from my list above, I'm kind of a tube tuner snob. The Gamma V has changed how I view a properly implemented digital tuner.
 
Another post extracted from the lower bowel of the Audiokarma archive.

I just wanted to give a big thumbs up for the Nikko 550 Integrated that thedelihaus mentioned 3.5 years ago. It's currently my only piece of Nikko gear, but I love the sound.
 
BostonDave said:
Alpha 2000 330 1988 1800 alpha 2000 bridgeable to 650w, balanced inputs, invert polarity
Click to expand...

Dave, a slight correction to the Alpha 2000 information. I owned an Alpha 2000 from 1989 to 1996. Bridged output is 600W, not 650W, and that is into 8 ohms. The amp had XLR jacks but the inputs are not balanced. They're single ended, with only pin 2 connected.
 
I have never had gear with XLR 's. Why have them if they are not balanced?
Are they worth using over the RCA's on an Alpha 650?
 
Glen B said:
Dave, a slight correction to the Alpha 2000 information. I owned an Alpha 2000 from 1989 to 1996. Bridged output is 600W, not 650W, and that is into 8 ohms. The amp had XLR jacks but the inputs are not balanced. They're single ended, with only pin 2 connected.
Click to expand...

Hey Glen,

Thanks for the info. I'll update my spreadsheet.
 
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