AUDIO RESEARCH - USA
Founded by William Z. Johnson, who began designing custom audio electronics in the early 1950s and ran a pro audio retail store in the mid-1960s. Johnson's efforts almost single-handedly revived vacuum tube design at a time when major industry manufacturers had abandoned the technology in favor of lower-cost solid-state devices, which were significantly inferior in musical accuracy, a fact now widely recognized. Many industry observers consider Johnson to be one of the true founders of the entire concept of today's "high-end" audio, a field of technological expertise in which American companies remain clear innovators and leaders worldwide.