Audio-Technica is celebrating 60 years of listening with two very special, limited-edition high-end products, a phono cartridge and stunning headphones.
It’s no wonder a company like Audio-Technica has been around, and still growing, for 60 years. Their iconic headphones are useful both on the streets and in the studio, their microphones suit home to professional studios and their record players are well known amongst audiophiles.
Turning 60 this year, they’ve dropped two new limited-edition products: a high-end phono cartridge and a set of headphones with hand-painted cherry blossom and phoenix designs composed of traditional Japanese birch.
Don’t be fooled, these are very special items. In fact, so special that there will only be four AT-MC2022 phono cartridges and two ATH-W2022 headphones available in Australia.
The AT-MC2022 phono cartridge features a lab-grown diamond in a very slim 0.22 mm (0.009″) diamond cantilever to ensure an extremely high propagation velocity and fast transient response, the same magnetic circuit as the AT-ART20 for highly efficient power generation, greater output voltage and realistic sound reproduction, and high-quality terminal pins (with gold plating that’s approximately 30 times thicker than on conventional pins).
It comes with a specially designed walnut storage case, featuring an acrylic window with laser-engraved, 60th-anniversary logo and the packaging uses traditional Japanese Echizen washi paper. For $15,999 AUD you can listen to your vinyl at the peak of audio reproduction.
The ATH-W2022 headphones are a breathtaking piece of art and what will be audio history. Made entirely in Japan, these wooden closed-back headphones have specially developed, baffle-integrated 58 mm drivers, with the diaphragm’s centre dome is made of 30-micron-thick pure titanium.
Coming with two detachable 3.0 m (9.8′), cloth-wrapped cables (with A2DC connectors at the headphones) made from 7N-class D.U.C.C. (Dia Ultra Crystallized Copper) — one with a 6.3 mm (1/4″) gold-plated stereo plug, the other with a 4-pin XLRM balanced connector — it’s safe to say no expense has been spared for maximum listening.
The housings are crafted from Mizume (Japanese birch) and finished with traditional urushi lacquer Sakura (cherry blossom) and hou-ou phoenix designs are hand-painted on the housings using the Japanese maki-e lacquer technique, while the earpads and headband are made from deerskin and they come in a stunning wooden case with paulownia wood.
For $15,999 AUD you can both be part of audio history and know you are listening on the finest headphones in the world.
For more info on the AT-MC2022 phono cartridge head over to the product page here, and for the ATH-W2022 headphones head over to the product page here.
