This review page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below


Reviewer:
Srajan Ebaen
Financial Interests: click here
Source: MacBook Pro, HP TouchSmart 610, HP Z200 Work Station, Apple iMac 21", Apple iMac 27" quad-core
Review Component Retail: $129/pr


Little things can from big ones come. Eggsactly. "The founder of the company and brand Olasonic is Yoshinori Yamamoto. Yamamoto-san is a dyed-in-the-wool audiophile who began his career in Sony's product design section. Yamamoto-san has designed all types of audio systems from digital audio tape onwards. In ca. 2000 Sony restructured its organization into eight divisional companies under the direction of Nobuyuki Idei. Yamamoto-san was appointed head of the home audio company as part of the Sony home AV network company division. At the same time Sony assigned Yamamoto-san responsibility for the SACD business center which had previously been part of the optical disc platform strategy group. It joined the super audio business center in 1999 working under Yamamoto-san and his team through May 2001. Yamamoto-san oversaw all aspects of Sony's home audio business from 1999 to 2006 including development and implementation of the SACD format and all related hardware and software."


"In 2006 Yamamoto-san was reassigned as president of Sony's components and peripherals company where he oversaw their semiconductor, PC peripherals, batteries and recording media business. Until he retired from Sony, Yamamoto-san was directly responsible for the development of the Playstation 3 chip set and the establishment of the Blu-Ray format. In 2008 he retired from Sony. Now he was hired as president of Towa Electronics, an outsourced supplier of circuit design and programming for Sony and Hitachi. Towa designs PCBs, handles MPU programming and provides system consulting for FeliCa contactless card applications etc.
"The concept of producing a 10w+10w USB speaker system actually came from me. Eager to bring me back as part of his team and longing to return to audio design, Yamamoto-san designed and implemented my idea as the Olasonic TW-S7. The product was a huge success in Japan where it sells thousands of units per month.  Based on dealer and customer feedback Yamamoto-san produced follow-up products including a PC docking station for the Sony Walkman, 2.0 channel home theater speakers with a fiber optic digital input from flat screen TVs and most recently an iPod/iPhone docking station that was announced just last week*.
___________________________________

* The main constraints to launching the docking stations in the US and Europe are the costs of FCC RF compliance certification, Underwriter's Laboratory listing, CE mark etc. Olasonic prefers to first see the speakers which are common to all Olasonic products be accepted in these markets.


"In 18 short months Olasonic has become a household word. Products are demonstrated on the floors of flagship Apple stores and are available from all the major electronics retailers in Japan. Olasonic holds the #1 and #2 bestseller positions in the home theater category on Amazon Japan.
"Yamamoto-san is a diehard stereo enthusiast and audio purist. That's why all Olasonic products are straight 2-channel stereo. Yamamoto-san believes that unnecessary signal processing diminishes sound quality. The TW-S7 features 1-bit digital amplifier technology originally developed for the Super Audio CD format which later was implemented into a wide range of home audio and home theater products from Sony and Sharp - Daniel Lintz, PR Manager, Olasonic Products"

Enlarge!