Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag,AKG! June 2012 is a special month for the company, marking the 65th anniversary of the microphone and headphone maker.
Originally Akustische und Kino-Geräte Gesellschaft mbH, it was started in 1947 as a company focusing on speakers and film projectors for theaters. Founders Dr. Rudolf Görike and Ernst Pless found work where they could in the post-war economy of Vienna.
According to a company history, in the early years it made a number of products for many industries before the company began to concentrate on microphones and headphones for the recording and broadcast industries. The familiar K line of headphones began in 1949. The famed D12 microphone was launched in 1953 as was the tube-based C12 and the CK12 capsule. Other well-known mics would be developed in the 1960s and 1970s and variations and improvements would revamp them in the following decades.
Further advancement into microphone technology created new mics and AKG expanded into wireless microphones as well.
For a number of years during the 1950s and 1960s AKG OEMed or provided key parts for several German audio equipment companies such as Grundig and Telefunken. AKG also dabbled in electronics such as reverbs and turntable pickups while its research arm claimed app. 1,000 patents in the audio equipment field.
The recognizable tri-cardioid logo can be found on AKG products dating back to the 1940s .AKG was bought by Harman in 1993.
