Mitsubishi specifications

Japanese manufacturer. Brand Name in Japan: "Diatone"

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Diatone was a Japanese subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric and manufactured loudspeakers and radios. History

In the 1940s, Mitsubishi Electric successfully developed a "hard-ferrite" OP magnet (permanent magnet) and thus laid the foundation for the commercial production of magnets based on hard-magnetic ferrites. The OP magnet was a key component in the Diatone loudspeaker construction. Diatone gained international attention for the first time.

The first Diatone loudspeaker was developed in 1945 at the factory in Ofuna by Mitsubishi Electric. Its creation resulted from the recycling of old stocks of magnets. The Second World War was over, and an understandable shortage of materials made it necessary to make purchases from other manufacturers. At the time, speaker technology was not advanced very far. The production of loudspeakers was very severely restricted.

After the supply improved and a strong demand for electronic products began, the outlook for a promising future market, Mitsubishi Electric began to make great progress with the comprehensive loudspeaker development. At that time, Mitsubishi Electric obtained innovative technical assistance from the Nippon Hoso Kyokai technical research laboratory. This relationship existed for both benefits for many years.

In 1947, Mitsubishi Electric invented the so-called "adjustable resonance cone", an adjustable speaker cone. The P-62 16 cm F-type dynamic loudspeaker (the forerunner of the P-610) was created in conjunction with an OP magnet. A development that can still be found in loudspeaker construction today. In the 1940s, virtually all speaker diaphragms were made of unlined paper and installed together with a cone. The Mitsubishi Electric speakers, on the other hand, used a special paper for the cone made of Japanese Washi paper, pressed into a conical shape. This loudspeaker provided an epoch-making performance (resilience) for the time.

Although this development was started in 1947, it was not until 1950 that the loudspeaker was recognized as a monitor loudspeaker for broadcasting and was formally accepted. It was the first step into a market dominated by foreign products. The name Diatone was registered as a trademark in September 1946.

The speakers from Diatone were used as monitor speakers at the Japanese public radio station NHK-Radio.

Diatone used the D-160 to produce loudspeakers up to a size of 1.60 m in diameter.[1]

The production for radios started around 1945 with 4-tube receivers at the factory in Itami, in 1999 the factory was closed.