About Denon

The company was originally established in 1910 as part of Nippon Chikuonki Shokai (Japan Recorders Corporation), a manufacturer of single-sided disc records and gramophones. The company was originally called Nippon ‘DENki ONkyo Kabushikigaisha’ which was shortened to the name of DEN-ON in Japanese. The company is actively involved with sound systems and electric appliance production. Later the company merged with other related companies and as a result of this the company name became Denon.

There followed a number of mergers and tie-ins over the next few decades as firstly the company merged with Japan-US Recorders Manufacturing in 1912 and then in 1928 the brand “Columbia” was introduced when the company became Japan Columbia Recorders. A further change of name occurred in 1946 when the company renamed itself Nippon Columbia.

The Denon brand was first established in 1947 when Nippon Columbia merged with Japan Denki Onkyo. D&M Holdings Inc. was created in May 2002 when Denon Ltd and Marantz Japan Inc. merged. On March 1st, 2017, Sound United LLC completed the acquisition of D+M Holdings.

Today, the company specializes in professional and consumer home cinema and audio equipment including A/V receivers, Blu-ray players, tuners, headphones, and wireless music systems. Denon is also known for high-end AV receivers and moving coil phonograph cartridges. Two M-series models, the Denon M31 and M30, were the most successful radio hi-fi’s in the mid-2000s.^[Since being released to the micro hi-fi DAB market, they have received several awards in Europe.