Who is Hashimoto Electric anyway?
Hashimoto is by-no-means a new comer in this very traditional, but exciting industry. Hashimoto Electric, Ltd., in Tokyo Japan has been a long-time Sansui transformer OEM (since 1960’s). Hashimoto merged Sansui’s transformer business in 1978, and Hashimoto was the company who reproduced the AU-111 transformers when Sansui reissued the famed AU-111 in 1999 as the AU-111 Vintage. As a matter of fact, Hashimoto is the only company that still carries the original Sansui logo on its product lines, and some of Hashimoto’s key engineers are ex-Sansui engineers. Today, Hashimoto Electric produces not only various traditional transformers that Sansui pioneered many years ago, but also high-end tube amp transformers under its own brand name. The amazing thing is that all Hashimoto transformers are still handcrafted one-by-one by very skilled and experienced employees (Please refer to the actual photos I took when visited Hashimoto last June). Because some of Hashimoto engineers have more than 40
