Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems Inc. announces the January 2007 retirement of legendary speaker designer Akira Nakamura (pictured). Since 1965, Mr. Nakamura has led the development of a wide variety of commercial audio speakers, the most famous being the Yamaha NS-10M studio reference monitors, which he developed in 1987.
“The recording industry is losing the man responsible for designing the NS-10M monitors, which most engineers have used for over the past 20 years, and many of us still use today,” says engineer/producer Elliot Scheiner. “Nakamura-san’s design truly taught me how to create a great mix. I wish him well in his retirement.”
Nakamura placed great emphasis on designing speakers with excellent fundamental physical characteristics—an even acoustic-pressure frequency response and good distortion. He worked to ensure faithful sound reproduction and achieve sufficient midrange clarity, as well as provide good sound separation, a sense of three-dimensional depth and focus.
“We will be forever grateful to Nakamura-san for his dedication and passion for superior design,” says Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems Vice President/General Manager Larry Italia. “He has always been very responsive to the needs of engineers worldwide, both in recording and sound reinforcement, having been most recently responsible for co-developing our Installation Series speakers.”
“During our time working together, I found Mr. Nakamura’s dedication was surpassed only by his attention to detail,” says Michael C. Adams, acoustic engineer for Audio Composite Engineering (ACE) and co-developer for the Yamaha Installation Series. “His sense of sonic balance is remarkable and it was a pleasure and honor to have had the opportunity to work closely with him; I wish him all the best.”
A celebration will be held in Nakamura’s honor in mid-January in Hamamatsu, Japan.
For more information, visit www.yamaha.com/ca.
