General.

A Japanese manufacturer of turntables, used to manufacture mid and high end turntables and electrostatic headphones of almost legendary quality in the seventies and eighties but turned to the manufacture of high end and reference class turntables in the 90's. Company ran into trouble in the late 90's and stopped making turntables and providing spares for their older products in 1999 with the exception of a high end variant of the 8000 turntable that was made to order well into 2001. The company still exists as a precision engineering workshop (much like competitors Avid Hi-Fi and SME ltd. funnily enough, but smaller) but no longer seems to be willing or able to supply turntable products. Source: http://audiotools.com/

More. (Text below found on a German website; I cannot find the website

anymore; please contact me for a permission)

Micro Seiki had several subcontractors such as. Fujiya Audio, led by gifted engineer Junichi Okumura (Dragon CT and Accutrac Technology Developer), MTC, Mito, Denso, Akisawa Seiki and Saitama Micro, was the world's largest turntable maker at the other end of the world. No other company has ever cracked their gigantic numbers. They were specialists and, in contrast to Dual or PE, remained a pure turntable manufacturer. It was also a leader in research and development of drives, chassis and arms. A DQX 1000 or the BL91 knows every vinyl fan today. The Nakamichi TX1000 and Dragon CT were also made by Micro Seiki. But they only earned money with the big series .... For many large HiFi manufacturers without their own turntable production, they offered therefore also whole OEM lines. For Luxman they have traditionally designed and manufactured all models. Mostly, however, they limited themselves to the supply of entry-level models at renowned hi-fi companies, such as ADC, Denon, Sharp, Toshiba, Hitachi, Sanyo, Sansui, Kenwood, Telefunken, Saba or Scott. They also supplied the mail order companies Quelle, Neckermann here and RadioShack in America. Between 1976 and 1983 the beginning of the CD era was the high-time of these OEM models. Coincidentally, of course, with the heyday of the vinyl record. There have never been more and better devices than in those years. Looking back, Micro probably had three different kits from which they had assembled these models. Once the normal direct drives with wooden chassis and mechanically moving semi or fully automatic. The top models also with quartz regulation. Then, from the 1976 developed for ADC "Accutrac 4000" emerged fully automatic with separate motor for tonearm and lift control. The TOTL models also with the developed for the ADC 1500-1700 super lightweight arms, which were later also supplied to Linn. The third and absolute entry-level kit is the belt drive that they built for OEMs. But that was not very many. All the more amazing the qualities of these BOTL models. At the end of the 1980s, the use of cheap plastic in important functional parts such as arm bearings and bases began the descent into the junk level of these entry-level devices. These models are completely undervalued today. But considering the sheer sound quality, they are all outstanding devices of their kind. All have in common extremely well regulated engines. Both in the Belt Drive models, as well as the direct drives. This even quartz stabilized with wow and flutter below 0.03%. The engines Matsushita or Fujiya Audio have been used in general. The chassis are almost always closed from wood. built up. With the ADC variants, Micro has developed a new plastic honeycomb system with foam damping. Its own is an excellent decoupling between tonearm and plate bearing. This is accompanied by a very low-rump, yet very deep reproduction. All chassis are equipped with good absorber feet. This concept has virtually invented Micro-Seiki! At any rate, they were the first to offer this concept in series. Even today's common "Absorber Feet" is an invention of Micro-Seiki, who would have thought it .... Its characteristic S- tonearm almost always has an open-topped "U" as the main bearing as the well-known MA 303 from Solid 5 This 303 from the DD5, is almost always used as a recessed version (shorter and more static AK) at the higher quality OEMs. On the simple models, the micro entry arm of the well-known MR122, MA101 was installed. In the ultralight models a square bearing block was used. Characteristic is also that the tonearm bearing blocks made of solid metal, often they have been turned out of the "full", such as. on the Siemens RW555. Plastic, if any, was used only as a cladding on the base. Everything that shines silvery, for example, on the tonearm of the Telefunken CS20 / STS1 / RS30, is solid aluminum! They have a very good top storage. If you take a look, for example, at DQ44 OEMs (2 motors fully automatic) you only see the best components. ICs from JRC (Japan Radio Company), such as. also used Accuphase and Nakamichi. Where "cheapest" microswitches are installed in German turntables, these can already pass through here as a "limit switch" of a production line. Wherever you look, everything was assembled with great care and diligence. No Drahtverhau but carefully laid harnesses determine the picture. The wooden chassis in conjunction with the good low-resonance, stable tonearms, is almost ideal in consideration of the 3rd) turntable. Accordingly, these arms also have an extreme range of functioning needle compliances. Simply by choosing a heavy or lightweight headshell, the depth resonance can be perfectly adjusted. This is found in this form, very rarely in large series combinations. The players have "zero" sound. However, they are vibration-wise not dead, but have this sought-after, perfect balance between vibration damping and coupling, which indeed supports the swinging in and out of the needle, but still causes no resonance and / or extinction. Also the qualitative execution is if you look at important construction details of the finest. The "creaking" of the automatic, however, has its very own charm. But they also offered models with almost silent servo control of the arm as OEM of the DQ44 ..... The only known shortcoming is the over time by "not use", to the "Plumpslift" mutated lift. Here you can easily bring the required 500.000er silicone oil from the top to the lift bar. You do not have to disassemble anything. I once brought together devices that Micro-Seiki has manufactured as an OEM. Therefore, you can today cheapest devices of the highest playback quality in the well-known online markets search and buy. The few owners know the real manufacturer, let alone that they use a system that can convey the true qualities of these turner..... Genetically, these rotors are based on the Micro- Seiki rotors, Solid-1, MB10-18, MR110, 111, DD1- DQ44 ..... The arms are modified loans from MA101, MA202, MA303 and MA505. By and large, you have combined the arms of the affordable micro belt drivers of entry-level, with slightly stripped-down direct drives of the class. In addition, gimmicks like Hall sensor-controlled shutdown mechanisms are simply left out. Certainly the most valuable ones they had built for an OEM except Luxman were the turners on behalf of BSR, as "ADC" and "BSR", including the individually available arms LMF 1 + 2. The "ADC 1500-1700" with the highly effective cushioning concept of concrete and PU foam, have been slightly modified as BSR "Quanta", located below the more expensive ADC models. Quite often, the original ADC magnesium headshells and XLM systems are still found on the BSR Micros. Rarely expensive belt drives such as the NAD 5020/5040 with the Linn Basic arm for the OEM were rarely produced. Micro-Seiki was a specialist for high-end drive concepts with direct drive and quartz, as well as their pioneering research on the resonance behavior during playback, which they incorporated into the BSR and Luxman turntables. The crowning glory was certainly the exclusive Luxman turntables from Micro-Seiki. The cooperation between the two companies has traditionally been very close. In addition, Linn has been supplied by Micro-Seiki since 1978: The tonearms Basics LV-V and LV-X are slightly changed in various OEM's again. Another unique feature is the empty groove detection developed by Micro-Seiki for BSR (ADC), which was used on all devices derived from the ADC Accutrac 4000. The Sharp Optonica models 7100 and the programmable 9100 with remote control were also equipped by Micro-Seiki. From the ancestor Accutrac 4000 were later also the fully automatic 2-motors Dreher a 'la Siemens RW777, Telefunken CS20 and under its own name the DQ44 derived. In which a separate engine copes only with the arm drive. Before you had only a completely mechanical automatic version as in the universe F2095. By the way a synonym for the quality of this Micro OEM turner is. Mine is always on a small table, so that you can look directly into the box. For many other brands, you would see a plate punch, no matter how small. Not so with this universe, precise as a Swiss watch, he does not show the tiniest rash, which could be seen with the naked eye. I have to chek the times with a micrometer, as the metrology shows. Also, the quartz control is a pleasure, even a pressure used plate brush does not keep the plate from rated speed to keep……