About the Company
Taihei was a Japanese reel‑to‑reel tape recorder brand whose products were manufactured by the Nihon Recording Company in Tokyo, Japan in the 1950s. It appears to have been an early entrant into the consumer tape recorder market in Japan, but did not continue production into later decades like some larger Japanese companies. The brand is now obscure and documented mainly in vintage recorder directories.
The Taihei 11 is the best‑documented example of a reel‑to‑reel tape recorder from this brand. This model reflects the technology and market positioning typical of early Japanese domestic tape decks of the late 1950s: it used tube (valve) electronics, supported half‑track mono recording/playback, and worked at the consumer tape speeds of 3¾ and 7½ inches per second. The machine was designed to use 7‑inch reels, had basic controls, and was aimed at home audio use rather than professional recording. Performance assessments in collector listings describe modest sound quality and reliability relative to later tape decks.
There is no evidence of an extensive product line under the Taihei name in mainstream archives, indicating that its reel‑to‑reel production was limited in scope and duration. The lack of further model entries and corporate history suggests that Taihei’s involvement in open‑reel tape recorders was likely short‑lived, with production ceasing as larger Japanese electronics manufacturers expanded their offerings and the broader consumer market matured in the 1960s.
In summary, Taihei’s reel‑to‑reel tape recorder activity consisted of a small number of consumer‑oriented models in the 1950s, typified by the Taihei 11 tube‑based deck produced by the Nihon Recording Company in Tokyo. Its presence in the market was relatively brief, and the brand did not develop a long‑running or widely distributed range of tape recorders.