Eico
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
EICO (an acronym for Electronic Instrument Corporation) was started in New York City in 1945 to manufacture electronic test equipment in kit form. A wide variety of test equipment remained the company's mainstay during the entire time it was in the electronics business but EICO augmented their product lines with what was fashionable. For instance, in the late 40's it partook in the Geiger counter fad that was for a short time all the rage in the USA when people wanted to get rich on finding uranium deposits. In the 50's and 60's they offered ham radio equipment. Their biggest secondary market was audio equipment. They appear to have started producing hi-fi products in the early 50's with a line of tuners and amplifiers, these where available both in a kit form or fully built. Early models where not considered very good but models produced in the late 50's and early 60's where among the better offered at the time. The model HF-81 integrated amplifier is considered their best tube powered effort. In the latter half of the 60's EICO introduced a line of solid state audio equipment referred to as Cortina but by the mid- 70s the only audio products they sold where kits made for them in South Korea. EICO exited the audio market in the late 1970's and the electronics market altogether a little later but existed as a property management company until 1999 the company was liquidated apparently at the request of the shareholders rather than due to bankruptcy procedure.
[edit] References and Links
- Audiotools This article was largely drawn from this source
- Stereophile.com Stereophile magazine's opinion on the HF-81
- The unofficial EICO website Gives a good idea of what all they offered for sale.
