AKM Velvet Sound will be back next year

Good news for high quality digital audio lovers came from Gaku Suzuki, General Manager of Digital Marketing for Hi-Fi Integrated Circuits at Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM). He said that the production of microcircuit solutions for DACs and ADCs under the common Velvet Sound brand will soon resume – we will see announcements of the next audio products in the near future.

Recall that at the end of October 2020, a fire that lasted for more than three days at the AKM semiconductor factory in Japan virtually destroyed the production of digital audio components. As a result, many brands have switched to components from other manufacturers. Sometimes it got to the point that it was necessary to change the circuitry of existing models.

All of this has not reflected in the best way in the digital audio market – but it looks like the situation can return to the path of recovery. “We are preparing to resume shipping samples in 2022. Details will be announced in January 2022,” – the announcement appeared on the dedicated Velvet Sound website.

Gaku Suzuki added that AKM is planning to release a high-end audio product by the end of January. A bit of negativity in the published information was added by the data on the termination of production of many microcircuits of the Velvet Sound brand, which was launched in 2014. But at CES 2022, AKM plans to show nine new developments.