September
15, 2009, Gaylord, KS- AMI, creator of the TAB Funkenwerk
line of mic pre-amplifiers and provider of microphone designs and transformers for half a dozen microphone manufacturers,
announced today that it will no longer provide their T80 and T60 transformer designs exclusively to Telefunken USA.
The T80 is the transformer used in Telefunken’s M80 dynamic microphone which is nominated for a 2009 TEC Award
at this year’s 127th AES show. The T60 and the AMI designed circuit accompanying it is
found in the Ela M 260 which won a 2008 TEC Award at last year’s AES show.
The two parties strove to agree upon
an exclusive arrangement under which Telefunken would license AMI’s designs for these two microphones, similar to the
agreements already in place for Telefunken’s R-F-T AK47 and R-F-T M16 MkII microphones, which were also designed by
AMI and use AMI transformers. After over a year of discussions and negotiations the two parties could not
come to terms ending Telefunken’s opportunity for the exclusive license of the T80 and T60 transformers and the circuit
used in the Ela M 260.
Oliver Archut, President of AMI, said “One of our corporate initiatives is
to design ground breaking microphones around custom designed transformers. We believe that we achieved
that goal in respect to these two microphones. It is unfortunate that our goals and Telefunken’s
goals no longer seem to be going in the same direction. While it is unfortunate that this might mean the
end of production for the M80 in its current configuration, we’re still rooting for Telefunken to win the TEC Award
as they did an excellent job with the marketing and trade dress for this microphone.”
“With the outcome of these negotiations finally resolved, AMI now has the
bandwidth to discuss new microphone designs and the manufacture of custom microphone transformers with other companies”,
said Joe Hauck, EVP of Sales and Marketing for AMI. “This will also enable us to finish production
of the Lucas CS-1 project and speed up production on future Lucas projects and new TAB Funkenwerk designs such as the V72M
and V77M Ribbon mic pre”.
AMI, Inc. was founded in 1996 by Oliver Archut and located in Gaylord, KS.
AMI is the maker of the TAB Funkenwerk line of mic pre-amplifiers, the Oahu guitar amplifier as well as the designer
and manufacturer of the Lucas CS-1. AMI, TAB Funkenwerk, Oahu and V72 are trademarks registered with
the USPTO. T80, T60, V72M and V77M are all Copyright 2009, AMI. Lucas CS-1 is Copyright
2009 Lucas Electronics.
TELEFUNKEN | USA acquired the TELEFUNKEN Trademark for North America in 2001, and
in 2009 the company was named the Elektroakustik (translation: Electrical Acoustics) arm of TELEFUNKEN and awarded the exclusive
rights to manufacture a wide variety of professional audio products and vacuum tubes bearing the TELEFUNKEN name, in over
27 countries worldwide. Telefunken Elektroakustik, M80, Ela M 260, R-F-T AK47 and R-F-T M16 MkII
are Copyright 2009 Telefunken USA, LLC.
