Sony – a brand whose true greatness I understood only later

When I started in 1991 and opened a specialised Sony store, I did not fully realise what an opportunity and honour it was to work with one of the most important technology companies in the world.

I understood it much later.

At that time, Sony offered an incredibly wide range of products. In hi-fi, the top line was the ES – Elevated Standard series. The amplifiers, CD players and other components in this range were truly exceptional. Many of the amplifiers used MOSFET output transistors, and Sony’s best CD players belonged to the absolute world elite.

I remember the rankings of CD players in the German magazine Audio. Very often, Sony models were right at the top. And that was no coincidence.

What was fascinating about Sony was not just hi-fi. It was the extraordinary technological scope of the whole company.

Sony introduced many major innovations, played an important role with Philips in the creation of the Compact Disc, and the professional Betacam system became a symbol of television broadcasting for many years. When you walked into a television studio almost anywhere in the world, you would very often see Sony equipment.

But that was still not the end of the company’s greatness.

Sony also entered the music industry, film and many other fields. It was not just a consumer electronics brand. It was a company able to combine top-level development, manufacturing, professional technology and enormous global brand strength.

Looking back today at 1991, I realise that I was standing very close to a company that was changing the world of consumer electronics in a fundamental way.

Perhaps it is worth reading the story of Sony from the very beginning – the story of the people who built this brand and of the technologies that changed the world.

With this short memory, I would therefore like to pay Sony a great tribute.

Sony – thank you.

Milan Weber