TechDAS turntables occupy a category of their own. Engineered in Japan by a team obsessed with eliminating every possible source of noise and vibration, TechDAS air-bearing turntables are among the most technically advanced analog playback devices ever created. The Air Force series — including the reference Air Force Zero — uses pneumatic bearing technology to achieve a level of speed stability and isolation that no conventional design can match. The Audio Salon is the exclusive USA distributor for TechDAS. Our Santa Monica showroom has the Air Force Zero on permanent display, alongside the Air Force 10 Tonearm and TDC-01 Dia Cartridge — a complete reference analog front end available for demonstration by appointment. As USA distributor, we support TechDAS dealers and customers throughout the United States. Whether you are a dealer inquiry or an audiophile seeking the ultimate turntable experience, we are your direct point of contact for TechDAS in the USA.
TechDAS as a company is fairly young with its first turntable released in 2012, but the career of its designer, Hideaki Nishikawa ,encompasses nearly all of high-end audio, starting in 1964 when he was designing electrostatic headphones for Stax.
In 1980 he built the Micro Seiki S-8000, the first turntable to use an air bearing and vacuum pull down platter.
The original TechDAS turntable was the Air Force One, introduced in 2012 as a statement product, taking those technologies to a new level.
What followed were a series of turntables, notably the Air Force III and Air Force V, leveraging Nishikawa-san’s design principals to create more affordable platforms.
Nevertheless, his restless imagination soon inspired a new and completely radical question: what would forty plus years of experience and zero constraints allow him to create?
The prototype answer was unveiled in Munich in 2019, and shortly after at The Audio Salon.
It goes without saying that very few people will ever own the TechDAS Air Force Zero—which, by the time it’s outfitted with tone arms, cartridges, and a stand to put it on, will cost somewhere north of half a million dollars.
The first true production units were available later that year, with the first U.S. installation at the home of The Absolute Sound reviewer, Jacob Heilbrunn.
North American Premiere of the TechDAS Air Force Zero