Lux Corporation was founded in Japan on June 1925, by T. Hayakawa & his brother K. Yoshikawa. It began life as the radio equipment department of Kinsuido Picture Frame Store in Osaka, until then an importer of picture frames, and was founded just ahead of the time when radio was first broadcast that year.

At the time, Japanese radio listeners were dependent on technology originating in the United States and Europe. Importing radio equipment and parts was a very forward-looking enterprise (much today's cutting-edge businesses) for Lux, and passersby often crowded the store to hear the inviting sounds of the radios on display.

However Lux Corp. decided that in order to compete effectively as a supplier it had to not only sell equipment but manufacture parts in-house to reduce the costs of importing. So began the creation of the Luxman brand. As a result of this pursuit, Luxman became famous for the output of various quality transformers and switches in Japan, and today is one of the oldest manufacturers in Japan of electronic components. This is reflected in the company's motto Ultimate Fidelity since 1925.

In the mid 1970s and early 1980s Luxman came to prominence of the world hi-fi community due to the quality of sound of their equipment. Luxman were primarily specialists in making vacuum tube amplifiers of the highest calibre. In most cases Luxman designed equipment combined the quality and warmth of vacuum tube sound with powerful electronics and often beautiful aesthetic designs. Pre and Power amps such as the Luxman C-05 and M-05 with their champagne gold finish, highest-calibre electrical designs (pure copper interconnects, Class A amp design, separately powered channels with dual AC cables, copper-plated chassis), beautiful sound and rock solid build became the dreams of audiophiles everywhere.

In 1984 Luxman became part of Alpine Electronics, another Japanese electronics brand. Alpine, wishing to merge their home hi-fi divisions and Alpage brand with Luxman gear, took actions that nearly bankrupted the company. The first was it got into a hi-fi market share war with rival Yamaha. Up to the point of the merger Luxman was seen as a prestigious audio brand, and sold its equipment in specialist independent hi-fi shops. After the merger, Luxman looked to sell their products to companies such as Costco in the US and Richer Sounds in the UK in order to compete with Yamaha. But the plan backfired. Where Luxman's reputation was in high end and the often expensive, the new distributors' reputations had been in selling budget and low value goods. This caused much problems for existing dealers and consumers. The second was problems with product branding and poor product planning. While Alpine equipment was seen as alright in most circles, Luxman was seen as a perfectionist or elitist brand. The co-branding of cheap plastic Alpine products with expensive Luxman gear (Luxman equipment was badged Alpine/Luxman) in both Alpine and Luxman factories confused the consumer marketplace. This totally destroyed the image and ultimately sales of Luxman equipment, and the company ended up retreating from all its sales network worldwide except Japan.

Alpine, due to all the troubles it experienced later sold off Luxman in the early 2000s. In recent times this had enabled the renamed Luxman Corporation to restart its founding objectives, which was to create the best audiophile equipment in the world. Today the company still produces vacuum tube equipment as well as SACD/DVD players and the usual home stereo equipment.

The company closed the last of the Alpine home hi-fi factories in Hong Kong in 2000 and currently sells mostly to Japan and parts of Asia, outside of Asia in Romania and the United States and since 2006 in Germany.

Thanks to Wikipedia