Story

The production of electroacoustic equipment has a long history in Hungary, including the city of Nyíregyháza in Eastern-Hungary, where Qualiton amplifiers are made. In the turbulent years following World War II, a state-owned company called RAFILM from Budapest was initially responsible for meeting both professional and home audio needs in the country. In 1951, the name of the company was first changed to AUDIO, and then to EAG in 1956. However, they couldn’t use this name for too long due to its great similarity to the German company AEG. Consequently, in 1960, the name was changed to BEAG, which stands for Budapesti Elektroakusztikai Gyár.

BEAG placed increasing emphasis on the production of professional studio equipment and established a production plant in our city in 1971. The plant was named BEAG-Universil, and during its initial period, its primary task was to manufacture transformers for the products. In 1972, production of electroacoustic components also began at this facility.

The biggest success in BEAG's history was when they signed an agreement at the end of 1977 to be the official supplier of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. According to news reports at the time, the company had to manufacture 80 complete radio studios, sound equipment for 21 color TV studios, workstations for approximately 2,600 commentators and 264 technicians, among many other audio engineering tasks. This was a huge challenge, but they were very proud of the fact that every device delivered could have the BEAG Hungary badge on it.

After the large-scale Olympic project, the company continued to manufacture its products for the markets of the Eastern Bloc. In the picture below, an amplifier frame used in studios is being made.

Communist rule in Hungary ended in 1989 with the peaceful transition to a democratic system. During this period, BEAG's position significantly weakened, mainly due to its dependence on the Eastern Bloc markets. This process eventually led to BEAG breaking up into several smaller companies.

One such small company was Univox, which was founded at the BEAG-Universil factory in Nyíregyháza in 1990. Univox aimed to continue manufacturing the existing product range and further develop it based on customer needs. Many of their experts were former BEAG employees.

The 90s were a successful period in the life of Univox. In this era, they did business with many partners from foreign countries, and even came up with a limited-edition tube amplifier intended for home audio use.

Univox's crisis came at the beginning of the 2000s in the form of a hopeless struggle with rivals from the Far East, who flooded the market with their low-quality but very cheap products.

This is how we arrived at the beginning of the 2010s, when we founded Audio-Hungary in Nyíregyháza with the vision of both developing and manufacturing high-end audio products in Hungary. During this period, Univox was already in a very difficult economic situation, so the possibility of its acquisition arose, which eventually took place in 2014. With this move we were able to save this precious heritage and continue the tradition of audio manufacturing in Nyíregyháza.

The merger of the two companies also meant that we continued to employ the experienced professionals of Univox, and all in all, we made a jump of several years by taking over the management of a factory with a long tradition, saving the time of building a new factory from scratch, as well as the time required to train all employees. We added young and ambitious engineers to the design team, thus creating a healthy combination of experience and fresh thinking. The team has been agile and open-minded ever since, and this made it easier to overcome difficulties and makes product development a great adventure.

Thanks to this approach, we were able to release our first products (the APX 200 power amplifier and the APR 204 preamplifier) after a short development period, and these products were immediately very well received within the high-end audio scene. Later, with our A20i and A50i integrated amplifier duo, we also laid the foundations for the visual elements that have made Qualiton amplifiers easily recognizable ever since.