EICO

USA1945–19993 archived pages

EICO, the Electronic Instrument Company, was founded in New York City in 1945 by Harry Ashley, who ran a radio repair business. It began with test equipment in kit form: the first product was the model 113 VTVM and signal tracer, advertised in Radio News in July 1946. The company worked from 84 Withers Street in Brooklyn before moving to Northern Boulevard in Long Island City, and by December 1956 it had sold more than a million instruments.

From the early 1950s to the mid-1960s EICO also built hi-fi tuners, preamplifiers and amplifiers, sold as kits or fully assembled. Wikipedia names the HF-81 integrated amplifier, the HF-50 and HF-35 monoblocks and the ST-40 and ST-70 stereo integrated amplifiers among them. Amateur radio kits followed from 1958.

EICO left audio in the late 1970s and was liquidated in 1999. The archive has the HF-20, HF-89 and ST-40.

From the original manufacturer page

EICO was established in New York City in 1945 to manufacture electronic test equipment in kit form. A wide variety of test equipment remained the company’s mainstay during the time it was in the electronics business, however EICO often augmented their product lines with what was thought fashionable. Their largest secondary market was audio equipment. EICO left the audio market in the late 1970s and the electronics market some time later. EICO existed as a property management company until 1999, when the company was liquidated at the request of the shareholders.

EICO

EICO in the archive