Realtone Electronics Corp.
71 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY (1963)  Later located at 34 Exchange Place, Jersey City, NJ (1971)

Realtone is a brand of transistor consumer electronics imported from the Far East.  The USA company had an association with a factory in Japan to produce some of their models.  The Japan entity was Realtone Electronics, Inc., Tokyo.

Realtone also distrubuted the Soundesign brand starting in 1963, and changed their name to Soundesign Corporation in 1968.  The corporate name was changed again to SDI Technologies in 1994 and still exists today (2019).

The history of Realtone is complicated, and there are many uncertainties.  It does present, however, an interesting insight into the often opaque world of the Far East brands, distributors, and manufacturers.  The evolution of these brands was rapid, along with changes in manufacturing locations.  

Realtone Electronics Corp. was formed in 1956 by Saul Ashkenazi (1920-2011) in order to market pocket transistor radios and Realite cigarette lighters.  At about the same time, Meyer Silvera and Rahmo Sassoon took over the operations of a Japanese electronics manufacturer which became Realtone Electronics, Inc.  Mr. Ashkenazi was reported to be a 1/3 owner of the Japan company.  Realtone Electronics Corp. provided marketing and distribution and Realtone Electronics, Inc. was the manufacturer.  The Japan factory also made radios for other brands including Coronado, Truetone, Philco, Lincoln, Supreme, Longines Symphonette, Channel Master, Tonecrest, and perhaps others.  The factory was assigned Japan Code 604 around 1963.

Realtone Electronics Corp began marketing the Soundesign brand in 1963.  Some of the products were identical to the Realtone products except for the label.  The company changed its name to Soundesign Corporation in 1968, and continued to market and distribute the Realtone brand into the 1970's and the Soundesign brand into the 1980's.  The company name was changed again to SDI Technologies in 1994 and the corporate office was moved to Rahway, NJ.  SDI aquired licenses to market the Zenith and Timex brands in 1993, and reintroduced the Realtone and Soundesign brands in 2012 with retro clock radios and headphones.

Realtone Electronics Corp. used at least three other factories in Japan to manufacture their products. These used Japan Codes 518, 707, and 716.  They also used a factory in Okinawa, although that may be one of the preceeding codes.  They later used manufacturers in Hong Kong, Tiawan, Singapore, and China.

The ownership position of Saul Ashkenazi in the Japan factory ended around 1965.  Realtone Electronics, Inc. then opened a factory in Hong Kong in 1966 under the name Realtone Electronics Ltd.  

The vast majority of Realtone branded products were marketed and distributed worldwide by Realtone Electronics Corp..  These products can be distinguished by the several brand logos shown on this page.  Realtone Electronics, Inc. appears to have marketed and distributed a limited number of products under the Realtone brand.  None of these were distributed in the USA and they are distinguished by the gothic letter logo shown on this page.  Some of these products were manufactured in Korea and the Philippines.

The USA based Realtone Electronics Corp/Soundesign Corp/SDI Technologies still exists today (2019).  The status of Realtone Electronics, Inc. is less certain, but most likely was ended no later than 1996.

Sources of Information:  The ownership history of these companies was provided by Mathew Albert Nissim in a phone converstion with David Erali (RMorg administrator) on October 22, 2019.  Nissim is the brother-in-law of Meyer Silvera, and was the Managing Director of Realtone Electonics, Ltd. from 1966 - 1969.  Other data was obtained from the current SDI Technologies website.  The existing model files also were reviewed for relevant information.