Tonalit
1934 - 1951
Founded in 1934 from EKA, Tonalit built a vertically integrated audio business in Budapest that both issued 78-rpm records and manufactured gramophones and electro-acoustic parts.
The firm’s Tonalit label captured Hungarian popular repertoire of the late 1930s–40s using in-house and contracted ensembles.
Post-war nationalization folded Tonalit into the planned economy; by 1950 it was reorganized as a national company and, in 1951, its recording activities were subsumed into MHV, which soon standardized releases under Qualiton and later Hungaroton.
As a corporate manufacturer Tonalit itself disappeared in 1961 via merger into IMI, while its recording legacy continued within Hungary’s state record structure.
