The name K2 was taken from the initials of the two engineers who developed the system (Kuwaoka from Victor Company of Japan, and Kanai from Victor Studio).
The development of K2 was started in response to calls from recording engineers in Victor Studio. They objected to the common idea that there was absolutely no change in sound quality no matter how many times the original data was copied when the music media is transferred from analog records across to digital CDs. Because digitalizing sound is encoded in combinations of zeros and ones. Although the theory stated that no changes occur, the studio engineers claimed that there was a clear difference between the sound quality of the original master and the copied sub-master. So the engineers at JVCKENWOOD set about to clarify the reason for this. Following this, it was discovered that although the digital data was exactly the same, electrical distortion (jitter, rippling), etc. occurred when the data was being recorded and saved, which had an adverse effect when converting music played back in digital into analog, thereby proving that changes did occur in sound quality. An attempt by the two engineers to improve the changes in sound quality that occurred at this time led to the original version of K2, which was named the "K2 Interface."
K2 was developed in a joint project between a hardware engineer from a consumer appliance manufacturer and a studio engineer involved in the production of music. This involved the hardware engineer designing and creating prototypes and the studio engineer evaluating sound quality in order to confirm that they were heading in the desired direction and the areas of improvement. And the baton was then passed back to the hardware engineer who reflected these evaluations back into a detailed design. Equating this process to cooking, no matter how good the quality or freshness of the ingredients, a meal will not deserve the title of "cuisine" if it doesn't taste good. In other words, it is probably very similar to the inherent taste of particular ingredients being drowned and losing their attractiveness by over-seasoning. A meal can only earn the title of highest-quality cuisine when the chef carefully selects the ingredients and expresses the taste inherent to those ingredients, and the customer evaluates that taste from an objective point of view.
Returning to the subject of sound-quality evaluation, the quality of sound cannot be evaluated simply by logic, specifications, circuits and components, no matter how ideal they are, without actually listening to it. Also, the fact that the element to be evaluated is not simply "sound" but "music" must also be considered. Professionals from a wide range of different fields have come together to make sure that the development and evolution of K2 continue. We have created an ideal development environment in which knowledgeable experts in both hardware and software can join together to provide a sound quality and music quality that cannot be imitated by other manufacturers.
K2 neither tampers with sound quality to make it sound flamboyant, nor exaggerates it. The aim of the development concept is to produce the same quality as the source (original music source), and the principle is to faithfully restore the sound that existed in its original form. The two key-phrases that were emphasized during development were "the original sound without any changes" and "restoring sound to its original state." This principle remains unchanged for K2 even today.