Have You Seen?
Company Tours
- Details
- Written by: Hans Wetzel
- Category: Arcam, September 18-19, 2013
Seeing as Arcam still employs John Dawson, the gentleman who not only started the company but also pioneered the external digital-to-analog converter that is now quite ubiquitous, it's no surprise that they're making pretty good digital products these days.
- Details
- Written by: Hans Wetzel
- Category: Arcam, September 18-19, 2013
Charlie Brennan, Arcam's managing director for the past 16 years, drives a station wagon. His office is a relatively spare affair, with a simple desk, a small conference table with four chairs, and a bookshelf full of other companies' products that he finds interesting. He's neither soft spoken nor loud. But he's deliberate and astute. You can tell he's good at reading people, and even better at identifying value in things. He is exceedingly personable, and I was frequently on the receiving end of one of his rather wry smiles. Hearing him talk about the audio industry, it's apparent that Arcam has a clear and unabashed identity.
- Details
- Written by: Hans Wetzel
- Category: Arcam, September 18-19, 2013
By the early to mid-1970s, John Dawson had completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge and was in the midst of pursuing his PhD. He was an active member of the University of Cambridge's Tape Recording Society, a student-run organization that supported various audio-related endeavors. John's various interests had extended to solid-state amplifier design, and he began constructing his own amplifiers, selling them primarily to his peers and other local enthusiasts.
- Details
- Written by: Hans Wetzel
- Category: Arcam, September 18-19, 2013
As I nestled into my seat on a Boeing 767, at 10 p.m. EST on a Monday evening, I had high hopes for the next few days. The plane was headed for London's Heathrow airport, in England, where it would arrive at 10 a.m. GMT and I would meet up with Robert Follis (in photo below). Robert has done public relations work for British firm Arcam for years, and we talked almost continuously as we wound our way from Heathrow to downtown London, and -- after a coffee and a quick drink -- up to Cambridge via the historic King's Cross train station.
- Details
- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: Sonus Faber, July 22-23, 2013
You can sense Fiore Cappelletto's excitement as he speaks. "Working for Sonus Faber is a dream," he said at the start of our conversation. "It's about music, it's about Italy, and it's about beauty -- the products, the people, and the company. I wouldn't want to do anything else right now. I also believe in the vision of Mauro Grange, our CEO. He has a clear vision of what he wants us to become that allows us to each pursue our dreams and our passions."
- Details
- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: Sonus Faber, July 22-23, 2013
I met up with him on the second day of my tour at Sonus Faber. He was wearing a long-sleeve shirt and vest even though it was the summertime, Ray-Ban sunglasses the moment we went outside, and lace-up dress shoes without laces, as if they were loafers. Italians seem genetically infused with a strong sense of personal style that most North Americans woefully lack, yet he seemed more infused than most.
- Details
- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: Sonus Faber, July 22-23, 2013
Whenever I tour a company, I try to cover all facets of production, but I also try to figure out what makes their products unique and focus some attention there. At Sonus Faber, it wasn’t all that hard to find a few things, but one thing really stood out: leather. It’s synonymous with the brand, and when I took a moment to think about it, I couldn’t come up with another other company that’s implemented the material so successfully and consistently in their speaker designs. As a result, it’s no surprise to find a large area of their factory’s production area just for that.
- Details
- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: Sonus Faber, July 22-23, 2013
"Everything starts from the heart."
That was one of the first things Sonus Faber designer Paolo Tezzon said to me when I sat down to talk to him at the company's corporate headquarters in Vincenza, Italy, on July 21. He and fellow designer Livio Cucuzza comprise the two-man team leading all of Sonus Faber's current speaker-making efforts.
- Details
- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: Sonus Faber, July 22-23, 2013
Franco Serblin founded Sonus Faber in 1983 in Italy. In the decades that followed, the company developed a large and loyal following by focusing on producing loudspeakers with a distinctive and decidedly Italian look, as well as an equally distinctive sound.
- Details
- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: Sonus Faber, July 22-23, 2013
Everything was going really well on Friday, July 19, but then disaster struck at 3 p.m. Extremely large, black clouds blanketed my city, and tornado warnings were in effect. Normally I'd simply stay inside when this happens, but I was about to leave on my trip to Italy to visit Sonus Faber, so I couldn't. I had a 5:20 p.m. flight from Ottawa to Toronto to transfer to another flight to Venice. From Venice, a car would take me to Vicenza, which is where their factory is. The only thing I could think at that moment was, "This isn't good."
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Rockport Technologies, August 10, 2012
We did more listening at Rockport Technologies than at any other company we've toured, which was partly due to the quality of Rockport's fabulous listening room, but mostly because Andy Payor wanted to show off his speakers in the way they matter the most to him -- playing music.
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Rockport Technologies, August 10, 2012
One of Rockport Technologies' goals is to make best-in-class loudspeakers. They do this with the help of an in-factory listening room that is undoubtedly one of the finest you'll find at any company.
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Rockport Technologies, August 10, 2012
All Rockport Technologies speakers are designed in-house by Payor using a combination of computer-based modeling, acoustical and electrical measuring, and listening. Payor also designs almost all of the speakers' individual parts (including little things like the crossover capacitors!). But many of the specialized manufacturing tasks, including cabinet making and finishing, are the work of highly skilled local craftsmen, a number of whom also work in the high-end marine industry. The final assembly of the cabinets, which includes sanding and bonding the baffle and bases to the main cabinets using a highly engineered structural epoxy, takes place in Rockport's production room, as does the bonding of all of the machined aluminum components such as ports, terminal plates, threaded-leveling-foot receivers, etc. All of the final-assembly processes, including wiring harnesses, stuffing, crossover building, and driver installation, are also carried out in the South Thomaston facility.
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Rockport Technologies, August 10, 2012
In the northeast corner of the United States you'll find the state of Maine, which is one of six states that make up New England. If you look up "History of Maine" on Wikipedia.org, you'll find many interesting facts, most of them revolving around the American Revolution and the War of 1812 -- history buffs undoubtedly love the place.
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Axiom Audio, July 20, 2012
About two hours by car north of Toronto is what's known as the Muskoka region, home to . . .
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Axiom Audio, July 20, 2012
Until a few years ago, Axiom Audio made only speakers. That changed when Axiom released the A1400-series amps in 2007. That model has been discontinued, and Axiom is currently in the process of releasing the new ADA-series amplifiers, . . .
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Axiom Audio, July 20, 2012
Most people would call it research and development, but company president Ian Colquhoun prefers the word design because he thinks it better reflects the original thinking that goes into many of the company's products.
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Axiom Audio, July 20, 2012
In addition to wood cabinets, Axiom fabricates almost all of their speakers' plastic parts using a massive (and expensive) . . .
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: Axiom Audio, July 20, 2012
Axiom's wood shop . . .
- Details
- Written by: Administrator
- Category: MartinLogan, April 16, 2012
Following testing, every MartinLogan speaker is . . .
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