Music Reference
Music Reference
Every tree grows from a seed and depends on its roots.
I started my audio journey at age 5, when I watched my dad assemble a Heathkit Williamson amplifier, a 12AX7 preamp, and an FM tuner. He also built a large speaker box with a JBL D-130 and put the electronics in a beautiful Brunswick cabinet that once housed a very fine Radiola/phonograph. Since my dad is a Professor of Dentistry and his dad was an accountant at Brunswick (hence the Radiola), his interest was just a hobby. He simply liked to build things. As it turned out, when the equipment needed repairs, that job fell to me. At age 9, I was chasing down noisy resistors and capacitors. I spent a lot of time on those repairs, but 9 year olds have plenty of time for whatever interests them, even today.
After graduating from the University
of Virginia and a short stint as an engineer at IBM, I decided to shun the
professional engineering world and become a high-end audio service technician,
a lowly job that paid better than being an engineer. The greatest benefit
of that job was getting my hands on more equipment that I could ever imagine.
I didn't have to buy any of it and I got paid for studying and fixing it.
I studied every failure in detail, always asking myself: could I have prevented
this failure? In many cases, the answer was yes, especially where I saw the
same part failing over and over. Then I opened a high-end store
in Richmond, VA. I managed the store, and sold and fixed equipment. I met
Harold Beveridge and found him to be the brightest light of sound engineering
at the time. When I offered to work with him, he only had to think about it
for 2 weeks; I agreed almost immediately. For a less money than I could live
on, I accepted the job from him in Santa Barbara along with a dozen other
young men who loved audio. Rich Riccio and Mike Elliott went on to form Counterpoint,
John Fermin bought a store in San Diego, and Mike Detmer has had a great career
in sales for several high-end companies. Harold Beveridge was my mentor in
engineering, and a mentor to everyone else in his own way. In the late 1970s
and early 80s there was talent, enthusiasm-- a willingness to discover real
things, not just swapping parts and gilding lilies. In 1980, I started Music Reference
because I thought I had learned enough to go out on my own. I hired a few
people from Beveridge and the rest is history you can read at www.ramlabs-musicreference.com.
For 20 years, I have put out the call to young people all over the world to
come and work with me. A few have come, but as the years go by, they are fewer
and fewer. Thomas Edison had a permanent ad in the New York Times stating
(paraphrased): "Any young man with an interest in science and inventing
should apply to the Edison Laboratories". I have run much the same ad,
once in Stereophile, and in all of my recent letters, comments and even on
our website. I have gotten little reply. Yes, I understand that Mr. Edison
did more than Music Reference. Now is the time for you to show
up. This industry needs new talent, new blood, and there is opportunity here,
great opportunity to learn from the few who have mastered the complexity of
good design. Opportunity for young men interested in research, marketing,
sales, management, growth and the satisfaction of making something real in
a world where most products are going to hell in a Chinese hand-basket. Music Reference has openings in
every area of its business. You will be paid what you are worth. The education
you can get here is priceless. I address this to younger people who come without the
expectation of making more than they did at their last job. This is not the corporate world,
there are no "positions" to be filled here. Everyone does most everything.
Frank Lloyd Wright started Taliesin to teach
what he had learned. I have taught there, and it is a wonderful place. I would
like to do much the same here. If that interests you-- call, write, email,
get in touch. Do it now. If you truly love audio, what else are you doing
that is so much more important? It is time for a new tree to grow.