anyone fancy this?

I once spoke to Tom Evans many years ago. I was one of the first (maybe the first) to have the GTE mod done to his A400. I spent a very enjoyable 45 minutes speaking to him on the phone when I asked about having my A400 upgraded. Ahhh those were the days.

 

Hi,

Not the full reason. Kondo makes & has made both push pull & single ened amps.
There was a big falling out over how the business was run & who was responsible for it's sucess.

look here and here for two sides to the story. Also look here and here for more on the subject.

It's uncommon for a company to use other companies production, know how to make their products. Very few companies make or design everything in house. It is not always cost effective to make things in house. There is nothing to stop anyone starting their own capacitor making unit. It's hardly doing the dirty. Kondo only designed a few item of the Audionote range. Most was designed & built in the UK.

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Just a few points - silver wire does not cost thousands.!! It does not even cost hundreds. You can get high quality very pure silver cable for less than a fiver a metre.

Andy Grove also designs many of the World Audio and Hifi Collective kit amps.
hmm.

Those Wavac amps look interesting. I havent heard any amps with those output valves. It would be interesting to hear. I wonder at the supply/cost of the output tubes though.. and the voltages that they have to run at..

Im sorry, just cant get my head round any amp, any amp at all, absolutely any costing more than a fistful of grands... the fact that the first few Ongakus are going to be TEN grand CHEAPER! than later ones surely shows that they are making tens of thousands of pounds profit on each one?

If they cost more than 3k to make I'll eat my own pants.

 

Tom Evans is an extremely astute marketeer, smooth talker, and likes using buzzwords very much, the rest of the mag. fraternity seem to enjoy sucking him off, or vice versa.

Silver wire does cost 1000s if its in audionote's tx's, Yes Andy Grove does pretty much had a big hand in all of wads amps, too. he's a clever guy.

got to question a couple of the points, Dean, as far as I know, Audionote have terminated links with Jensen and are making their own paper in oil capacitors, Its a bit ethically questionable if you forge close links with someone, then terminate them, and start producing the stuff they make. likewise with Kondo, and are now using his names.
Coupled to the fact they absorbed some of the systemdek turntables, use rega arms and goldring cartridges, and absorbed snells speakers in particular, shows that by and large the development and ingenuity are lacking somewhat, and they do in a lot of areas take others ideas rather than using their own. All that together is quite convincing.

Kondo was by and large responsible for the japanese named amps costing 1000s, and the higher end pre's. There were quite a good few, ongaku, gakuon, kegon, m7, m7 line, m7 phono, m10, shinri, kigeki to name but a few The Uk audionote stuff was the lower cheaper and less glitzy stuff. Its doesn't take a genius to realilse if it wasn't for the showy stuff, the 49k amps, audionote would just be another half decent company. No-one judges Audionote on an m2 poweramp, but on the fact they produce the ONGAKU.

Interesting reading as ever, Dean

Actually, reading PQ's stuff, why should he have rights to the name? if kondo created it, that is his, just investing in making stuff doesn't buy you the name, just like investing in making marks and sparks clothes doens't buy marks and sparks name.

PQ says the ongakus 'voice' is a collaboration yet fails to say how or why, not convinced.

If PQ found kondos negotiations hostile, perhaps it was caus PQ had stuff which wasn't paid for, as alluded to, and I can appreciate PQ would cause anyone to lose it.

I also find it hard to believe that the UK can show the japs anything about quality control and product consistency.

I also heard recently from someone who works there said QC left a bit to be desired, and from a retailer who has had problems with the transformers.
Having had a few problems of my own with transformer hum, I can understand how and why it happens, and its no surprise.

And reading the rest, it seems like PQ being the marketeer, is being like a football agent who introduces a footballer, then says, if it wasnt for me, he wouldn't be famous, no, perhaps not, but he is still the agent, not the master.

True ANUK's products may be 80% in terms of sales, that's not surprising, that's like saying bmw 3 series outsells Rolls Royce's 80:20 or whatever.

AN's name and high profile standing came from kondo, yes maybe cash came from PQ. But a bit cheeky to then nick the name caus you put in some cash and claim your stuff is outselling the other. From what I can tell, PQ is the sidekick who benefitted from statement products, created a cheap line, and decided to take the company.

having spoke to PQ, I have nothing against him, but he can be variable, pleasant at times, and ascerbic and changeable ,and moody. I find his explanations unconvincing personally, especially considering the history enlisted above.

 

anyone heard of David Wright, responsible for the audionote kit 1, and thomas obligator amp, nice amp btw single ended el34 triode, with choke input filter.
apparently he blew up an audionote amplfier and parted company thereafter

nice chap, met him once, tall, lean outdoor looking type.

 

Hi,

He seemed to have done well out of it. But many people in hifi have these qualities. Ivor T, Julian V, Tim de P, Max T etc have all had their moments. If you want to survive in any business you need these and many other skills.

He is a clever chap. He also did ther Quad recent valve amps. He, like a number of designers, will work freelance if paid the right money.

As I said before, this sort of thing happen all the time in many industries. In business one of the things you need to do is to make money. If you can do things in house to the the same or higher standard at a cheaper cost. Any company worth their salt will be looking at ways of reducing cost & improving quality. For example, Linn used to have their plinths & speaker cabinets made in Sheffield by a company called Greaves. They switched to in house as Linn expanded. Even Steve M of 7th Veil has changed his cabinet makers because he found a better deal.

Systemdek went out of business. Audionote bought the rights. Whats wrong with that? Rega supply many companies with OEM arms. That's part of Rega's business. Goldring supply cartridges for people like Audionote, Roksan & others (OEM). This happens all the time.

The expensive stuff can get your name know as it can give you a lot of press. The downside is that it doesn't always make you any money. Audionote have made their money from the cheaper products. You are judged on all your products.

Why do you say that? UK still makes fine world beating goods. Here in my home town, we still make the best Knives & forks. Over half of the worlds surgical blades are made in Sheffield. Some very well put together hifi equipment is still made in the UK.

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Hmmm bad comparison, I'd say 100:0. Rolls yearly sale figures have been distinctly single figure for a few years now. Very much a dead brand, unless you count the aerospace arm.

 

I believe AVI cabinets are made by Greaves, nice build, too. Japan writes the book on QC. No contest.

 

Hi,

Greaves did a lot of work for the hi-Fi industry. They did speaker cabinets for a few companies. They did a number of plinths for the many turntable companies. Linn, Pink Triangle, Voyd, Systemdek etc had their plinths built here. Sadly, the factory is no more. It got knocked down a few years ago & a big block of student flats was built in it's place.


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