[Scott Dorsey]

david correia wrote:
In article ,
(Scott Dorsey) wrote:
david correia wrote:
Does anyone else here make a living designing audio equipment for the
masses?

I worked as an engineer for a major US consumer electronics manufacturer
shortly after they had been taken over by a Japanese concern, and after
two weeks of cost-containment engineering horror I quit. Does that count?

So who's the major US manufacturer, and what did you work on?

It was a company that had a concert hall named after them, although by
the time I worked there, there really wasn't anything left of that tradition.
I worked on the worst of the worst of home stereo receivers.

They basically had engineers lined up at tables with diagrams and lists of
component costs, and everyone was trying to figure out how to make a product
that still worked using the cheapest component cost possible. Folks would
select capacitor values based upon what value would save a quarter cent.
It was just horrifying.

Did you design anything you're still proud of today?

Not in those two weeks, no. But I have to say if there is anything I am
really proud of in the audio product world, it's probably the little
C3000 retrofit kit. It's nothing terribly elaborate, but it has a couple
really slick little tricks involved, including biasing the backplate of
an electret capsule.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Arny Krueger]

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message

david correia wrote:
In article ,
(Scott Dorsey) wrote:
david correia wrote:


So who's the major US manufacturer, and what did you
work on?

It was a company that had a concert hall named after
them, although by
the time I worked there, there really wasn't anything
left of that tradition. I worked on the worst of the
worst of home stereo receivers.

They basically had engineers lined up at tables with
diagrams and lists of component costs, and everyone was
trying to figure out how to make a product that still
worked using the cheapest component cost possible. Folks
would select capacitor values based upon what value would
save a quarter cent.

Umm, I remember them, they were called Fisher/Muntz, right? ;-)

I'm trying to remember more details about the demise of Fisher.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_Electronics

is very terse.


Fisher got bought by a midwest electrical equipment manufacturer, Emerson
Electric. Were your experiences during the Emerson phase? After Emerson
came Sanyo.


This appears to be the current corporate site:

http://www.fisherav.com/products.html

Not much but boom-boxes and glorified boom-boxes. :-(

[david correia]

In article ,
(Scott Dorsey) wrote:

david correia wrote:
In article ,
(Scott Dorsey) wrote:
david correia wrote:
Does anyone else here make a living designing audio equipment for the
masses?

I worked as an engineer for a major US consumer electronics manufacturer
shortly after they had been taken over by a Japanese concern, and after
two weeks of cost-containment engineering horror I quit. Does that count?

So who's the major US manufacturer, and what did you work on?

It was a company that had a concert hall named after them, although by
the time I worked there, there really wasn't anything left of that tradition.
I worked on the worst of the worst of home stereo receivers.



How come you won't say their name? Still ****ed. Or embarrassed? Sign an
NDA? Is Fisher your maiden name? ;


They made some really nice receivers at one point, didn't they? I
remember some really great looking tube receivers back in the day
anyway.




David Correia
www.Celebrationsound.com

[Scott Dorsey]

david correia wrote:

How come you won't say their name? Still ****ed. Or embarrassed? Sign an
NDA?

A combination of ****ed and embarrassed for the most part.

They made some really nice receivers at one point, didn't they? I
remember some really great looking tube receivers back in the day
anyway.

Avery Fisher made some of the best component stereo gear ever built.
They had a really hard time moving into the transistor world, in part
because they had some severe reliability problems with the Fairchild
bullet transistors, and in part because the Japanese were taking over
the market at the time.

The good news about the transistor failures, though, is that they
socketed all the small signal transistors (save for the FM front end)
and so the repair work was quick and easy. But as soon as you replaced
one of those damn things, another one would fail.

Anyway, so the Japanese were taking over, Fisher was kind of strapped for
cash due to the high failure rates on the 700T, and Avery was getting old,
and so he sold the company for a huge amount of money.

Then everything went to hell.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Eeyore]

Scott Dorsey wrote:

Avery Fisher made some of the best component stereo gear ever built.
They had a really hard time moving into the transistor world, in part
because they had some severe reliability problems with the Fairchild
bullet transistors, and in part because the Japanese were taking over
the market at the time.

What are these 'bullet' transistors you mention ? What era ?

Graham

[Eeyore]

Richard Crowley wrote:

"Eeyore" wrote ...
Gareth Magennis wrote:
I think you are in deep ****.

Not even remotely. Although more money would be nice. But I've only got
£4000 left on the mortgage so nothing too much to worry about.

Hmmmm, lets put that back into context shall we.

No let's not you superficial stinking turd. You wouldn't understand
'context' if someone hit you hard round the head with it.

You're a clueless MORON and a Phildo lover (yuck).

He seems to have something for Brian McCarty as well.
I don't think I want to know what it is.

It's been suggested he's a McCarty sockpuppet.

Graham

[Scott Dorsey]

Eeyore wrote:
Scott Dorsey wrote:

Avery Fisher made some of the best component stereo gear ever built.
They had a really hard time moving into the transistor world, in part
because they had some severe reliability problems with the Fairchild
bullet transistors, and in part because the Japanese were taking over
the market at the time.

What are these 'bullet' transistors you mention ? What era ?

I want to say 1967 or 1968? They were the first low-cost epoxy packages
made... perhaps 1 cm in diameter of black epoxy with a rounded top. They
had some issues with the epoxy formulation which wound up causing junction
contamination and premature failure.

I don't know if they knew about passivation at the time, even.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Eeyore]

Scott Dorsey wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
Scott Dorsey wrote:

Avery Fisher made some of the best component stereo gear ever built.
They had a really hard time moving into the transistor world, in part
because they had some severe reliability problems with the Fairchild
bullet transistors, and in part because the Japanese were taking over
the market at the time.

What are these 'bullet' transistors you mention ? What era ?

I want to say 1967 or 1968? They were the first low-cost epoxy packages
made... perhaps 1 cm in diameter of black epoxy with a rounded top. They
had some issues with the epoxy formulation which wound up causing junction
contamination and premature failure.

I don't know if they knew about passivation at the time, even.

Ah ! That explains why National or TI made such a fuss about their epoxy
formulations only years later.

Graham