Click to enlarge:

Under the Hood:

Current Production Model

Rear View:
The goal of this mechanical design is to place all the heat on one side of an aluminum “firewall”, and the PC boards and major components on the other. The ceramic tube sockets actually conduct thermal energy into the aluminum and this keeps the PC board cooler. We really want to avoid brown rings around the sockets.

Wide open:
When you take the Fairchild circuit and put it in 4 rack units, you have to “fold” things a little, hence boards on 3 planes.
This is how we first bring them to life, adding the outer case last to avoid scratching.

Early custom build with vintage UTC audio transformers.
Click to enlarge

Cutting very big holes in very thick metal

Black wrinkle powder coated truss with transformers mounted.

Sidechain boards being built.

Front panel controls

A batch of 5 with transformers mounted.

Engraving a faceplate

Freshly engraved faceplate prior to trimming and drilling


Final Assembly of an SR-71, caught on the webcam


Tube Matching: VP/Production Manager Chris Juried using the PC-based tube analyzer, which automatically stores the plate curves of each new tube and compares them for perfect matches every time! It also lets out a James Brown shriek if it finds an out-of-spec tube, alerting anyone within 50 feet.

Gathering specs and burning-in.