Pro Audio Review - June 2008 - (Page 34) STUDIO | Feature MONITORS Continued From Page 32 tion, but customer interest is still healthy. Much of the activity has shifted to the Internet and direct sales, but as of a year ago we decided to back off this route, focusing instead on the quality “brick and mortar” guys. Over the past 20 years, the overall business has slowly moved from about 60 percent export to about 75 percent export, with much of that growth in emerging Asian markets. These are some great customers, and we are very happy to work with them. PAR: The price of materials is going up, sometimes way up. Has that affected how you build your products? NELSON PASS: They cost more to make, and that is reflected in the price we charge. We operate on the premise that there is always a market for the best, regardless of price, and we really don’t let the cost of metal influence our design decisions. At the same time, some important parts are disappearing—Low noise JFETs in particular—and stocking up on them for the future is currently taking a larger share of our attention and resources. RICHARD ROSE: We never compromise on any parts just to cut cost. If transformers double and triple in price, we simply adjust our end-user pricing. Selling direct helps a little by saving our clients the dealer margin, but being a small “boutique” manufacturer, everything we build is done in short runs, which is proportionately more labor intensive and means we don’t benefit from the economy of scale larger companies enjoy. Our products have never been inexpensive, but have always been a good value, if not quite for everybody. PAR Has the move to an overall more digital/workstation-based recording environment affected your designs? NELSON PASS: Indirectly, I think. Technology has given artists more independent control over the creative process and access to the market. Over time we expect this to help propel music and music reproduction, and “rising waters float all boats”—mine included. In the meantime, while esthetic and economic issues settle out, I’m very optimistic. RICHARD ROSE: Not at all, since we already offer something for every type of environment. Our products have always been designed around very targeted applications, each conceived for a specific purpose, and not just the same old speaker that’s bigger and louder or smaller and cheaper as you go up and down the range. You’ll note there’s very little “family resemblance” between our various monitors, and by design, the only thing they have in common is the presentation at the mix position … regardless of what kind of music they’re reproducing, how far away they may be, how loud they need to play, or how large a room they’re in. There are reasonable technical explanations for this. But in a perfect world, large, medium or small, an amplifier should just amplify. And there should be no difference until you run out of headroom — period! Heather Johnson is a San Francisco-based journalist and author whose books include "If These Halls Could Talk: A Historical Tour Through San Francisco Recording Studios" 34 | ProAudio Review | June 2008 www.proaudioreview.com http://www.rolls.com http://www.rolls.com http://www.rolls.com http://www.proaudioreview.com
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