That was a great testament too the creative talents of engineer Darren Myers. I had the pleasure of meeting Darren at the PS Audio booth while attending the Rocky Audio Fest a few years back. Darren was not only interested in answering all my questions, but he was also very cordial & helpful on deciding what would be the best decision for my next audio purchase. One could quickly see that his heart was in his work. PS Audio is a great company because they have always had great people. Good luck Darren!
Paul, it speaks volumes how highly you speak of Darren and your employees in general. I am not sure if I met him when you guys gave me a very enjoyable tour of your (old) facility when I happened to be in town a few years ago, however each and every member of your team was extremely nice and welcoming at the time, clearly a testament to your great work environment. Sorry he left, but all the best to him as well as the PS Audio team!
Paul, that was a beautiful way of handling the question. (I'm glad you took it on) Darren M and John Curl working together will be a formidable force. Parasound will undoubtedly become something far greater than ever before, David Sheriff will take the company beyond where Richard did.
Paul, I loved your explanation and it shows what a terrific person you are. I'm sure a lot of CEOs would be bitter about losing someone as skilled as Darren is and probably wouldn't have been prepared to speak publicly about it either. I'm also sure that a lot of them wouldn't be prepared to take someone like Darren back if it didn't work out for him. They'd say 'Tough luck, Buddy. You should have stayed with us. We've got someone else now.' It's a pity more companies don't have CEOs like you.
It demonstrates the kindness and generosity of Paul's heart vs. the attitudes of those whose own greed motivate them to behave in the ways you describe for other CEOs. This world is very lucky to have 'Pauls of this world' contributing to it making it a better place to be!
I'm an HR dude, and Paul handles this move AND transparency about it in exemplary fashion! This is how it should be handled, but often isn't. I will say that the company culture and values that Paul and PS Audio show opens the door for the next great talent to walk in. Well done!
Perfectly said. I've found in my area of work that a culture of supporting people, even when they move on, creates a good feeling among those who stay. Positivity is win-win.
You are a very gracious man, Paul! This video says almost more about you, as a person, than Darren. This is the way a mature and wise person handles the situatuion. I am impressed with you sir and I'll bet God is too!
When you look at a big company like Harman, they've seeded the entire audio industry with their knowledge and know-how, and while the short term vision would be to try to keep that in-house, the fact that they have sent so many engineers to so many other places means that their R&D work is now setting the paradigm within which the entire audio industry operates, and that's how you become not only respected as a company, but revered.
Very happy to see Darren advance his career; we communicated a lot when trying to fix my hum issue with the Stellar Phono Preamp. Talented people need to pursue better opportunities and while it will be a loss to PSA, he’ll have the SPP as his legacy there.
Great message. Glass half empty or half full? Another view is PS Audio attracted someone of Darren's caliber and gained his service for 7 years. As Darren moves up in his career, he makes room for the next young up and comer to help evolve the product line.
All I was wondering about that and you did such a great job you're explaining the situation and you're a very honest person on it and I really congratulate you and I hope both companies do very well
I echo other comments here which commend our approach to employees, your “management style” if you will. I hope the best for Darren. Being an executive and managing other engineers is a different thing that being hands on. I have no doubt Darren will figure out how to do that, but if he longs to get back to primarily hands on he will certainly have a path to come back “home”.
It is great to see that Paul does not let his ego get in the way of the life ambitions of his employees. I am also sure PS audio will continue to bring out products that are as innovative as they have been so far.
Paul creates a great environment. Not sure what products Darren owned in terms of development, Iv only seen a few videos of him, seemed to be a lot of Paul building his name and reputation up a lot. I think he will find that Paul gave him a platform and really promoted him with a lot of PR. That’s not going to happen at Parasound as much.
I’m available Paul made my first amp circuit on a breadboard last week & it kicks arse with a massive 1 watt, if you pay my flight over from London first class I’m ready to start right away for as little as $250’000 per annum. 🤭
What a graceful way of acceptance for the freedom of people to find their way . . . I'm sure, Paul, that others are or would be just as thrilled to join YOUR team as the atmosphere at P.S. Audio is so constructive and pleasant. Best of luck to all. And Darren is lucky to have a home "just in case" :-)
Parasound amps the JC plus one from John Curl is an amazing amp for 10k or so that rivals 25k amps. How they do that from what I was told is the parts are put together in Tiawan where labor is much cheaper but still use very high quality parts. It was one of the first amps I had before I bought the big boys a pair of VAC Statement 452 IQ Musicbloc's. 450 watts per amp in mono from a tube amp. I am happy for Darren. One thing business owners long time at a trade understand is you try to hire the eagles as they help the company soar but sometimes the eagles want to fly away and explore new lands as it's their nature. So you have them for the time you get them. Mediocre ones tend to not get recruited for other companies and stay forever.
Sad, great talent is hard to find. Hope another talented engineer takes his spot. Seems like PS audio gives its engineers more creative freedom. Hoping that will attract more passionate engineers like Tesla and Space X does.
Paul sorry for our loss. But as you well know evolution is constant in all things. I’m currently running a Stellar DAC/Preamp with a Parasound A21 amp with great results. Will be interesting to see how Darren influences Parasound with his PS Audio experience and knowledge. ☮️
Picked up a parasound a21 for a very reasonable price and it was only used to run surrounds in a home theater by previous owner. Only have an old onkyo to use as preamp though. Unfortunately with the time of day electric where I live I haven't hooked it up as I'm nervous to see the electric bill.
That’s the brand that I heard back in 1987 or 86 as a young man and got me hooked. I even remember my roommates system ( that I recreated in my later years) Parasound DR25 with a Thorens TD166 ( same one I use today) and Eagle bookshelf speakers ( made in Auburn Al) . The Eagles my room mate still has but are rare as hens teeth and no longer made. Love the brand and can’t wait to see what they do with it. Facelift I hope
It will be interesting too see how Darren works out at Parasound. Based on what I’ve seen, his design approach seems to entirely different from Parasound’s head designer, the legendary John Curl.
“…sympathetic guy? Ok…” 😂 Sympathetic in this context is an old-fashioned term that means a pleasant and understanding person. It doesn’t have anything to do with condolences, pity, etc. It has held on in British English, but even then sounds a bit pompous or affected.
Paul's words..."how could I deny him that or be upset about it". An odd comment since the person writing in didn't allude to those words at all. Tells me Paul was upset about it and/or attempted to deny Darren at one point.
Great minds need to move around so they don't stagnate. Look at how many times Andrew Jones has moved. By the way, I see a lot of common ground between PS Audio and Parasound.
Thou shall listneth to Paul seated on a chair Paul's actions showed thee that he doesn't care Dealeth with beggars and theives in whole my Life Thee shalt delegate all them to my Wife.
Darren Myers did a smart move he will be happier wherever he is . I have been observing the factory floors on pauls videos . I do not find an audio precision analyzer anywhere (so much for a 1st world audiophile like Pauline). I am surprised that even after a detailed analysis by audio research review no legal action has been taken against psaudio for hogwash specs on their products. Wish i was in the US would have sued the living daylight of psaudio .
Paul's response is pretty typical of any professional boss who has been at it long enough to know how to treat people. Good PR move but let's not get too sentimental here.
Here is proof that the rip off of remastering the 1973 RECORDED The dark side if the moon every 3 years is a terrible sounding album. Most of my records were recorded in 1971 & before. In 1972 I thought the sound on all records were was more harsh, that the sound wasnt as good. I was suspicious that something solid state transistor digital was added, but 2 sound engineers swore I was wrong. You here all this talk that digital didnt start till the very late seventies. Michael Fremer from Stereophile confirmed I was right all along. Fremer JUST said this, so I googled it up what he said. The Doors and The Elektra Records Sound Part 1. Also below when it is talking about DISCRETE recorders, it's talking about tiny tralnsistor Integrated integrated IC transistors that dont sound as good, for example early seventies Sony stereo amps with more expensive & complicated hand wired transistors sound better than today's IC amps, but still tubes recorders sound better. Guitarists today love guitar tube amps better. Analog Planet www.analogplanet.com › content › doors-and-e... Apr 30, 2010 - When I came back to do some mixing in 1970 it was still the same, except that they changed the console to solid-state. The whole control room was all brick, and it had individual panels of acoustical tile to deaden it down. Basically it was a very live room. The console sat on a platform, which was about six or eight inches off the floor. The tape machine sat behind us; we had an old Ampex 200 three-track, which had separate record and playback electronics so that you could select separate record or playback curves. They had a thing back then called A.M.E., which was Ampex Master Equalization, and then they had N.A.B., so if you recorded A.M.E. and played it back N.A.B., it would come out brighter. It's like recording with Dolby and not decoding. We also had an Ampex 300, I believe, three-track, which I converted over to a four-track with sel-sync (the ability to perform overdubs). BB: No, the room stayed the same from the day I walked in the door, which was about 1963 to 1968. When I came back to do some mixing in 1970 it was still the same, except that they changed the console to solid-state. But anyway, back to the console. Tutti used to go to England a lot, and he purchased a solid-state console over there. For the life of me, I can't remember the name of it. We all thought it was kind of cool. It had a lot of features that the tube console didn't have. It sounded different, you know? Tubes still sounded the best. Anyway, Jac Holzman purchased one as well, and we had it customized for our needs at Elektra Studios. So, that's how the console got there. BB: I still like mono to this day, because there aren't any distractions. It's like a black and white movie, where you can create incredible dimensions, depth-wise, and hide things. That's very hard to do in stereo. That's because we don't record in stereo: We record multi-track point-source discrete audio. The difference in the mix was when we would open it up to stereo, we would have to change things, because it didn't fall in the same place. Spatially, things would fall into other places. MG: It sounds to me as if the first Doors album had the best high-frequency extension, transient snap, and overall transparency, and that with each album sonically fine as they arethose qualities seemed to diminish. Would you agree or disagree? BB: I'd agree with that to an extent, because the first album was all tube. Strange Days was done on a tube console, but with a solid-state eight-track. From then on it became all solid-state consoles and solid-state tape machines. There was also this direction that Paul wanted to take it, a more intellectual kind of a sound, not as raw as the first album. The sound started to become more scientific as it went along, a little more clinical, because studios, by and large, are hospitals, they're not places to record music. Technology is the evil person here. MG: I guess that's not fighting technology, it's kind of going around it. BB: Sound since the 1960s has gone backwards instead of forwards, in my estimation. In the recordings that I do today for motion pictures, I use tube microphones, tube microphone pre-amps, and I try to bypass the solid-state consoles as much as possible. It's more open, it's rounder, it has more depth. I can give you an example. If you take a room that has some reverberation not a chamber, just good clear liveness and you put an earphone in the middle of the room with a click going through it, so you hear the “tick, tick, tick.” Plug up a good microphone, maybe a (Neumann) U-67 or something like that, split the signal so it goes into a tube microphone pre-amp, and then the solid-state pre-amp, bring them both up on the console, and switch back and forth, and listen. With the tube, you'll hear all the reverberation in the room; the solid-state will close down. Ten times out of 10. So that's somewhat what you're hearing. Even the equalizers back then were tube; we had Pultech EQ-P1A's. MG: What's your opinion of digital multi-track recorded sound, and your opinion of digital recording, period, compared to analog? Which do you prefer? BB: I would venture to say that 95% of the music that I've recorded in the last eight years has been all digital. Digital does not basically sound better than analog, but what it does do, is that the sound doesn't change from what you're recording. With analog, you record it, and when you play it back, you will get a fair representation of what you heard on line-in. Play it back a half an hour later, and it will have changed, there are less highs. Play it a day later, and it will really have changed. The high end just changes, it's a natural process of the magnetism of the particles, and when you magnetize, record them, they change. The magnetic particles have a memory and want to go back to their original inert state. It's just the way it is. In digital, you record it, and it doesn't change. The problem with digital is the quality of the analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters. At this point in time, the A-to-D and D-to-A's are getting where you can record on it and it doesn't sound “digital” anymore. “Digital” meaning that it sounds cold. “Cold” meaning that digital doesn't show you all of the details, like the depth of the reverb and harmonic room tone. Because there's lack of detail, and especially lack of harmonics going way out, that sound would seem colder, and "digital."
64-Bit Bruce Lee Driven Noise ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vlCGJmDqRJg.html Bruce Lee's Lost Interview in the Pierre Berton Show 1971 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fEDfznOP820.html