Paul McGowan writes:
Stan Warren and I started PS Audio more than 40 years ago. Two enterprising young guys hell-bent to change the world. Stan moved on to other pastures. I’ve been at it ever since.
I think what has always driven the PS team remains the same: using technology in clever ways to move the state of the art forward without breaking the bank. The thrill of extracting more of a recording’s essence than anyone before us is intoxicating. It pushes us forward and gets us out of bed in the morning. But what of the story of our beginnings?
I’ve been asked more than a few times to share the company’s history—the stories, the funny parts, the tough parts—straight from the horse’s mouth (or ass as some might say) and I have done so in a new two-part video.
To give you a little background, here’s how this video came about. My good friend Seth Godin (as committed an audiophile as they come) nudged me to build a video channel so people could look me in the eye when I shared knowledge or stories. The mental image of a camera just staring at my mug while I chattered on was an unpleasant one in my imagination and so I concocted a plan to liven it up. The original idea was a walk in the woods with Paul. Each daily episode would find me on a different path in whatever weather Colorado had to offer. It seemed a good plan. A way to share my stories without boring people. Mechanizing it would be a different matter and in the end so difficult I would make only a handful of videos. The story of how I got there might be interesting.
I am camera shy. Speaking from the heart would be impossible if another person operated the camera, yet how does one video themselves while walking in the woods?
The engineer in me designed a solution. A gyroscopic-based steadycam mounted atop a pole resting on a belt-mounted holster. Quite a contraption. But it worked, though it was so much trouble I eventually abandoned it in favor of what eventually became Ask Paul.
I have resurrected the few surviving videos and you can watch Part One of PS Audio’s history by clicking this link.
