PLINIUS: An Interview With Brian Willoughby

Paul Wilson writes:

We live in a global economy. High-performance audio components are made in almost every country in the world. Even China has emerged as a purveyor top-shelf brands. But, what about New Zealand?

I had the pleasure to interview Mr. Brian Willoughby, Managing Director of Plinius, who just happen to be located in New Zealand. Plinius makes high-end amps, preamps, digital components, phono stages and home theater products. Plinius is a subsidiary of Contex Engineers, a specialty machining and manufacturing company. Based in Christchurch, Plinius, and the parent company, Contex Engineers, manufacturers and ships product throughout the world. New Zealand is often, and mistakenly, thought of as being part of Australia. Something that is hardly true and something any Kiwi would be very quick to correct. Despite it's size, and being about 1500 miles from Australia, New Zealand has a highly skilled, technologically advanced manufacturing effort.

Mr. Willoughby filled me in on Plinius history, "Plinius was founded in 1980 by a chap called Peter Thompson. To make things more difficult, transistors were a new technology and the quality wasn't often very high. There were also import restrictions and that made any kind of   ........

Please click HERE to continue