A local retail pioneer passes

My friend Joe asked me the other day if I really hated Paul Heath that much that I would publish an obituary on Amar Bose and not him.  

HUH?!! I didn't even know he died! Granted, I maybe saw him once a year at most and usually at Joe's shop.

   Below is the Obituary:

January 23, 2013 

LIVONIA — Paul Frederick Heath, 82, of Livonia, N.Y. succumbed to Leukemia under his daughters’ care at home on Sunday, January 20, 2013.

Paul served his country in the Air Force during the Korean War, and enjoyed many years of self-employment at Paul Heath Audio.

He is predeceased by his wife, Eileen O’Connell Heath, and survived by his son, Robert Heath of Prunedale, Calif.; daughters, Paula (Christopher) Coughlin and Pamela (Mark) Smith; and grandchildren, Harley, John and Jake of Livonia, N.Y.

At Paul’s request, no service will be held. Arrangements entrusted to the Kevin W. Dougherty Funeral Home Inc., Livonia – Honeoye.

 I was awestruck! He was waaaayy too cagey to die! I have referred to him several times in this blog. I did a fair amount of business over the years, and worked with his son Bob at JB Sound. Always an interesting story, always a hard sales pitch, I remember him as a hell of a salesman! It didn't matter if you were in the business or not, if you walked into his store you got the sales pitch. I'm still stuck with a pair of Acoustic Arts Messenger speakers that I first heard in his store.Every week something new, he generally only got one or two of anything, and it was always better than what he had last week

.He was instrumental during the early years of Merlin music systems,partnering with Bobby and helping him get established.The Orion Blue Book listed him as an importer for many of the brands he carried.I often pull out old issues of Audio magazine that I still have  from the '70s. and see ads for his store in the back classifieds.

 I remember him most for the Hill Type 1/ Plasmatronics speakers he demoed at one of the home shows.

They had plasma/ion tweeters which were emitting ozone and putting people to sleep! They made him stop playing them.



 To the best of my knowledge he started on State St. across from the Kodak office. The execs would walk over at lunchtime to see what was new. I remember Allison One speakers, JR149s,Hartley speakers, SAE,and a few things I had never heard of  the first time I went there. Years later he ended up in Henrietta, then downtown off of Monroe Ave. sharing a store with Mike Stroethers. Mike also passed years ago, I'm beginning to think this is not a healthy hobby to have, we have lost many over the years.
 Paul, Mike, Bill Kelliher (one of my previous bosses the"B" of JB), my good friend Greg Douglas, Glen who was Mike Fenton's technician, Gary another audio friend, and even I myself have been diagnosed with cancer.

  " Momma don't let your babies grow up to play HiFi".........

  Must be some kind of radiation from the power transformers or something.

  Anway, hard as I tried, I can't find a picture of Paul anywhere. If anybody out there has one and can email it to me or post it here I think that would be nice.

 Please don't attempt to pass off one of Jack Nicholson, I know the difference.    


                                               thanks!

Another industry pioneer passes

  Amar Bose died July 12th at 83. He founded the Bose Corporation, and made his billion-dollar fortune transforming the experience of listening to music by attempting to bring concert hall-quality audio into people’s living rooms. Say what you may about him, he was a brilliant man and a marketing genius.

   I say "attempting" because probably no company has been more discriminated against by purist audiophiles and naysayers, some of them who might even admit to owning a Wave radio. I will admit my own mother has one and would never part with it. It is on probably ten hours a day, tuned to the local classical station. 

His earlier products made a splash in my selling days, and the competition (The Sound Chamber) knew how to demonstrate them. 901s in a room by themselves, no A/B comparisons, and their huge over-equalised sound with great slamming bass practically loaded them in customers trunks themselves! The 301, 501, and 601s followed, still reflecting a large portion of the sound but a more conventional design that did not require an equaliser.

 Interesting tidbit- he had a 14-year battle with Consumers Union, the group that publishes Consumer Reports, over a bad  review of his model 901 speaker that he felt was based on bad science. Bose Corporation became the first company to beat CU in court, but the decision was reversed on appeal. Bose then took the case to the Supreme Court of the United States.Over the years Bose Corporation earned a reputation as an aggressive litigator; other targets included JBL, Infinity Systems, Thiel Audio , and the CEDIA organisation. 

       

                                                                         901

                                                                       301



                                            
                                                                         501

601

Bose based his speaker technology on the premise that 80 per cent of the sound in a concert hall reaches listeners indirectly, bouncing off walls and ceilings. 

He  founded his company in 1964. Twenty years later it launched the Wave Radio, which produced a big, rich bass sound from only two tiny speakers.

                                                                     Wave Radio

   Later came the Wave music system, a larger version, attempting to simply peoples lives with no wires.

                                                                    Wave Music System

  Bose also has a professional sound reinforcement division, of which the 802 was one of their first products.

                                     

                                                                            802

Enrolling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, Bose earned three degrees in Electrical Engineering, including a doctorate. In 1956, invited to join the teaching staff, he accepted with the intention of staying for two years at most. In the event he remained a faculty member until 2001.

In the late 1970s, having established his reputation with audio speakers for home systems, He became intrigued by the challenge of making the inside of a car sound as good as the experience of listening at home. By 2010, Bose technology is in eight out of every 10 new cars offering  premium sound systems (including my own Cadillac CTS).

Bose’s decision to keep the company off the stock market allowed him and his workforce to focus 100% on long-term R&D projects without interference or questions about commercial viability.