Off to Washington State

February 20, 2018

Thom

Packing up last Thursday for a road trip to Washington state ... the Niwatts' first trip.

 

This is the first of several trips for the NiWatts - this one being with the final prototypes before the actual production run.

The first stop was Silverdale, Washington where the NiWatts met up with their cousins - the Amity amplifier (precursor to the Karna) designed by Lynn Olson.

Gary has a finely honed sensibility, guided by his experience conducting the Bremerton Symphony. 

The horn speakers are his interpretation of Lynn Olson's "Beyond the Ariel" project (stay tuned for more on these). 

As Gary says, he prefers a "they are here" presentation as opposed to a "you are there" one.  "They" are most definitely here.

In the photo above, Gary is pointing to a unique power amp designed by another Northwesterner - Gary Pimm:  a transformer coupled solid state amplifier.  On the shelves are the push-pull 300B Amity amplifiers, and in the foreground are the NiWatts.

The NiWatts had fun with their new friends.

Gary and his wife are both excellent chefs and I was treated to a wonderful steak dinner (what?  I drove all this way for no salmon?).  Pictured here is Sweeny's meats - no ... there are no meat pies sold and no barber shop next door ;-)

The drive was a windy one - even by normal Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington state standards.

Whiteouts in Wyoming and tractor trailers struggling to stay on the road throughout.

We finished up by introducing the NiWatts to other systems, catching up with several customers, old friend Joel Durand, and the NiWatts opened some eyes as to what a puny 300B is capable of when designed correctly.

It's time for a break as we work our way back home through the Northern reaches - looping through Idaho, Montana and Wyoming to return home.  Big Sky and Bridger Bowl have a lot of snow.  It's time for a ski break and then back to work on the NiWatts and Eiger.

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