Michael Fremer interviews John Curl about early days

[Tuckers]

The Audiophile Foundation released the video of our online event where Michael Fremer interviews John Curl about his early days in audio. It's fascinating with some tea being spilt about classic manufacturers

 

[Another Johnson]

Thanks for sharing this. It is quite long, but I did watch it to the end.

MF self identifies as “an interrupter” (his term, not mine) as in “I know I’m interrupting, but I am an interrupter.” And so it goes. JC does try to finish most of his stories. It is a typical MF interview.

Lots of information about his job history directly from Curl. That was the point of doing the interview. It most heavily focuses on the pre 1990 period.

JC makes interesting assertions about the availability of the best FETs (no more are being made, but several people have large stashes, including JC). Capacitors are a topic too (hint: ceramic bad, polypropylene good).

A few stories about getting screwed by famous names, one that even tried to steal IP and patent it (unsuccessfully).

Several of JC’s designs are unknown in the actual retail market because they never went into production. Either the sponsor didn’t like the sound, or the money ran out.

I like the MF interviews because he often has access to very interesting people.

 

[Tuckers]

We did this event partially for historical purposes, we thought it was important to capture stories from the early days in the High End industry before they are lost to time. And John has so many experiences to share! Michael did a great job, which included keeping the pace up so we could cover as much as possible in our time frame.

We are looking forward to doing more, including turning the tables on Michael and putting him in the hot seat. If there are other senior members that have extensive experience and want to share their stories, we would love to hear from them too!