William Z. Johnson RIP

[Barry]

We frequently have notification posted here of the passing of musicians and performers. This is quite understandable, since it is they who have directly entertained us by their talents. And, possibly because of their lifestyle, often seem to die at a far too early age. There seems to have been a flurry of sad posting lately.


But other people who in their own way have contributed to our listening pleasure are not mentioned. I speak of course of those audio designers and engineers who have created the equipment we use to actually listen to recorded music. In fact the only such person whose passing I recall being mentioned here was that of the acoustician and speaker designer Jim Thiel, who passed away September 2009.

I don’t think it was posted (and if it was, then I apologise) but I would like to mention that William (“Bill”) Z. Johnson of Audio Research passed away the end of last year.

Founder and long time president of Audio Research, Johnson will be remembered for his continued pioneering of valve (tube) audio circuitry. In fact he only ever produced one piece of equipment, a preamp (I think it was the SP4), that was solid state. Johnson was said to be so dissatisfied with the performance, he promptly sacked the designer and withdrew the design from production!

During his career Johnson designed products, which achieved notable acclaim, in particular the SP preamps and the legendary D150 power amp. Some would say the Reference 5 preamp was his lasting legacy.

I never owned any of his designs but I have heard and enjoyed them on several occasions.

He will be sadly missed by his devotees.

RIP Bill

[StanleyB]

Founder and long time president of Audio Research, Johnson will be remembered for his continued pioneering of valve (tube) audio circuitry. In fact he only ever produced one piece of equipment, a preamp (I think it was the SP4), that was solid state. Johnson was said to be so dissatisfied with the performance, he promptly sacked the designer and withdrew the design from production!
I read in a different thread about his passing, but wasn't aware that it was quite recent as last year.

I am however shocked at his treatment of a fellow design engineer. It is this kind of approach that has sold British engineering out to first the Americans, and later to the Japanese and Chinese. Stifling innovation is a dangerous decease in the UK. My former boss took a near similar approach when I designed the world's third mp3 player. It will never sell he said, and pulled all my funding.