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Whenever you buy something, be it a car, a new watch, or a fine restaurant meal,
you aren't just buying the actual physical product alone. You are buying the knowledge,
experience, and expertise of the engineer, chef, or artisan behind these goods, and
the quality of the materials and workmanship involved in their making. When you're
considering goods such as a camera, home appliance, or (in this case) an audio component,
it's always good to know you're getting something quality for your money before you
"take the plunge." But, even if you're confident in the product's quality,
you're nevertheless still placing yourself at the mercy of the company's customer
support policies, that will determine the level and quality of support you will receive
throughout the lifespan of the product. I therefore feel compelled to let you know
something about myself.
My name is Eddie Vaughn; audio designer, audiophile, and owner of Vaughn Audio. I'm
also an active musician who plays four instruments, with several hundred live performances
and dozens of recordings to my credit. As you might guess, music and music electronics
have always been a huge part of my life. Actually, I've been a hardcore tube electronics
junkie since childhood, which you can blame on my grandparents who raised me. You
see, Grandpa was a huge fan of tube audio gear, not to mention the fact that he was
an avid amateur radio nut as well. He had literally hundreds of tubes in boxes sitting
around everywhere!
I grew up with around all sorts of vintage hi-fi and radio equipment. The air was
always filled with the sweet sounds of vinyl spinning in the living room, or blasting
through the tube amp in my bedroom! I began playing guitar at 11, got really serious
with it at 14, and started playing live gigs at 16. Needless to say, I played through
a tube amp (and still do)! I was actually first "bitten by the tube bug"
at around age 5, when I would sit in my grandfather's radio room for hours, staring
attentively at the power tubes in his linear RF amplifier. I was completely mesmerized
by their blue glow, that flashed in response to the modulation. It was the beginning
of a lifelong relationship with my beloved little "firebottles."
Soon after I turned 8, he bought me a little spring-terminal electronics tutorial
kit, which I spent every spare moment with! Being raised in a rural area with no
other children around, I immersed myself in learning about electronics and science
to beat the boredom. My grandfather had a huge library of books, manuals, and schematics,
which I read at every opportunity. Thankfully, I was blessed with excellent reading
ability! I could read on a first grade level the day I started kindergarten, and
on a high school level by upper elementary school. At an age when most kids were
drawing or reading comic books in their spare time at school, I was reading one of
my ever-present electronics textbooks.
When I was 9, my grandfather bought me my first solder-type kit. It was a little
point-to-point wired electronic organ with only 8 keys, that sounded out the tones
of the major scale. He also bought me my own soldering iron around that time. I was
more proud of that soldering iron than any kid could've been of a new bicycle, even
though I think he just bought it so I wouldn't be using his!
Before long, I'd built all the kits at Radio Shack. Then, I got my hands on a Heathkit
catalog! The learning experience of building all those kits and studying the theory
behind how they worked was invaluable. By my mid teens, I was servicing all sorts
of electronic gear. There were no electronics repair shops or good music stores in
the area, so I worked on a lot of "pro sound" electronics such as guitar
amps, bass amps, mixer boards, and PA amplifiers, as well as hi-fi gear. Before long,
I began working on guitar amps for friends, and became known as the guy to
take your amp to when it was sick. No doubt about it, I was in love with electronics.
But, not just any electronics......tube electronics!
Servicing, modding, and building tube gear became my passion, and for many years
it was a beloved hobby. Then, some debilitating health problems forced me to quit
my occupation as a tool-and-die machinist, and I began to mod and service tube gear
and build custom amplifiers full-time. Through word-of-mouth advertising alone, with
no website or substantial Internet presence, there were soon so many requests for
mods and custom amps that I had a months-long waiting list! To me, this is the best
kind of advertising anyone could wish for, a customer who is so happy with your work
that he raves about it to everyone.
Before long, I was receiving continuous requests for a production amplifier model.
Between that and my own disenchantment with the poor design, parts quality, build
quality, and sound of most commercially available tube gear, I decided to step out
and do it. The result was the Carina, a simple, versatile, excellent sounding single
ended amplifier using common, inexpensive tube types, that is highly synergistic
with many of today's best high-efficiency speaker systems..
The Carina's success has been amazing. It has replaced many critically acclaimed
SET amplifiers (some costing over $5000) in customer's systems, as well as the best
of the new generation of digital amplifiers and some of the world's most highly touted
Class A solid state amplifiers. It has beaten a $7000 SET amplifier in a listening
test by industry professionals, has been voted "Best Amplifier" at two
audio festivals, and was even chosen by a prestigious hi-end speaker manufacturer
to be their new reference amplifier.
How does one achieve this level of success with a debut product? It's very simple,
actually. My approach to audio design is quite different from most. It can be summed
up in "it's either the best or it isn't." Straight and plain, if it's not
the best, then it'll not have my name on it. Besides the great sound, high reliability,
and excellent quality of a Vaughn Audio product, this is the philosophy, experience,
and background you are buying with every one of our products.
Keep those tubes glowing, and enjoy the music!
Handcrafted in America
Copyright © 2005 ~ 2008 Vaughn Audio. All Rights Reserved.