Ken (continued): I still believe that the combination of EAW and Mackie's engineering and manufacturing capabilities could produce amazing and revolutionary products. It still remains to be seen how that organization can achieve that. Obviously I am not involved at all anymore and I wish both for the people that are there, and for the industry as a whole, that they enable the team to do what they are truly capable of.

Ken (continued): From what I saw, running a company of that size is a very formidable task. When you have that many people the politics can overwhelm the capabilities. I'm sure similar problems exist at companies like Harman. The challenge to the industry is that the small companies can do so much development faster but have such limited resources.

Ken (continued): The larger companies have the resources to do much more interesting things particularly in terms of research and development, but it is hard to have strong vision in such large political environments. Did that answer your question?

Jim G: Is the political thing about it the reason you were not able to stay on, in at least an advisory capacity?

Ken: The politics were the biggest part. I did not have a boss for more than 20 years. EAW, no matter how big we got, was always a quick response team environment. Let's just say by the time I got to understand the politics at Mackie, I probably pissed enough people off for it to be too late. KF850 questions would be easier now :o)

David Scheirman: Hey Ken - going back into early EAW history, why don't you tell everyone about the CS-3, back in the days when there was NO software to mess with???

Ken: The CS-3 was EAW's first one-box system done for Carlo Sound in Nashville. And yes, there was no software! What we did was take Kenton's (Forsythe) dual 15-in bass horn and the MR102 12-in horn loaded mid-bass, along with a Community BRH90 HF horn, and build them into one gigantic box. It was probably the world's first horn-loaded one box system.

Ken (continued): At that time, you had a choice between great sounding multi box systems - the best was the Martin stuff - and simple direct radiating one box systems that were usually home built with minimal design expertise. The CS-3 was our first attempt to have the best of both worlds. What the KF850 and later systems did was to take this one step further and actually design them to work in arrays. EAW, Meyer, and Turbosound did a lot in that era to establish the concept of systems rather than drivers as the standard.

David Scheirman: I'd say the CS-3 helped focus several different companies' efforts towards the creation of "one-box" touring solutions, in the late 1970's. I know when I was stacking bins for Carlo (showing my age here!), the CS-3 as a horn-loaded solution in a modular package was certainly an interesting development. Designs like the CS-3 began to obsolete a lot of the "horns and bins" in rental company inventories.

Ken: Actually I agree with you David, but it's only recently that one-box systems actually perform better than some of the best horns and bins systems. Most of the early one-box systems were more about packaging, efficiency, use-ability and flying rather than ultimate performance.