Thursday, December 31, 2009
A Conversation With Product & Technology Wizard Gerald Stanley Of Crown
A conversation with Gerald Stanley, who in his 45 years at Crown has had significant impact on the company's many contributions to the pro audio industryEditor’s Note: This interview with Mr. Stanley was conducted in 2002. Also, you can learn more Crown history here.
As Crown marks its 55th anniversary - celebrating a unique history marked by many notable contributions to the pro audio industry - I spoke with Gerald Stanley, who, with his expert product design and engineering work, has had significant impact in helping bring those contributions to life over the course of almost 40 years with the company.
He continues to thrive in his role to this day and was gracious in submitting to an interview regarding Crown past, present and future.
Keith Clark: How did you get started in this business?
Gerald Stanley: I started as a kid (11 or 12) by SWLing (short wave listening) using old radios that were being discarded around the neighborhood. The best units were taken and souped-up using the spare parts of the less worthy units. It was great fun trying to determine why the radio’s designer had done this or that.
It became clear that engineering products could be fun. Every radio had an audio power amp and speaker portion as well as the RF portions. I modified them all. By high school, high-feedback tube power amps were being designed and built for family and friends.
The lesson is if a kid comes to your doorstep and asks for your old PC, give it to them. Who knows what they may make of it all? Your old PC may transform the world in due time.
KC: Have you always had an interest in audio and electronics?
GS: Before electronics there was the classic electric train set.
KC: What year did you join Crown, and what position did you initially fill? What were you primarily working on?
GS: My first year at Crown was 1964 when I was still an undergraduate at Michigan State University. I worked summer and breaks as a technician in the tape recorder setup area, as a draftsman and as a solid-state power amplifier designer working on the first Crown transistorized designs.
All engineers worked first on the line to learn the products in those days. The products were tape recorders and amplifiers were accessories. In 1966, I returned with a graduate degree from the University of Michigan and went to work full time on designing tape recorder electronics and power amplifiers.
KC: What do you like most about working at Crown?
GS: Working at Crown over all these years has been like having multiple careers without ever moving. The company has grown and changed much. It has been a multitude of companies all at one address.
The design opportunities have also been prolific, having been able to design tape recorders, signal processors, audio amplifiers, magnetic resonance gradient amplifiers, semiconductor and audio test equipment, TEF machines and numerous other unusual electronic products.
One of the more unusual was the design of a speech rate translator that was ultimately used by a judge to play back the Nixon tapes at higher than normal speeds.
KC: Who are the interesting/influential people you’ve met over the years, both at Crown and perhaps outside (if applicable)? Tell us what you learned from them.
GS: I hesitate to name names, as the omissions would be many and unjustified. Obviously, my first design lessons were learned from radio designers that I would never meet. It has been aptly said that “Pygmies standing on the shoulders of giants can see further than the giants themselves.”
Some of those giants can only be met through books – Black, Bode & Nyquist – while others, like Dick Heyser, were friends.
KC: How did Crown come to evolve from a respected manufacturer of tape recorders into its current status as a world leader in power amplifiers and affiliated products, microphones, and now, DSP?
GS: As mentioned previously, the first Crown power amplifiers were accessories to the tape recorders. Over a period of time, the accessories outsold the original products.
Each audio product added to the Crown line has brought a unique value to the customer and acted to support the remaining products. The incorporation of digital signal processing is a natural for adding value to most signal processing products and power amplifier systems are no exception.
KC: How many patents are you responsible for at Crown, and what are several of the most noteworthy ones in your opinion?
GS: If one counts foreign issues, I’ve lost track. I believe the U.S. Patent count is now at 21 issued. The most noteworthy would be the opposed-current converter, the grounded-bridge amplifier and junction temperature simulation.
The latter two have expired due to age. The second is now the pinnacle of one major competitor’s product line, while here, it’s our old technology.
KC: What are your favorite Crown products over the years, and why?
GS: I’ve enjoyed a lot of the products and hesitate to pick a favorite. It’s like picking favorites amongst your kids.
KC: What product was developed that you were sure would be a hit, but somehow, it just didn’t take off?
GS: There have been products that didn’t take off, but then they weren’t my favorites either. Does anyone remember the OC-150? (This was an “output control console.” Find out more about it here.)
KC: How has Crown’s approach to designing products changed over the years that you’ve been with the company?
GS: The largest change has been the use of computing tools to analyze designs before ever making hardware. This change has been delightful as designs can now be considered that would have been intractable by earlier manual methods.
Since I’m a programmer (since college days) who has been writing circuit simulators and solving assorted problems using numeric methods, it’s been fun.
KC: Any big changes since the Harman acquisition?
GS: Our manufacturing area is being transformed into a world-class facility. Change is occurring at record rates. We are also making products for sister Harman companies, which adds some diversity to the design opportunities.
KC: Where do you see Crown heading in the future in terms of product conceptualization, design and manufacturing?
GS: As the Harman center for amplifier excellence, I would expect to see more opportunities for both design and manufacturing of state-of-the-art products. This is clearly a team effort with all of the associated parties.
KC: What do you like to do with your free time?
GS: I like biking, hiking, programming and working in my large home electronics lab.
KC: What do you see happening, technology-wise in general, over the next 5-10 years? (In pro audio…)
GS: I see a guaranteed future for digital, wireless and networked systems. Power amplifiers will continue to offer higher power with ever-increasing efficiency and value. Power amplifiers will remain integral parts of our electronic future.
KC: Why have you hung around so long in the audio business?
GS: When graduating with a Masters in EE, I was offered a fellowship to pursue a doctorate in radio astronomy, which I declined.
While I loved radio astronomy, it seemed that future starvation would be the likely result of such a career choice. Audio at least had a product to sell and it could also be fun. I’ve not regretted the choice.
Addendum: Mr. Stanley was selected by the Audio Engineering Society’s awards committee and board of governors to receive the distinguished AES Fellowship Award in 2008. According to AES Secretary Han Tendeloo, the award is for “significant contributions to power amplifier design and electronic networking of communications systems.”
Note: Thanks to Chris Shuler at Public Address for his considerable help with this project.
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