Wednesday, September 13, 2017

A Sound That Didn't Last

Ampex sign, next to  Stanford's new Outpatient Center.
As a teen visiting the Bay Area circa 1970, I recognized only a few company names on the signs dotting Highway 101. One of them was Ampex, which built the best reel-to-reel tape machines. My high school had a generous audio-visual budget, and as a member of the A-V club (nerd alert!) I got to play with equipment that I could never personally afford.

Ampex continued to be a leader in high-end audio equipment until the advent of the digital era, about 20 years later. Today the company is all but forgotten, its once-gleaming sign a weather-beaten curiosity.

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