General Questions

Is that really your name?
In case you didn’t get it from typing in the URL, reading the home page, reading the About Us section, and, like, every page of this site, YES, that is our name. And yes, it’s pronounced exactly how you think.

Are you guys for real?
Absolutely. Yeah, our name is a fun attention-getter, but you’ll quickly find that we’re dead-serious about audio. Everything we do uses the highest-quality parts and innovative production engineering to keep costs down.

Where’d you guys come from?
For lack of a better phrase, we are “audio industry veterans.” Our two product designers come from Sumo and Theta, respectively. At Sumo, Jason Stoddard designed the following products: Polaris II, Polaris III, Andromeda III, Ulysses, Ulysses II, The Ten, The Five, Athena II, Diana, Artemis, Theorem, and Axiom. At Theta, Mike Moffat designed the Theta Pre-Amplifier, and at Theta Digital, designed the DS Pre, DS Pro, DS Pro Basic, and many other products.

What do you stand for?
Best sound at lowest possible cost, in solidly engineered products you’d be pleased to pass down to your children.

Do you seriously make your stuff in the USA?
Yep. We worked long and hard to get our designs and chassis so they could be assembled by first-world labor for prices similar to the Chinese. That’s why you won’t see a single wire in our products, and why our chassis are an ultra-simple (but cool-looking) two-part design.

But wouldn’t it be cheaper doing it in China?
Maybe. But we’re not going to find out.

Well, hell, all your parts are probably Chinese anyway, right?
Um, no. The majority of our parts, on a total cost basis, come from right here in the USA, from companies manufacturing their products in the USA. Most other parts are bought from US-based companies, but are manufactured all over the world. Notable exceptions are Valhalla’s tubes (Russia), and the Alps Blue Velvet pots (Japan.)

I have a question about a product you made at Theta or Sumo! Can I ask you?
We can’t support or comment on previous products, out of respect for the companies who currently do business under that name, or hold the brand name.

That’s all right, I have a question about a product you don’t make, or want to know how you think your products compare to the competition, or I want to know what cables you buy, can I ask you that?
Again, no. We don’t comment, publicly or privately, on competitive products, out of respect for the other manufacturers. We don’t engage in cable debates, either.

I’m sorry, I can’t take you guys seriously, what can I do?
That’s cool. Not everyone gets us. But ask yourself this: would you rather buy product from a soulless company that worries about how they can offend the minimum number of people in the world? If so, cool. There are lots of other manufacturers out there.