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The name
synonymous with high-end car audio throughout Japan has made its way
to the US!
An audiophile's
pursuit for the perfect sound brought forth the creation of
PHASS.
Today, the passion for music and the pursuit of perfect sound
continues to be the company's foundation and the biggest influence
behind every new PHASS
product.
Founder and CEO of
PHASS is Mr.
Shogo Kurokochi. He began by importing hi-fi audio equipment from
around the world and it was his relentless search for the perfect
sound that led to the creation of what some people call the finest car audio equipment in
the world. We simply call it Phass.
Interview:
The history of
PHASS goes back to the days when my engineer and I began to
develop the RE 2 amplifier in the Spring of 1994. With the completion of the
first model of RE 2 on December 1996, after many turns and twists,
we completed the only amplifier in the world which can function as
the constant current drive. Over 2 and half years had passed already
since the start of development. The memoried time PHASS was born is
December 1996. We started to sell RE 2 from then on. We had not
yet had a speaker line nor the less expensive AP series amplifier line at that time.
It was only later about a year later that we started to sell RES 213 & 217 2 way systems as the
first versions of Phass speakers from June 1997.
> What inspired you to build an amplifier such as the RE 2 when
there were already so many other high-end car amplifiers on the
market?
The motive of developing RE 2 is quite simple. When we planned to
develop the RE 2 we had not been able to find
satisfactory sound in any amplifiers in home hi-fi
amplifiers, much less car audio amplifiers that we had ever
listened to. This is the same motivation as the reason we developed
an alnico magnet speaker system. We decided to launch to develop
the authentic amplifier that can reproduce sound with natural tones that
are clear and detailed while being gentle and non-fatiguing to the
ear.
Firstly, we completed the prototype of RE 1 as the preamplifier, but
after that we cancelled its release because of its high cost.
Secondly we completed RE 2 as pre-main amplifier, then we newly
released it into car audio market. Therefore RE 2 is the name of
first model released into the
market instead of RE 1.
There have been many high price amplifiers
not concerned with the sound for a long time. Usually high price
amplifiers adopt many brilliant high price cosmetic parts which are
easy to appeal strongly to consumers and all they can do is to
increase the out put power, which has no bearing on the production
of good
sound. Most listeners are bored with hearing the same kind of sound from
same kind of mass produced Single Push Pull Amplifiers. We believe
the sound of audio amplifier should be more fun and more interesting.
When we completed RE 2 we had not had any other plans to sell
anything other than
RE series amplifiers because our company and engineers were
specialized to the hardware of this audio amplifier. We had not had
any experiences with audio speakers at that time. But the new appearance of RE 2
changed the circumstances around us. During proceedings with the
listening tests with combinations of RE 2 and any other speakers we had
begun to feel the dissatisfaction with well known speakers which
were getting good reviews. RE amplifiers make it easy to reveal the
speaker's abilities correctly. This means RE can drive every speakers
with better sound than the previous connected amplifier, but at the
same time RE
makes it easy to hear any defects that a speaker unit has. We then launched
on
an endless meandering way to develop good speakers.
> -Why did you decide to get into high-end car audio?
Naturally the price of constructed RE 2 became expensive since it
adopts originally developed parts, hi-end grade audio parts and
originally designed PCB etc... Accordingly RE 2 has entered into
true high end market naturally. But there is a big difference
between high price amplifier and RE series amplifier. Because RE was
not developed as the high end product from the beginning, only
pursuing the sound quality without compromise came out the expensive price
tag. This method is applied in speaker developing.
For creating good quality products it is necessary to use good
quality materials and good skilled techniques. These are naturally
few in number and expensive.
We never think our hi-end products are too expensive because
customers in the Japanese market who are using RE amps for over one year
praise RE's profound ability and they never get bored with them. It
makes them rediscover the pleasure of listening to music. Not many
people can say that about their car audio system after a prolonged
period of time! We are not starting to get similar feedback on the
AF 4.25 and A650 Alnico speakers.
Until now the standard of hi-end amplifiers and speakers was mainly
based on high wattage, multi function, brilliant cosmetics and
gorgeous packaging. There were no hi-end products main concerned
with the pursuit to reproduce good sound. They were developed to
serve their destiny as the decoration to the interior of the car. Currently car audio market
in Japan is on a critical moment. It is one of the reasons of the car audio
crisis that many enthusiasts bought such not-true hi-end products
before and have been disappointed as they can not expect the pleasant
music in car, and they never intend to buy hi-end
products again. We think there are still many people that want to listen
to music seriously
in the car by using car audio products not for decoration. We would
like to offer simple equipment to reproduce only music to
enthusiasts that love the art of music reproduction.
> -What inspired you to use Alnico Magnets for your speakers?
Before certainly, more expensive hi-end speakers existed in our
speaker line. But when I listened to it carefully, I felt the
plastic sound characteristics in the tone and the limits of ferrite
magnet. I thought that those sound characteristics are not suitable
for a hi-end product. As a matter of fact I do not prefer Chemical
cone material so much and, when compared to Alnico magnet, I do not prefer Neodymium magnet
personally since the sound balance is high and sound is a bit rough
while the sound characteristics of ferrite magnet is not dense in
comparison.
A
few decades ago, when famous speaker brands changed their magnet
materials of excellent speaker units from the standard Alnico to
ferrite people were shocked and disappointed in the differences of sound between
both magnets. I thought if I can offer opposite shock to
people it will leave a deep impression on them with an
audio speaker that can grasp the mind of many listeners who are
bored and
uninterested with the sound occupying the world market.
After finishing the development of the RES 2-way system (previous hi-end
model, which are excellent speakers) I intended to develop alnico
speaker products for the Spring of 2001 (every time, Spring ?! It is silly
season in Spring for me). But after launching to look for alnico
magnet I found out it is a very hard work. After 8 months we found
small pieces of alnico magnet just matched with tweeter, then we
completed AT 28 tweeter on April 2002 at last. At once I started to
develop alnico mid bass driver. The distance to completion of alnico
mid bass was
very long. There was much meandering on the way to our goal. In fact,
not all speaker Alnico magnet that is used can not reproduce good sound. In
earlier times, the forerunners of speaker engineers selected Alnico
magnet and 8 ohm construction as good materials
which can contribute to good sound by their skillful experiences
without any computer software applications. This truth is very
important and our base, we realized its inheritance again with great
respect.
> -what kind of software/machinery is used for Alnico development,
> design, and/or testing?
Until we decided the current aluminum basket design I have made
several types of speaker basket consist of one piece construction of
aluminum or stainless steel plate bended by machine. I selected one
prototype very close to current basket design from several prototype
basket. I personally designed the aluminum die casting basket,
magnet arrangement, magnetic circuit design and cone shape etc...
Every aspect of the speaker's design has been carefully tested and
redesigned many times so there is nothing faulty or defective in the
speakers design or performance.
I feel that the most effective equipment for measuring a speaker's
sound is the human ear and
brain. We repeated listening checks of A 650 prototypes for over one
year, repeatedly destroyed unsatisfactory prototypes and created new
prototypes. Indeed, the work has paid off!
Best Regards,
Shogo Kurokochi |
