In 1966, two avid audiophile/music lovers&mdash;a nuclear physicist named Arnold Nudell and an airline pilot named Cary Christie&mdash;labored over weekends and evenings for 18 months in Nudell's garage to put together the world's first hybrid electrostatic/dynamic loudspeaker system. It cost them $5000 for materials, launched a company (New Technology Enterprises), and helped contribute to the popular myth that all of the really <I>important</I> audiophile manufacturers got started in somebody's basement or garage (footnote 1). The system was marketed as the Servo-Statik I, for the princely sum of $1795. (At the time, the most expensive loudspeaker listed in <I>Stereo Review</I>'s "Stereo/Hi-Fi Directory" was JBL's "Metregon," at $1230.)

In 1966, two avid audiophile/music lovers&mdash;a nuclear physicist named Arnold Nudell and an airline pilot named Cary Christie&mdash;labored over weekends and evenings for 18 months in Nudell's garage to put together the world's first hybrid electrostatic/dynamic loudspeaker system. It cost them $5000 for materials, launched a company (New Technology Enterprises), and helped contribute to the popular myth that all of the really <I>important</I> audiophile manufacturers got started in somebody's basement or garage (footnote 1). The system was marketed as the Servo-Statik I, for the princely sum of $1795. (At the time, the most expensive loudspeaker listed in <I>Stereo Review</I>'s "Stereo/Hi-Fi Directory" was JBL's "Metregon," at $1230.)

Dear Diary:

Dear Diary:

Dear Diary:

Dear Diary:

Dear Diary:

Richard Vandersteen doesn't look like a typical loudspeaker designer. True, he wears glasses, but his presence suggests a longshoreman or somebody who'd be played by Gene Hackman. And sure enough, he tells you in a quasi-<I>Dukes of Hazzard</I> drawl that he's been a construction worker, plumber, truckdriver, and electrician. Electronics had always been a hobby, but Vandersteen formalized his understanding by working in electronics during his stint in the Air Force. Back in civilian life, Vandersteen entered into speaker manufacture, producing the "baffleless" range, at least regarding the midrange driver and tweeter, which bears his name. The speakers, particualrly the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/914">Model 2</A> and its <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/284">variants</A&gt;, have become, in a decade, one of America's most respected brands, despite RV's low-profile marketing techniques. I met with Richard at the Las Vegas CES in January and asked him what had got him started in loudspeaker design.

Richard Vandersteen doesn't look like a typical loudspeaker designer. True, he wears glasses, but his presence suggests a longshoreman or somebody who'd be played by Gene Hackman. And sure enough, he tells you in a quasi-<I>Dukes of Hazzard</I> drawl that he's been a construction worker, plumber, truckdriver, and electrician. Electronics had always been a hobby, but Vandersteen formalized his understanding by working in electronics during his stint in the Air Force. Back in civilian life, Vandersteen entered into speaker manufacture, producing the "baffleless" range, at least regarding the midrange driver and tweeter, which bears his name. The speakers, particualrly the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/914">Model 2</A> and its <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/284">variants</A&gt;, have become, in a decade, one of America's most respected brands, despite RV's low-profile marketing techniques. I met with Richard at the Las Vegas CES in January and asked him what had got him started in loudspeaker design.

In my <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/1005fifth">October column</A>, I began putting together a stereo system for a hypothetical high-school music teacher who wanted to reproduce in his or her home perhaps 80% of the frequency range and dynamics of live music, but who wanted to spend only about 20% of what an ambitious audio system would cost.