Justus sends greetings from CT USA!

[Justus]

Hi guys,

I literally just stumbled upon the WBF and I cannot for the life of me understand why it has taken so long!
I love the layout, setup, etc. Thank you Amirm and Steve for managing it.

Anyway, I am originally from The Netherlands and came to the USA in 1996.
I am a neuroscientist researching the sense of smell, taste and together, flavor.
I love the work and try to be at the cutting edge technically.
I've lived in CT for 6 yrs now with my wife and dog, and love the space and people.

All that space also allows for my man cave, with some room for developing my labors of love (serious subwoofers and surround recording gear) which I sell under the PurestMusic brand.
My "goal" in the great audio hobby is to evoke the sense of being there, and helping others to achieve that.
I hence am way into the multichannel camp, as well as ambiophonics.
I further believe reproduction systems should allow realistic SPLs, bandwidth, psychoacoustical transparency/flatness.
In my mind 95% of audio limitations are either with the input side (recording methods) or output side (loudspeaker-room).
I wrote several articles for Speakerbuilder/AUdioXpress (on a "stacked plates" free-form woofer cabinet and diy ribbon loudspeaker) and also a ('the") book on Ribbon Loudspeakers.
I also try to record when I get a chance, multichannel of course.

Anyway, hope we have interesting interactions.
I am always open to learn!


My inspiration among many others (while I suck at names...):
Ralph Glasgall
Leslie Williams
Dr. Roger West
Kalman Rubinson
John Marks
Joe D'Appolito
Siegfried Linkwitz
Gunther Theile
Martin Colloms
Atkinson
Floyd Toole
Ethan Winer
et al....

 

[steve williams]

Great bio Justus and welcome to WBF.

FWIW I noticed that your list of people who inspired you includes 4 who are members here

 

[Justus]

Great bio Justus and welcome to WBF.

FWIW I noticed that your list of people who inspired you includes 4 who are members here

Sweet!

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Welcome Justus! Nice to see another "nederlander" join the forum! I think there are about a half-dozen regular participants. What made you decide to get into product manaufacturing?

 

[Justus]

Many thanks John!
Your last name hints at a Dutch heritage?

I went into manufacturing mostly b/c it allows me to fill an audio niche at highly competitive price-points, i.e. making hi-end available for those not into DIY and who don't want to spend hi-end crazy prices.
In turn, this supports the R&D I love to do, so, it's a win-win deal. The four 15" subwoofer is something fairly unique I think (though not particularly hard to make if one has time and resources...).

The next product is a line-source, ESL with 32 5.5" drivers. Still working out the final shape...115dB 80-1000 Hz <1% THD&IMD when eq-ed flat is the target. I like headroom, like it exists in real music.

How did you guys startup the WBF? IS there a thread detailing it? Thanks for doing such!!! De groetjes, Justus

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Was born in Den Bos, but moved to Canada at an early age (13). Lived in Haarlem, Hoogvliet and Waalwijk. Very much Canadian now, but have a strong attachment to home. Hup! Hup! Funny ja? I still call it home!

I wish you much success with PurestMusic as competition pushes innovation, which benefits us all. We have several manufacturers here who post regularly, so you Sir are in fine company.

I'd also love to hear a little more about how WBF came about, should Amir and Steve be inclined to openly share that with us.

 

[GaryProtein]

. . . . I further believe reproduction systems should allow realistic SPLs, bandwidth, psychoacoustical transparency/flatness.
In my mind 95% of audio limitations are either with the input side (recording methods) or output side (loudspeaker-room). . . .

I completely agree.

 

[Justus]

Was born in Den Bos, but moved to Canada at an early age (13). Lived in Haarlem, Hoogvliet and Waalwijk. Very much Canadian now, but have a strong attachment to home. Hup! Hup! Funny ja? I still call it home!

I wish you much success with PurestMusic as competition pushes innovation, which benefits us all. We have several manufacturers here who post regularly, so you Sir are in fine company.

I'd also love to hear a little more about how WBF came about, should Amir and Steve be inclined to openly share that with us.

Thank you John! You mention Haarlem, I was born and raised there! It is a very nice place. If you like good food -wow! Try "Truffels". I guess you might still be into soccer "voetbal"? I always watch the Euro and world cup.
USA has gotten so much more involved, thats great too. WHat about Canada? I figured you have something to do with starting WBF, given the "founding member" under your name? I guess a late-founder? Have a great weekend!

 

[Justus]

I completely agree.

Nice speakers! I'm a firm believer of linesources.

 

[treitz3]

Hello and good morning to you, Justus. I'd like to offer you a warm welcome to the WBF. Glad to you aboard!

Tom

 

[GaryProtein]

Nice speakers! I'm a firm believer of linesources.

Thank you! They have given me untold hours of pleasure!

 

[amirm]

Let me add my warm welcome to you also Justus. I am not dutch but sometimes I feel that way given how many times I have been there . When I was working in the pro/broadcast video field, the latest international conference for it was called IBC and it is held in Amsterdam. So at least once a year I would go there for that.

As to the question of how or why we started WBF, it reminded me that we have never said that publicly. So here is a quick version.

A number of us were members of one of the most well known AV Forums in US. There, they had created a high-end subforum where folks with expensive gear could discuss such. It was "the" place to hang with others of similar interest. Well, that came to an end when a few individuals arrived there with no interest in high-end anything, ownership or otherwise. Thread after thread was derailed with, "what do you mean you want to know about this amp? It is all a rip off and you should just buy this cheap AVR." Folks would engage them and next thing you know, it was a food fight. Emboldened by the attention the few were getting, they went at it to the max with *every* audio thread derailed in the exact same way. Name calling was far more prevalent than any discussion of audio. Even when posters created a thread saying that they only wanted to discuss subjective things that others would consider stupid, non-scientific, etc., the few posters would get in the same way. As a result, ever thread would get closed by mods and nothing was getting done.

One senior member had enough and made a public threat that he was going to create a new forum and hang out there if new rules were not put in place to stop the above. Well, nothing came about as far as change, and the person went ahead and created a forum as he had said. Overnight, everyone, and I mean just about everyone who cared about high-end audio left that forum and joined the new. Steve and I were asked to be moderators and we accepted.

All was going well but then it started to get strange. The forum owner started to ask us unnatural things. For me, it was to not post elsewhere or else I could not be a mod. I said fine, take me out because I have interests in wide area of topics and won't be monogamous that way. I won't talk about the fall out with Steve but suffice it to say, his turn came next. Once both of us lost our mod status, membership questioned that and it was the beginning of end for that forum.

Steve then approached me to ask if I was interested in recreating that type of forum on our own as we both firmly believed that there had to be a place on the Internet where respect and sharing information was more important than personal abuse. It is what fueled the new forum above and so we had good proof that there was a vacuum there, both for people in general, and for Steve and I personally. We wanted to create a place where you would not "have a bad day" just because you dropped by to have a discussion with fellow audiophiles.

While thinking about the concept, I thought it may make sense to bring about an idea I had for some 15 years. Which was to talk about the best of everything, and not just audio. Whether it is cars, photography, food or tools, it would be nice to get advice from others we trust in our other hobbies. Steve loved the idea and the foundation for what you see was born. We also wanted a strong foundation in science so thought about creating the expert subforums.

We still had a lot of work to do as neither one of us had run a forum before. We spent a couple of months researching the field, finding good software, hosting partner and customizing it to our liking.

We then invited a select group of people we felt would be passionate about this concept. You see this in their title as "WBF Founding Member." They were instrumental in giving us early feedback and helping make WBF forum a destination for the "best of everything."

The concept worked and here we are. Thanks to everyone's contributions, traffic is growing and we set new records every couple of months. It validates that there was a need for a place like this.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Thanks for posting that Amir!

I was invited here by Rich in the early days and I haven't stopped coming here. At first I felt kind of awkward as I don't nearly have the level of knowledge and pedigree of equipment most of our members enjoy, but I stuck with it. Steve then asked me to become a Mod to cover Entry-Level Equipment. A while later a restructuring was implemented that I fully supported and Moderation was handed over to a few key individuals that became Super Mods. We've had some changes after that as well.

I've been a member of most of the audio boards floating about for many years, but there are few I actively participate in. WBF is one of them. I have learned more about audio and all things related to it from here than I ever have anywhere else. The class and maturity of the members is beyond reproach (although we have our moments) and I feel very much a part of a community. To use a word that Steve has expressed...most people here are "mensches". I love this place!

 

[treitz3]

Hello, Amir and thank you for that. With that said, I'd like to take the time to thank each and every one of the Founding Members for helping to start such a wonderful forum, along with Steve and Amir for all of the hard work done to build and provide such a wonderful place to discuss higher-end audio in a friendly manner without the level of angst and bickering that other forums tend to provide. It truly is one great concept and I'm personally glad to see it come into fruition and work so well.

Tom

 

[edorr]

Thank you John! You mention Haarlem, I was born and raised there! It is a very nice place. If you like good food -wow! Try "Truffels". I guess you might still be into soccer "voetbal"? I always watch the Euro and world cup.
USA has gotten so much more involved, thats great too. WHat about Canada? I figured you have something to do with starting WBF, given the "founding member" under your name? I guess a late-founder? Have a great weekend!

Small world. I was born and raised in Haarlem myself. Moved to Amsterdam at the age of 21 after 2 year stint in Delft. Then moved to the USA 12 years. Remember opening the windows of my canalhouse on the Keizersgracht, blasting loud music from my Klipschhorns on queensday. How things have changed since I moved to the suburbs of Atlanta...

 

[Justus]

Amir,

thanks so much for the history of WBF. QUite some turbulence!
Glad to see WBF remains mostly free of it.

WOuldnt it be nice to make that available as a sticky somehwere?
Thanks again!
J

 

[Justus]

Small world. I was born and raised in Haarlem myself. Moved to Amsterdam at the age of 21 after 2 year stint in Delft. Then moved to the USA 12 years. Remember opening the wHey indows of my canalhouse on the Keizersgracht, blasting loud music from my Klipschhorns on queensday. How things have changed since I moved to the suburbs of Atlanta...

Hey Ed,

I left at 24, and also put my ESS speakers out of my windows on a canal some summer day...that wasnt appreciated much. WHat';s not to like about The Doors?

 

[JackD201]

I'm not dutch but I was in Amsterdam for a couple of days the end of last month. Hope to be there again next October for ADE.

Amir, do you mean the site with the endless monologues? LOL!

 

[amirm]

Amir, do you mean the site with the endless monologues? LOL!

That's the one .