Remembering Arnie Nudell (1937-2017) founder of high-end audio

[garylkoh]

I first met Arnie in April 2002, when I visited him to try to convince him to build me a pair of Genesis 1's after his company closed down the previous year. He cooked us both lunch at home - a wonderful seafood risotto - and ended up convincing ME to purchase the assets and inventory of Genesis from the bank that had foreclosed on Genesis Technologies.

Genesis Advanced Technologies was started less than 4 months later with a manufacturing facility in Seattle, WA and we set up a lab for Arnie to continue with his design work in Eagle, CO. I hired Arnie as the Chief Scientist, where he worked until his retirement in 2006.

Through Genesis, his legacy lives on. We continue to push the state-of-the-art and develop and innovative products on the foundation that Arnie built: the servo-controlled woofer, the four-tower line-source loudspeaker systems, the ribbon midrange and ribbon tweeters, and most of all the focus on music first.

Rest in Peace, Arnie.

 

[jeff1225]

Great story Gary. Thank you for sharing.

 

[marty]

I am saddened by his loss. Anyone who cut their teeth as an audiophile in the 70s and 80s surely knows the debt we have to Arnie Nudell. Like all great leaders of the field, he always strived to push the boundaries. He had some spectacular hits (and a few failures) along the way but a defining moment for me was hearing his magnum opus IRS system at Lyric in NY. I didn't have a pot to pee in then, but after some brief conversation, Mike Kay could see I that I "got it" and was gracious enough to play an Itzhak Perlman master tape on the IRS in the "inner sanctum sanctorum" back room that few were allowed to enter. His only reward? The look on my face. He knew he made a high end convert right then and there and indeed he did. I never forgot it and never will. God, I miss those days.

 

[garylkoh]

Yes, Mike Kay was one of those special people in the industry too. If it weren't for him, Mark Levinson and Arnie Nudell wouldn't have got off the starting blocks.

 

[microstrip]

Infinity IRS Beta's were the first "really large speakers" I have listened, at a friends home in the late 80's. Until then I only dreamed about the extreme exotic high-end speakers - although there were some rumors about a mysterious pair of IRS V's existing some where in the landscapes of the south of the country. They opened my views concerning scale and bass dynamics and articulation, and every time I visited him to listen to his system developments my admiration for the IRS Beta's grew. More than once I felt tempted by them, but soon realized that I did not have the space and conditions for such speaker system.

It is great to know Arnie Nudell legacy is the hands of Gary, and although many people will refer to this sad day as the end of an era, it is just a sad day of a great ever going adventure.

 

[BruceD]

Tis a sad day indeed--I recall when I worked at Electro Research Corp--I used to visit Infinity ogling at Arnies black Porsche Turbo Ha!!

Enjoyed chatting to Jon Urlick Arnie allowed Jon to assemble me a DSP Switching Amp--I always remember that accom' with respect and gratitude.

Yes Kudos to Gary for keeping on with the legacy-- long may he reign

BruceD

 

[DaveyF]

RIP Arnie Nudell.

I too fondly remember the first time I heard the Infinity IRS Beta's. I couldn't believe how they did some things that no other speaker I had heard were capable of.

 

[steve williams]

Sad news indeed Gary. I didn't't realize Arnie served as Chief Scientist with you

Thanks for sharing

 

[marty]

Tis a sad day indeed--I recall when I worked at Electro Research Corp--I used to visit Infinity ogling at Arnies black Porsche Turbo Ha!!

Enjoyed chatting to Jon Urlick Arnie allowed Jon to assemble me a DSP Switching Amp--I always remember that accom' with respect and gratitude.

Yes Kudos to Gary for keeping on with the legacy-- long may he reign

BruceD

Electro Research of Jon Iverson fame? Wow. Did you ever get to meet/interact w Jon while he had his space ship parked here on earth?

 

[BruceD]

Electro Research of Jon Iverson fame? Wow. Did you ever get to meet/interact w Jon while he had his space ship parked here on earth?

Sure!--I helped Build it--I slept on the Couch with the Neutron Density Bombarder Force Fields fizzing away in the rear!

I'm still on this earth--praise the Lord!

BruceD

 

[Ron Resnick]

My Infinity IRS V at Lyric story is identical to Marty's story.

I became interested in high-end audio in 1988 when, on a quiet Tuesday afternoon, I walked into Lyric Hi-Fi, dressed like and looking clearly like a student unable to buy fancy stereo stuff. Nonetheless Mike Kay played for me in his main reference room Reference Recordings' Symphonie Fantastique on the Goldmund Reference turntable, with Jadis JA-200 amplifiers driving Infinity IRS V speakers. This was my first "religious experience" of an audio nature, and I was hooked!

The IRS V is certainly an iconic design, and one which thankfully lives today through Gary's Genesis Technologies.

 

[marty]

Sure!--I helped Build it--I slept on the Couch with the Neutron Density Bombarder Force Fields fizzing away in the rear!

I'm still on this earth--praise the Lord!

BruceD

I beleive am one of the very fortunate few who has heard the Force Fields, Although they didn't play much above 85 dB, they may have been the finest speakers I ever heard. I'm pretty sure Russ blogged about the experience somewhere. Ah, found it! Posts 122 and 125.

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...eaker-you-have-ever-heard&p=434049#post434049

Iverson was one strange cat, no doubt about it.

 

[Simon Moon]

Sad to hear about this.

As a budding audiophile, I used to ride my bike to the Infinity factory, and make myself annoying to all.

I owned several different Infinity speakers in my early days.

Later on, I worked part time (while I was in college) at a high end shop (Absolute Audio in Woodland Hills, Ca). We were a dealer for John Iverson's Electro Kinetics. He would make regular visits to the store. He would usually hang out for quite a while, and regale us with some 'interesting', and somewhat cryptic, stories. He was probably in the store just days or weeks before he disappeared.

 

[BruceD]

Yes I got to know Jon well--the quirks and foibles and an ego albeit one crying out for recognition--he was always asking what people thought of him.

I am aware of the Mel Schilling connection among others--I could write a lot about what I saw and garnered during that time late 70's early 80's.

The Sound Advice Interview with him is quite interesting an insight into what and why he was.

But that's for another time

This thread is for remembrance of Arnie N (RIP)

BruceD

 

[Ron Resnick]

Posted by Paul McGowan on his blog:

http://www.psaudio.com/pauls-posts/arnie-nudell/


Arnie Nudell

It is with a heavy heart I report to you that my dear friend, mentor, inspiration, and partner, Arnie Nudell, passed away last week from complications of pneumonia. He slipped away at peace and wasn’t in any pain.

In 1968 nuclear physicist Nudell, engineer John Ulrick, and cabinet maker Carrie Christie formed one of the most famous loudspeaker companies in the world, Infinity. I first met Arnie at the insistence of my friend (and another mentor) Harry Pearson. HP was concerned for me. The fact I was listening to speakers he did not approve of was too much for Harry and he made arrangements for Stan and me to meet Arnie Nudell of Infinity Loudspeaker fame. It proved to be a fateful moment that changed my life and that of my family. I will forever be in Arnie Nudell’s debt.

Arnie loved music but I suspect he loved the art of reproducing it most. He was obsessed with high-performance audio. Even in his last few days of life, he could not shake it. When PS engineer Darren Meyers visited Arnie in the hospital—and he had just come out of sedation—the only thing Arnie wanted to talk about was HiFi, his deteriorating physical condition seemed a distant second of conversation.

He wanted nothing more than to finish the work he had started with Darren, Bascom and I, to build his next generation of loudspeakers—a project we had been working on with him for more than the last year—a request we shall carry forward with in his memory.

Arnie’s passing was the end of an era that became audio’s golden age, where musical truth and the absolute sound was its guiding light.

Arnie Nudell will be missed.

Arnie’s son, David, has reserved the website domain www.arnienudell.com. There’s nothing there to see now, but over time we will help the family build a website where his friends and fans can post their thoughts about Arnie, Infinity, and what he brought to the world of music and its reproduction. We will endeavor to list all the speakers he had designed and perhaps form a small community of like-minded people who share updates, mods, schematics, ideas, and all things relevant to this man’s enormous body of work.

We all know we’re not going to make it out this world alive, yet deep down inside none of us actually believe it. I certainly never thought Arnie would slip away from us. He was the toughest son of a bitch I ever met. And the most generous too.

See you, man.

If you want to know more about Arnie from his own lips I had the good fortune of interviewing him a few months ago for a new podcast series I was planning on launching someday, called Ohm’s Law. While I haven’t had the time to put the series together yet I can certainly make available the interview which has never been made public.

You can hear the entire interview (about 20 minutes) by clicking the link.

http://5bbd05afd3e2e6fdc44b-c5d6c9a....r96.cf2.rackcdn.com/Arnie Nudell Podcast.mp3

 

[Mobiusman]

I am saddened by his loss. Anyone who cut their teeth as an audiophile in the 70s and 80s surely knows the debt we have to Arnie Nudell. Like all great leaders of the field, he always strived to push the boundaries. He had some spectacular hits (and a few failures) along the way but a defining moment for me was hearing his magnum opus IRS system at Lyric in NY. I didn't have a pot to pee in then, but after some brief conversation, Mike Kay could see I that I "got it" and was gracious enough to play an Itzhak Perlman master tape on the IRS in the "inner sanctum sanctorum" back room that few were allowed to enter. His only reward? The look on my face. He knew he made a high end convert right then and there and indeed he did. I never forgot it and never will. God, I miss those days.

One comment Marty did not make on that day at Lyric was Mike Kay standing outside the "inner sanctum sanctorum" holding a threatening looking key to a massive industrial freezer door that was the entrance to the room, with a feed-up look on his face when I asked a naive question and said, "you know I forget more audio each day than you will ever know." While he was probably correct, it did not take away from how spectacular the Perlman sounded on the system.

 

[GMKF]

I'am also very saddened by his passing.
He truely changed the world in a positive way.
In my opinion this is the highest life goal achievable.

But I can't wait to see and hear the PS-Audio/Nudell speakers

 

[JackD201]

In this age where badges of the great brands of yore are slapped onto plastic bluetooth and outdoor speakers, it is a testament to the man that not one, but two people in Gary and Paul are carrying along his vision.

Rest in Peace Mr. Nudell

 

[garylkoh]

At least Arnie will have his legacy continued. If it were a company run by bankers and accountants who got the brand and technology, we all know what would have happened.

 

[jadis]

Thanks for letting us remember Arnold Nudell, Gary, and very happy to see you continue the legacy of one of my foremost audio idols. The IRS has been like Mt. Everest to me and the closest thing I've owned was the RS3B, two models lower than the RS1b, at that time the 'Baby IRS'. My biggest regret was not to buy the IRS Beta when it was right of me then but that's life. I still keep some audio catalogs from Infinity for good memories.







And below, a Genesis 2 loudspeaker system (if I'm not mistaken) in Manila.