The journey to Fuchs Audio Technology began in my parents’ music store in Queens, NY. Both my parents were musicians and they instilled in me a love of music and a love and respect for electronics
As a teen, I tinkered with electronics in my parents’ basement, blowing the occasional circuit breaker and eliciting shouts of “what the heck happened” from my parents upstairs. Along the way I became a guitar and bass player and electronics and music joined hands, where they remain together today.
From there, I went out on the road as a working musician, gigging in countless bands, gaining a ton of experience which would help me to really understand what working musicians need. Besides performing, I got involved (inevitably) in repairing gear on the road and setting-up and running sound systems for the many bands I played with.
Fast forward through a career in sales for a security systems company and once I bought a home I was again: back in the basement ! I always enjoyed tinkering with repairs and building amps for myself and eventually for friends and local musicians. A good friend and fellow musician Augie Bono encouraged me to “run with it”. He helped me drill and punch chassis and provided emotional support and to this day, assists in the shop when needed (when not gigging with his Fuchs amps).
Gaining a reputation as a dependable repair guy, I met a lot of people and I repaired, and still repair, a lot of amps. I have seen it all and some of it ain’t pretty.
Eventually things got busy enough to move the company out of the house to a shop space in Bloomfield. We had run out of space in the house and it was time to run with the growth that joining the internet brought to our business. Our first shop had about 1500 square feet (about the size of our current showroom) which it took about a year to outgrow. We maintained an office in the house, I did R&D in the house until we then moved to our current location seven years ago which is 5000 sq feet and all our offices, warehousing and manufacturing were finally under one roof.
It was natural to look at circuit designs and think “what if… I were to do this a different way.”
I believe musicians do have expectations formed by years of playing similar RCA circuits from the 30’s and 40’s that formed the basis for Leo Fender’s amp designs.
While many companies like Mesa, Marshall and others also embraced these circuits, everyone tuned them their own ways to get the tones they wanted.
I spent a few years working for New York Audio Labs who built high end tube electronics for audiophiles.
During that time I realized and came to appreciate how the most smallest subtleties of wire and cable types, component types, chassis materials, single point grounding, and circuit layouts can advance tone and reduce noise by a quantum step.
Advances in solid state technology allowed DC tube filaments (for lower noise) easily.
Regulating the high voltage and lowering power supply noise was another advance that modern technology made easier. Applying this to tube audio circuits made more than subtle improvements to my ear.
Our products embody many technical and circuit innovations combined with time-honored circuits executed with the sole goal of providing a unique sonic experience that not only sounds great, but feels great to play!