
The Purple Audio Story
Purple Audio was started by Andrew Roberts in 1997 to
manufacture new product.
Andrew came to New York 1994 to attend the NYU music
technology program. Soon after coming to New York Andrew became involved in
buying and selling recording equipment and began doing repairs and wiring work
in his dorm room. In the fall of 1996, Andrew met John Klett and was invited to
join a new repair shop in midtown Manhattan. This shop, dubbed Tech Mecca, was
the new location for Manhattan Audio, a large repair facility and wiring
company and Klett's new midtown home. Andrew began to repair high end gear
there and became an apprentice to Klett. By the fall of 1997 Purple had
introduced the MC76. Soon after Purple Audio's inaugural AES show Purple needed
more space, so Andrew moved to a loft in Long Island City, Queens. This large
space provided overflow space for Tech Mecca's large projects.
Paretti Hall, AKA Exile in the 1940s
Purple Audio spent the late 90s and early 00s shipping the
MC76 and getting involved in console and tape machine rebuild projects. Andrew
studied analog circuit and logic design, seeing it in practice during field
service calls to major studios in the area. He attempted to launch a new
product, the Eyeball, but got tripped up trying to make it MIDI compatible.
None were ever shipped. During this time sales of the MC76 started to drop off
as a result of a new competitor. This eventually turned around as the
competitors ad campaign increased awareness of the product and users' experience
showed that the Purple Audio product was clearly superior.
During this period Purple went though a few distrubution
methods and finally began selling direct and through a very select list of
dealers.
Then began a long process in console design. Andrew designed
a couple of large master sections which were retrofitted into existing
consoles. The master sections went through several design revisions before the
Super 8 modules were designed. The process resulted in opamps and a mic preamp
design that later became the Biz. Eventually Purple delivered 16 channel
portable rigs and a 32 channel full blown console.
In 2006 Andrew started a year long transition to move to
Pennsylvania, starting with buying and rebuiding a 1860s house in historic Jim
Thorpe, PA. Then finding and building a shop. In February 2007 Purple Audio
moved to its new home in Weissport, PA. Renting 1000 sq ft in a 50K sq ft
industrial complex. The shop in New York still exists and is the home of Coral
Sound, Exile Studios, Technical Audio, & Eisen Audio.
The shop in Weissport, PA
After the move to Weissport, PA, Andrew was freed from the
distractions of New York, Exile, and repair work. This allowed him to focus on
the design work that he had been looking forward to.
Late 2007 saw Andrew finishing the design for the Action,
Cans, Pants, Sweet Ten for the AES show and getting production of these going
in the first few months of 2008. Purple Audio product is now built by a
contract manufacturing company in the Allentown area, and tested, burned in,
and shipped out of the Weissport shop.
Over the years Andrew has received much input from
colleagues and former employees.
Continued design consulting from:
- Ed Anderson - Designer of the Purple ODD & TAV EQ
- Jens Jungkurth - Eisen Audio
- John Klett - Tech Mecca
- Dan Zellman - Zeltec R&D
- Matt Marinelli - Coral Sound
- Noah Murphy - MMT/YPD
www.purpleaudio.com/