naturallmyst
New Member
Recently I had the pleasure to visit Western Electric in Rossville Georgia. Visiting manufacturers is something I enjoy and have used those visits in the past to get a better feel for companies I may want to invest in. This time the visit was for pure pleasure as I am a great fan of the 300B tube. Western Electric has played a very important part in the history of audio reproduction, I expect anyone sincerely interested in the vacuum tube would find that history interesting. More on that in another post.
My visit began a few weeks before with a cold call to the main WE phone number. A pleasant receptionist connected me with Tim Walsh, Western Electric’s Chief Technology Officer. On that initial phone call Tim filled me in a bit on what is happening at Western Electric and welcomed my request for a visit.
Once I arrived at Western Electric, easy to find as it is the largest building in Rossville, Tim met me at the door. We then headed upstairs to meet Charles Whitener, CEO. A quick signing of a NDA and the fun began. I have worked with corporate leaders, CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, CAOs, etc most of my professional career and one observation I have made during that time is that the leadership influences the entire corporate structure. Seems obvious but it is a lesson that still needs to be learned by many a board of directors. In the case of WE this corporation is in very good hands. The years of technological experience, hands on design experience, troubleshooting, and management in this industry would be hard to find in most companies, that, combined with simply being a bunch of really great people sets the tone for this organization.
We began my little visit with Charles showing off some Western Electric historical items which included, tubes, Western Electric microphones, literature, original WE amplifiers, original vellum drawings of WE tubes, and numerous other items. Had I thought ahead I would have made a list! Fortunately there is some thought being given to a future WE Museum. It would be well worth a visit should that happen!
An important part of Western Electric’s business is military sales. I did get to see some of the tubes and testing equipment that WE builds for the military, but you guessed it right, I can’t write about that.
Tim and Charles then showed me some remarkable speaker technology WE is developing. I can safely say the world has never seen anything like it. A truly unique approach to driver technology. Again that is as much as I can say at this time.
We next went to the WE listening room and lab where I got to hear the latest WE 300b integrated amplifier, the 91E. It was definitely a prototype but I have to say an amazing sounding one. I currently own an Audio Nirvana 300B amplifier with KR Audio 300B balloon tubes, Northern Electric 6SL7 and 6SN7 driving Crites Cornscala Speakers, this combination still impresses me at each listening. Though I doubt I would get rid of my current set up, after hearing the the WE 91E prototype I’ve already started to budget for a future purchase. Oh what an amplifier!
WE has partnered with Gauder Akustik of Germany which makes the Berlina ceramic and diamond speaker systems. They are remarkable speakers driven by an amplifier, I can’t recall the manufacturer, it wasn’t a WE, but the system was a delight for the ears. The Berlina rc11, at a meer $264,000 retail, provide crystal clear highs, in front of your face mids, room filling precise lows, when my eyes were closed i felt teleported to the venue of the original recording.
At this point in the visit my head was already swimming with all that I had seen and heard, mercifully it was time for break. I was treated to a good southern blue plate diner luncheon before we finished up for the day.
Post luncheon our merry group went to visit the future “Rossville Works” production facility which is just a short drive from the corporate offices. Currently Charles is loading trucks at the WE Dalton warehouse as we speak. The empty room will start filling up this week! Though still a long way from a working factory it was great for me to see the before, can’t wait to see the after. I was delighted to find that WE chose to gut and repurpose an existing building which has been reengineered for and cleaned to clean room standards. There was a rather gigantic water deionization plant in place and an AC/air scrubber system, but that was all to see other than space, lots and lots of space. Once we had a good look see of the future production plant we went back to the office to wind down the visit.
My overall impressions can be stated simply. This is a quality group of people, with many years of technological experience in this field, building quality, zero compromise products, who give a enough of a damn about their reputation to earn it and their end users loyalty. Not once during my visit did I feel I was being ‘sold’, rather, I felt these folks were proud of their work and enjoyed showing it off to someone that had a genuine interest.
To be clear, I am not an employee nor investor in WE. Nor have I been given any products or remuneration. Until this visit I had only seen the announcement emails from WE I had signed up for and had not met nor spoken to anyone there. I’m simply sharing my visit. I’ll be going back in the fall for another visit. I’ll take notes then so I can provide more detail.
Since you have made it to the end of this little narrative you deserve a reward! This is a link to the WE knowledge base:
Western Electric - Technical Support and Knowledge Base
For those as interested in WE history itself this link will take you to some corporate history information:
Western Electric - Corporate History
You could spend a lifetime reading what is in these links. It was no small effort to gather, digitize, and organize this information and hopefully you will find it as fascinating as I am.
Lastly many thanks to Tim Walsh, Charles Whitener, EJ Christensen, Andy, and Cobi Boykin of Western Electric
My visit began a few weeks before with a cold call to the main WE phone number. A pleasant receptionist connected me with Tim Walsh, Western Electric’s Chief Technology Officer. On that initial phone call Tim filled me in a bit on what is happening at Western Electric and welcomed my request for a visit.
Once I arrived at Western Electric, easy to find as it is the largest building in Rossville, Tim met me at the door. We then headed upstairs to meet Charles Whitener, CEO. A quick signing of a NDA and the fun began. I have worked with corporate leaders, CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, CAOs, etc most of my professional career and one observation I have made during that time is that the leadership influences the entire corporate structure. Seems obvious but it is a lesson that still needs to be learned by many a board of directors. In the case of WE this corporation is in very good hands. The years of technological experience, hands on design experience, troubleshooting, and management in this industry would be hard to find in most companies, that, combined with simply being a bunch of really great people sets the tone for this organization.
We began my little visit with Charles showing off some Western Electric historical items which included, tubes, Western Electric microphones, literature, original WE amplifiers, original vellum drawings of WE tubes, and numerous other items. Had I thought ahead I would have made a list! Fortunately there is some thought being given to a future WE Museum. It would be well worth a visit should that happen!
An important part of Western Electric’s business is military sales. I did get to see some of the tubes and testing equipment that WE builds for the military, but you guessed it right, I can’t write about that.
Tim and Charles then showed me some remarkable speaker technology WE is developing. I can safely say the world has never seen anything like it. A truly unique approach to driver technology. Again that is as much as I can say at this time.
We next went to the WE listening room and lab where I got to hear the latest WE 300b integrated amplifier, the 91E. It was definitely a prototype but I have to say an amazing sounding one. I currently own an Audio Nirvana 300B amplifier with KR Audio 300B balloon tubes, Northern Electric 6SL7 and 6SN7 driving Crites Cornscala Speakers, this combination still impresses me at each listening. Though I doubt I would get rid of my current set up, after hearing the the WE 91E prototype I’ve already started to budget for a future purchase. Oh what an amplifier!
WE has partnered with Gauder Akustik of Germany which makes the Berlina ceramic and diamond speaker systems. They are remarkable speakers driven by an amplifier, I can’t recall the manufacturer, it wasn’t a WE, but the system was a delight for the ears. The Berlina rc11, at a meer $264,000 retail, provide crystal clear highs, in front of your face mids, room filling precise lows, when my eyes were closed i felt teleported to the venue of the original recording.
At this point in the visit my head was already swimming with all that I had seen and heard, mercifully it was time for break. I was treated to a good southern blue plate diner luncheon before we finished up for the day.
Post luncheon our merry group went to visit the future “Rossville Works” production facility which is just a short drive from the corporate offices. Currently Charles is loading trucks at the WE Dalton warehouse as we speak. The empty room will start filling up this week! Though still a long way from a working factory it was great for me to see the before, can’t wait to see the after. I was delighted to find that WE chose to gut and repurpose an existing building which has been reengineered for and cleaned to clean room standards. There was a rather gigantic water deionization plant in place and an AC/air scrubber system, but that was all to see other than space, lots and lots of space. Once we had a good look see of the future production plant we went back to the office to wind down the visit.
My overall impressions can be stated simply. This is a quality group of people, with many years of technological experience in this field, building quality, zero compromise products, who give a enough of a damn about their reputation to earn it and their end users loyalty. Not once during my visit did I feel I was being ‘sold’, rather, I felt these folks were proud of their work and enjoyed showing it off to someone that had a genuine interest.
To be clear, I am not an employee nor investor in WE. Nor have I been given any products or remuneration. Until this visit I had only seen the announcement emails from WE I had signed up for and had not met nor spoken to anyone there. I’m simply sharing my visit. I’ll be going back in the fall for another visit. I’ll take notes then so I can provide more detail.
Since you have made it to the end of this little narrative you deserve a reward! This is a link to the WE knowledge base:
Western Electric - Technical Support and Knowledge Base
For those as interested in WE history itself this link will take you to some corporate history information:
Western Electric - Corporate History
You could spend a lifetime reading what is in these links. It was no small effort to gather, digitize, and organize this information and hopefully you will find it as fascinating as I am.
Lastly many thanks to Tim Walsh, Charles Whitener, EJ Christensen, Andy, and Cobi Boykin of Western Electric
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