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APTICON - Audio Technical Conference Featuring Tomlinson Holman, June 6-7, 2026, Burbank, CA/Online

GKTAUDIO

GKTAUDIO

So much to learn, so little time!
Subscriber
Announcing - Apticon – June 6 and 7, 2026 in Burbank, California!

This is a unique technical conference for audio engineers, restoration/service technicians, DIYers and others that is focused on Apt Corporation products, and Featuring Tomlinson Holman.

Tomlinson (Tom) Holman is renowned as an audio engineer, film theorist, inventor of the THX sound system, the 10.2 sound system, and has founded multiple companies, taught University classes, and worked at Advent, Apt (the company he founded), Lucasfilm, USC, TMH, Audyssey, and Apple in a wide range of roles. Please check out the career review of Tom on the Boston Audio Society YouTube site.

This conference will be the first and a unique opportunity to learn from Tom Holman many of the design philosophies and engineering behind the Apt Holman preamp and the Apt 1 power amp. Besides being a celebration of Tom’s 80th birthday, this will be a two-day event providing information useful to thinking about the design not just the Apt products, but of other audio products.

The Apt Holman preamplifier will be discussed on Day 1, Saturday, June 6. Tom’s and his team’s design goals and development will be explained, along with the various stages of the preamp down to the component selection level in some cases. A box lunch will be provided in the registration fee. The afternoon will be a preamp practicum moderated by Greg Tatarian, with panel members including Peter Williams (Quirk Audio), and other service/repair technicians, and one super-sophisticated user for the best radio station in the country.

On Sunday, Jun 7, Tom will discuss the Apt One power amp in depth, along with design philosophy of the various stages of the amp. Other details will include bench design principles, the DC servo, protection circuits, and many, many more features of the amps, followed by a lunch break. After lunch, a power amp practicum moderated by Greg Tatarian will feature Peter and other service techs.

Following the afternoon, those who wish to attend Tom’s 80th birthday celebration are invited at extra cost at another venue (TBD). SOLD OUT

You can attend Apticon in person on June 6 and 7, 2026, in Burbank, California. Please head to Apticon 2026 | Vintage Apt/Holman Audio Technology Conference- Register Now! for more information on registration fees. Post-conference online video is included in the in-person registration cost, or if you can’t attend in person, it can be purchased separately.

To register, please visit www.apticon.org and watch this thread for further information and developments, and to express your interest here on diyAudio. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Greg

Apticon 2026 | Vintage Apt/Holman Audio Technology Conference- Register Now!
 
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This conference will be the first and a unique opportunity to learn from the legendary Tom Holman himself, many of the design philosophies and engineering behind the Apt Holman preamp and the Apt 1 power amp.

Day is dedicated to the Apt Holman preamp, Day 2 is dedicated to the Apt 1 power amp. There will be practicums, on-site unit testing and evaluation, and more. Please see Post 1 above for more details, and sign up at:

Apticon 2026 | Vintage Apt/Holman Audio Technology Conference- Register Now!

There is a reduced-fee registration for videos of much of the conference material that will be made available after the event.

The Sunday night dinner has sold out, but there are still seats available for the 2-day conference.

For those who have already signed up, Tom has sent out a pre-conference package of documents that includes good scans of the Owner's and Service Manuals, product brochures, articles by Tom, and Apt advertisements. The Apt service and owner's documentation was and is still in a class of its own for detailed descriptions of circuit design, implementation, operation, diagnostics, and repair. Regarding the Apt 1 amplifier Service Manual that Tom Holman has included in the pre-conference document package; the only copy I've ever found online is missing several (about 8, I think) in the servicing/adjusting portion of the manual. Tom was able to obtain a complete manual for scanning at 600 dpi, so conference-attendees and post-conference video attendees receive that complete copy! If you haven't received yours, please check in at info@apticon.org.

Remember, although this is focused on Apt Corporation products, there will be huge value in what will be presented about audio preamp and amp design, particularly for those of us who restore and service vintage audio equipment. Also, there will be some fascinating history being shared, and much more.
 
GKTAUDIO said:
There is planned to be a clinic available, where participants can have their Apt/Holman preamps and/or Apt One amplifiers measured with Audio Precision and related equipment.
Click to expand...
Reminds me of the McIntosh clinics run by Dave O'Brien. A great opportunity for owners of Apt/Holman products!
 
Those must have been really interesting!

Yes, Apticon will be fun and interesting, I'm sure!
 
Someone just asked me; what is Apt Corporation, and who is Tomlinson Holman.

Well, a quick online search would have answered that, but to get him started, I pointed him here:
sound.krotosaudio.com

Tomlinson Holman Interview | Life, Career, and the Future of Sound

Tomlinson Holman, film theorist, audio engineer, and inventor of Lucasfilm THX sound system, takes us on a journey through his life...
sound.krotosaudio.com sound.krotosaudio.com
dghistory.org

Tomlinson Holman - Downers Grove Historical Society

Early Life and Education Tomlinson Holman is known the world over as an American film theorist, audio engineer, and inventor of film technologies, notably the THX sound system. Holman also […]
dghistory.org

And Tom didn't hang it up with past achievements. Here are some of his patents within just the last few years:
 
Regrettably we've had to cancel the clinic part (there were weasel words in the original releases) due to low participation. Also, my equipment to do it has had a failure and I don't know if it'll get fixed by the time of the conference. We will figure out what to do for those handful who wanted the clinic after it.
 
It was fantastic. My brain is still processing the information, conversations, stories, data, and design discussions. A huge breadth and depth of attendees, and an even wider range of birthday dinner celebrants, all representing generations of people whose entire lives and careers were shaped and enhanced by Tom.

I've worked on a fair number of Apt Holman preamps and Apt 1 amps, but there were nuggets of information regarding design philosophy that were explained in more detail to us all. I paid particular attention to some of the deeper dives into the Apt 1 amp - some details that I hadn't fully grasped before.

Tom's presentations in the first half of each day gave the history of his own influences in stereo design, shaping what he found to be the strengths and shortcomings of each. He talked about many aspects of the audio business in general, really showing how vibrant and wide-reaching audio appreciation was during those years. In the second half of each day, Peter and I talked about repairs, upgrades, common failure modes, new parts like my relay boards and good replacements for the phono JFETs, and much more. Saturday was the preamp, Sunday the amp. We even learned about how Apt was selected for a major local radio station - fascinating information in that presentation!

Before the event, Peter and I drove to Tom's shop to pick up equipment and supplies to be transported to Burbank, and getting a brief tour of the shelves that reflect fascinating points in time in the development of new audio inventions was a lot of fun.

There were so many highly talented, successful people helping put this together, with Tom in the role of director and producer. I can't recall any conference I've attended before this that had professional video, sound and lighting engineers - all of whom have known Tom for years, or decades. We're talking all the big companies Tom has owned or been involved with - Apt, TMH Labs, Audyssey, THX, Apple.

Those who signed up for the post-conference video will be pleased, I think.

Here are a couple of pics. This is the Apt Holman 2 - the more compact preamp with some refinements and changes. The preamp was designed by Frank Kampmann, and the phono stage by Tom, with some refinements from his earlier design. He also designed the switch buttons and lighting, and some other features.

Apt2a.jpg



Here is one slide showing the specs for the 9 various MC plug-in boards Tom designed for the Apt Holman.

Apt MC boards-a.jpg
 
OMG. I am very late and I hope the party was great!

Is there any documentation AT ALL on the MC pre-pre? - I have one that was included with my Preamp, but there was some damage to the circuit where it had been installed so I pulled it, replaced the jumpers, and have looked for anything at all besides what's on the pcb itself for like 15 years. The preamp works perfectly now but I'd love to be able to add it back in - the original damage looked like something that could have been caused by excessive current draw, which is why I've been reluctant to return it.

Will a nice copy of the Power Amp service manual be posted online somewhere? I just picked one up that has a bad channel and I'm statingto dig in.
 
GKTAUDIO said:
It was fantastic. My brain is still processing the information, conversations, stories, data, and design discussions. A huge breadth and depth of attendees, and an even wider range of birthday dinner celebrants, all representing generations of people whose entire lives and careers were shaped and enhanced by Tom.

I've worked on a fair number of Apt Holman preamps and Apt 1 amps, but there were nuggets of information regarding design philosophy that were explained in more detail to us all. I paid particular attention to some of the deeper dives into the Apt 1 amp - some details that I hadn't fully grasped before.

Tom's presentations in the first half of each day gave the history of his own influences in stereo design, shaping what he found to be the strengths and shortcomings of each. He talked about many aspects of the audio business in general, really showing how vibrant and wide-reaching audio appreciation was during those years. In the second half of each day, Peter and I talked about repairs, upgrades, common failure modes, new parts like my relay boards and good replacements for the phono JFETs, and much more. Saturday was the preamp, Sunday the amp. We even learned about how Apt was selected for a major local radio station - fascinating information in that presentation!

Before the event, Peter and I drove to Tom's shop to pick up equipment and supplies to be transported to Burbank, and getting a brief tour of the shelves that reflect fascinating points in time in the development of new audio inventions was a lot of fun.

There were so many highly talented, successful people helping put this together, with Tom in the role of director and producer. I can't recall any conference I've attended before this that had professional video, sound and lighting engineers - all of whom have known Tom for years, or decades. We're talking all the big companies Tom has owned or been involved with - Apt, TMH Labs, Audyssey, THX, Apple.

Those who signed up for the post-conference video will be pleased, I think.

Here are a couple of pics. This is the Apt Holman 2 - the more compact preamp with some refinements and changes. The preamp was designed by Frank Kampmann, and the phono stage by Tom, with some refinements from his earlier design. He also designed the switch buttons and lighting, and some other features.

Apt2a.jpg



Here is one slide showing the specs for the 9 various MC plug-in boards Tom designed for the Apt Holman.

Apt MC boards-a.jpg
Click to expand...
I'm not going to understand 99% of whats said but I'm registering for the videos. Wonder if Vince fm Audio Proz was there.
 
ToddM said:
Is there any documentation AT ALL on the MC pre-pre?
Click to expand...
There is a hand-drawn schematic out in the world but I don't know if it was from the factory. I can't recall if Tom showed that in one of his slides or not - so much going on.

ToddM said:
I've been reluctant to return it.
Click to expand...
Yes, don't until you've at least re-capped the MC board. Photograph it carefully beforehand, because in a couple of versions, the polarity of caps is deliberately reversed due to changes in the component layout. I've repaired a few of these now, and they are pretty robust as long as there wasn't a big voltage spike on the input - new caps seems to resolve any problems. If I recall they draw maybe 10-15mA when working properly.

ToddM said:
Will a nice copy of the Power Amp service manual be posted online somewhere?
Click to expand...
I believe digital copies were provided to in-person and post-conference registrants. There is a service manual online but it is missing a few pages. The one Tom provided is complete, and he may possibly upload it somewhere in the near future.
 
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