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Hello, my name is Jac van de Walle, I was born in Holland, and I have been an electronics enthusiast ever since I was a kid. I finished my graduation in electronics in 1984, and started my first job in R&D, designing Analog to Digital converters and switched power supplies. In 1986, I went to Germany to start working for Hewlett Packard, as an Application Engineer, and later as a field sales engineer. In have stayed with HP until 2000, when they split in Agilent and Hewlett Packard. I then took a job at the Agilent Medical Division, and later at the Optical Components Division. I left Agilent in 2003, to focus on my own company, JAC- Music. JAC-Music was founded in 1993, originally as a hobby, building 845 based SE amplifiers. In 1994 I got in contact with the AVVT Electron Tubes company by coincidence. I kept in touch, and in 1998 they asked me to do their worldwide distribution. I agreed, and at that time the business was very small, and there were only three tubes in the program: 300B, 32B an 52B. For me this was just for the interest I had in it, and the business was only small. I convinced Alesa Vaic to expand his product range, and we went through a very innovative period. We were the first to re-issue a single plate 2A3 tube, and mesh tubes, and other nice tubes like the AD1, PX4, PX25, and the 274A. Today, you can buy a new made single plate 2A3 from several factories, but we were actually the FIRST to re-issue it. That was in the first days of the internet, and we were so happy we could gather inputs from people on the rec.audio.tubes Usenet forum, which was free at that time, and "the" medium to publish your information. It may seem hard to believe, but having a website came later. We didn't know exactly how to build a 2A3, so we started with a modified 300B but we couldn't get the characteristics like a real 2A3. Later we changed the construction to get a true 2A3. This was the first single plate 2A3 build ever since the big companies stopped with it, in the 1950's. No tube company had that tube available. Think of this while you can buy a 2A3 now from China, and Russia, and from Yugoslavia, that the first re-issue 2A3 I had on my desk made by AVVT. It looks terrible, but it works good. This tube is some piece of HiFi history! Quickly after that, we made a mesh version, with real 2A3 characteristics, and it was the first re-issued MESH 2A3 tube, that we made that way. I still have this tube, it looks very nice, and it works perfect. It's a milestone of today's Retro-Tube-Technology. This was the first mesh tube ever re-build again, and we never changed anything fundamental to the design of that tube. The initial ideas for a mesh tube came from some of our friends from the New York tube scene. (thanks Dave Slagle!) Today, there are many factories building 2A3. They are all followers of our ideas. Most of the marketing work was done by me, and the technical work was by Alesa Vaic. A break through we had, when I bought two of the same Hickok testers, of which I changed the calibration to get a lower reading. They had to pass any tube by this tester, and I had exactly the same one here. Business was picking up, though the products were to my opinion not mature yet. Then things went faster, sales started to rise. It was nice business now. Then In 2002, unexpectedly I received a three lines email from AVVT, telling they decided to do all sales themself. At the factory some very good people were fired as well. I never understood the big idea behind this. All I could see is, AVVT polarized many people against them. The distributor network that I was taking care of, was offered to deal directly with AVVT. Not even all wanted that, and protested. Then it came the way it had to come: Some people including myself, teamed up and we started up the Emission Labs (EML) Brand. We tried to be as good competition as we could, though we had to start with little business. Distributers had to choose. If you sell AVVT, that is fine, but then we don't sell you EML. As far was I know we had them all on board again, a few weeks later. Today, EML produces a complete line of High Power Triodes that are unique in performance, appearance, and most of all in quality. Also we have re-made some original tubes as the first company. The 45 that we introduced, was later picked up by the Chinese factories. Added to this are now some limit-breaking tubes, like the 1605 which is the largest single plate triode of it's kind. For my hobbies I have almost no time. That is keeping my Hammond Organs in good condition. I own an original B3 tone wheel organ, born in the same year as myself. It has a mechanical tone generator, and all tubes electronics inside. The B3000 I have, is a 1970's CMOS version of the B3, with the original Leslie Tone cabinets. Unfortunately I don't have the time to play them very much. Here is a sound sample of the B3.
Oh... about cars... don't read this when you prefer BMW. My favorite car is the Mercedes W124, I drive that model ever since it excists. The one on the picture is my fourth W124. I have driven in total +600.000 km in this car model. Out of production since 1995.
I am looking to grow the product range of JAC-Music, offering nice and interesting products, some of which may be hard to get elsewhere. It is just these DIY products that we want to offer simply from stock here in Germany. My Technical background: 1984 Received my Engineering degree at the HTS in Rotterdam. Specialty: Energy, and High Voltage Electronics. |
