Just like in a good novel, the tale of PS Audio consists of two story arcs: one about the brand itself and one about co-founder and CEO Paul McGowan. Both run in parallel at first, drift apart at one point in time, and finally intertwine again.
Founded in 1974 by Paul McGowan (the “P”) and Stan Warren (the “S”), PS Audio was initially little more than a garage in which the two of them were soldered together passive phono preamplifiers and selling them directly to customers for just under 60 US dollars apiece. So resounding was the success of this simple yet carefully designed product that the business quickly expanded to include line-level preamplifiers and later also power amplifiers.
After Warren’s departure in the early 1980s, McGowan initially continued running PS Audio on his own, but left the company in 1990 to build loudspeakers together with Infinity founder Arnie Nudell under the Genesis brand name. Seven years later, however, McGowan returned to his roots and took over the company from its then-owners, which had left the business in an ailing state.
In the years that followed, PS Audio managed to maneuver itself back onto the road o success by making a name for itself primarily as a manufacturer of “Powerplant” mains power regenerators, which use the interference-laden mains current only as an energy source and use a high-precision oscillator in conjunction with power amplifier circuits to output a near-perfect sine wave signal at its power outlets.
With the BHK and Stellar lines, the Boulder, Colorado based company has launched successful amplifiers, DACs and source devices. The most recent expansion of the portfolio began a few years ago with the appointment of young loudspeaker developer Chris Brunhaver and is now reflected in the Aspen loudspeaker series, which is currently rolling out its fourth model, the standmount FR 5. We wish PS Audio many more years of success!
