Introduction to Essence For Hi Res Audio

[Bob Rapoport]

I'm Bob Rapoport, the CEO of Essence. I started the brand in 2013 after a long career in the audio industry that started in 1972 as a manufacturer's rep in So. California. It was the perfect job for a guy who grew up as a audio hobbyist. My first employer sold Bang & Olufsen and Sennheiser Headphones. Next I got a job with the local Bose rep, he also carried Phase Linear, Stanton / Rabco, and Discwasher. This was 1972-74, the beginning of my story.

In '74 I started my own rep company, selling SAE, Adcom, ESS, Braun, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, and Boston Acoustics, among others. For 12 years, I had a blast. The heyday of the audio industry was during those years, there were 8 chains and 150 independent dealers in So.Cal, I learned a lot in that time from some of the industry's legends, from Amar Bose to Morris Kessler and Barry Thornton.

I needed a bigger market to sell too, I grew bored calling on all the same dealers and was looking for a way out of LA. I got a job offer to be the VP Sales and Marketing for Magnat America, based in Boston. I sold my rep company to my employees and made the move. The job lasted a year and I was ready to move on.

I did projects for Ohm Acoustics and oversaw the rebirth of Dynaco, then started Chase Technologies to produce a best selling line of wireless 900 MHz speakers that competed with Recoton. I also designed a remote control line preamp and patented a new version of the famous Dynaco DQ-1 matrix surround decoder with a center channel output.

In 1997, dts hired me to bring their theater sound decoding system to the home market. I manufactured and sold the world's first outboard dts decoder, the Millennium 3.2.1 as the era of discrete digital surround arrived. First we got Laserdiscs with 5.1 channel audio soundtracks, then DVD arrived and became mainstream.

Later in this period I designed a line of electrostatic speakers called Final, manufactured in the Netherlands. They were the world's first modular electrostatic panels, not attached to a speaker cabinet. They mounted to the wall on brackets and won the Design and Innovation award from CES in 2002, also winning the trophy for the best new audio product in the speaker category.

In 2005 I was hired to be part of the team that would introduce HDMI to the American market. I took it to the audio retailers but they resisted it because they didn't want to know how to turn 8 RCA cables into a single cable. Those cables made them a lot of money and they threw me out of their stores (not really, they were polite about it).

So I went after the Pro AV dealers, the integrators, the system designers and defense contractors, they were eager to go digital, the sooner the better. The home AV dealers would learn soon enough that the source devices and TVs required HDMI connectivity. I went to work for a top brand of HDMI Matrix Routers, Switchers, and fiber optic cables, it became very successful, and I enjoyed those years selling to the pro market.

I retired in 2011 but after a year grew bored again. I had an idea to combine HDMI connectivity with the best DAC I could produce, I just knew that there were a lot of audiophiles with Vintage audio gear that still worked great. I figured they would not buy a new AVR just to get HDMI if they had a choice. I started Essence in 2013 with the original HDACC, the only 2 channel audiophile class DAC with HDMI throughput for HD TV on the market.

4K UHD TVs came out in 2017 so I introduced the HDACC II-4K with 4 x 1 HDMI switching for 4K sources and TVs. Owners of great Vintage audio systems buy them along with the desktop audio / streaming fans, tube electronics hobbyists, and owners of legacy 1080p AVRs that dont support native 4K content from an AV Streamer or UHD Blu-ray. The combination of 4K definition video and hi res audio soundtracks of live concerts by the world's great artists is how the pursuit of high fidelity reached its goal.

I followed that up with the Evolve II-4K HDMI DAC with 7.1 channel output, also aimed at the legacy AVR market. It was selected for the Stereophile Recommended Components list in 2020 and remains there to this day.

If you want to know anything about this subject, just ask Bob.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Welcome to AV NIRVANA, Bob... we are certainly glad to have you with us as a sponsor and a dealer.

That is quite an interesting story, and a host of brands that you have been associated with over the years. I'm looking forward to Travis's review of your HDMI DAC.

 

[Chris A]

I just got a "ublock origin" warning about using the weekly emailed link to this thread. I don't plan on using those emailed links or reading more about this subject.

Just FYI.

Chris

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I just got a "ublock origin" warning about using the weekly emailed link to this thread. I don't plan on using those emailed links or reading more about this subject.

Just FYI.

Chris

I have no idea what that is... a Google search seems to suggest it is something related to Chrome.

If you can provide a screenshot, that would be helpful.

If you don't ever plan to use the links provided in the Last week's most popular topics email, you can always unsubscribe from it.

 

[JStewart]

I'm Bob Rapoport, the CEO of Essence. I started the brand in 2013 after a long career in the audio industry that started in 1972 as a manufacturer's rep in So. California. It was the perfect job for a guy who grew up as a audio hobbyist. My first employer sold Bang & Olufsen and Sennheiser Headphones. Next I got a job with the local Bose rep, he also carried Phase Linear, Stanton / Rabco, and Discwasher. This was 1972-74, the beginning of my story.
View attachment 77874
In '74 I started my own rep company, selling SAE, Adcom, ESS, Braun, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, and Boston Acoustics, among others. For 12 years, I had a blast. The heyday of the audio industry was during those years, there were 8 chains and 150 independent dealers in So.Cal, I learned a lot in that time from some of the industry's legends, from Amar Bose to Morris Kessler and Barry Thornton.

I needed a bigger market to sell too, I grew bored calling on all the same dealers and was looking for a way out of LA. I got a job offer to be the VP Sales and Marketing for Magnat America, based in Boston. I sold my rep company to my employees and made the move. The job lasted a year and I was ready to move on.

I did projects for Ohm Acoustics and oversaw the rebirth of Dynaco, then started Chase Technologies to produce a best selling line of wireless 900 MHz speakers that competed with Recoton. I also designed a remote control line preamp and patented a new version of the famous Dynaco DQ-1 matrix surround decoder with a center channel output.

In 1997, dts hired me to bring their theater sound decoding system to the home market. I manufactured and sold the world's first outboard dts decoder, the Millennium 3.2.1 as the era of discrete digital surround arrived. First we got Laserdiscs with 5.1 channel audio soundtracks, then DVD arrived and became mainstream.
View attachment 77875
Later in this period I designed a line of electrostatic speakers called Final, manufactured in the Netherlands. They were the world's first modular electrostatic panels, not attached to a speaker cabinet. They mounted to the wall on brackets and won the Design and Innovation award from CES in 2002, also winning the trophy for the best new audio product in the speaker category.

In 2005 I was hired to be part of the team that would introduce HDMI to the American market. I took it to the audio retailers but they resisted it because they didn't want to know how to turn 8 RCA cables into a single cable. Those cables made them a lot of money and they threw me out of their stores (not really, they were polite about it).

So I went after the Pro AV dealers, the integrators, the system designers and defense contractors, they were eager to go digital, the sooner the better. The home AV dealers would learn soon enough that the source devices and TVs required HDMI connectivity. I went to work for a top brand of HDMI Matrix Routers, Switchers, and fiber optic cables, it became very successful, and I enjoyed those years selling to the pro market.

I retired in 2011 but after a year grew bored again. I had an idea to combine HDMI connectivity with the best DAC I could produce, I just knew that there were a lot of audiophiles with Vintage audio gear that still worked great. I figured they would not buy a new AVR just to get HDMI if they had a choice. I started Essence in 2013 with the original HDACC, the only 2 channel audiophile class DAC with HDMI throughput for HD TV on the market.

4K UHD TVs came out in 2017 so I introduced the HDACC II-4K with 4 x 1 HDMI switching for 4K sources and TVs. Owners of great Vintage audio systems buy them along with the desktop audio / streaming fans, tube electronics hobbyists, and owners of legacy 1080p AVRs that dont support native 4K content from an AV Streamer or UHD Blu-ray. The combination of 4K definition video and hi res audio soundtracks of live concerts by the world's great artists is how the pursuit of high fidelity reached its goal.

I followed that up with the Evolve II-4K HDMI DAC with 7.1 channel output, also aimed at the legacy AVR market. It was selected for the Stereophile Recommended Components list in 2020 and remains there to this day.

If you want to know anything about this subject, just ask Bob.

Congrats for being able to make a career in a field you are passionate about and thanks for being here with us!