- Thread Author
- #1
Hi Folks 
My name is Bob and I'd like to thank the folks here at Audio Shark for providing this opportunity. From looking around it appears there are a lot of enthusiastic audiophiles hanging around the place, which is a good thing to see these days. We are honored to be among such great company,and hope that in some small way we can make a positive contribution to everyone here and help promote what seems to be a hobby that fewer folks are learning to appreciate these days.
Please forgive any "stumbling around" or misplaced postings on our part, as being new to the neighborhood we have yet to learn our way around and become familiar with how to go about things here. Your patience is much appreciated and please feel free to "correct" us should we make any missteps here in the beginning.
As for Technology Design & Support Service (TDSS),
we are a small company that started out as former Technical Support & Customer Service employees (I was Support Manager as well as Technical Marketing Manager and Electro-acoustic Design Engineer) of the now defunct NuForce, Inc. At the beginning of 2014 TDSS was formed to help NuForce avoid excessive employment taxes as they were struggling to survive at the time. They were based in CA and we are located in Indiana, so for several years we worked as remote contract employees. Finally, when times started getting tough for them their CEO asked me to form what is now TDSS so they could make a single "lump sum" payment to us every month and thereby avoid CA's Workman's Compensation taxes (every little bit helps in times like that). So, we did as requested, but obviously that wasn't enough to save the company because in late 2014 they sold the company assets to Optoma (now known as Optoma NuForce)
which, by agreement, only purchased NuForce's consumer product line (earbuds & desktop DACs, etc). The high-end product line reverted back to the company in Taiwan that actually manufactured all of the NuForce products, and has since re-emerged as the new NuPrime brand.
OK. So for a few short months we worked under contract for Optoma, but without warning they brought the Tech Support/Customer Service work back "in-house" and terminated our contract early. Although. having previously designed the NuForce S-1, S-X, S-8 & S-9 loudspeakers along with the crossover for the Primo 8 headphones and the NuForce Magic Cubes, Optoma kept me on as Electro-acoustic Design Engineer (I designed their present "HEM Series" headphones) until just this month. Apparently the company isn't doing so well and are letting a number of people go. I guess that's the kind of thing that happens when a video projector company tries to get into audio without having had any prior experience in the market (not to mention maybe a few other important things that we will leave unidentified for now). Who knows? Oh well... at least the HEM headphones have been a pretty big "hit," and at this point that's all I really care about.
Well, concurrent with the above, having been the Support Manager of NuForce, the new NuPrime company asked me if TDSS would be willing to help them out by taking on the RMA Warranty Service for their new products and the older out-of-warranty Legacy NuForce high-end products (Reference Series amplifiers, etc.) that they continued to support for the benefit of the old customers. We agreed, and we've been doing so ever since.
Well, back in the early 1990's we worked for almost a decade in the Engineering Department of Crown International's
Anyway, Techron received the contract to develop these Gradient Amplifier Systems and I was employed as the lead technician on the development project. As good fortune would have it, I worked directly under the supervision of Crown's head of R&D genius/"guru" Gerald Stanley
pro.harman.com/insights/harman-pro/harman-innovator-spotlight-gerald-stanley-crown-amplifier-engineer/
Seeing that such high power pretty much mandates that the system be as efficient as possible (can you imagine the electric bill?), Techron/Gerald set out to develop the world's most advanced, high-power Tracking Power Supply based in Switching Technology (same as is used in Class-D amplifiers). We're talking a "gizmo" not much bigger than a shoe box we called the "Poly-phase Buck" that output over 40KW of continuous power and that switched at whopping 2 Megahertz frequency - not a "measly" 400KHz to 800KHz boasted about by many of today's Class-D amp manufacturers. Uh... and we're talking back around 1994 to 1996 too.
So, we did it... and Techron sold approximately $50M worth of Gradient systems to GE in 1995, AND... I got the most frick'n awesome experience and training in high powered switching technology any engineer or technician could ever dream to ask or hope for. We were doing things like characterizing Diodes & MOSFETs on advanced Sony/Tektronix Semiconductor Curve Tracers, measuring HF Inductors on $15K Network Analyzers and comparing the Gate Current Rise-Time between different power MOFETS on some of the world's most high-speed Tektronix Digital Storage Oscilloscopes... to name just a few. We (I) even developed a mechanical modification for the Poly-phase Buck that made it (far) easier to manufacture and was told by Ross Brady (the head of Mechanical Engineering) that it would save the company $2M/year in production costs. Never did get any kind of bonus for that, but you can bet they listened to my ideas from there on afterwards!
Now, here's where the "rubber meets the road" when it comes to the audiophile applications of all this. One of my responsibilities at Techron was to identify and correct potential sources of EM radiation, such as finding ways to shorten conductor pathways and/or identify structures that required shielding and the appropriate ground points (more like a black art than a science when it comes to RF). When you're talking 40KW of power at 2MHz, you can bet there will be series EM radiation issues to contend with. In fact, as a result of our work there we were offered and took a job with another nearby company that made power inverters for the mobile RV industry, and that work involved ameliorating any radiated RF energy that might interfere with off-air Radio & Television reception.
Fast-forward to TDSS and Legacy NuForce amplifier service. All of the Ref-Series amps were known to have a higher failure-rate than anybody - the company or the customers - would have preferred. Seeing that NOW TDSS was directly responsible for making the repairs instead of the former NuForce team in CA, "Bob" didn't like the idea of his reputation being tarnished because of a product's inferior design. Ya know, whenever you repair something and the item fails again soon thereafter, the owner of the device always suspects that the latest failure might very well be due to the ineptness of the last repair guy that had his fingers inside the unit. Wasn't gonna happen to TDSS, so we set about to "correct" the underlying problems that were causing the Ref Series amps to fail. It gets a bit complicated to explain here, but in simple terms those amplifiers were "contaminating themselves" with RF radiation that always arises whenever you switch electrical current on or off at a high rate of speed. Well, that's exactly what Switching/Class-D amps do, and if close attention to the problem and taking proper steps to prevent it aren't employed, that RF radiation will find its way back into the same circuitry that generated it and... mess things up. Sometimes (most often) that will result in higher audible noise levels and distortion - other times you end up with an amp that goes "POP" for no apparent reason and now needs to be repaired.
The upshot is we set out to fix the Ref Series reliability problems, but upon listening to the first pair of modified Ref-9V3s we realized we had been more "successful" than intended. Besides no more "unexplainable" failures, the sound of that first pair of modified amps set a new paradigm of performance for what the Ref-9s were truly capable of. In fact, until that very moment NOBODY had a clue just how good they could really be... not even the factory that designed and built them. From that point forward TDSS had a "product," the TDSS Custom Upgrade (real original, eh?) and we started offering it to all of the Ref Series amp owners that we came across... and to much success at that.
Besides employing the proper shielding and grounding techniques mentioned above, we put our brains to work in addressing the other various sources of "contamination" and performance-limiting issues that occur in ALL audio components. You can read more about it all on our website, if you'd like. The really cool thing is that all of the treatments and techniques that we use in our upgrades are all TOTALLY PASSIVE in nature - meaning we don't tamper with any of the active circuitry by changing or modifying parts such as transistors, diodes, Integrated Circuits, etc. While none of what we do is "rocket science" per se (although you can bet NASA uses them), it does require specialized knowledge AND a good bit of time & labor to install. In fact, it's those later two issues that often prevent most manufacturers from going ahead and applying what we do to their stock production units in their own factory. One thing is certain, and that's the fact that we always follow the audio-equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath - "First, do no harm." In that, our upgrades are factory-authorized by NuPrime because they realize we do nothing to alter their fundamental circuitry, and we have an ongoing program of seeking the same authorization from other manufacturers as I write.
You see, due to the extreme degree of competition in the market, most electronics manufacturing is automated as much as possible these days, with an emphasis on reducing manual labor as much as possible. Well, NOTHING that TDSS does in our upgrades can be easily automated and rather, requires a good bit of manual labor. Most audio manufacturers simply can't afford to go to such lengths without destroying their product's price positioning in the market, and therefore simply leave off at "good enough is good enough - which these days is often extremely good simply due to the fact that along with automated assembly, parts quality and performance continually increase as core technology advances. So, while maybe not fully optimized, modern automated assembly methods result in products that are already quite good sounding for their price, but also (a) can usually benefit greatly from further efforts to refine their performance, (b) actually offer greater potential than their owners would ever have realized and (c) provide an opportunity for TDSS to find ways to bring added value to the audio world by helping these consumers discover the latent performance hidden within their cherished components.
Besides the above upgrades, we are also involved in more advanced modifications associated with our other area of specialty - power supplies. Especially, we focus on their applications in power amps, (and ESPECIALLY with regards to Switching /Class-D power amps), as the amp's sound is almost totally dependent upon and can BE NO BETTER that that of the power supply that feeds DC power to the amplification circuitry. Many designers focus almost exclusively on the amplifier circuitry in their efforts to improve performance and effectively treat the power supply as little more than an afterthought - and do so at their own peril. The homes of many audiophiles contain examples of otherwise good designs gone bad because the power supply was not considered as a crucial part of the overall design. That's where we come in because the needs of industry have led to the development of numerous, highly efficient power supplies offering exceptional performance at reasonable prices and sized to fit virtually any application. Adapting them to a given existing power amp design is often possible, and to almost unbelievable sonic benefit. During such a process, further refinements can be added such as ribbon-foil or Litz conductors, extra shielding, isolation by application of external enclosures, etc. Again, all of these are the things TDSS offers the audiophile in search of improved system performance, and we do so with a level of professional expertise and commitment to solid, scientific principles.
THERE YA GO - HOWS' THAT FOR A FRICK'N INTRODUCTION?!!! Sorry... see what I mean? First thing out of the gate and I probably went overboard. Assuming we don't get the "boot" now and we're still welcome around these parts, I had one question: I have written the ADMIN a couple of times now regarding the possibility of being honored with a Manufacturer's Forum, but so far have not received any response. Probably sent the messages to In-Boxes that get nothing but SPAM though, so I'm not surprised as they may just ignore them most of the time. Hey... maybe you guys are on vacation this time of year? If so, COOL:congrats: More power to ya and whatever you do, don't worry about me. Enjoy your vacation... we can wait. If somebody does happen to be available and has the time though, we sure would appreciate any info that you could pass along. Thanks.
In closing, now that I managed to turn what probably is supposed to be a simple "intro" into the equivalent of a long-*$$ "shill," I beg your all's forgiveness and hope you don't just kick me out-a here. I looked around quite a bit to find all of the rules and I think I may have missed some stuff. If so, please just let me know and rest assured I won't make the same mistake again.
Finally, thanks to everyone here that took their valuable time to read all of this. We hope to get to know as many of you as possible and please feel free to ask any questions that you may have - technical or otherwise. Seeing we are small and don't have a huge facility or Million$ in resources like many other companies, we gladly share what we do have a bit of... and that's knowledge of all things audio. From system engineering to product repair and design, we've pretty much done it all. So what good is knowledge when you don't share it? Not much good at all. So, whether or not it has anything to do with th services we offer, feel free to ask about any subject or technical issue you may be struggling with. While we might not always have the exact answer, we usually know where to find it and will be happy to do all that we can to help. Here's wishing everyone much fun and the very best!:coolyeah:
Take care,
-Bob
President - TDSS
My name is Bob and I'd like to thank the folks here at Audio Shark for providing this opportunity. From looking around it appears there are a lot of enthusiastic audiophiles hanging around the place, which is a good thing to see these days. We are honored to be among such great company,and hope that in some small way we can make a positive contribution to everyone here and help promote what seems to be a hobby that fewer folks are learning to appreciate these days.
Please forgive any "stumbling around" or misplaced postings on our part, as being new to the neighborhood we have yet to learn our way around and become familiar with how to go about things here. Your patience is much appreciated and please feel free to "correct" us should we make any missteps here in the beginning.
As for Technology Design & Support Service (TDSS),
mytdss.com
we are a small company that started out as former Technical Support & Customer Service employees (I was Support Manager as well as Technical Marketing Manager and Electro-acoustic Design Engineer) of the now defunct NuForce, Inc. At the beginning of 2014 TDSS was formed to help NuForce avoid excessive employment taxes as they were struggling to survive at the time. They were based in CA and we are located in Indiana, so for several years we worked as remote contract employees. Finally, when times started getting tough for them their CEO asked me to form what is now TDSS so they could make a single "lump sum" payment to us every month and thereby avoid CA's Workman's Compensation taxes (every little bit helps in times like that). So, we did as requested, but obviously that wasn't enough to save the company because in late 2014 they sold the company assets to Optoma (now known as Optoma NuForce)
optomausa.com/audioproducts
which, by agreement, only purchased NuForce's consumer product line (earbuds & desktop DACs, etc). The high-end product line reverted back to the company in Taiwan that actually manufactured all of the NuForce products, and has since re-emerged as the new NuPrime brand.
nuprimeaudio.com/
OK. So for a few short months we worked under contract for Optoma, but without warning they brought the Tech Support/Customer Service work back "in-house" and terminated our contract early. Although. having previously designed the NuForce S-1, S-X, S-8 & S-9 loudspeakers along with the crossover for the Primo 8 headphones and the NuForce Magic Cubes, Optoma kept me on as Electro-acoustic Design Engineer (I designed their present "HEM Series" headphones) until just this month. Apparently the company isn't doing so well and are letting a number of people go. I guess that's the kind of thing that happens when a video projector company tries to get into audio without having had any prior experience in the market (not to mention maybe a few other important things that we will leave unidentified for now). Who knows? Oh well... at least the HEM headphones have been a pretty big "hit," and at this point that's all I really care about.
Well, concurrent with the above, having been the Support Manager of NuForce, the new NuPrime company asked me if TDSS would be willing to help them out by taking on the RMA Warranty Service for their new products and the older out-of-warranty Legacy NuForce high-end products (Reference Series amplifiers, etc.) that they continued to support for the benefit of the old customers. We agreed, and we've been doing so ever since.
So how does all of the above have anything to do with the general audiophile community and our presence here?
Well, back in the early 1990's we worked for almost a decade in the Engineering Department of Crown International's
crownaudio.com/en-US
Techron Division (now defunct as well). Back then Crown was known for making the most powerful audio power amps in the world, so they created a separate division called Techron that was intended to serve various industrial users of their amplifiers (they make great servo-motor controllers such as are used in "shaker tables, etc.") At some point Techron was approached by GE Medical Systems to develop an amplifier system for use in driving the Gradient Coils in the MRI Imaging Systems they sold to hospitals all around the world. We're talking individual systems comprised of (3) audio bandwidth power amplifiers with 40,000 Watts of output power EACH = 120,000 Watts per system!!! :disbelief:
Anyway, Techron received the contract to develop these Gradient Amplifier Systems and I was employed as the lead technician on the development project. As good fortune would have it, I worked directly under the supervision of Crown's head of R&D genius/"guru" Gerald Stanley
pro.harman.com/insights/harman-pro/harman-innovator-spotlight-gerald-stanley-crown-amplifier-engineer/
Seeing that such high power pretty much mandates that the system be as efficient as possible (can you imagine the electric bill?), Techron/Gerald set out to develop the world's most advanced, high-power Tracking Power Supply based in Switching Technology (same as is used in Class-D amplifiers). We're talking a "gizmo" not much bigger than a shoe box we called the "Poly-phase Buck" that output over 40KW of continuous power and that switched at whopping 2 Megahertz frequency - not a "measly" 400KHz to 800KHz boasted about by many of today's Class-D amp manufacturers. Uh... and we're talking back around 1994 to 1996 too.
So, we did it... and Techron sold approximately $50M worth of Gradient systems to GE in 1995, AND... I got the most frick'n awesome experience and training in high powered switching technology any engineer or technician could ever dream to ask or hope for. We were doing things like characterizing Diodes & MOSFETs on advanced Sony/Tektronix Semiconductor Curve Tracers, measuring HF Inductors on $15K Network Analyzers and comparing the Gate Current Rise-Time between different power MOFETS on some of the world's most high-speed Tektronix Digital Storage Oscilloscopes... to name just a few. We (I) even developed a mechanical modification for the Poly-phase Buck that made it (far) easier to manufacture and was told by Ross Brady (the head of Mechanical Engineering) that it would save the company $2M/year in production costs. Never did get any kind of bonus for that, but you can bet they listened to my ideas from there on afterwards!
Now, here's where the "rubber meets the road" when it comes to the audiophile applications of all this. One of my responsibilities at Techron was to identify and correct potential sources of EM radiation, such as finding ways to shorten conductor pathways and/or identify structures that required shielding and the appropriate ground points (more like a black art than a science when it comes to RF). When you're talking 40KW of power at 2MHz, you can bet there will be series EM radiation issues to contend with. In fact, as a result of our work there we were offered and took a job with another nearby company that made power inverters for the mobile RV industry, and that work involved ameliorating any radiated RF energy that might interfere with off-air Radio & Television reception.
Fast-forward to TDSS and Legacy NuForce amplifier service. All of the Ref-Series amps were known to have a higher failure-rate than anybody - the company or the customers - would have preferred. Seeing that NOW TDSS was directly responsible for making the repairs instead of the former NuForce team in CA, "Bob" didn't like the idea of his reputation being tarnished because of a product's inferior design. Ya know, whenever you repair something and the item fails again soon thereafter, the owner of the device always suspects that the latest failure might very well be due to the ineptness of the last repair guy that had his fingers inside the unit. Wasn't gonna happen to TDSS, so we set about to "correct" the underlying problems that were causing the Ref Series amps to fail. It gets a bit complicated to explain here, but in simple terms those amplifiers were "contaminating themselves" with RF radiation that always arises whenever you switch electrical current on or off at a high rate of speed. Well, that's exactly what Switching/Class-D amps do, and if close attention to the problem and taking proper steps to prevent it aren't employed, that RF radiation will find its way back into the same circuitry that generated it and... mess things up. Sometimes (most often) that will result in higher audible noise levels and distortion - other times you end up with an amp that goes "POP" for no apparent reason and now needs to be repaired.
The upshot is we set out to fix the Ref Series reliability problems, but upon listening to the first pair of modified Ref-9V3s we realized we had been more "successful" than intended. Besides no more "unexplainable" failures, the sound of that first pair of modified amps set a new paradigm of performance for what the Ref-9s were truly capable of. In fact, until that very moment NOBODY had a clue just how good they could really be... not even the factory that designed and built them. From that point forward TDSS had a "product," the TDSS Custom Upgrade (real original, eh?) and we started offering it to all of the Ref Series amp owners that we came across... and to much success at that.
Besides employing the proper shielding and grounding techniques mentioned above, we put our brains to work in addressing the other various sources of "contamination" and performance-limiting issues that occur in ALL audio components. You can read more about it all on our website, if you'd like. The really cool thing is that all of the treatments and techniques that we use in our upgrades are all TOTALLY PASSIVE in nature - meaning we don't tamper with any of the active circuitry by changing or modifying parts such as transistors, diodes, Integrated Circuits, etc. While none of what we do is "rocket science" per se (although you can bet NASA uses them), it does require specialized knowledge AND a good bit of time & labor to install. In fact, it's those later two issues that often prevent most manufacturers from going ahead and applying what we do to their stock production units in their own factory. One thing is certain, and that's the fact that we always follow the audio-equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath - "First, do no harm." In that, our upgrades are factory-authorized by NuPrime because they realize we do nothing to alter their fundamental circuitry, and we have an ongoing program of seeking the same authorization from other manufacturers as I write.
You see, due to the extreme degree of competition in the market, most electronics manufacturing is automated as much as possible these days, with an emphasis on reducing manual labor as much as possible. Well, NOTHING that TDSS does in our upgrades can be easily automated and rather, requires a good bit of manual labor. Most audio manufacturers simply can't afford to go to such lengths without destroying their product's price positioning in the market, and therefore simply leave off at "good enough is good enough - which these days is often extremely good simply due to the fact that along with automated assembly, parts quality and performance continually increase as core technology advances. So, while maybe not fully optimized, modern automated assembly methods result in products that are already quite good sounding for their price, but also (a) can usually benefit greatly from further efforts to refine their performance, (b) actually offer greater potential than their owners would ever have realized and (c) provide an opportunity for TDSS to find ways to bring added value to the audio world by helping these consumers discover the latent performance hidden within their cherished components.
Besides the above upgrades, we are also involved in more advanced modifications associated with our other area of specialty - power supplies. Especially, we focus on their applications in power amps, (and ESPECIALLY with regards to Switching /Class-D power amps), as the amp's sound is almost totally dependent upon and can BE NO BETTER that that of the power supply that feeds DC power to the amplification circuitry. Many designers focus almost exclusively on the amplifier circuitry in their efforts to improve performance and effectively treat the power supply as little more than an afterthought - and do so at their own peril. The homes of many audiophiles contain examples of otherwise good designs gone bad because the power supply was not considered as a crucial part of the overall design. That's where we come in because the needs of industry have led to the development of numerous, highly efficient power supplies offering exceptional performance at reasonable prices and sized to fit virtually any application. Adapting them to a given existing power amp design is often possible, and to almost unbelievable sonic benefit. During such a process, further refinements can be added such as ribbon-foil or Litz conductors, extra shielding, isolation by application of external enclosures, etc. Again, all of these are the things TDSS offers the audiophile in search of improved system performance, and we do so with a level of professional expertise and commitment to solid, scientific principles.
THERE YA GO - HOWS' THAT FOR A FRICK'N INTRODUCTION?!!! Sorry... see what I mean? First thing out of the gate and I probably went overboard. Assuming we don't get the "boot" now and we're still welcome around these parts, I had one question: I have written the ADMIN a couple of times now regarding the possibility of being honored with a Manufacturer's Forum, but so far have not received any response. Probably sent the messages to In-Boxes that get nothing but SPAM though, so I'm not surprised as they may just ignore them most of the time. Hey... maybe you guys are on vacation this time of year? If so, COOL:congrats: More power to ya and whatever you do, don't worry about me. Enjoy your vacation... we can wait. If somebody does happen to be available and has the time though, we sure would appreciate any info that you could pass along. Thanks.
In closing, now that I managed to turn what probably is supposed to be a simple "intro" into the equivalent of a long-*$$ "shill," I beg your all's forgiveness and hope you don't just kick me out-a here. I looked around quite a bit to find all of the rules and I think I may have missed some stuff. If so, please just let me know and rest assured I won't make the same mistake again.
Finally, thanks to everyone here that took their valuable time to read all of this. We hope to get to know as many of you as possible and please feel free to ask any questions that you may have - technical or otherwise. Seeing we are small and don't have a huge facility or Million$ in resources like many other companies, we gladly share what we do have a bit of... and that's knowledge of all things audio. From system engineering to product repair and design, we've pretty much done it all. So what good is knowledge when you don't share it? Not much good at all. So, whether or not it has anything to do with th services we offer, feel free to ask about any subject or technical issue you may be struggling with. While we might not always have the exact answer, we usually know where to find it and will be happy to do all that we can to help. Here's wishing everyone much fun and the very best!:coolyeah:
Take care,
-Bob
President - TDSS
Last edited:
