Thought it best to put this here, since Art was known as a tube guy...
Many of you know the name.
Arthur passed away on Thursday after "battling" cancer.
He had beaten it back twice in the last decade or more.
Not this time.
Arthur made a significant contribution to the renaissance of DHT triode-ism.
Always very enthusiastic about everything he ever did in audio.
Art was something of a "Johnny Appleseed" for these things.
In addition, Arthur was a long time mentor to both JC Morrison and Herb Reichert.
Both key players in what is sometimes termed the "NYC Audio Mafia"... among other things.
Arthur along with a few other local characters up this way, Bob Cummings and Jon Baier,
along with Phil Fisher were into some pretty neat things very early on. The trip up to Bob and
Art's place was featured in an early Sound Practices. You know, that thing put out by our own
Joe Roberts. When that was written they had already been experimenting with DHTs for a decade
or so, more for Bob Cummings...
One of the outcomes of that friendship was a phono preamp.
That phono preamp became rather well known.
Others made variants of it, including Thorsten Loesch (no relation) and Allen Wright.
Art was a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Albany's SUNY campus, and as such
had no real interest in commercializing anything he did. So that design and others got
shared with the world. Later Joe Levy forged a relationship with Arthur, and Arthur
provided the engineering and Joe made product. Before that another local fellow named
John Weisner built a short run of hand made Loesch preamps... for Art. Don't recall if
Joe was involved with that or not.
When I started the Catskill & Adirondack Audio Society, Bob Cummings and Arthur, along with
Phil Fisher (he was a very interesting fellow too) were among the very first members. Joe Levy
too came in pretty early on...
We had a really great local ham, W2HVM (sk), "High Voltage Mary" who had a basement full of
mayonnaise jars and pickle jars filled with surplus parts. You could go over to his place on certain
days and walk through the shelves, pick out parts and chew the fat with HVM or his cousin. Both
were "old timers" and this was back in the 80's. He always told me about this fellow who was big
into "hi-fi" but for reasons that were never ever clear, he refused to identify him. That was Art Loesh,
it later turned out.
I forget how I found Art, it may have been as the result of someone who noticed my little ad in the
back of Audio Amateur who joined the club, or through one of the two local "hi-fi" shops here.
I think one of them let me put a little sign up for a while...
One of the things about Art was that whatever was hot on his plate was "the best" for sure,
and he was not just enthusiastic about it he was pretty darn insistent as well. Sometimes that
was good, sometimes not as good... he was "the professor".
One of the few times I was able to meet Herb in his "natural habitat" I went down there with Art
and I forget who else to the Staten Island "firehouse". The second or third floor of an old NYC
Firehouse, open plan... Herb had his A7 bottoms, and newly acquired Tractrix horns from Bruce
Edgar. Also there were JC and Harvey "Gizmo" Rosenberg, Art, myself, Bruce Edgar, and a few
others whose faces escape me at the moment.
Art was also present and prominent at JC's famous "New York Noise" affairs, both in Hoboken
and in NYC... pix are still up on EnjoyTheMusic...
Art built and tried a TON of stuff, circuits and parts, speakers... he also loved to go to shows with
an entourage of sorts. The Montreal show was one he liked to go to for a long time, and he often
went up there with Vern, Pern, and Pablo, maybe Joe went too (dunno), all local audio personalities.
Actually, tales of Arthur could go on for a long time, and they would be good to be told in more
detail. He was quite a personality on the scene both locally and nationally, and even internationally.
_-_-bear
Many of you know the name.
Arthur passed away on Thursday after "battling" cancer.
He had beaten it back twice in the last decade or more.
Not this time.
Arthur made a significant contribution to the renaissance of DHT triode-ism.
Always very enthusiastic about everything he ever did in audio.
Art was something of a "Johnny Appleseed" for these things.
In addition, Arthur was a long time mentor to both JC Morrison and Herb Reichert.
Both key players in what is sometimes termed the "NYC Audio Mafia"... among other things.
Arthur along with a few other local characters up this way, Bob Cummings and Jon Baier,
along with Phil Fisher were into some pretty neat things very early on. The trip up to Bob and
Art's place was featured in an early Sound Practices. You know, that thing put out by our own
Joe Roberts. When that was written they had already been experimenting with DHTs for a decade
or so, more for Bob Cummings...
One of the outcomes of that friendship was a phono preamp.
That phono preamp became rather well known.
Others made variants of it, including Thorsten Loesch (no relation) and Allen Wright.
Art was a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Albany's SUNY campus, and as such
had no real interest in commercializing anything he did. So that design and others got
shared with the world. Later Joe Levy forged a relationship with Arthur, and Arthur
provided the engineering and Joe made product. Before that another local fellow named
John Weisner built a short run of hand made Loesch preamps... for Art. Don't recall if
Joe was involved with that or not.
When I started the Catskill & Adirondack Audio Society, Bob Cummings and Arthur, along with
Phil Fisher (he was a very interesting fellow too) were among the very first members. Joe Levy
too came in pretty early on...
We had a really great local ham, W2HVM (sk), "High Voltage Mary" who had a basement full of
mayonnaise jars and pickle jars filled with surplus parts. You could go over to his place on certain
days and walk through the shelves, pick out parts and chew the fat with HVM or his cousin. Both
were "old timers" and this was back in the 80's. He always told me about this fellow who was big
into "hi-fi" but for reasons that were never ever clear, he refused to identify him. That was Art Loesh,
it later turned out.
I forget how I found Art, it may have been as the result of someone who noticed my little ad in the
back of Audio Amateur who joined the club, or through one of the two local "hi-fi" shops here.
I think one of them let me put a little sign up for a while...
One of the things about Art was that whatever was hot on his plate was "the best" for sure,
and he was not just enthusiastic about it he was pretty darn insistent as well. Sometimes that
was good, sometimes not as good... he was "the professor".
One of the few times I was able to meet Herb in his "natural habitat" I went down there with Art
and I forget who else to the Staten Island "firehouse". The second or third floor of an old NYC
Firehouse, open plan... Herb had his A7 bottoms, and newly acquired Tractrix horns from Bruce
Edgar. Also there were JC and Harvey "Gizmo" Rosenberg, Art, myself, Bruce Edgar, and a few
others whose faces escape me at the moment.
Art was also present and prominent at JC's famous "New York Noise" affairs, both in Hoboken
and in NYC... pix are still up on EnjoyTheMusic...
Art built and tried a TON of stuff, circuits and parts, speakers... he also loved to go to shows with
an entourage of sorts. The Montreal show was one he liked to go to for a long time, and he often
went up there with Vern, Pern, and Pablo, maybe Joe went too (dunno), all local audio personalities.
Actually, tales of Arthur could go on for a long time, and they would be good to be told in more
detail. He was quite a personality on the scene both locally and nationally, and even internationally.
_-_-bear
I was privileged to know Arthur for a relatively short number of years, and will really miss him. He was a regular visitor here and in Newburyport, and I spent time in NY with him as well. (Audio get togethers) Arthur was very generous with his time and knowledge as well as being quite gracious and thoroughly entertaining. His interests spanned a very wide range. A great loss to humanity, not to mention the audio world.
R.I.P.
I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Loesch once and I was impressed by his enthusiasm for audio. Sad day for the DIY community.
Dr. Arthur Z. Loesch's Obituary, Albany
.
I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Loesch once and I was impressed by his enthusiasm for audio. Sad day for the DIY community.
Dr. Arthur Z. Loesch's Obituary, Albany
.
Thanks for the great anecdotes Bear...never met the man, but in the late 70s as a very young man met Paul Voight in Ottawa Canada and remember him mentioning Art Loesch's name with great enthusiasm and respect. Like Paul, who died in near anonymity despite his groundbreaking Horn work and design, Mr. Loesch's loss is our loss. RIP
Arthur You Will Be Missed
My first contact with Arthur was some 20 years ago after speaking with Joe Roberts and JC about phono preamps. They both spoke of his work in glowing tones. Arthur was always eager to give advice and share his thoughts and designs on the many occasions that we corresponded. I especially loved his use of alternative ideas to design such as: battery grid bias, split equalisation, novel tube types, volume control after the line stage. All been done before, but Arthur managed to combine the lot and produce a seminal preamp. A fitting legacy for a great in the diy audio community.
My first contact with Arthur was some 20 years ago after speaking with Joe Roberts and JC about phono preamps. They both spoke of his work in glowing tones. Arthur was always eager to give advice and share his thoughts and designs on the many occasions that we corresponded. I especially loved his use of alternative ideas to design such as: battery grid bias, split equalisation, novel tube types, volume control after the line stage. All been done before, but Arthur managed to combine the lot and produce a seminal preamp. A fitting legacy for a great in the diy audio community.
I knew Arthur from the mid-80s audio experimenter freak telephone network that grew up around Audiomart. Same way I met Herb, jc, Vinny G., Mike Lafevre, and most of the other guys who were in on the SP project.
Before the net, we all spent hours calling each other for news and developments. Mailing xeroxes and schematics with envelopes and stamps. Arthur as a scientist fit right into this mode. He loved to put his results out there and get reactions. He was especially looking for naysayer reactions which he would spin up his mind to process and refute or take under advisement.
He liked to debate but I think it was a projection of a constant state of scientific debate within himself. He was trying to learn and understand. Always testing. Arguing yay or nay. He asserted his points forcefully but everything was subject to reevaluation and the next time you'd see him he might have a totally new argument.
I think he liked calling me because I was both receptive and good at manufacturing counter-arguments. As I remarked to jc yesterday, I think I remember talking to him for hours a few times without understanding exactly what we were talking about. Tiny slices of electronic reality under the microscope. It was still exciting to be in that kind of charged-up dialogue with a fellow maniac, even if he lost me a few times and vice-versa. Many of the things we were working on defied language anyway.
For me, Arthur is not about certain designs or technical approaches. He was a natural inquisitor. He was one of the first guys to try all of the wild ideas that were floating around: battery bias, single end, silver wire, etc. He had to know. He was relentless. He was an eternal student.
Arthur was also a tireless communicator and network builder. He was totally open source and would fire off schematics,knowledge, and opinions freely. He wanted you to know what he was doing but you can bet he was constantly sniffing around to learn what everybody else was doing. He knew everybody, including a lot of high-end industry folks, and he was great at scamming parts and extracting information from the pro side too.
I hung out with Arthur at the last RMAF and he was looking really good. Very spunky upbeat old school Arthur. He told me he pissed off the guys at Magico when he told them their speaker sucked and explained what was wrong with it. I said, "They pull out a knife, you pull out a cannon. Have a beer."
In my mind, he is ever-famous as the guy who stripped out an Audio Research SP-6 to reuse the metalwork for a Loesch preamp. Total classic.
When I think of DIY as a positive social force, Arthur is one of the people I'm thinking about. He was not one to passively accept the world. He went out and worked it. Added to it.
We can never say somebody like that is gone. He left too much information and inspiration on the server to disappear from our lives.
Those who know Arthur know what I am saying.
Before the net, we all spent hours calling each other for news and developments. Mailing xeroxes and schematics with envelopes and stamps. Arthur as a scientist fit right into this mode. He loved to put his results out there and get reactions. He was especially looking for naysayer reactions which he would spin up his mind to process and refute or take under advisement.
He liked to debate but I think it was a projection of a constant state of scientific debate within himself. He was trying to learn and understand. Always testing. Arguing yay or nay. He asserted his points forcefully but everything was subject to reevaluation and the next time you'd see him he might have a totally new argument.
I think he liked calling me because I was both receptive and good at manufacturing counter-arguments. As I remarked to jc yesterday, I think I remember talking to him for hours a few times without understanding exactly what we were talking about. Tiny slices of electronic reality under the microscope. It was still exciting to be in that kind of charged-up dialogue with a fellow maniac, even if he lost me a few times and vice-versa. Many of the things we were working on defied language anyway.
For me, Arthur is not about certain designs or technical approaches. He was a natural inquisitor. He was one of the first guys to try all of the wild ideas that were floating around: battery bias, single end, silver wire, etc. He had to know. He was relentless. He was an eternal student.
Arthur was also a tireless communicator and network builder. He was totally open source and would fire off schematics,knowledge, and opinions freely. He wanted you to know what he was doing but you can bet he was constantly sniffing around to learn what everybody else was doing. He knew everybody, including a lot of high-end industry folks, and he was great at scamming parts and extracting information from the pro side too.
I hung out with Arthur at the last RMAF and he was looking really good. Very spunky upbeat old school Arthur. He told me he pissed off the guys at Magico when he told them their speaker sucked and explained what was wrong with it. I said, "They pull out a knife, you pull out a cannon. Have a beer."
In my mind, he is ever-famous as the guy who stripped out an Audio Research SP-6 to reuse the metalwork for a Loesch preamp. Total classic.
When I think of DIY as a positive social force, Arthur is one of the people I'm thinking about. He was not one to passively accept the world. He went out and worked it. Added to it.
We can never say somebody like that is gone. He left too much information and inspiration on the server to disappear from our lives.
Those who know Arthur know what I am saying.
Gathering at Arthur's Service
The photo is of the audio folks who attended the service yesterday for Arthur. Most were members of my Catskill & Adirondack Audio Society in the 1990s. Arthur was, of course, also a member.
Left to Right:
Bob Cummings* - Steve Brown* - Dave Slagle - Bear* (Randy Bradley) - Joe Levy* - Bill DeMars - Brad Blanchard - Paul Phillips* - Pern VanCamp* - Vern Ohlke* - John Baier - Fosten Barron (not sure of his last name actually) -
* denotes original members of the club
John Baier and Fosten were audio friends of Arthur up this way from before 1990, both dropped out of the scene before the club started.
Bob Blanchard came in from Boston.
Bob Cummings is featured in the article from SP mentioned above.
Many good tales were swapped, and Steve brought his scrapbook with many photos of the club, some from 20+ years ago now, when we all had dark hair.
A pair of 300B and a WE tennis ball were with Arthur.
_-_-bear
The photo is of the audio folks who attended the service yesterday for Arthur. Most were members of my Catskill & Adirondack Audio Society in the 1990s. Arthur was, of course, also a member.
Left to Right:
Bob Cummings* - Steve Brown* - Dave Slagle - Bear* (Randy Bradley) - Joe Levy* - Bill DeMars - Brad Blanchard - Paul Phillips* - Pern VanCamp* - Vern Ohlke* - John Baier - Fosten Barron (not sure of his last name actually) -
* denotes original members of the club
John Baier and Fosten were audio friends of Arthur up this way from before 1990, both dropped out of the scene before the club started.
Bob Blanchard came in from Boston.
Bob Cummings is featured in the article from SP mentioned above.
Many good tales were swapped, and Steve brought his scrapbook with many photos of the club, some from 20+ years ago now, when we all had dark hair.
A pair of 300B and a WE tennis ball were with Arthur.
_-_-bear
Attachments
I'll correct in the original post if you would like. I wish I could have been there.
Corrected the post per Bear's request.I met Arthur in the late 90's through a mutual friend, "Big Jim" Allen (RIP JCA). Arthur turned me onto the various triodes, topologies (mainly SET) and vintage Tannoy Dual Concentrics. Arthur was always an approachable and amicable person who loved to share his insight. Art's friend, John Wiesner, informed me of his untimely passing and Bob Cummings informed me of the services yesterday... unfortunately, I could not attend...
I still have two of Art's designs, his legacy Loesch & Wiesner phonostage and one pair of his 300B-50-10 convertible SET monoblocks to cherish for years to come...
Rest in peace, Arthur...
I still have two of Art's designs, his legacy Loesch & Wiesner phonostage and one pair of his 300B-50-10 convertible SET monoblocks to cherish for years to come...
Rest in peace, Arthur...
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.