Susumu Sakuma

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Joined 2011
Sad passing of a tube amp artist...

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A great loss

I just discovered that Sakuma-san passed away. Had not been to the Direct Heating web page in a while. First learned about him from the magazine, Sound Practices. Was just learning about triode amps at that time. In 2002, traveled to Japan on vacation with my fiancé. I managed to somehow figure out how to use the trains to get to his restaurant. My fiancé thought I was a bit nutty trying to find a guy in Japan who built tube amps. We got to dine there and meet Sakuma-san, his wife and his daughter. He kindly played jazz on many of his different amplifiers and loudspeakers. It was truly the best day of my audio life. The Concorde restaurant was an amazing place. Probably nothing like it anywhere else in the world. When I got back home to San Francisco, I went to the Kinokuniya bookstore and immediately got a subscription to MJ Audio magazine after learning that that is where Sakuma-san published his amplifier articles. Followed him that way over the years. His enthusiasm for vacuum tube audio was certainly one of the greatest inspirations to me to build my own equipment for great sound. One day, when I get more free time, I want to finally get around to building that push pull 845 amp that was featured on the cover of that Sound Practices magazine. For now, I will mourn his passing, miss his presence in the audio world, feel sad that I will never be able to go back to the Concorde restaurant. But, I feel so very fortunate and happy that I got a chance to meet him, shake his hand, enjoy his cooking, enjoy his vinyl and amplifiers and enjoy his wonderful presence. Rest in peace!
 
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