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  Factory Tour We are proud to show off our new facility in Paso Robles California. The production plant for our products is brand new, and operated by Rick Cullen who has been a part of PS Audio since 1974. The 5000 square foot plant manufactures nothing but PS Audio equipment, and because Rick runs the entire operation for us on an exclusive basis, we at the Boulder Colorado headquarters can focus on new products and sales and customer service of the existing products. Where in the world is Paso Robles?  Have you ever heard of Paso Robles California? It means Pass of the Oaks and is a beautiful oak laden area about 30 miles inland from the central California coast. In fact, if you went due west from Paso (as it is referred to by the locals) you'd run right into Hearst Castle.There are over 26 wineries in Paso Robles, making it one of the hottest new wine areas in California. Brands like J. Lohr, Wild Horse, Pesenti, Bonny Doon, Eberle, and Silver Horse blanket the fields of this picturesque valley. Paso Robles is about one hour's drive from where PS Audio started, Santa Maria California. To get to our plant, you would drive north on US highway 101 if you were coming from the Los Angeles area. Coming from the San Francisco Bay area, you would drive South. Paso Robles is about equidistant from either LA or SF. This is the main highway that goes from San Diego California to about as far north as you can go in the US.  We thought that you might enjoy taking a small tour of the PS facility and see where the Power Plants, the Ultimates, the Lab Cables and all the new products soon to come are manufactured.We assemble the gear As you may have read elsewhere on this web site, the chassis for our equipment are manufactured about an hour and a half South of us at Neal Feay company, and just recently we have added a second chassis manufacturer, CEH Metal products in Anaheim California. Once the chassis arrive at our dock, they are opened and inspected to see if they meet our written criteria. They are then placed in inventory or put into 'kits'. A kit is usually assembled to meet a specific purchase order. So, for instance, if the facility receives a purchase order for 100 P300 Power Plants, a kit will be gathered that has all the components necessary to build 100 P300's. Parts will be sent out to the PC board assembly house, and they will build the PC boards. The chassis are sequestered into a holding area while wire harnesses are built, hardware gathered, etc. Once we receive all the PC boards and we're ready to start building a 'run' of equipment, the crew begins to assemble the parts. PC boards and wiring harnesses become sub assemblies, and the sub assemblies are then tested and assembled into the chassis.  Each step along the way has a number of requisite procedures and checklists that need to be followed. It's an exacting process but a time honored one that works well. Over the last 25 years, Rick and his crew have built nearly every piece of electronics we've sold.It brings great joy to receive a call from someone that still owns a PS IV preamp or one of the original phono stages and just called to let us know how much pleasure the unit continues to bring into their lives. It's easy enough to lose sight of the pleasure these devices bring to people as they enrich their lives with music and the joy of good sound. Our employees are well aware of the quality demands our customers place on them and we do our best on a daily basis to live up to those expectations. Power Plants are everywhere!  Of course at the moment, the single largest inventory item we have is the Power Plant. From P1200's to P600's to P300's the shop floor is  filled with Power Plants in one stage of their production or another.If the Power Plant is a P600 or a P1200, then it will be placed on its own roll-around cart so it can be easily moved from station to station. You can imagine how difficult it would be to lift these pieces one at a time. So when a P600 (for example) is finished with board installation, it is wheeled over to the transformer installation area and its power supplies and transformers are added. Then it's off to test.  Our newest product, the Ultimate Outlet was just being produced when we went to visit the new facility.Here you can see how the plug assembly for the Ultimate's are made up beforehand with their capacitors and resistors necessary for the circuitry to 'do it's thing'. The Ultimate uses a potted module, known as a Balun, which is a piece of toroidal magnetic material wound with Litz wire, then placed into a potting cup and surrounded with epoxy. This allows us to make sure the Balun is safe under any condition, and hopefully keeps a few of our nosey competitors out of the loop. It took a long time to figure out how to make this piece work and we don't need it copied right away. Here is a picture of the plug assembly that goes into the Ultimate. This close-up view shows the special capacitors we use and how they are mounted directly to the plug. We chose this method of construction over the standard PC board route because we need to keep the inductance down to a minimum. This is one way of achieving that goal within the constraints of this extruded aluminum package. Production should flow  Now that we are in our new facility, we will have far less trouble meeting demand for the products. As many of you know, we have been very backordered on our products. This has been due, in part, to the amazing demand for Power Plants and Ultimates, but that has been coupled with a lack of production space and manpower.We now believe that we are positioned to expand the company in our new and modern production facilities. With the advent of the PS Audio Power Frame amplification system and the Video Lens coming into production soon, we are thankful the new plant is finally here and ready for round two! |
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