Soundcraftsmen

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Soundcraftsmen was a high-end audio gear maker from Santa Ana, California. It was started in 1961 by Ralph Yeomans, who ran a Fedco concession in southern California. Early products included tube-type receivers and amplifiers.

Yeomans and Charles Gassett, a marketing entrepreneur, wanted to grow the brand nationwide. They chose to introduce an equalizer as their first product and hired engineer Paul Rolfes in 1968. The equalizer was shown at the 1969 CES in New York, and national distribution began in late 1970.

In the mid-1970s, Soundcraftsmen added preamplifiers and power amplifiers, including the first preamplifier/equalizer combination. The equalizers and the compact “brick” power amplifiers earned a loyal following among audiophiles in the 1970s and 1980s. All Soundcraftsmen products were made in the Santa Ana facility.

In the early 1970s they also sold a solid-state stereo receiver through Fedco only. It was built by Electro-Voice, but shipped with a Soundcraftsmen faceplate and had no national distribution.

Yeomans ran the HiFi Stereo Components Concession in Fedco under the Coastron name. Coastron operated inside Fedco with its own staff and a warehouse in Montebello for parts and repairs. Robert Rann was a key figure there. Repairs to Soundcraftsmen gear were handled at Montebello, and some Lancer speaker repairs were done in the back rooms of the sales areas.

Yeomans also owned Atlantic Stereo, an audio-video store in Costa Mesa. Atlantic Stereo still operates but is not affiliated with Yeomans.

Gassett led national and international marketing for Soundcraftsmen. As president and CEO, he grew the Coastron/Fedco house brand from a few hundred thousand dollars a year to multimillions. He left in 1980 to expand his international business.

In 1991 MTX bought Soundcraftsmen and renamed it MTX Soundcraftsmen. MTX stopped producing Soundcraftsmen components in the mid-1990s.