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The Story

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     I received an email some time ago from a gentleman who introduced himself as Richard Schram of Parasound. Richard went on to explain that he loves what we’re doing and wondered if we’d be interested in an old set of Altec drivers he had. He’s been holding on to them for years, didn’t want to see them go to waste and thought we might be just the right guys to find a proper home for them. If I was interested, he suggested he’d accept an offer that was more than fair.

 

     What was intriguing is that these Altec’s were part of the Heath Kit line of products. Heath Kit sold DIY kits for various electronics and Altec Lansing produced a line of their drivers for them. The difference being the classic Altec green was substituted for a tan color and a Heath Kit sticker was plastered on top of each driver. Richard felt these might not be as coveted as “real” Altec’s, but still worthy of being put to use.     

 

     Some quick research showed I may have been one of the few who didn’t know who Richard Schram was. Oh my! Meeting him at his headquarters in San Francisco to pick up his offerings, he proved to be a real genuine nice guy. As he recounted his history with these drivers, his enthusiasm was infectious and I was flattered that he spoke so highly of us. I started to wonder if he’d confused us with someone else so I scooted out of there figuring I could clear things up later.

 

     Brainstorming on how to gracefully piggyback on Richard’s reputation by incorporating his or his companies name proved difficult. The Schramwell’s and The Burasounds didn’t roll off the tongue, and shortening his first name was awkward. Watching jets land at nearby SFO triggered talk of Ramjet and the Scramjet engines when Marshall announced, “We’ll paint them jet black and call them the Schramjets!” We got a winner!

 

     I don’t know when painters started charging more than doctors, but we changed our flight plan to a slightly different course. We’d already decided that polishing the bullets on a set of JBL 075 tweeters mounted on satin and gloss black hardware looked remarkably like jet engines. Blacking out some of the front trim give this set of Homage’s a stealthy look. They’re actually quite sexy looking.

 

     Normally we do a sound check with our coveted tube mono blocks, but it only made sense to feature Parasound gear graciously on loan to us by Mr. Schram. Wow!  We were blown away! Every combination we tried, from the compacts, to the integrated and separates up to the beefy JC-5 were simply amazing.

 

     We’ll have to return Richard’s gear sometime. In the meantime, we recommend a visit to our studio so we can take you on a test flight of the Schramjets. It’s quite a ride.