Again, I can't believe how much things have changed and time has flown. At that point, the two of them were the entire company.
Scott and Jerry hooked me up to a machine and gave me a hearing test that day in fact. I can still remember my first visit to their "new venture" like it was yesterday. So yes, Paradigm still maintains operations in Canada at this time, but it isn't exactly the same company I watched being born in a tiny industrial unit 25 years ago, not that that's a bad thing, just nostalgic to me. It's been more than a decade since I've seen any of them. sales not long after the company formed, is doing. I'm not sure what Bill, Jerry's brother, who became a shareholder and head of U.S. AFAIK, and I may be wrong, one original partner (Scott Bagby) stayed on and the other (Jerry VanderMarel) retired. It wasn't another loudspeaker manufacturer as in API's case. A large U.S.- based investment firm bought them IIRC. I heard about it word of mouth from a former associate, then read about it in a press release on the net about 2 years ago. I don't think it's overly polite to get into long discussions about competing brands in a sponsored thread, so to be brief, I forget who. The CD73 is a perfect partner to the Arcam A65 Plus amplifier. Furthermore, if you decide to improve your system, by simply adding the appropriate Arcam DAC module, the CD73 is readily upgradeable in the future to CD82 or CD192 performance. I also had the great pleasure of meeting Paul Klipsch in the early 80's. The quality of the sound is complemented by the superb build quality. Howard Heiber, the founder and owner of API was one of shrewdest and toughest clients I ever dealt with, but he was fair and even generous at times. IIRC, Floyd left the NRC shortly before the project was completed to become VP of Research and Development at Harman international. Floyd Toole, then head of Canada's National Research Council's audio division. The "Athena" brand got it's name from the "Athena Project" which was a colaborative research venture into active loudspeakers which included several competing companies and was headed up by Dr. Again, they brought the former owners of that company into their fold as key employees. Specifications: Power output: 70 watts per channel into 8 ohms (stereo) Frequency response: 20Hz to 20kHz. Not long after that they introduced a speaker brand called "Image" (pronounced like "Mirage') with some success, but dropped it when they purchased "Mirage". This Denon PMA-560 Integrated Stereo Amplifier comes in the original box and packaging, with attached power cord included only. They then launched the Energy brand and gained international recognition with their hugely successful "Energy 22" model.
They started branding their own product by launching "Sound Dynamics" and buying out Paisley Research and hiring Ian Paisley as their head designer to produce his self-named line of speakers under their banner. In 1981, API was primarily an OEM manufacturer for other companies' designs. At least their brands and legacy will live on under the even longer-lived Klipsch banner.
Paradigm also sold out a year or two ago, so with the original API gone now as well, (Mirage actually used to be a separate company before API bought them) that pretty much ends the original era of Canadian speaker design.