A great new owner for World Designs

[Dave Cawley]

As most of you will know I took over World Designs within a couple of days of it ceasing to exist. World Designs was on Death Row with no reprieve. I did the deal over the phone whilst Peter Comeau was in the departure lounge of Heathrow airport waiting to get on a plane heading for China! Having spoken at length to Noel Keywood, the owner of Hi Fi World and originator of World Audio Designs, I knew it had to be saved, and I was the only one in the queue!

Some of you might remember when I sold 2Metre monitor radio kits in the amateur radio world, we sold over 1,000 kits in the early eighties. However World Designs was not the part time operation I had envisaged, very far from it. Stocks were so low that nothing could be built, or even 1/4 built. All the specialist parts were out of stock, and worse still, some of the manufacturers had gone out of business. After months, I finally got 10 phonostages and 10 PSU's together, repeatable and reliable.

But for me the progress has been painfully slow as I have more than one business here in Dartmouth. So I took a leap, a leap of faith and sold World Designs to my old friend Matthew Snell who has been a member of this forum for 5 years now. Matthew has built both WAD and WD kits and lives just down the road from me. He is young and has taken early retirement, so Matthew can put 100% of his effort into the project.

Many will know my involvement with the detailed modification of turntables and the manufacture of some A.N.T. products. I will be on a retainer to keep the technical side running properly from my lab that you can see here http://www.soundhifi.com/test.html, mind you, that is only one corner!

Many things will happen in the next month or so, probably one of the first will be a fantastic sale of all of the audiophile capacitors, the like of which you will never have seen before, or see again. The offer will be quantity and time limited, so be sure to watch out for it.

Matthew shares my philosophy and whilst we will never allow Google adverts on the forum, we may put a subtle small banner advert for World Design and Timestep products at the bottom of the page. And that will be it.

You can all see why I have kept my head down, but now Matthew has taken over you will see more of me. And why not come and meet us both on Saturday at the Bristol Hi Fi Show right next to the Hi Fi World stand?

Thanks

Dave