Peter Comeau joins IAG

[petercom]

Hi

By now some of you may have read the press releases so it's time to post the latest news here.

As of May 2009 I have taken up my old post (pre World Designs) as Director of Acoustic Design for Mission.

Only this time it's not just Mission. Now it includes Wharfedale, QUAD, Audiolab and Castle, in fact every brand in the IAG collection.

For those who don't know, IAG (International Audio Group) are a Chinese manufacturing facility employing European know-how and engineers to re-establish many UK brands. As Director of Acoustic Design I'll be responsible for making sure the products for those brands live up to the quality and performance that have always been expected by their owners and fans.

In order to work closely with the product development and manufacturing plant at IAG I've moved out to China for the foreseeable future.

Of course no manufacturer gets it right all the time, and I'd be the first to acknowledge that even UK based Mission got it wrong sometimes, but at IAG the team is once again dedicated to sound quality and value and I'm very pleased to be here.

That doesn't mean I've forgotten about, or will be ignoring, WD. Chris, my chief engineer at WD, will be handling the management in his usual personable style and will still be consulting with me about products.

Obviously I can't continue with the Hi-Fi World articles in quite the same way as I have done in the past but will still be offering some contributions that I hope you'll find interesting.

So, although it's a new leaf for me, WD will be soldiering on (or should that be soldering on?) with existing and new designs which I'll oversee as much as I can from half way round the globe. In any case I'll be back in the UK every few months to catch up with everything that's going on.

For the moment, then, it's Greetings from China and thanks to those who have already sent 'congrats' and so on.

[KC Jones]

Congratulations Peter, thats excellent news, enjoy the job.
With your designs and ethics their products will soon be flying off the shelves! as will World Deigns too
Good luck.

[Gerry]

Congratulations Peter. Best of British and all that.
Now I really do have excuse to buy those Quad 2905!

P.S. Remember if you order snake at restaurant...it is usually alive, but they do skin it for you!

[Ianm2]

Well, Peter made some very sensible decisions about what to refine in the WD products.

The times they are a changin'

It raises some interesting speculation tho for the future...

and I do wonder about the medium term viability and demand for so many hifi companies in a shrinking demand driven market place that is further destabilised by rapidly developing digital technology, in an already current shifting business environment that's having to fast redefine and prune, where inefficiencies will render them extinct fast, given lack of liquidity from lending institutions

its struck me recently how obscene some hifi is becoming as a rich toy for city types as souless expensive architecture to flatter and impress, btw, commercial hifi is again at a stage of midlife crisis at its place in the world imo. its at an alltime low in terms of direction imo.

but best of luck


(start queing up for a kit hifi company...my prediction)

[Cobblers]

Peter,
Congratulations, I hope you find the position highly fulfilling, it certainly looks like you will have enough to do!

As a man of considerable influence with IAG group could you have a word with IAG UK about their truly awful, diabolical telephone system


I wish you well for the future.

It will be easier finding the IAG factory in China now, visitors will just have to follow the peculiar sounds of Western Prog Rock.

[Baggy Trousers]

"its struck me recently how obscene some hifi is becoming as a rich toy for city types as souless expensive architecture to flatter and impress . . ."

Is becoming? Bang and Olufsen have been at it for nearly fifty years!

[Cobblers]

Originally Posted by Baggy Trousers

"its struck me recently how obscene some hifi is becoming as a rich toy for city types as souless expensive architecture to flatter and impress . . ."

Is becoming? Bang and Olufsen have been at it for nearly fifty years!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyZspqjtG2k

0.59 sec's.

Then again they created the seminal Beolab 5.

[Wieslaw Lipowski]

Let's hope Pete finds his place in the queue

[naimart]

Peter, thanks for what you (and the WD team) have added to my musical enjoyment over the last few years. The WD25 really did revitalize my interest in music, not just Hi-Fi.

Good luck for the future!

[charly]

I trust, Peter, you'll finish your open baffle project for WD? Best of luck in China.