Rudy Bozak

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Rudy Bozak : biography

1910 – February 8, 1982

Commercial sound

For commercial sound reinforcement, Bozak introduced a biamped columnar loudspeaker in 1962. In 1963, the newly-established commercial loudspeaker division was employing about 60 people dedicated to manufacturing the columnar model which was proving a great success. At 18 years of age Bob Betts was hired as Rudy’s lab technician, but was soon put in charge of the Acoustics Lab, in 1965. Betts became chief engineer in 1968 after returning from the Vietnam war. Rudy Bozak and Betts traveled extensively on company business and often tutored Betts with his college work.

For the 1964 New York World’s Fair, Bozak again put forward a new loudspeaker design; this time in the Vatican Pavilion. Hemispherical ceiling-mounted loudspeakers (the CM-109-2) were developed and installed with great success.

Bozak accepted occasional United States Department of Defense contracts including an underwater low frequency driver intended for acoustic communication between ocean-going vessels and a vibration platform that Bozak employees called "The Shaker" which was meant to test the integrity of electronic assemblies in action.

The company name changed from "R.T. Bozak Co." to "Bozak, Inc" in the mid- 1960s.

Electronics

DJ mixers

Bozak is often remembered today for his advanced designs of DJ mixers which allowed the development of the concept of disc jockey mixing and ‘discotheques’. Beginning with the Bozak CMA-6-1 and CMA-10-1, 6 and 10-input monaural units of the mid 1960s, the peak of development was reached with the stereo Bozak CMA-10-2DL; a unit that was very quickly accepted as the standard of its day. The Bozak CMA mixers were very expensive: they used high-grade Allen-Bradley components, hand-selected transistors, and were of modular construction for ease of servicing and expansion.

C/M Laboratories, co-founded by Wayne Chou and Nick Morris, collaborated with Rudy Bozak, in the mid-1960s on the construction of basic mono mixers and power amplifiers. C/M Labs designed the CMA-10 mixer intended for orchestral sound reinforcement; it was produced in small quantities. C/M Labs also designed and built amplifiers and other integrated electronics for Bozak and used Bozak speakers to test their gear. In 1968 Bozak brought these electronic products into the Bozak factory and developed them further. The CMA-10-2 and 10-2DL mixer was designed at Bozak for sale to discotheques.

Bozak didn’t cease production of DJ mixers until some years after the death of Rudy Bozak. Buzzy Beck (a former engineer) and Paul Hammarlund carried on the work for a time. Meanwhile the design of the famed CMA series of mixers was cloned by UREI as their model 1620 until they ceased production at which point the mixer was cloned by Rane Corp. as their model 2016a. In 2005, Soundcraft began to offer a UREI-Soundcraft badged 1620LE, with ‘LE’ standing for ‘Limited Edition’.

The Bozak brand is now owned by Analog Developments Ltd. who have released electronic products such as the ISO-X isolator and the AR-6 DJ mixer. They own the website .

Digital delay

Bozak developed an electronic digital delay device in the early 1970s and used it to align loudspeakers in time within event spaces. The Bozak DA-4003 delay, Bozak amplifiers and various Bozak loudspeaker models were used by Donald E. Gilbeau and Dr. J. Christopher Jaffe in 1975 to emulate a concert hall experience outdoors; Jaffe received a patent for the concept.

Final years

Saul Marantz joined Bozak as consultant in the mid 1970s. He helped with esthetic details of certain products. When both Bozak and Marantz teamed up to demonstrate loudspeakers at Hi-Fi events and audio engineering conventions, a sizable crowd would form. Bozak shifted from using McIntosh amplifiers for powering his loudspeakers to using Marantz amplifiers.

The B-401 Rhapsody speaker was reviewed in August, 1974, in High Fidelity, where it was said to have good power handling and a more constant impedance curve than most. Other auditors found a lack of bass response.