| About Us |
| John
McCormack, owner and designer of Shoreline Amplifiers became interested
in audio amplifiers in 1969 at the age of nine. In his early teens,
he built tube amplifiers based on the designs found in the schematic
diagrams of a popular receiving tube manual. Thirty years of ongoing
research has brought him beyond the scope of these basic designs. By
the age of fifteen he was designing and building customized Marshall
guitar amplifiers. At the age of nineteen he got involved in designing
industrial process control equipment. Despite a successful career in
process control he could not overcome his true passion - purity of sound.
He has considerable experience in building solid state as well as tube
amplifiers but his passion lies with tubes.
In 1988 John purchased Rainbow Electronics, an electronic repair store in Sacramento, California. Rainbow Electronics was originally established in 1963. Its name was derived from the fact that it was one of the few shops at that time that repaired color television sets. He turned Rainbow Electronics into a successful business specializing in audio and video repairs and modifications of consumer and professional equipment. Rainbow Electronics has a reputation in Northern California for excellence in repairs, modifications and service. All the while, pursuing his first passion - designing tube amplifiers, John also established his own reputation for being a master craftsman building tube amplifiers and selling them to customers and friends. John's ultimate goal was to design an amplifier which would reproduce music at the highest possible level without sounding loud. He had sold earlier versions of the amplifier, but continued research and development because he didn't think he had reached his ultimate goal. On November 21st, 1992, he took his girlfriend, Robin out to dinner at Aldo's restaurant for her birthday. While listening to maestro Mario Ferrari playing a concerto on the grand piano, it struck him...he said "My God, that piano sounds like my amplifier...no, my amplifier sounds like the piano!" Tears came to his eyes as he realized he had achieved his goal. He was there, he had done it! He had built an amplifier which would reproduce music at the live level. He immediately took Robin back to Rainbow Electronics to do some listening tests with the prototype..(not a very romantic thing to do on her birthday). He put on some classical piano music and kept turning up the volume until Robin told him it sounded live - like Mario's piano playing. To his astonishment the amplifier was producing musical peaks at a power level of over 5,000 watts. It was at that point he decided he was ready to share his work with the high end community. As for his understanding girlfriend, she is now his wife. That night Shoreline Amplifiers was born and the successful design concept became the Shoreline 800 monoblock amplifier. Just the beginning.... |