The audio industry lost another of its veterans on May 23 with the passing of George Bischoff. Over more than four decades, George touched many facets of the industry beginning with Personalized Audio, his retail shop in Dunellen, NJ. He began many creative audio pursuits. He sold over 300 kits that replaced the two tweeters of the Dahlquist DQ 10. With his first speaker he independently discovered the Dynaco A35's aperiodic bass loading. George was an importer for Pink Triangle turntables, Helius tonearms and Beard electronics. He was a partner and co-designer for Melos starting with the unique Melos speaker and then the Melos electronics including the SHA line stage/headphone amplifier pictured above, and the Melos monoblocks, which put out over 400 triode-tube watts. He was subsequently involved with the design of the Pipe Dreams and Scaena speakers, the GeorgeMark DAC/line stage and the Memory CD player. And he found time to develop a unique CD treatment that I felt significantly improved reproduction.
But more importantly, he was a great guy who made everyone he met feel appreciated. Many of us will always remember the unique, great Wednesday-evening beer parties after his retail store closed where all were welcome with open arms, customer or not.
