Writer Shannon Severson // Photography by Loralei Lazurek
Audio amplification has come a long way since its first iteration in 1906, when Lee de Forest created a triode vacuum tube that would play a crucial role in the invention of the very first AM radio. Amplifiers are used to increase the power of a signal, and the best amplifiers massively boost that power while minimizing the heat and feedback that naturally arise from the process.
The peak of audio amplification in the 21st century is happening right here in Arizona — in Cave Creek, to be exact.
Dan D’Agostino, who has been an innovator in the space since the late 1970s, oversees every aspect of the design and manufacture of extremely high-quality, high-powered amplifiers at Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems, the award-winning company he founded in 2011.
Always innovating, a new all-in-one amplifier, Pendulum, has just been introduced at entry-level pricing, widening the path for audiophiles to join the D’Agostino brand’s ecosystem.
Dan’s wife, Petra, who has a background in luxury media and marketing, is integral to every nonengineering element of the business. The couple made Arizona their home in 2013.
“We’re a good team,” Petra says with a smile. “He thinks of what to make, and I work on the looks. We made an agreement that we don’t get involved in each other’s [areas of expertise].”
It’s a family endeavor with Petra’s son, Alex Wilde, a project management expert, serving as the company’s vice president.
Jazz and Genes
Dan grew up in Niagara Falls, New York. His father, a confirmed audiophile and talented machinist, had a huge influence on him.
“I’ve always loved music,” Dan says. “I love Jazz — John Coltrane, Art Farmer, Freddie Hubbard, Johnny Hartman, Frank Sinatra and Bill Evans [are some favorites].”
He recalls a build-your-own speakers kit he watched his father construct, all housed in a Baltic Birch cabinet made by a family friend.
“He built that and bought a receiver at a company called Lafayette Radio in Syosset, New York,” Dan recalls. “It had two integrated amps and a turntable, and we played it all the time. It became really fun for me because I’d never heard music on a big system. My friends would bring over 45s, and we would listen to Elvis Presley.”
Via a “circuitous route through the Navy,” Dan graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in electrical engineering and immediately entered the workforce in that industry, doing consulting work and repairing audio components. His deep knowledge, heart for innovation and love for music inspired him to design an industry-changing advancement in 1979: the Krell KSA-100 amplifier, for which he is well-known.
“I had studied the industry and noticed there was a big hole for this kind of product,” Dan explains. “The biggest amplifier at the time was a Class A 25-watt, and that was the only type available. I built a 100-watt for a reasonable price and displayed it at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1980. I came home with 45 orders, but I’d never manufactured the product. I started with those orders and went from there.”
Style and Substance
Dan learned a lot from that startup and launched D’Agostino Master Audio Systems out of his Connecticut home in 2010. Petra brought her experience into the mix, as did Wilde, and Dan’s designs changed the game with the unmistakable appearance for which the company’s amplifiers are known. The three did everything from parts sourcing and procurement to working with their network of dealers and distributors around the world.
D’Agostino amplifiers are simply gorgeous. They’re sleek and sexy with a mix of futurism and nostalgia. Their copper heat sinks, silver or black aluminum chassis, and gorgeous copper and glass meters — some with exposed movement like the inner mechanism of a fine wristwatch — make for a product that owners don’t want to hide in a cupboard.
“We have a very famous client who was designing his home movie theater in California,” Dan reveals. “He loved the look of our amplifiers and bought 28 of them. He had a cabinet made with glass doors so they could be displayed.”
But how do they sound? In a word: divine. The absolutely pure nature of these amplifiers’ output is such that one could close one’s eyes and believe the singer and instrumentalists were right there in the room. It’s a goosebumps-all-over experience that envelops the listener.
D’Agostino engages multiple senses for a remarkable listening experience — sound, sight and even touch. Just spinning the primary dial on the front of the unit is satisfyingly smooth. All the external beauty conceals an incredibly intricate and powerful internal system.
“We wanted something different,” Dan says. “[Petra] was very instrumental in how the product looks; she always thought that most audio equipment was not very attractive, and that’s true. So, when we founded this company, we wanted to make something that people liked the look of but also had all the attributes of some of the other products I had designed. I’ve always been a car fan, and the meter gauge is kind of romantic from the ‘50s era, but the way it [presents] is kind of like an early Bugatti. All the gauges [extend from] the dashboard like that.”
The car comparisons continue as the amplifiers, consisting entirely of domestically sourced components, are often characterized as the “Ferrari” of audio equipment.
Petra says that, with copper being their signature color, it fits well with Arizona’s copper mines of their new home state.
“My parents lived in Arizona, and we thought we might just live here for a year or two,” she recalls. “We fell in love with Cave Creek. We brought a few employees with us and then kept hiring people here.”
The company also fosters close relationships with dealers, inviting them from all over the world to enjoy the charms of Cave Creek, hosting them for a meal of Dan’s famous homemade pizza and living room listening sessions in their home, outdoor recreation adventures in the desert and training on the product.
“It’s easier to sell something when you really know about it,” Petra explains. “You can see it’s handmade, the time that goes into it, and the quality of the product. [The dealers] have a class at the factory where they learn to solder, they can pick up a heat sink, and we explain how the pieces go into a volume controller. When a customer comes in, they can say [from experience] why our product is better than the others because they really understand.”
Here in Arizona, interested buyers visit LMC Home Entertainment Ltd. in Scottsdale or Tempe where Mike Ware, the company’s “Dealer of the Year,” helps customers design the system they need from top to bottom.
Brand Perfection
D’Agostino Master Audio Systems now occupies its third factory location in the Carefree and Cave Creek area and will be expanding soon. The relatively small footprint of their facility is a hive of activity.
Clearly delineated workstations for engineering and design, assembly, circuit board building, material supplies testing and listening are staffed with talented workers who are dedicated to perfection.
“Everything has to be perfect,” Petra points out. “If something has a small scratch, we can’t use it. It’s a huge effort.”
“Huge” describes both the endeavor to build these high-end pieces here in the U.S. and the size of the largest amplifier in their product line, christened “Relentless,” which weighs 585 pounds and took two years to develop from concept to finished product; each unit takes one person two to four weeks to build. Their smaller “Momentum” product takes an entire week to construct — each tiny circuit soldered by hand, each element carefully installed and tested time and again. Momentum was their very first amplifier, and it still sells at a brisk pace today.
As one might well imagine, D’Agostino Master Audio has an extremely loyal following and, aside from the quality of their amplifiers, much of that is owed to the company’s commitment to serving and retaining existing clients. Planned obsolescence is not a thing at D’Agostino Master Audio Systems.
“We build things that can be repaired,” Dan explains. “If you buy something from us and we come out with a new version of it, you can send it to us, and we will upgrade it. We take them apart, put in all new circuitry, test it and send it back. So now they have the exact same sound as the people out there who bought the newest version. This does two things: It gets rid of buyer’s remorse and makes people feel like they have some stake in their investment; pride in [ownership].”
As a result, very few units make it to the resale market and, if they do, they sell in a flash. That also helps keep the value of the brand high.
International clients, particularly those who own the largest-sized systems, contract with the company to have a top-flight D’Agostino engineer come perform the upgrades on-site.
The upgrades, refinement of engineering and circuitry, and relationships the company has built continue to contribute to the growth of D’Agostino Master Audio Systems. Petra and Dan say they have learned to keep their focus on meeting and exceeding expectations, even when it takes extra time.
“Everything we do reflects that energy and that path,” Dan says. “We may spread the product line out, we may distribute more horizontally, but our overall goal is to make beautiful, great-sounding products that people like to hear.”
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