July 1998

SimAudio Factory Tour

The last time I set out to do a factory tour, I proclaimed that outside the door of my Ottawa, Canada home there was plenty of audio activity, providing you left the city. Ottawa is pretty boring, particularly when it comes to high-end audio. However, if you drive a number of hours west you will end up in Toronto—lots goes on there. South will take you to New York State—last went there and did the Von Schweikert Research tour. The eastern direction takes you to the province of Quebec, which is the reigning Canadian monarch of high-end audio. That is where I made my journey. Furthermore, I wanted to profile a company that would surprise people in terms of size and scope—one that is still forging its name on the international audio scene. That company is SimAudio—a company that I've actually heard some refer to as an upstart! However, you will find out that SimAudio is really no such thing. In fact, it was really one of the pioneers of the Canadian high-end scene.

Oh Canada…

Talk about Canadian audio companies and what do most people think? Loudspeakers, of course, and for good reason. Energy, Mirage, PSB, Waveform, Paradigm and others made such huge impact in the 1980s that the audio world took notice. The loudspeaker industry was aided in part by two Canadian secret weapons—Dr. Floyd O'Toole and the National Research Council (NRC). The NRC possesses some of the world's finest facilities for testing loudspeakers, and many companies took advantage of them. And the good doctor performed well-known, ground-breaking work with controlled-listening experiments and found certain key speaker design criteria that corresponded with listener preferences. The result? World-class loudspeakers recognized worldwide.

Although not as abundant, Canadian high-end audio electronics have also fared well. For over two decades Bryston has successfully sold products to the professional audio and consumer markets. Sonic Frontiers climbed quickly through the late ‘80s and today stands as one of the leaders in tube- and digital-audio design. And finally, over in Quebec, two companies are standing tall in the solid-state market. On one side of Montreal, in the Lachine area, Classé Audio has become well known for offering high-performance, high-value, and high-powered amplifiers along with preamplifiers, digital processors, and CD players. A ten-minute trip up, over and past the Champlain Bridge brings us to another company—SimAudio.

History lessons

SimAudio has roots that go back to 1980 when Victor Sima founded the company. Like that of many companies, the name mirrored that of its founder, and the company was originally called Sima, with products marketed under the same name. Although the Sima brand name remained until 1992, the company itself changed its name to SimAudio in 1988.

In the old days, Sima formed its reputation on the sound of the products and neglected things like physical beauty. The appearance of the Sima products of those days, at least to my eyes, was definitely uninspiring—basic metal chassis with a deep-brown finish and gold lettering. Trust me, this description sounds better than the equipment looked. Mind you, the absence of cosmetic touches was not without good reason. Sima eschewed the looks and aimed at producing fine-sounding products at reasonable prices. It worked, and for the right reason (i.e. sound quality) the Sima name was established strongly in the Canadian audio scene for some time and introduced many products.

In 1992 it was time to go more upscale, and SimAudio introduced the Celeste line of electronics. Compared to the rather spartan and boxy appearance of the Sima line, the Celeste series was a relief to the eyes—and ears too. Celeste offered improved aesthetics, high build quality, premium parts, innovative design and improved technical performance resulting in sonics that quickly eclipsed the Sima line. The rounded heatsinks and Renaissance technology in their amplifier circuits are still in use today (although improved further). Even though Celeste was more upscale than Sima, it was still affordable enough for the average audiophile. In fact, the 4070 amplifier is one of the least expensive amplifiers in Stereophile's Class B Recommended Components listing (April 1998) and wholeheartedly deserves the $$$ rating the magazine uses to denote high value.

Celeste firmly established SimAudio in the international high-end arena. The full product line today includes power and integrated amplifiers, preamplifiers and power conditioners. There is also a CD player currently under development for release later this year. The Celeste line even allowed SimAudio to dip their toes into the home-theater marketplace by offering the three-channel HT-3 amplifier and five-channel HT-5.

While the Celeste products rose to prominence, another big change took place at SimAudio. In 1994, Jean Poulin, previously the director of operations, took over full ownership of SimAudio, and Victor Sima left the company. To this day, Jean remains the president and personally oversees every product-development initiative on which the current SimAudio design team embarks. Jean is an avid music lover and audiophile with a mechanical-engineering background. He brings a mix of art and science to the company's products.

Take me to the moon

Satisfied that the Celeste products had made their mark, SimAudio next shot for the Moon. The Moon-series preamplifiers and amplifiers were conceived in Jean's eyes to take the SimAudio technology to the limits and are designed to compete in the same marketplace as Krell and Levinson. Of course, to do so meant cost-no-object technology and parts. Further research at the company produced Advanced Renaissance technology, which was used in the W-3 and W-5 amplifiers. John also took it upon himself as a personal mission to ensure that he built the best preamplifiers he could conceive of for this lineup. In fact, preamplifiers became an obsession with Jean because he was never happy with the company's older designs. The result is the P-3 and P-5.

Performance first, price second was the idea, and of course these models are priced higher than preamps in the Celeste line. Furthermore, the gorgeous brushed-aluminum faceplates and thick spikes flanking each side make an intriguing visual statement. The good news is that although the Moon series is intended to offer cost-no-object performance, its prices are still what some will consider affordable—at least in the world of high-end audio. In fact, some may still find them to be too cheap. Neither costs chicken feed, but they are proof that you can still own top-flight electronics and not need to sell the car (maybe).

With the Celeste and Moon products established, Jean had nowhere to go but down—in price that is. Jean turned the eyes and ears of his team toward offering value-priced components—still high-end, mind you; still high-performing, of course; but with prices that are more affordable. The latest electronics are the Stratford series. Although Stratford does offer a two-channel, 120Wpc amplifier for entry-level high-end seekers, as well as a 100Wpc integrated model, the goal is really to establish Stratford as a high-quality home-theater brand. The showcase piece in the lineup is a five-channel home-theater power amplifier. There is also a similar three-channel amp. It's not surprising to find out that the Stratford line is based heavily on the same circuit topologies in the Celeste lineup, but are a little more affordably priced..

The tour

As I stated earlier, SimAudio's factory is a short distance out of downtown Montreal. At Montreal-driving speeds it takes about ten minutes to get there—everywhere else in the world it would take about 20. The province of Quebec is known for its prominent French culture, although in Montreal an anglophone, like myself, has little trouble getting by.

The SimAudio factory is nestled in a modern building within an industrial park. The location is ideal for shipping and receiving and for outsourcing key production parts that the company uses. Walking in the factory front door, one finds offices overflowing with paper, computer terminals, and the desk of company president Jean Poulin directly to the right. Jean, I found, is on the phone a lot. With dealers scattered all over North America and around the world, SimAudio is a busy place, and its phone rings all hours of the day. Plus, Jean likes to keep on top of everything and that means a lot of calls everywhere.

"I'll be with you in just a minute, Doug," Jean said, one hand on the receiver.

"No problem, I'll unpack my camera and look around."

I began with a quick look around the facility to orient myself. Running across the front of the office, right as you walk in the door, is a counter. As mentioned before, Jean's desk is directly to the right of that. Left of the counter is another adjoining office where the accountants congregate—more paper, computers and such. Directly off of that office is a door to one of two in-factory listening rooms. This room is dedicated to home-theater electronics testing. Inside I could see Moon and Celeste amps set up for critical listening using a five-piece Totem Acoustics speaker setup. Room Tunes and Gershman Acoustics Acoutune devices flanked the walls and corners. Listening, I found out later, is a crucial element of the design process at SimAudio, and these rooms are constantly put to use. The key listener at SimAudio? Jean Poulin, of course.

Sinking in…

Jean was now off the phone and ushered me back to his office to begin to tour the factory. He took me through a back-office door that opened to a large factory area consisting of three main rooms. Off to the left in a large, darkish-looking area is where the heatsinks are first brought in and then cut and finished for use in the Celeste- and Moon-series products. One of the hallmarks of these amplifiers is the distinctive heatsink design that forms a rounded appearance on the side of the chassis. I think it looks great compared to the usual fins that jut out of the side of most amps. It's functional as well as visually pleasing, which is important in the high-end market.

The sinks themselves start off life as long half-pipe extrusions about 12' long that SimAudio has subcontracted to produce. The fins are already formed on lengthy extrusions. Next the sinks are cut to the appropriate length for the type of amplifier needed. Then they are further shaped. For example, on the Moon series, round metal legs with large spikes are attached to the heat sinks. This design improves mechanical coupling of the amplifier to the floor. In order to accommodate the legs, the side of the sink is drilled and then the leg assembly welded on.

What goes "between" the heat sinks is what happens in the next, very large area. The main assembly area is bright and spacious, and it’s where the guts of the assembly operation are. There are long rows of benches and technicians who put together all of the SimAudio products. Of course, at any one time not all of the products are being produced. Instead, production is matched to current orders and anticipated orders. On the day I visited, the technicians were assembling Moon P-3 and P-5 preamplifiers and the I-5 integrated amplifiers. Over on another row, other technicians were putting together Celeste and Stratford power amplifiers.

The Stratford and Celeste home-theater amplifiers are particularly interesting. Each amplifier channel is mounted on a single board that includes heatsinks and connectors too (these amps don't use the rounded sinks). Then either three or five of these boards are placed into a chassis to make the appropriate amplifier. The picture above shows the technician putting finishing touches on a run of boards.

Jean is particularly obsessive over the quality of construction. He is proud to state that all of his technicians are educated in the appropriate skills and fully qualified to do the intricate assembly required. With so many amplifiers being sold, it's imperative to get it right the first time.

There is also another area off from the main assembly area. It's what I would call parts storage. It is this area that I find particularly interesting because it is here that it strikes home just how much it takes to operate a company of this magnitude. By how much, I mean how much investment much. Consumers usually only see very few end products and think, "well they perhaps they could have used this part or perhaps they could have used that."

I can tell you that in every company I've toured, the selection of what goes inside their products is extremely well-thought. When companies decide to produce products in quantity the investment is enormous and the long-run implications are huge. Every piece of every product is usually very well thought out and have to perform reliably and be readily available for now and in the future. Companies like this don't have one or two of something on hand. They have hundreds and thousands. In this area in SimAudio there are not only countless capacitors, inductors and resistors, there are a multitude of faceplates, footers, covers, screws, wire and everything else that goes into their products. This area is almost the size of the assembly area and is crammed full -- wall to wall!

Testing, testing, testing…

Toward the front of the factory floor, close to the front offices, is the third main room, the testing area. A conveyor runs in from the assembly area and at any given time a number of products are in and put through their paces. When the products are in this testing area, they are nearing their final stages of construction—chassis are complete, circuit boards are all wired, heat sinks attached, etc. All that's missing are the top and bottom covers. This is on purpose in case any adjustments are necessary for the units.

The testing rigmarole includes burn-in and testing using various criteria over a period of time. Following that, every unit is then measured to ensure that it fully meets its specs. On this day, a bunch of Moon-series products were being burned in and put through their paces.

Exit stage left

At the back corner of the testing area (not visible in any of our pictures) is the exit hatch for the conveyor. On the other side of the testing area is another room where final checks of the electronics are made, assembly of the covers takes place and the units are packaged and ready for shipping. This room happens to be right beside Jean's desk, which is again right beside the large counter where I entered the door. Shippers come in, boxes go on the counter, shippers go out.

The final part of the main floor is perhaps the least interesting. In front of the accountant's offices are doors that lead to storage areas that house countless heatsinks, faceplates, capacitors and what have you for...all of the electronics SimAudio produces of course! What consistently amazes me at all these companies I visit is how much inventory of parts they have to have on hand to produce a reasonable amount of product. It's something that most consumers don't get to see.

In the beginning

However, there is more to the story that is just as interesting as how the products get built—it's how these products begin their lives. All SimAudio products begin as gleams in the design team's eyes—and computer screens. Once we finished the main tour, we headed upstairs. On the second floor of the factory is the lunch room, a storage area, a place where the workers cut the packaging foam, and, most importantly, a very large room that is used for all design and listening.

Jean Poulin is involved in all of the product's designs and acts as the team leader. The rest of his design team are engineers, usually electrical, and together they form a synergistic design combination. Jean is mostly responsible for the mechanical and industrial design of the product. The rounded heat sinks, the large spiked feel on the Moon series and the vibration control in the new CD player are examples of this. The circuits come from his crew of designers. While I was at the factory, SimAudio was currently in progress with the designs of the new CD players and were finalizing the decision of transport mechanism to use.

Listening again

As I mentioned, there is one listening room on the first floor where all the Totem speakers are kept, and a listening room on the second floor that sits adjacent to the design area. This room is primarily used for stereo listening and critical evaluation of the amplifiers. To ensure a good understanding of how the SimAudio products interact with a variety of components, the company keeps a number of speakers on hand. Martin-Logan SL-3s were set up at the time, with Gershman Acoustics, Totem Acoustics, Reference 3A, and B&W loudspeakers all across the side wall awaiting their turns. Each type of speaker has special traits that allow the designers to listen into the electronics, so all of the speakers are necessary.

Since Jean is an avid listener in the design process, I felt it important to get his insight into the audio reviewing process. I've met some manufacturers who do not enjoy having their products subjectively evaluated and written about. Subjective reviewing is, of course, just an opinion—one man's ears against another’s. However, Jean actually enjoys the reviewing process and highly values the input he gets from a well-written review. In fact, early reviews of the Sima preamplifiers were what drove him to build preamplifiers of the quality the company produces today. Another example occurred a number of years back when one magazine thoroughly loved one amplifier of his, except for one aspect that the astute reviewer identified. Jean looked, listened, found that he agreed with the reviewer and discovered a way to overcome the slight limitation. This improvement was put into all current production models.

Finally, critical listening of their components is not all the listening that SimAudio does. I was happy to note that the company listens to its customers, its dealers and the overall market—perhaps that's why Jean's on the phone so much. The result is a depth of products that many companies would envy.

When I first met Jean Poulin a few years ago at CES, I had no idea of the scope of his company. I knew they made some nice amplifiers, but I did not know much else. Today I have obviously learned plenty more, and I'm glad to be able to share it. I'm more than impressed with the quantity and quality of the company's product line. SimAudio has a distribution network that spans the globe, and I hope that people will take the time to learn and listen. As more people learn about this company and listen to their products, the word will get out that Canada has another world-class audio company in its midst.

...Doug Schneider
das@soundstage.com

To find out more about SimAudio
Visit their website at www.simaudio.com