Jensen Transformers has been acquired by long-time customer Peter Janis, owner and president of Radial Engineering, joining the Radial group of companies along with Reamp, Tonebone, Primacoustic and Hafler.
‘After 25 years and turning 70, I felt the time had come for Jensen to be passed along to a younger generation,’ says Bill Whitlock, former owner and company president. ‘After much discussion, I felt that Peter would be the ideal candidate to take the company on and build it for the future. Peter’s company has been tied at the hip with Jensen since 1992 and has been the biggest user of Jensen transformers for years. It only made sense that he take the reins.’
Deane Jensen began the company in 1974, when he changed the way transformers were designed and built for real-world audio. His analogue circuit design skills gave him a deep understanding of how transformers interact with surrounding circuitry. Using the best available materials and winding techniques, he enhanced performance by paying close attention to phase response and extending bandwidth. Whitlock acquired the company on Deane’s death in 1989, and continued the tradition with further refinements in production uniformity and long-term reliability and expanding the company into areas such as video through the Iso-Max range.
‘Over the past months, we have begun to understand Peter’s way of doing business and it is very exciting,’ says Dave Hill, Jensen General Manager. ‘We have just extended our lease – keeping the company in its home in Chatsworth, purchased two more high precision Meteor numerical winders, increased our raw part inventory, have added more computer power to streamline our processes and are currently hiring more staff to increase production. Peter is absolutely committed to upholding the Jensen brand and quality that we have strived to build.’
‘I first heard about Jensen transformers in 1981 and when we started Radial, it was on the top of our list,’ Janis says. ‘When Jensen became available, we felt that the brand was simply too important to the industry and our long-term health to end up being purchased by a multi-national and made offshore. So far, we have invested a significant amount of money to stabilise delivery, and have made a commitment that Jensen be run at arm’s length. Radial will continue to purchase transformers as it has in the past, as an OEM customer, and Jensen will continue to work with its growing customer base both on the OEM side and as a solution provider for the A/V contractor, home theatre installer and professional audio engineer.’
‘I plan to stay on with Jensen assisting on the technical side and working in R&D to develop new and exciting products,’ Whitlock says. ‘There are so many areas that we have yet to explore and with the business side now off my plate, I look forward to focussing on my true love of engineering.’
