A Ashly Audio foi fundada em 1974 por Billy Thompson, um engenheiro independente que inspirou um grupo de amigos a redirecionar seus talentos de engenharia para o projeto a fabricação de equipamentos de áudio profissional duráveis, acessíveis e, acima de tudo, inovadores. A empresa ainda está na mesma cidade onde foi fundada, em Webster, Nova York, perto de Rochester. E muitos funcionários estão lá há mais de 30 anos!

Veja todos os produtos Ashly aqui

Ashly rapidamente reconheceu que havia muito mais na qualidade do som do que algoritmos padronizados de codificação e filtragem sofisticada. Foi a paixão de Thompson por projetar e construir esses componentes, seu compromisso com o foco na funcionalidade, musicalidade e, acima de tudo, na confiabilidade, que estabeleceu as bases do legado duradouro de Ashly em sistemas de som ao vivo e nas instalações das edificações.

A empresa continua explorando completamente o processamento digital de sinal - DSP, software, rede, controle iPad® e Dante® para fornecer equipamentos realmente de ponta.

Mas, seja um amplificador com potência de 3000 watts ou um processador de matriz digital, uma coisa sempre permaneceu constante: nossa confiabilidade absoluta e à prova de balas. Poucas empresas podem afirmar que seus amplificadores e equipamentos analógicos ainda estão em operação ativa após 30 ou 40 anos. A Ashly pode.

Outra vantagem da Ashly é seu suporte - incomparável no mercado. Segundo o site da própria empresa, a Ashly possui um nível de serviço que os concorrentes sequer podem sonhar, e afirma: - "o proprietário de equipamento Ashly jamais será informado de que não fabricamos mais peças para determinado modelo. Apoiamos nossos clientes como nenhum outro fabricante". 

Agora vamos falar um pouco sobre a história da Ashly, com conteúdo produzido por Bill Tompson, traduzido e adaptado por Fabio Montoro, Rhox.

A figura abaixo mostra o co-fundador da empresa, Billy Thompson em Brighton Sound no início da década de 70

1 JUN 1970

Era uma vez...  depois que o mundo conheceu Woodstock

... muitas pessoas promoveram seus próprios festivais de música ao ar livre, geralmente apresentando bandas locais. A Brighton Sound de Rochester forneceu sistemas de som para muitos deles em Nova York. O primeiro misturador "Homebrew", o quadro "Buck Rogers", estrearam no Groveland Festival em Groveland, Nova York em 1970, com um jovem engenheiro chamado Bill Thompson

2 JAN 1971

Segure o caixão

Com um nome adequado e tampa do tamanho e peso certos, o misturador "Coffin" mais tarde substituiu a placa Buck Rogers. Mas Billy sabia que precisava de uma solução mais leve para mixagem móvel para continuar viajando. A foto mostra o Coffin em ação em um concerto Country Joe em New Paltz NY, 197

1 MAIO 1971

The Bread-box mixer.

A Brighton Sound construiu vários mixers pequenos para preencher a lacuna que havia entre um Shure de 4 entradas e aqueles caixões enormes, e pesados, de 24 entradas. Alguns desses mixers eram notavelmente populares, como os da Tapco, empresa especializada em mixers, adquirida pela Electro-Voice na época.

August 1, 1971

Logo Billy entendeu a necessidade de potência e flexibilidade nos amplificadores de áudio.

Billy projetou este amplificador de 200 W para a Brighton Sound Systems. Foi batizado de “Loud Amp” e as pessoas rapidamente começaram a notá-lo e queriam comprar um igual. “Pelos padrões de hoje ele não era realmente tão potente assim - era apenas um circuito simples com poucos componentes, fácil de montar e dar manutenção", lembrou Billy

May 1, 1972

Together making history.

The Coffin and Loud Amp were reliable, durable and didn’t disappoint. Together they could handle a large sound system covering a crowd of over 10,000. (Downtown Rochester, George McGovern campaign, 1972.)

July 1, 1973

As Brighton Sound grew, so did the venues.

“We got in over our heads with a few venues” Billy said. "There was a one show with a crowd of about 60,000 and we simply didn't have enough sound. Then the concert degenerated into a small riot. We lost some equipment that day and sustained damage―but we got out alive.”

October 1, 1973

An idea was born.

While working with Brighton Sound, many of Billy’s early designs (mixing consoles, power amplifiers, and processing equipment) were used to address many problems he experienced while mixing shows. It was Thompson's passion for designing and building audio gear that convinced a group of his friends to redirect their talents from sound engineering towards the manufacturing of live sound equipment.

February 1, 1974

Making it official.

As with most start-up companies, Ashly manufacturing was located in Billy’s basement, his garage and then officially on Jay Street in the city of Rochester. Contrary to rumors that Ashly was an “anagram of initials”, or a girlfriend, the name's origin comes from Larry Ashley, one of the founding five. Larry's last name was chosen for the alphabetical advantage when listed with competition. To add some mystique to the name and to avoid conflict with another company, the “e” was dropped.

February 1, 1975

With innovation came experimentation.

The first line, the SE Series (originally dubbed the “Starship Enterprise” Mixer) was a prototype for things to come. The SE-8 had tunable channel EQ, master parametric EQ, LED meters, and built-in crossovers. It was built on a standard aluminum chassis. Two 8-input Enterprise mixers were often bolted together to make a 16-input version.

June 1, 1975

SE Series production in full swing.

This was Ashly’s first attempt to expand the SE Series. Redesigned, the modules were housed in more durable mixer case. “It looked pretty but was a mechanical nightmare”, Billy recalled.

November 1, 1975

Continuing refinement and quality.

As the SE Series grew in popularity, it grew into a more substantial line. All input modules each contained 4 channels and its outer casing was expanded and designed to be more rugged. The mechanical design was modular and easily customized, so it worked well. When SE reached full potential it’s format was the standard for all future custom mixers.

April 1, 1977

Mixers became more than a feelin’!

Another version of the SE console shown here. This one was built to serve as a monitor mixer for the band “Boston”. Its configuration grew into a 32-Input mixer and was later expanded to 40-Inputs for Jimmy Buffet, Emmy Lou Harris, Journey and Jackson Browne. (Dave Malloy, Ashly Co-Founder, 1977)

April 1, 1978

Going modular. The future concept.

After building elaborate custom consoles demand for individual components drove Ashly to develop devices that could be used in a modular fashion. Ashly built a few processing products in small cast aluminum boxes. The first prototype was built for the SC-5 limiter/compressor. Billy tinkered with the idea to fit a parametric EQ inside this enclosure and made one of those too―the SC-6.

January 1, 1979

Classic Ashly tonality and quality.

The SC Series was the first mass produced rack mount products with serious upgraded circuitry from the SC-5 and SC-6. Ashly designed several rack mountable units but introduced the SC-50 Peak Limiter/Compressor and SC-66 Stereo Parametric EQ—two of the first on the market. The discrete VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifier) and Peak Detector circuit featured a “Double Release Time Constant” to ensure musical sounding peak limiting. That same VCA circuit was also used for the SC-33 stereo noise gate.

April 1, 1979

Homegrown analytics

Billy's bench with his RTA (Real Time Analyzer)

August 1, 1979

Tools of the Trade

Expanding the SC Series not only continued with compressors, limiters and equalizers—crossovers, line mixers, preamps, notch filters were all becoming industry hits. Adored by vintage collectors around the world today, products from this time period are still considered to have that classic Ashly sound.

October 1, 1979

Built Ashly Tough

Tougher than you'll ever need a rack unit to be, but the SC Series was built to last and withstand life on the road. Literally....

December 1, 1979

The basic forms of Ashly crossovers were set.

Crossovers aren't the sexiest of products, but they served a tremendous purpose. The first Ashly crossovers featured mono and stereo 2-way, 3-way, and 4-way models with12dB/oct filter slopes. They became popular because of our state-variable tunable filters and a damping control. The damping sound was often compared to an EQ centered at the crossover frequency.

April 1, 1980

Ashly moves to Fernwood Ave.

As the business grew, so did the need for more space. Ashly set up shop at 100 Fernwood Avenue in the City of Rochester.

June 1, 1980

New location, new logo, new look!

Life was good at Ashly. Production on rack-mounted units continued into the 80s. Ashly designed various tools of the trade for engineers who valued great sounding, “musical” components that solved all kinds of problems.

October 1, 1980

Introducing Ashly to the World

Bob Wilson was Ashly's first Export Sales manager. Pictured with a prototype of a self-contained 10-band Realtime Frequency Spectrum Analyzer. Wilson was the first to launch Ashly outside of the US, and was particularly successful with the brand throughout Europe.

June 1, 1982

Focus on Power. Test, and test again.

Billy and the crew went to work on what would be the legacy products for Ashly. Here a hot-rodded prototype FET-200 power amplifier lights up a 500 Watt bulb with audio while technician Mark Indovina shorts it’s output, throwing a big spark! And yes, the amplifier survived!

September 1, 1982

Ashly powers LucasFilms®

Ashly introduced the first commercial power amplifiers using power MOS-FET technology and were among the very first to be approved by Dolby® and Lucasfilms® for the popular THX movie theater sound experience. MOS-FETs were used due to their robust self-protecting characteristics as well as sonic excellence. The FET-200 and 500 were hugely popular―production carried well into 90s.

November 1, 1982

Accolades Continue

Word was spreading about the FET Series, and the reviews were coming in. The FET-200 was exceeding lab tests and quickly became a go-to amp for various applications―including studio.

January 1, 1983

Pushing boundaries and thinking differently.

Ashly always challenged the industry standard. It was a world overrun by graphic EQs and the SC-50 and SC-66 were ahead of their time and took years to catch on. Interestly, many musicians took interest in these units. Most notably, bass legend Billy Sheehan was an early adopter of the 

January 1, 1984

Production of the FET-200 is steady.

The internal design of MOS-FET amplifiers was modular and was extremely reliable without adding more parts than were necessary.

June 1, 1985

Change is Good

With a new decade fast approaching, a new logo was introduced to widen the stance of the mark and match the sleek design of Ashly rack-mounted products.

January 1, 1986

Instrument preamps? Yeah, we can make those too.

The SC-40 Instrument Preamp was a departure from PA gear, but it only made sense. Many, if not all, Ashly employees were musicians or sound professionals and knew how to voice amplification for various instruments. The GP-40 and BP-41 we're also released.

June 1, 1986

Taking preamps to the next level.

Ashly released the BP-41 Bass Preamp. It was a niche market, but Ashly knew it well. Known for it's ideal clean tone, in its day it was used by many pro players, most notably would be Darryl Jones of the Rolling Stones.

January 1, 1987

Ashly continues to Compress.

Ashly had been producing comp/limiters since 1975 and there was always room for advancement. The Thompson discrete VCA was replaced with an integrated circuit, and the compressor/limiters were renamed CL-50 and CL-52. These compressors were popular because of their exceptional low noise and distortion ratios.

July 1, 1987

Graphic EQ's continue to Trend...

If the market wanted graphic EQs, Billy could deliver those too—only better. The result was the GQ Series, forerunner to Ashly’s contemporary line of GQX and MQX graphic equalizers. GQs were popular, offering all metal 45mm throw faders, center-off circuitry, and low noise. Ashly EQs can still be found in equipment racks of rental, touring and production companies all over the world.

September 1, 1987

The Ashly Break Band always had a gig.

Ashly summer picnics were legendary and always a family affair. Not only did the Ashly Break Band play picnics but there was always a stage in the factory for lunchtime jams.

October 1, 1987

New standards in Audio Processing and Power.

With stellar manufacturing practices and continued demand, Ashly made great strides in being the go to brand for amplifiers and wide range of signal processors. Ashly was, and still is known for quality and dependability.

January 1, 1989

MOS-FET Series grows even more Powerful!

MOS-FET Series power amplifier line offered bigger power ratings and covered many markets. It was one of the first amplifier lines with circuitry reconfigured using CAD technology. A third middle power model was added to the line and were renamed FET-1000, FET-1500, and FET-2000, with “C” (contractor) and M (metered) models of each creating separate contractor and live sound models.

April 1, 1989

Precision Division

Dividing audio frequencies has always been an Ashly specialty. Crossover lines were expanded to include 24dB/oct models with extended tuning range thanks to a ÷10 switch on each frequency control. Damping control was renamed "Response" to avoid confusion with power amplifier damping. A Mode switch allowed flexibility for some models to be used stereo 2-way or mono 3-way.

January 1, 1991

High-quality mixers are NEVER obsolete.

Ashly released three new rack-mount mixers, the MM-508 eight-channel stereo mic/line mixer, the LM-308 eight-channel stereo line mixer, and the MM-106 six-channel mono mic mixer.

January 1, 1992

The demand for Power ensues...

With the commercial demand for outboard gear showing no signs of slowing down, rack space was at a premium. So Ashly went to work and designed a single rack space convection-cooled amplifier―the SRA-120.

March 1, 1993

MOS-FET amplifiers with Convection-cooling were introduced.

Since other MOS-FET models had cooling fans, the CFT-1800 offered a solution to applications that required silent operation. Later, three other MOS-FET models were released in 1993―FTX-1000, FTX-1500, and FTX-2000.

January 1, 1995

If you need more power than this, you should run for President.

Ashly introduced the ultra high-powered MFA-6000 and MFA-8000. Let's just say they sure packed a punch.

May 1, 1995

Ashly Moves to Webster NY

"Webster, New York―Where Life is Worth Living" as the slogan goes... and Ashly was living well and prospering. At this location, manufacturing was streamlined and efficiencies were making production more profitable. Ashly still resides here today.

January 1, 1996

Mixers for the Masses

The Ashly mixer line was improved, re-tooled and re-named the MX Series: MX-508, MX-206, LX-308 and remains much the same today. Since their inception, over 18,000 units have been sold. Billy Thompson pictured here at the NAMM show that year.

June 1, 1997

Protea™ Development Underway.

Just after the mid-90s, following decades of success in the live analog sound industry, Ashly was quick to recognize that the impending digital revolution was happening. Work on Protea software and DSP products began, and the focus was directed at networking and control of audio systems.

January 1, 1998

Ashly introduced its first DSP product with Protea™ DSP―the 4.24G.

Protea became popular because of its undeniable depth of digital features: sound quality, graphic display, and quick intuitive user interface and found itself at home in the live sound market. Several companion slave models were developed with a sophisticated graphical remote control. Protea System Software (PSS) for Windows® was released with these products and communicated with the device over RS-232.

January 1, 2001

Digital Advancement Continues

Advancing Protea™ Software was featured in the 4.24C―a powerful 4x8 DSP speaker processor with a friendly user interface for making quick setups without the need for a computer, though software control was also available. This was the start of something bigger than hardware.

January 1, 2004

The centerpiece of utility rooms across the World.

As Protea™ products grew more popular, solution-based models like the 24.24M 24-channel Matrix Processor was catching on like wildfire. Still very popular today, with 20 mic preamps, 4 fixed inputs and 4 fixed outputs, it's easy to set up in banks of 4 with software and offers remote control.

March 1, 2004

Message from the President

At the 30-year mark, Billy had come a long way with Ashly. He persevered through the decades and always made certain his customers and employees were happy. The ad pictured here was his "thank you" to the people and the industry that kept the company on track. "I'm proud when someone tells me that they have an Ashly product that's still in service after twenty years" he said. Like the mighty Redwood tree, strengthening Ashly's foundation was always top priority.

October 1, 2004

Here we have Jim Schw.....

....Schwenzer hard at work in..... in service. Who me? Sorry. Moving along...

January 1, 2006

An Ashly Specialty: Class-D Switching Amplifiers

SRA and TRA Series amplifiers were introduced as newly designed Class-D switching amplifiers. With two or four channel models, 75W or 150W per channel at 4 Ohms, low Z models (SRA) or low/hi-Z transformer isolated output models, there are eight models in all. These amps are still in production and shipping today.

June 1, 2006

Integration at it’s finest.

The last of several wall remote designs using serial data control, the programmable WR-5 was the simple idea that changed the way end-users interface with Ashly. Fitting inside standard electrical boxes, wall remotes are the finishing touch to any install that adds a simple control to any dynamic audio system. Later in 2009, the networked neWR-5 was released.

January 1, 2007

Making a Mark

In 2007, the current logo design was introduced. Maintaining the low and wide stance of the characters the "pagoda" design as it's been called, stands for balance, stability and upward mobility.

January 1, 2008

Simplify Integration

The opportunities for "network" control were a growing market and the NE Series was designed to tap into it. Ashly introduced the Network-Enabled NE Series―bridging the gap with multi-channel amplifiers and processors offering Ethernet control with Protea™ DSP. The goal was easy-to-understand, easy-to-configure software without needing a degree in engineering to install.

September 1, 2008

Ashly acquired by JAM Industries.

In September Ashly joined the JAM group of companies and another chapter began. It would also be the time Billy Thompson retires from Ashly after almost 40 years.

January 1, 2009

NE Series introduces 32-bit DSP.

The ne8800, ne4800, and ne4400 were released to the factory for production. These 32-bit processors tout high dynamic range, low noise, low jitter and distortion, 48kHz or 96kHz sampling rates. AES digital and network audio options, logic I/O, and a variety of remote control options.

June 1, 2009

Our Legacy is Live

As we continued to embrace digital technology, we stayed true to our live sound roots. The 3.6 and 4.8 System Processors were released offering the best of both worlds―combining superior signal processing with the convenience and precision of digital technology. Designed with intuitive front panel controls, the SP’s are still at home in a dynamic, front of house environment.

January 1, 2010

Meet PEMA™

Pema™ has been called the Swiss army knife of audio processing and amplification―expanding NE into four and eight-channel amp but making Protea™ DSP standard in all models. Pema tackles the challenges in just about any public facility – restaurants, courtrooms, retail stores, schools and universities, churches... it’s as simple as installing a two rack-space box.

June 1, 2010

Yeah, they're KILLER.

The economical KLR amplifiers introduced. It's no secret that Ashly imports select lines of products―and KLR is a success story. Ashly engineers worked closely with Korean partners to deliver a solid, robust, no-nonsense line of amplifiers for a reasonable cost. And they sound great like Ashly amps do.

March 1, 2011

Sometimes it’s the simple things.

With so much focus on touch screens today the FR Series offer old school flair to modern installations. FR-8 and 16 are programmable Ethernet devices that provide fader-based remote level control for Ashly DSP products. User-assigned inputs or outputs with level, mute, A/B switching, and metering make it easy for anyone to control a performance environment.

January 1, 2013

Catch the Wave!

NX amplifiers were newly designed from the ground up as high power, lightweight, energy efficient, and highly configurable Network Enabled amplifiers with optional Protea DSP, AES and network audio capability, programmable output modes, and a wide variety of remote control options. See what Ashly is doing today! www.ashly.com/news