ADA - The Early Years

Audio Design Associates, Inc. was incorporated in May of 1977. Its founders, Peter T. McKean and Albert G. Langella, formed ADA with one goal in mind, "To provide professional quality multi-room electronics for the everyday user."

Prior to the formation of ADA, Peter McKean and Albert Langella provided custom multi-room entertainment systems for clients. During the early '70s, each system was custom designed for each client and their life-style. By the mid-'70s, two types of client profiles were defined.

a) The client that wanted music in every room but did not mind listening to the same component throughout the house (single-source, multi-room system).

b) The client that required different components to play simultaneously in different rooms throughout the home, all at the same time (multi-source system).

Based on these two client profiles, ADA's first two systems were designed and installed by mid-1977, marketed under the name of Audio Design Associates.

System 10, was ADA's first mass-produced single-soruce_multi-room system, providing users with the ability to select one of two components, typically radio tuner or cassette, in select rooms, without turning the entire home on all at once. Individuals could choose a component, adjust room volumes, and even change radio stations or cassette tapes. The user could also opt to turn off a room or the entire system from any location with a keypad. ADA's first systems were bi-directional, in that, if a room was on, the keypad's display would indicate so, as well as inform the user as to what component was selected, if a room was off and the system was left on elsewhere, or if the system was completely turned off. Even in the early years of ADA, keypad's were simple to operate as they contained only four buttons and a volume control. Most import to the design specifications of the System 10, was its sound quality. The concept that "a system which cost considerably more than a simple audio system, should sound better", was born in these pioneering days, as was the engineering goal of long-life durability.

System 56, one of the first multi-source_multi-room systems, reflects the modern architecture found in four of the five multi-room systems currently offered by ADA. System 56 could play as many as six audio components independently in as many as 30 rooms (zones). Again, users could select a component, advance tuner stations, 8-track tapes, cassettes, and eventually advance CDs (CDs were not introduced until years after the System 56 was on the market). As with System 10, System 56 keypads were both simple to operate, elegant in styling, and provided the user with feedback information as to the system's status.

Today, ADA still supports and maintains an inventory of System 10 and System 56 components. Most of these systems are still in operation and today include such devices as CD players, DSS receivers, DATs, DCCs, and whatever else the future has to offer. Many System 56 owners easily expand systems by adding on additional zones. As with any ADA System ever offered, new components are available for system expansion.

Audio Design Associates, Inc - www.ada-usa.com - 1-800-43-AUDIO or (914) 946-9595