Packburn Electronics, Inc. has been in business for over 25 years, inspired by my business partner, the late Richard C. Burns, known around the U.S. for his life-long interest in historical sound recordings. By last count his collection totaled to 23,000 records! Being inventive, Dick came up with playback methods for lessening the surface noise to let him focus on the music. Forming a business was never in the original plans; we just wanted something that would help us enjoy our personal record collections more fully. What was needed was an electronic machine that would automatically reduce surface noise. We wanted this machine to be easy to operate and not injure the music. During trial-and-error experimentation and as the machine began took shape, we would often comment back and forth how we were discovering musical nuances in our collections that we never heard before.

Model 101: Original production machine from 1982 offered only two noise reduction stages.

Forming a business was never in the original plans; we just wanted something that would help us enjoy our personal record collections more fully.

Tom Packard

President

All would have ended there if it were not for a cadre of archivist and audiophile friends…

Dick Burns

Founding President

All would have ended there if it were not for a cadre of archivist and audiophile friends who would stop by, like what they heard, and ask if they could purchase one of those yet unnamed “gadgets.” After making a limited production run of a Model 101 in response, the business grew predominantly through word of mouth. This led to the decision to incorporate. The business received a nice boost from a review in the then published High Fidelity Magazine. The business was also aided by a transfer that Dick had made to CD of a historically valuable recording (the Berg Violin Concerto conducted by Anton Webern) that credited use of the Packburn and that went on to win a Grand Prix du Disque.

Models 323 (323A) Machines from 1986 and 1998 are no longer being manufactured but can be updated.

Our third generation Model 323 proved to be a quite popular unit and launched us as a world supplier in real-time audio cleansing. It was purchased by audio archives, record companies, institutions and serious collectors. About a third of the business became international. Now there is the Model 325. Patents have attested to achievements from generation to generation. Although Models 323 and 323A are obsolete, they can be factory updated to perform like the 325.

Our third generation Model 323 proved to be a quite popular unit and launched us as a world supplier in real-time audio cleansing

We have always considered that the mission of Packburn Electronics, Inc. is to serve the archivist and the serious audiophile. Packburn has been, and may always remain, a cottage industry devoted to that very special but limited clientele! Also, we have never claimed to offer the ultimate audio noise suppressing machine (today there are computerized noise reduction methods.) What continues to set us apart are the objectives set from the beginning: preservation of musical nuance, effectiveness of noise reduction (which continues to improve from one generation to the next), versatility over a range of recorded matter genre, ease of operation, real time processing, and musical clarity.

Sincerely,

tom-packard-signature

Tom Packard, President

Packburn Electronics, Inc.