Blast from my past – At 60wpc in pure triode, 150wpc in pure pentode and with two never-seen-before mixed modes in-between, Randall Smith's pure-tube Baron amp [$3'695] from his brand Mesa Engineering aka Mesa Boogie put the High End on notice with Tandem State Imaging, adjustable negative feedback and 65lbs pro-audio build. It was burly, bodacious and beastly. It also was my bridge from audio retail in Santa Rosa to sales & marketing for hifi brands. Randall Smith has since retired and in 2021 sold his company to guitar house Gibson. Whatever that presages for Mesa's future, there's no doubt that looking back, Randy's short-lived excursion into audiophilia made quite the stir including landing him a lengthy feature review/interview with Stereophile. The Baron birthed a smaller sister in the Tigris integrated but the preamp our dealers at the time asked for never materialized. A few years later, Mesa's sojourn in the consumer sector came to an end. Looking back, my time at Mesa was formative relative to my audio headspace.
