Passed in his sleep, so told me one of two executors of his will.
A few years ago I asked James how critical was it to insure my Ambrosia preamp was fully stable after power up prior to turning on the power amp (a particular rare circumstance caused me to ask this question). He said Ambrosia's power up sequence protects the amp from damage, then paused long for effect, followed by, "But why tempt fate?" Always got a kick out of that reply.
He'll be missed. He was a pretty good jazz pianist, classically trained.
The old GAS Son of Ampzilla could not be touched for multiples of its cost back in the day. Rated 60W, played like 200W. Probably the first amp I ever heard with real bass slam. It would kick butt today if it was in production. Circa 2011 CES James mentioned he wanted to bring it back in an updated form.
I think Brian Cheney owned at least one of any and everything James designed. One of my closest friends just got a Trinaural Processor prototype from James, with handwritten notes because switching is not OEM. I had planned to call him about the notes but that's obviously not going to happen now.
I certainly hope W4S maintains production of all SST gear (Spread Spectrum Technology).
James was always very generous at CES. He loved to talk about speakers and amps for accordians, believe it or not. IIRC he started on the accordian then switched to the piano.
RIP, James.
