Mike Bettinger joins the VPI Family!
Actually, Mike already joined the family! Today it has been one year since Mike became our Director of Electrical Engineering. Since he has come on board VPI has drastically improved on testing procedures and bringing new electronic products to market.
VPI and Michael have always made music together when he was working at other companies. The passion both Mike and the VPI family share for music, quality, and performance made Mike the perfect fit to join and head our electrical department. With Mike at the helm, there is an even greater level of quality testing and development at VPI. In addition, Mike is the designer of the new VPI ADS (Analog Drive System) as well as part of the Shinola and Mark Levinson development team and future VPI electronic designs. Mike designs and builds them in house at VPI in the “Bett Cave”. He is sometimes called “Magic Mike” because he can fix just about everything electronic that it is like magic!
Original Post from April 8th 2016:
VPI Industries is very proud to announce that Michael Bettinger has joined the team! We are extremely excited to have Michael as part of the VPI family as our Director of Electrical Engineering!
We first met Mike at Capital Audiofest with Tim Stinson, owner of Luminous Audio. Mike had designed the world class Arion phono stage for Luminous Audio and we had a chance to listen to it with a VPI table and hang out with Mike and his lovely better half Lynn. We continued pairing our product with the Arion because of the great sound combination we were achieving. Along the way we had an electrical engineering issue that our standard suppliers and supporting engineers were unable to tackle. One company we had worked with went as far as saying that the solution we were looking for was impossible. Mike took a stab at the problem and in an afternoon and using spare parts he had in his workshop he was able solve the impossible! This started the conversation for Mike to work on more projects for us as well as bring a higher level of quality control in our electrical and wired components.
Short Bio on Mike’s past work:
Mike’s fascination with all things audio blossomed while apprenticing at his uncle’s stereo repair shop while attending school. Throughout the late 70’s and 80’s Mike owned a high end stereo repair business, providing repair services for Long Island’s Audio Breakthroughs, which provided ample opportunities to feed his curiosity as to the inner workings of high-end gear during audio’s golden era. Evolving the business to provide modifications in the 80’s further refined his understanding and curiosity while providing a never ending supply of components to expand his knowledge. An 18-year stint as an equipment engineer in the semiconductor industry starting in the 90’s provided a rubber- meets- the-road exposure to the cutting edge of electronics. In this position he was responsible for designing and implementing performance improvements for cutting-edge manufacturing equipment. With audio now as a hobby, building equipment took the place of modifying gear. Implementing the best features of the many classic designs he was exposed to was a way to make his own music more involving and seductive. Since 2006, he’s been back into audio, designing equipment that’s received the highest accolades from esteemed audio reviewers. He has an international reputation for excellence provided by an extensive family of customers and an exemplary body of work, including 24 U.S. patents. He is known for doing the electronically impossible and for developing unique approaches to engineering challenges.
