Yes sad to say Max has passed on to the great listening room in the sky. I was keeping quiet out of respect for the family but just got off the phone with Sue Townshend and she gave me her blessing so to speak.
Max passed away almost without warning. Just recently he had called me up just to chat, and said he was looking forward to meeting me. That would have been fun. Max was a real guy, shaped by time in the bush as they say in Australia, the kind of guy you want to share a beer with.
The necessity of finding and making stuff that really works in actual practice, as opposed to working only on a drawing board, was pure Max. At the same time though he had the formal training and knowledge to engineer with the best of them. Every time we would talk, I would understand quite a lot until always there would come a point he would get so technical it was all I could do to grasp the outlines. I would repeat back what I thought he said in my own words. Which probably was pretty pathetic. But if it was Max never let on, usually only saying, "That's right" before launching into even more incomprehensible detail.
Max is survived by his loving wife Sue, daughter Harriet, and the Townshend Audio family. Of which I am fortunate enough to have joined just before his passing. It is never easy losing the genius and driving force, especially not one as productive as Max Townshend. But he had just recently completed some new products and has more in the pipeline so to speak to keep his team working for some time to come.
So the company is in good hands, indeed has good plans for growth in the coming year. As Sue said in her typical English understatement, "It just works." Pods, Podiums, F1, they have been excellent for years already, and will remain excellent for years to come. I have no worries about that Townshend Audio will go on.
Nonetheless, it is a loss. High end audio has lost some great ones lately. Something to contemplate. RIP.