No, AAD does not stand for "American Attention Deficit". It's short-hand for American Acoustic Development. That's a company I was tangentially associated with as Soliloquy's National Sales Manager at a time when Soliloquy's CEO Bernie Byers became AAD's American distributor. A bit of old history: When the majority shareholders of Platinum Audio ousted founder and chief engineer Phil Jones, Jones found himself facing an iron-clad non-compete (quite similar to Ralph Karsten's recent -- and thankfully brief -- brush against the debilitating side effects of such contracts). Then, like a knight in shining armor, Jones' former Platinum distributor Ronald Kwok in Hong Kong stepped in. He offered Phil a partnership in a future Chinese factory from whence the famous British expatriate could continue working as a speaker designer without violating his domestic non-compete. Because Phil was also the engineer behind Soliloquy once original founder Dennis Had of Cary Audio had sold it to Byers, it was only natural that Jones and Kwok should turn to Byers when it came time to sign a US distributor for AAD.  Soliloquy's infrastructure was not really ideally suited to do the job on mass-market-targeted speakers which constituted the majority of AAD's offering. Still, an existing business/personal relationship plus mutual trust between Byers and Jones won out over such considerations - at least initially. Imagine my surprise to see Phil Jones participate at CES 2005 under his AAD Sound umbrella only to, minutes later, run into Ronald Kwok and partner/translater Sunny of now AAD Audio. Two AADs? Was I suffering my own attention deficit? Checking out their respective websites, one will see identical products, albeit presented with different graphics. One will also note an aggressively blinking disclaimer on Mr. Jones' site. It refers to Mr. Kwok's AAD Audio products as counterfeit. It also claims that AAD Audio stole designs and photos from AAD Sound.
	It takes no psychic to sense that the parting of ways between former partners Kwok and Jones was anything but amicable. This makes for quite the track record when one considers prior history. Having worked with Mr. Ronald Kwok and having enjoyed him as guest in my home, I call him an honorable man of very high integrity. He now finds himself in a pickle: He owns a factory he helped finance but no designer. More succinctly, his designer has turned fierce competition who accuses his former partner of intellectual property theft. Ronald and Sunny attended CES 2005 incognito to identify an experienced and trustworthy speaker designer. They want to contract with just the right party to fill their present void. While I don't know whether those shoes have already been filled or not, there still might be an opportunity. Interested parties should contact Ronald and Sunny to inquire about status. Consumers preferring to deal with the original designer will do business with AAD Sound which also owns Phil Jones Bass. That's Mr. Jones' latest US-based venture. It's dedicated to guitar amplifiers and speaker cabinets for professional bass players. It's curious how history repeats itself. When I was between jobs and in a really sour pickle many years ago, Phil Jones was instrumental in introducing me to Bernie Byers who subsequently hired me as his National Sales Manager for Soliloquy. Now Ronald Kwok who helped Phil Jones finds himself like a bad pickle in his own sealed jar. Perhaps this little note might help him fill his current needs? Can you say "What goes around comes around"? I sure can and hope this brief post discharges a personal obligation I feel in this current circumstance.