CARMEL, CA — Michael Papp, the founder of Summit Audio, a manufacturer of high-performance tube processing gear, passed away on March 26, 2015 after a long bout with pancreatic cancer. He was 68. In 1970, after studying at Santa Clara University, he launched Recording Specialties, Inc. He founded Summit Audio in 1979.
Born in 1946, he attended Buchser High School in the Northern California town of Santa Clara, which was known for its orchards and agriculture, long before the region became home of Intel and the hub of today’s Silicon Valley. In 1970, after studying at Santa Clara University, he launched Recording Specialties, Inc ., a company offering tape duplication and record pressing services in his hometown of Santa Clara.
In 1979, Papp founded Summit Audio — a company specializing in selling used pro audio gear and equipment brokerage. With a growing demand for used vacuum tube gear, Papp began considering going into manufacturing and sometime around 1984, worked with one of his longtime customers Dave Hill (who later founded Crane Song), and Hill began designing gear for Summit. Summit Audio’s first product was the TLA-100 mono limiting amplifier and it was a success, to the point that it is still in production today, some 30 years later. Other continuing products from this collaboration ensued, including the EQP-200B stereo passive tube EQ and the DCL-200 dual compressor/limiter — which put Summit on the map as one of the key founders of the resurgence in small boutique companies making high quality outboard gear.
Dave Hill continued with Summit until 1994, doing all R&D, product development and manufacturing. Eventually the partnership dissolved and Hill later formed Crane Song. Papp remained with Summit until 2004, when he turned over the company operations to his son Erik Papp, and eventually, Summit was acquired by Blue Microphones in 2011.
Entering semi-retirement, Michael Papp moved to the seaside resort community of Carmel, CA, where his projects included handling working with a Lodi, CA-based vineyard and later selling as a real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty.
Michael Papp is survived by Suzanne Frueh, his loving wife of 25 years, along with four children and 11 grandchildren. No memorial/funeral plants had been announced at press time.
