Jason Raboin mixing Joan Baez
USA - Founded in 1968, Klondike Sound quickly became known as a preferred sound system provider for folk and jazz festivals in northeastern USA, including the Newport Folk Festival. The company also provided tour support for Ani DiFranco for 20 years and supplied sound systems for a wide variety of events throughout the region.
Now owned by partners Justin Anderson, Jason Raboin, Dustin Yager, and Chris Kelly, Klondike Sound mostly focuses on shows in New England, although the company still provides some touring support. Raboin, for example, has engineered for Joan Baez for the past 17 years, and is currently serving as production manager, front-of-house and monitor engineer for Baez’s 2018 Farewell Tour, using a Klondike Sound system that includes Linea Research 44 Series power amplifiers.
Anderson and Raboin discovered Linea Research amplifiers early in 2017, when they decided to modernise their power amplifier platform to take advantage of the latest technology. The partners mostly use L-Acoustic and Fulcrum Acoustic line arrays, and it was the latter that led them to Linea Research.
“The Fulcrum Acoustic people knew we were searching for an amplifier with front panel control that could provide the DSP needed by Fulcrum’s speaker systems,” recounts Anderson. “We had a set of criteria for what we wanted from our amplifiers, which included high-fidelity sonic performance, great output and amp density, and highly functional DSP. But the isolating factor was full front-panel control so we didn’t need to use a computer. Linea Research’s 44 series checked all the boxes.”
Anderson and Raboin especially favour the Linea Research 44M10. “We have a pair of Linea Research 44M06s to power smaller fill speakers, and we’re probably going to look at 44M20s for subwoofers,” Anderson notes. “But the 44M10 is the workhorse for us. It’s super-efficient and provides the right balance of amp density and power.”
(Jim Evans)

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