I first met Ray in a pub in the Camberwell region of South London. he wanted me to convince Willi Studer, maker of the Revox line of tape recorders to incorporate his Dolby “B” noise reduction system into the Revox machine.
We went to his showroom nearby and he gave me a convincing demonstration of the same piece of music played on a cassette transport using his noise reduction circuits and a quarter-inch tape running at 15ips. I passed this information on to Willi Studer but he was slow to agree. Later a visit by Ray and his German born wife, Dagmar was convincing enough for the Revox machine to be available with Dolby B if required.
Ray and Dagmar and Judy and I became good friends. Ray and I both loved to find new restaurants in London and i will never forget when we over indulged ourselves with a ten course meal in a restaurant in Hampstead. When the Dolbys came to dinner Ray would put his feet up on our very long and very comfortable couch. He was asleep in minutes much to Dagmar’s despair! We didn’t mind at all. Clearly he was at ease and that was a compliment.
Ray had a beautifull motor cruiser made to his specification in Norfolk and he moored it at Chelsea Steps, near to his flat close to the Chelsea Hospital. During the summer a typical Sunday would include a trip down the Thames to Woolwich, moor off the Naval College, have a picnic lunch and motor back to Chelsea Steps. Most enjoyable. When the ex-pat tax laws changed, Ray pulled up anchor and shipped his boat to San Francisco as deck cargo. Sometime later I had the please of sailing in it again. This time under the Golden Gate Bridge and south along the Pacific Coast.
Ray and Dagmar put much of the money into art and have an amazing collection. When they moved back to the States they bought a house up by the Observatory in San Francisco and I had the pleasure of dining with them at home shortly after they had moved in.
Before the move back to the US was the time when I had met Cubby Brocolli. Cubby had lamented to me that the sound in movie houses was poor. Still dominated by Westrex and RCA. “Who did I know who really understood sound?” he had asked. “Well why you talk with Ray Dolby” I replied.