In late September 2000, Steve Schell and myself managed to
get together individually with some of the key contributors
to our site. It was the highlight of what we refer to as the
"Lansing Heritage Tour 2000". What follows is some further
insight into the background and accomplishments of these
people along with their involvement in our site.
George Augspurger
is currently
best known in the audio industry as an expert in studio
design through his consulting firm, Perception Inc. Many of
North America's most prestigious studios proudly boast of
having "Augspurger designed" rooms and monitors.
Before striking out as an independent
consultant, George spent over a decade with JBL starting in
1958. He began as JBL's Technical Service Manager and was
later responsible for establishing and managing the
Professional Products Division. In 1968 he became Technical
Director for JBL, a position he held for two years before
deciding to move on to independent consulting.
George is a more recent contributor to
our website. It was John Eargle's notes (see below) that
first apprised us of his work at JBL. Initial contact was
made just prior to our September 2000 tour and George agreed
to meet with us over lunch during the AES convention. The
lunch ended up a three hour affair where George patiently
answered our questions and then went on to provide a wealth
of anecdotal information. Just some of these tidbits include
the facts that Igor Stravinsky used to monitor on a D130
operating full range and that the Grateful Dead toured with
a JBL array for which the stage monitor system and the house
system were one and the same
George initially provided us with
valuable information on Richard Ranger's involvement in the
development of the Paragon, including the copy of Richard
Ranger's article that appears on that speaker's profile.. He
subsequently provided detailed background information on the
unique Aquarius series of loudspeakers from 1970.
Drew Daniels
can be described as a
true renaissance man. How else does one describe someone who
was a music major at university, a performer as a New
Christy Minstrel, a self taught expert in electroacoustical
engineering, a recording engineer and a university level
educator.
Drew began his career with JBL in 1976 as
a lab technician. He was responsible for laser
interferometry studies of compression driver diaphragm
resonances. The photo at right illustrates Drew in this
role. In 1984, Drew was appointed Applications Engineer for
JBL Professional. It was during this tenure that Drew
developed his now famous "The Ancient Audiophile's Quest for
the Ultimate Home System".
Drew left JBL in 1989 to work for TASCAM,
Walt Disney and Aura before establishing
Sound Path Labs
- a
consulting firm that is his current fulltime vocation. Some
of our DIY audio readers may be familiar with Drew's work on
transducers. Drew had input into the design of the Aurasound
1808 subwoofer that set a new standard for low frequency
drivers. (the primary design work was done by Robert Diamond
of M&K Sound). Drew also provided input into the design
of the McCauley 6174 sub. A more detailed description of Drew's varied background and accomplishments can be found at
his website.
Drew was introduced to us through his
friend, Garry Margolis. Drew immediately agreed to allow us
to use his Ancient Audiophile article and a later article
that updated his concept for a high efficiency home
loudspeaker. During my trip Los Angeles, Drew graciously
extended an invitation to Steve Schell and myself for dinner
at his home. Drew's home also functions as his recording
studio and he gave us a detailed tour of his operation. The
fuzzy photo at left (in hindsight, I needed a flash) shows
Drew's control room setup. Drew recently won the "That's a
Cooledit" contest for his CD "Too Blue". Drew was producer
and engineer for this CD in addition to playing bass on all
of the tracks.
John Eargle
should be a recognized
name to anyone with even a basic familiarity of the
recording and audio industry. John has been a standout in
these industries for over 30 years. He is an author of audio
books that have become reference standards. He is the
Director of Recording for Delos International. In the Fall
2000 issue of The Audio Critic, editor Peter Aczel writes,
"John Eargle still has my vote as king of recording
engineers..." John is also a very accomplished
electroacoustical engineer and a past president of the AES.
A more detailed account of his education and accomplishments
can be found on the Toronto AES website.
Much of John's career has been associated
with JBL. He began as an employee in 1976 and later left to
establish JME Consulting. JBL remains his largest client.
While Vice President of Market Planning for JBL, John
developed the corporate history that is the core of this
site.
John's involvement with this site began
as a very pleasant surprise. In January 2000, Garry Margolis
had forwarded my request for assistance in developing a Jim
Lansing website to Mark Gander of JBL. Mark, in turn, copied
John Eargle. Within a couple of weeks, there was a
mysterious package from John Eargle in my mailbox. Up to
this point, I had no direct contact with John. When I opened
the package, my jaw dropped. Inside were the complete,
original, hand-written notes from over twenty years of
John's research on the history of JBL. There were
transcripts of interviews with Lansing family members,
pioneers in the audio industry (such as John Hilliard and
John Blackburn) and copies of key historical documents from
the files of JBL. For the next three months, my
co-developers and I pored over this information. They
provided source materials for numerous articles on this site
and leads that resulted in contacts with John Edwards,
Arnold Wolf and George Augspurger.
Shortly after receiving John's files, we
began regular email correspondence. John provided ongoing
assistance in filling out missing information and keeping us
on track. My co-developer, Steve Schell, was first to meet
with John and Mark Gander in June, 2000 when he was provided
access to JBL's archive. John became our guide in sifting
through this goldmine of information. I had to wait until
September 2000 for an opportunity to travel from my home in
Winnipeg, Canada to the Los Angeles area. During that trip,
Steve and I had the pleasure of spending a day with John as
he became our tour guide at Harman International's
Northridge facility. Most enjoyable was our lunch
conversation where we had the opportunity to just sit back
and discuss anything and everything related to Jim Lansing,
JBL and John's background.
Dr. Bruce Edgar
is the leading
authority in horn loudspeaker designs for home use. Dr.
Edgar's career was originally focused in the aerospace
industry. However, approximately 20 years ago, he began a
fascination with horn loudspeakers as an avocation. This
avocation has subsequently become his vocation with the
establishment of
Edgarhorn
to manufacture his vision of the
state-of-the-art in horn speakers. Dr. Edgar has
subsequently published numerous technical papers and
articles on the subject of horn speakers.
Dr. Edgar became involved with our
website due to his acquaintance with Steve Schell. When Dr.
Edgar heard of our website plans, he immediately offered
Steve access to his files. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Edgar
has developed a very considerable archive of articles and
historical documents related to the history of horn
speakers. Many of these documents are the only copies in
existence. Some of the rare examples included the first
catalog ever developed by JBL and original spec sheets from
Lansing Manufacturing. These documents had been long lost to
JBL.
Dr. Edgar offered an invitation for Steve
and myself to visit his facility in Torrance CA. Dr. Edgar
initially gave us a remarkable demonstration of his Titan
system (illustrated in above photo). This is the first horn
system that I have encountered to exhibit absolutely zero
coloration. It is a very impressive sounding system. Next,
Dr. Edgar gave us a comprehensive tour of his shop. The
photo to the right illustrates Dr. Edgar giving me a lesson
in curving panels for horn flares.
The last hour of the visit was an
opportunity to just sit back and gain further insight into
his remarkable career and design philosophy. Dr Edgar is the
leading proponent of Tractix expansion horns. This
technology was first developed by Paul Voight in 1926 but
never found widespread adoption. Dr. Edgar recognized the
significance of this design and subsequently refined its
application. His work has led to a resurgence in speaker
designs based on this concept and a resurgence in horn
speakers in general.
John Edwards
has led a remarkable
career at JBL that spanned the very start of the company to
its rise as the nation's preeminent loudspeaker
manufacturer. His experiences and background are documented
in two detailed articles on our site. Rather than restating
that information here, I believe it is more interesting to
focus on John's involvement with our site.
John came to our attention through John
Eargle's notes, mentioned above. Edward's involvement at JBL
was known to Eargle from the time he began his research in
1980. Over the next 20 years, Eargle tried off and on to
make contact without success. In Eargle's notes, there was a
phone number from 1980 that was thought to belong to
Edwards. As a shot-in-the-dark, I tried that number in
February 2000. To my surprise, John Edwards answered and
confirmed that he was the former Vice President of Finance
at JBL.
John Edwards sounded as surprised as I
was during the initial call. He was taken aback by a long
distance call from a stranger in Canada inquiring about
events over 50 years past. The initial call was short, as
John indicated I should call back in a couple of days after
he was able to dig up some information from his days at JBL.
That next phone call proved to be a very enjoyable and
fascinating insight into a remarkable career. Using his
daughter, and later his son as intermediaries, we were able
to carry on regular email correspondence that provided even
further information. John subsequently sent two packages
containing information on early products, pricing, and
people involved at JBL. Some of these documents were the
only copies in existence.
After arriving in Los Angeles in
September, 2000, John was the first person we contacted. We
made arrangements to meet at the Smokehouse restaurant for
dinner. The above photo was taken at that dinner and shows
John on the left with his son Drake on the right and Steve
Schell in the center. What followed was a fascinating
conversation yielding further anecdotes on Lansing history.
More importantly, it was an opportunity to get to know each
other personally.
Since our initial contact, John has
acquired a computer and Internet access. He is very open to
contact with anyone interested in the early days at JBL and
can be reached at: [email protected]. In
particular, he would love to hear from any of his former
coworkers at JBL.
Mark Gander
is a recognized authority in the audio industry and
currently holds the position of Vice President of Marketing at JBL
Professional. He has published numerous technical articles
and is a past Governor of AES. Mark was editor of the last
two volumes of the AES Loudspeaker Anthology series.
Virtually all of Mark's career has been
with JBL He joined the company in 1976 after graduating from
the Georgia Institute of Technology with a master's degree
in electrical engineering. Mark was one of the engineers
responsible for moving JBL's design process firmly into the
realm of science and technology from a more empirically
based past. He was key in establishing the use of Theile/Small
parametric design at JBL. The photo below illustrates a
somewhat younger Mark Gander in full mad scientist mode.
Mark brought a unique perspective to JBL. Prior to
undertaking his master's degree, Mark spent a year as a tour
sound engineer. He was able to bring a grassroots
understanding of tour sound requirements at a time when JBL
was aggressively expanding into this market.
Mark is the keeper-of-the-flame for the
corporate history at JBL. Mark personally set up and
maintained their archive files. He has stated, that on more
than one occasion, he stepped in at the last minute to save
this information from being thrown out. Mark became
associated with our web project after being contacted by
Garry Margolis on our behalf. Mark was quick to offer
assistance from the start. He recruited John Eargle to our
cause and has provided strategic direction to our work. Mark
has become our champion within the audio industry by
spreading word of our work amongst his colleagues. Mark was
also responsible for obtaining copyright clearance to use
JBL documents on our site. Most importantly, Mark generously
granted us unrestricted access to the aforementioned
archives. The majority of scanned documents and images on
this site come from these files.
Garry Margolis
is the current
President Elect of AES. Garry has had a remarkable career in
the audio and electronics industry. He was hired in 1974 as
an Applications Engineer for Pro Products, and later rose to
Sales Manager, Pro Products for the International Group.
Garry left JBL in 1981 to become Director of Sales for UREI.
That firm was later acquired by Harman in 1983, and he went
back to JBL International where he was later promoted to
Vice President, Marketing for pro products. He would remain
in that position until leaving in 1990 to establish his own
consulting firm. Lately, Garry has been involved in
technical and marketing issues regarding both DVD-Video and
Super Audio CD for Philips
I came across Garry in 1998 after
browsing the archive of an audio mailing list. I noted a
number of his posts that displayed very intricate knowledge
of JBL products. I emailed him out of the blue to ask him
questions on certain products that had always been an enigma
to me. He answered with a wealth of detail that continued in
an email exchange over the next few weeks. I subsequently
lost contact with Garry until the idea for our website arose
in late 1999. I reestablished contact in an email to Garry
that asked for his advice on leads to develop our site.
Garry forwarded that email to Mark Gander, and that became
the spark that made our website a reality.
At the time of all of the above
correspondence, I had no idea that Garry was a former Vice
President of JBL. I knew he was a former employee, but not
that he was a past executive. Garry subsequently provided an
overview of key staff and their involvement in product
development during his tenure at JBL. He agreed to meet with
Steve Schell and myself during the September tour. We
started at his home where he demonstrated some of the DVD
equipment and program materials he has been involved with.
We then spent an enjoyable two hours over lunch discussing a
myriad of subjects related to JBL, our website and Garry's
background.
© 2001 Don McRitchie