A Legacy of Distinction in Advancing Audio

John Meyer

John Meyer’s early career included creating the innovative Glyph loudspeaker system, designing loudspeakers for McCune Sound Service, and as a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Musical Studies in Switzerland. He and his wife, Helen, founded Meyer Sound in 1979 after their return to the San Francisco Bay Area at a time when most large-scale sound equipment was custom because there were no manufacturers providing high quality, concert-level systems. Meyer Sound changed that situation, and, in doing so, changed the industry.

The company’s breakthroughs started immediately. After creating subwoofers for the multichannel sound system touring with Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Meyer Sound introduced the UPA-1, a processor-controlled loudspeaker with a patented trapezoidal enclosure shape. The UPA-1 was an inaugural inductee into the TECnology Hall of Fame, alongside Edison’s cylinder recorder and De Forest’s triode vacuum tube.

Glyph Loudspeaker

The company’s ongoing string of awards, patents, and products and technologies are acclaimed for their quality and usefulness: arrayable point-source loudspeakers, source independent measurement, cardioid subwoofers, self-powered loudspeakers for studio and stage, high-accuracy studio monitors, acoustical prediction software, atmospheric compensation equalization and more. Meyer Sound is renowned for products of unparalleled fidelity and road-worthiness, as well as for outstanding customer support. In recognition of his contributions, John Meyer was designated a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society.

In the 1990s, Meyer Sound began a major expansion at its Berkeley headquarters, including building a large anechoic chamber for research and development, a driver fabrication facility, and a new assembly plant. These facilities bear “planetary” nicknames: Saturn, Mars, Earth, and Phoebe (a moon of Saturn and the newest facility). In 2004, the company erected a unique, 57-seat theatre on site for training, research, and demonstration. The theatre’s design and construction represent a new approach to multipurpose venues, and has attracted notice from top professionals in theatre, film, and other sectors of the arts world.