MILFORD, NH – Earthworks Audio accidentally started 25 years ago when David Blackmer began building Hi-Fi speakers. This was well after he sold dbx — the company known for audio noise reduction that he founded in 1971 — and well before the rise of High Resolution audio.
More details from Earthworks Audio (www.earthworksaudio.com):
David always believed in a world beyond 20 kHz, and much of his pioneering work revolved around the role of ultrasonic frequencies in sound reproduction. He knew that something was missing in the signal chain and he wanted to make speakers that viscerally sounded like what he felt when he sat in the front row of the symphony.
As he began measuring the speakers he was building, he noticed that what he was hearing and experiencing was different than what he was graphing. He noticed that different components affected not just how he perceived the high frequencies, but also how they affected the overall sound — even though on paper, everything read the same.
So he built measurement microphones to capture and understand those discrepancies.
“David enjoyed live music and interacting with the musicians,” says Heidi Robichaud, co-founder of Earthworks Audio. “And some of those musicians took David’s measurement microphones to a gig — just for fun. Just to see what they could do. When they came back, they begged to buy them on the spot.”
What those musicians heard was time domain accuracy. David Blackmer understood that in order to prevent the smearing of time — high resolution microphones needed lightening fast impulse response combined with a flat frequency response extending out past 20 kHz.
Word of mouth spread, and orders for the microphones never stopped. Now, as Earthworks moves into its next 25 years, the tenets of the company have never been more profound.
“The awareness and demand for immersive Hi-Res audio has never been more prevalent,” says Robichaud. “David’s vision is here and as we enter this golden age of Hi-Res streaming and broadcasting, everything we’ve worked towards for the last 25 years has come to fruition.”
Earthworks has been on a quest for truth and accuracy for 25 years and they remain even more committed to their founding goals now as they move into live sound reinforcement — bringing their high definition audio microphones to the stage.
