Audio Video News

AudioControl, the Seattle-based maker of home and car audio products known best for its signal processors, is celebrating 40 years in the consumer electronics business.

Founded in 1977, AudioControl was owned and run by audio-industry veteran/gentleman Tom Walker from January 1985 to January 2014. Alex Camara was named CEO of AudioControl in 2011 and acquired the company from Walker in 2014.

At the time of the transition, Walker noted that he had many opportunities to sell the company over the years but “needed to make sure I had an excellent person in place that would continue to lead the company in the right direction.” That person was Alex Camara. “It has been an enormous privilege to be the leader of AudioControl for 29 years, and to have been in an industry this great,” Walker said. “I am leaving AudioControl in the good hands of Alex Camara. The values of the company will be continued.”

In a 2014 interview with CE Outlook Camara said buying AudioControl was a natural transition and noted that Walker was intent on ensuring the company was not taken over by a conglomerate that would move the business to China. “What attracted me originally to the company was the strength of the brand, the product development and engineering.”

To commemorate the milestone anniversary, AudioControl issued the following press release:

AudioControl, designers and manufacturers of innovative high-performance audio solutions for residential, commercial, and automotive markets since 1977 is proud to have been serving audio enthusiasts for 40 years, when the company introduced their first equalizers and signal processors manufactured specifically for home audio applications.

From the beautiful Pacific Northwest region of the USA, AudioControl has established a culture of innovation, fine products and superb customer service from a team that is truly passionate about making good sound great.

“Our customers far and wide simply love what we do, and our engineers have a well-deserved reputation for being legends within the audio engineering community—they know a thing or two about creating fine audio products that offer great reliability, performance and value,” said CEO Alex Camara.

In the early days of home audio when records and cassette tapes ruled the earth, the AudioControl product lineup consisted of specialty audio components that were sold through traditional hi-fi stores. The company mission was to help consumers overcome the acoustic anomalies of their listening rooms in order to recapture the sonic fingerprint that speaker engineers had intended from their designs. After heroically saving much of humanity from a subpar listening experience, AudioControl has since garnered countless awards and numerous patents for advances in the reproduction of sound.

Over four decades, as audio engineering advanced from LP records, tape, CDs, MP3s, and beyond, AudioControl has created a legacy of premium home theater and whole-house entertainment products, distributed audio amplifiers for commercial applications, remarkable audio analyzers as well as a revered lineup of outstanding car audio processors, amplifiers and OEM interface solutions sold and installed worldwide by the most qualified professionals.

Today, AudioControl is leveraging the power of advanced technologies to forge ahead with nearly 100 new and exciting audio products. The mission remains the same: to provide residential and commercial integrators along with aftermarket car audio retailers the tools they need to create a lifelike entertainment experience that outperforms expectations for each and every customer. As an example, AudioControl’s amazing DSP-enabled Director series amplifiers make it possible for integrators to tailor the sound for each client and for any room acoustics. The Director Model M4800 8-channel amplifier was awarded the prestigious 2017 TechHome Mark of Excellence Award presented by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).

AudioControl has also announced a new industry alliance initiative called the Sound Partners Program, established to work cooperatively with industry-leading architectural speaker manufacturers in order to implement critical performance profiles stored in the DSP onboard the AudioControl Director amplifiers.

“For 40 years, AudioControl has engineered and manufactured some of the finest audio components proudly made in the USA,” Camara added. “Our products are sold throughout the U.S. and internationally in approximately 35 countries worldwide. As our loyal dealers and end-users can attest, few things are as gratifying as the gift of music, and AudioControl continues to be at the forefront of making good sound great by offering the most advanced, high-performance components we have ever produced.”