JBL James Bullough Lansing After selling his interests in Altec Lansing, he started a new company using his full name, which soon became known by his famous initials.
JVC Japan Victor Company
KAMAN (pronounced like the word 'command' without the 'd') After founder Charles H. Kaman.
KEF Kent Engineering & Foundry, by founder Raymond Cooke in Kent, U.K.
KLARK TEKNIK After founders and brothers Phil and Terry Clarke in 1974.
KORG Keio + Organ Founder Mr. Tsutomu Katoh, along with Mr. Tadashi Osanai, started Keio Electronic Laboratories in 1962 named after the nearby railroad line. They liked the name because Keio (pronounced kay-oh) also represented the first initials of their names. Years later when they decided to manufacture organs designed by Fumio Mieda, the name was changed to Korg, a derivative of Keio Organ.
KRK Systems Keith R. Klawitter, founder.
KV2 AUDIO After founders Jiri "George" Krampera and Marcelo Vercelli in 2002. Spin-off from Fussion Audio acquired by Mackie in 1998.
LAB.GRUPPEN "Lab Association" is an accurate translation of the original Swedish name selected in 1979 by electronic engineer founders Kenneth Andersson and Dan Bavholm. The use of the dot was a stylish element selected to make their name stand apart from a field dominated by hyphens and spaces -- little did they know what awaited them with the dot-com revolution of the '90s. The choice of the word "LAB" stemmed from the love of the Disney character Gyro Gearloose, the great engineer inventor created by Carl Barks, and the many cartoon signs marked "LAB" hung up to help Gyro find his way to the laboratory.
L-Acoustics French nuclear scientist Dr. Christian Heil originated the company as Heil Acoustics, however as worldwide success grew he choose to downplay his name in favor of promoting the entire company team, so he opted for L-Acoustics since the letter "L" sounds very much like the French pronunciation of Heil.
MACKIE After Greg Mackie who previously founded TAPCO and Audio Control. Now a brand name for Loud Technologies.
MAMA Musical Archives, Musical Archives Founded in 1989 by Gene Czerwinski (Cerwin-Vega founder) to preserve the music of culturally significant artists (by not requiring them to be commercially successful), whose CDs consistently are Grammy nominees, with at least one Grammy winner.
M-AUDIO The "M" comes from their original name, Midiman, Inc.
MBHO Mikrofonbau Haun Obrigheim Translates roughly into "Handmade microphones by Herbert Haun, founder, in Obrigheim, Germany. Maker of legendary microphones since 1962, marketed variously as Peerless MT and MT Quart. For their first three decades, MBHO capsules and complete microphones were sold to other manufacturers; now they are sold direct through normal distribution channels. One favorite large diaphragm condenser model (MBHN 608 CL) is known as "the lollypop," while another popular pressure zone design (MBNM 630 C-N-PZ) is known as "the frog."
McCAULEY After founder brothers Tom and Pete McCauley in 1979.
MCI Music Center Inc. Founded by Jeep Harned (1930-2003) in 1955, he sold it to Sony in 1982. The combination of MCI design with Sony's manufacturing created years of legendary Sony/MCI consoles.
MIDAS Taken from the Latin and Greek mythology about the king of Phrygia whose touch was said to turn all things to gold. It is promoted that using a Midas mixing console would turn sound to audio gold -- no matter who played through it -- the Midas Touch.
MIPRO Microphone Professionals
MOTOROLA Motorized Victrola Name by co-founder Paul Galvin (after teaming with William Lear) in 1934 for a dashboard radio they developed and demonstrated in a Studebaker. The original company name was the Galvin Manufacturing Corp. founded by Paul Galvin and his brother Joseph in 1928.
MOTU Mark of the Unicorn
MUZAK Music + Kodak
MXR "Mixer" Defunct company started by Keith Barr (Alesis), Terry Sherwood (ART) and Michael Liacona (Whirlwind) that spawned ART & ALESIS. Name and products resurrected by new owner Jim Dunlop.
NAD New Acoustic Dimension
NADY After founder John Nady in 1976.
NEUTRIK Shortened form of Neuelektrik ("new electrical") to distinguish this company from a previous one.
NEXO Founders Eric Vincenot and Michael Johnson specifically chose a name -- a letter grouping -- with no meaning in as many languages as possible, reflecting their global business vision. The company name seems not to offend anyone.
NHT Now Hear This
NILES Audio After founder Ivan Niles Zuckerman in 1978.
NVISION n for any number, Vision for visual resolution; put them together n+Vision and you get any number of scan lines at any data rate, which is HDTV, their business.
NXT New Transducers Ltd.
OAP Audio O'Rouke Audio Products After founder Michael ("Mike") O'Rouke in 1974.
OTARI The name of a small village where the founder Mr. M. Hosoda was born. The name Otari is actually derived from a Chinese word "o" meaning little and "tari" meaning valley, together meaning little valley; hence the little valley called Otari where Mr. Hosoda was born.
PAL Studios Not an acronym or initial, but simply the name "pal" meaning friend or buddy. The name of inventor, engineer, composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist, Paul C. Buff's original recording studio in Cucamonga, CA where he recorded Frank Zappa (and taught him recording technology), as well as creating the original sound of west coast surf music (recording, for example, The Surfaris "Wipe Out" in 1962). The name was taken from his mother and stepfather's recording label named PAL. (Paul's day-job was at General Dynamics, which Frank Zappa nicknamed "The Bomb Factory.") His next company was named Allison Research after his first wife. In 1980 he merged Allison Research with Bob Todrank's Valley Audio and formed Valley People. The name derived from the 225-acre art/music colony he and Bob developed in the '70s. Paul's latest company is White Lightning in Nashville.
PANJA In 1999, the new name for AMX, purportedly (not confirmed) derived from a Swahili word loosely meaning "machete" used to describe their products that allow "cutting the ties" between the Internet and the PC. Changed back to AMX in 2001.
PAS Professional Audio Systems
PEAVEY After founder Hartley Peavey, a 1965 Mississippi State business graduate.
PENNY & GILES After founders Professor W. A. Penny and Mr. J. A. Giles, in 1955. Now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation started by the Wright Brothers shortly after their famous flight in 1903.
PEZ Derived from pfefferminz, the German word for peppermint. [This one is to see if you are paying attention.]
PHILIPS Shortened form for the original name: N.V. Philips Gloielampenfabrieken meaning "Glow Lamp Works." Actually it is officially Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands. [Thanks RF.]
PICKERING & Co. After founder Norman C. Pickering in 1945; one of the founding members of the AES. Pickering is now owned by Stanton Magnetics.
PMC Professional Monitor Company
PRG Production Resource Group
QSC Audio Products Quilter Sound Company after founder Patrick Quilter.
QUAD An acronym for Quality Unit Amplified Domestic and new brand name created by founder and audio legend Peter Walker in 1949, for his company founded in 1936 as The Acoustical Manufacturing Company.
RADAR random access digital audio recorder The world's first 24-track hard disk digital audio recorder, originally developed by Creation Technologies, and distributed by Otari. Today, the team that created RADAR bought that division from Creation and formed iZ Technology headed by the original founder, Barry Henderson.
RANE An anagram made from the four letters common to the founder's first and last names.
RCF Radio Cine Forniture
RLA Richard Long and Associates
ROLAND Picked out of the phone book by founder Mr. Ikutaro Kakehashi in 1972, becasuse it satisfied his criteria for a name that was neutral sounding, not Japanese, American, or too exotic, and he liked the sound.
ROLLS Founder David DiFrancesco states, "Just a name we pulled out of the blue; it is short and "rolls" off the tongue."
ROYER LABS After co-founder David Royer.
RPG Diffusor Systems Reflection-Phase Grating Note the "o" rather than an "e" in Diffusor -- it is the European spelling favored by Manfred Schroeder.
SADiE Studio Audio Disk Editor, but it is also Studio Audio Distribution in Europe for their German subsidiary, SADiE GmbH, and Studio Audio Digital Equipment for their American subsidiary, SADiE Inc., America, and for that nice human touch, it is the name of founder Joe Bull's grandmother. Interestingly, the small "i" was added in the beginning to clearly differentiate the company from the singer "Sade."
SEK'D Studio für Elektronische Klangerzeugund der Universität Dresden (Studio for electronic Klangerzeugund of the University of Dresden)
SENNHEISER After founder Fritz Sennheiser in 1945, first located in Wennebostel, Germany.
SERATO The name resulted after three months of intense design and refinement by the four founding members who gathered weekly, questing for the perfect company name. The criteria were simple: a word no more than six letters long, a word not found in any dictionary of any language, a word so scarce on the Internet that it could be considered new, a word that remained a dot-com virgin, and a word that rolls of the tongue like hot butter. Many meetings and reams of randomly generated words narrowed the candidates to four. A vote was cast and "Serato" came into the world. [Thanks to founder A.J. Bertenshaw.]
SESCOM Scientific Electronic Systems Company
SHURE After founder Sydney N. Shure in 1925. Originally named Shure Radio Company, located in Chicago, it was renamed Shure Brothers after his brother, Samuel J. joined the company. Even though Samuel left the company in the '30s, the name was not changed until 1999, when it became Shure Incorporated.
SIEMENS After founder Werner von Siemens in 1847, inventor of the pointer telegraph.
SLS Loudspeakers Superior Line Source
SONY Latin sonus (sound) plus English slang nickname Sunny (young, bright & cute), drop an "n" and voilà. In 1946, the company was founded by Mr. Akio Morita and Mr. Masaru Ibuka, and named Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp. As the company grew and aimed at world markets, Mr. Morita changed the name in 1958, claiming that "Sony" was pronounceable in any language and easily remembered.
SPL Signal Perfection, Ltd.
SPL Sound Performance Lab
SRS Labs Sound Retrieval System
SSL Solid State Logic
SSM Solid State Micro Technology for Music; originally Solid State Music Technology, which changed when ownership changed; subsequently bought out by PMI, who was then acquired by Analog Devices, the current owner.
STANTON MAGNETICS After founder Walter O. Stanton (1915-2001), inventor of the removable stylus assembly for magnetic cartridges.
SWR Steve W. Rabe, founder.
TAD Pioneer Technical Audio Devices
TAKAMINE The factory is located in Saka****a, Japan, at the base of Takamine Mountain.
TANNOY A term coined by founder Guy Fountain in 1926 based on the metals "tantalum" plus "lead alloy," which he used to create a better electrolytic rectifier.
TAPCO Technical Audio Products Company, Greg Mackie's first audio company founded in 1969, acquired by Electro-Voice, who retired the brand name, and was subsequently bought by Telex. Name recently recovered by Greg Mackie and reissued by Mackie in 2003 as a new acronym for Total Audio Production Company.
TASCAM TEAC Audio Systems Corporation America; In the late 1960's TEAC formed a special R&D group named TASC (TEAC Audio Systems Corp.) for the purpose of researching ways to apply TEAC's recording technology for musicians and recording studios. TASCAM was established in 1971 for the purpose of distributing TASC products in the U.S. and conducting additional market research.
TC ELECTRONIC Only the founder, Kim Rishøj, knows for sure, but it is believed by well-placed sources to be an anagram for "eccentric lot."
TEAC Tokyo Electro Acoustic Company; originally founded as Tokyo Television Acoustic Company in August 1953, but later changed "Television" to "Electro" and then just TEAC.
THAT Travaline, Hebert and Tyler, or Tyler, Hebert and Travaline, founders -- take your pick. There is no T-name order priority -- all previously worked at dbx.
THX® Ltd. (formerly a division of Lucasfilm Ltd.) The name comes from two sources: George Lucas's first film THX-1138 (student version; commercial version), and a somewhat tongue-in-cheek reference to Tomlinson Holman's eXperiment, after their original technical director, patentee and creative force behind all things THX (who now runs TMH Corporation).
TL Audio Tony Larking, founder.
TOA Electronics Exact origin lost, however it is believed to derive from the two Japanese sounds closest to the original kanji characters representing the company. These were "to", possibly shortened from "toyo" meaning the East or the Orient (eastern Asia), or "toi" meaning "far," combined with possibly another contraction of "ajia" meaning Asia, or "wa" shortened form of "wafu" meaning Japanese, together they mean "Far East," or "Eastern Asia." Today, to emphasis the worldwide nature of the company, the name is spelled out T-O-A, not pronounced.
TOLECO Systems The Oliver Electric Company after the founder's cat. Today the cat's dead and the company's defunct.
TOSHIBA Originally known as Tanaka Engineering Works, they were Japan's first manufacturer of telegraphic equipment. It later became Shibaura Engineering Works, merged with Tokyo Electric Co. in 1939, and was named Tokyo Shibaura Electric Company, officially abbreviating it to Toshiba in 1978.
TRACE ELLIOT No Mr. Trace; no Mr. Elliot; only a late night in a British pub, The Victoria, in 1979, where Fred Friedlein proclaimed he wanted a serious, professional sounding, double-barreled name (like Klark-Teknik, Mesa/Boogie, or Seymour Duncan). He selected "trace" since it referred to a sine wave and a wave was featured on Fred's other company's logo, the Soundwave music shop in Romford Essex/East London. Wanting the second name to sound very classy and British he accepted "Elliot" suggested by Andy Perry, their Australian technical designer. The company was sold to Kaman in 1992; bought back by management in 1997; and then sold again in 1998 to Gibson, the current owner.
UA Universal Audio The original parent company of UREI, starting life as Universal Recording Corporation in 1946 by the legendary Bill Putnam.
UREI United Recording Electronics Industries Now operating under their original name: Universal Audio.
VAC Valve Amplification Company
VALLEY PEOPLE See PAL.
WHISE ACOUSTICS Wal Huon Integrated Sound Equipment Originally an acronym for Whitty Huon Integrated Sound Equipment after the initial founders Tony Whitty and Graeme Huon. A new technology R&D company was created in the '90s by Graeme Huon and Wal Dower, thus the current variation. Graeme Huon calls this a reborn acronym or "recronym."
WHITE INSTRUMENTS After founder Gifford White (1913-2002) in 1953.
XFRM The electrical engineering abbreviation for transform, as in "Transforming the World One Idea at a Time," the company motto created by founder Dr. Richard C. Cabot, formerly CTO of Audio Precision, in 2002, as a vehicle to explore his continuing ideas for new devices and techniques in high-quality audio and digital signal processing.
XTA Founders Andrew Grayland and John Austin as well as co-owners Jack Kelly and Terry Clarke all worked previously at Klark Teknik (Terry's namesake), so since they were all ex-K-T associates the original idea was to call their new company "XKT" but not wanting to ruffle any legal feathers wisely decided to drop the "K" and add an "A" (for "associates" maybe). Today Jack Kelly likes to say that "XTA" stands for "crossroads of Technology and Audio applications," but we know better.
YAMAHA After founder Mr. Torakusu Yamaha who built his first reed organ in 1887. The original company name was Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd.
ZSYS z-systems from z-domain or z-transform, the mathematical space used in designing DSP algorithms -- their primary product -- and coincidentally, works well with the founder's name: Glenn Zelniker.
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