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Based on our combined experience of over 40 years in the audio and digital signal processing domains, we can help you with projects in the areas of driver manufacturing, speaker design, car audio, home theater audio and digital signal processing. We offer on and off-site consulting services focused on providing you with the best and most efficient solution possible. For inquiries, please contact sales.
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Brian Smith is the founder and CEO and has over 20 years of experience with audio and digital
signal processing (DSP) having worked for 10 years in the technical sales division of Texas
Instruments. He had the idea to develop a tool for measuring drivers based on DSP principles
back in 1992 and used one of TI's early DSP starter kits to develop the Woofer Tester 1. He
wrote the software for it and brought the Woofer Tester 1 to market. Keith Larson is the
inventor of the DSP Starter Kit on which Brian based the WT1. Brian was a beta tester of
Keith's first DSP Starter Kit. Needless to say, Brian found Keith's invention to have
commercial potential outside of teaching college students to program a DSP.
Brian has used his knowledge to also develop a line of subwoofer drivers that sell briskly even
after being on the market 10+ years.
He has owned the following speakers: Infinity ServoStatic, Acoustat 2+2, Martin Logan CLS. His
favorite amplifiers are 1980s vintage Perreaux. He built a pair of Roger Sanders DIY
electrostats in the 1980s.
Brian is formally trained as a classical vocalist (Helden Tenor). He has performed vocal music
since elementary school. He currently plays bass guitar in a Church band most Sunday mornings.
He has built an acoustic guitar from scratch including much of the tooling. He played clarinet
in concert band from grade school through high school. He played baritone during marching band
seasons. His passion for loudspeakers spawns from his love of music performance. He knows what
music sounds like from the performers' viewpoint.
Keith Larson is the Chief Technical Officer of Smith & Larson Audio.
He is a member of the Audio Engineering Society. His
passion for audio began early when as a tuba player in junior high he became interested everything
about bass. He began building loudspeakers in high school but this expanded greatly when in
college his interests led him to write one of the early loudspeaker simulation programs
'PRo Response' in 1984. He stopped playing tuba after college when he joined Texas Instruments as a
Sr. DSP Applications Engineer before joining Smith & Larson Audio in 2004. In fact,
Keith met Brian while they were both at TI and they discovered their mutual interest for audio.
While at TI, Keith invented the DSP starter kits for both fixed and floating point devices.
He also managed the floating point chip family and brought the TMS320VC33 to market.
In addition, he is known for numerous DSP algorithms including audio processing and
compression, some of which have been patented. He is bringing his digital signal processing
knowledge and lifelong passion for speaker building to Smith & Larson Audio, where he
has already invented new techniques for measuring and modeling driver parameters, Real-Time
Crossover simulation and AC and DC compression effects.
Keith's current home system is a pair of line source speakers that were originally built in 1985 when
he started to understand and model the effects of multiple drivers. That system used sixteen Audax 3"
mid-bass drivers and twenty four Audax tweeters per side. The foam surrounds failed, and many of the
tweeters got used in other projects. In 2004 he rebuilt the system by reusing most of the tweeters,
but also upgrading the mid-bass units. The system also includes two 12" subwoofers and one 18"
sub-sub woofer that reaches down into the low teens. The Woofer Tester Pro was used to design the
new crossovers and equalization circuits.
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What our customers are saying:
"After years of painstakingly designing and testing speakers
with rudimentary tools, using the ICD section of the WTPro
seems more like cheating. The ability to immediately simulate
and measure a two way crossover has proven invaluable.
What used to take months has dwindled to days or even hours."
- William Schuchard, Reviewer, Stereomojo
Review of the Speaker Tester by Wayne Parham,
PI Speakers/
Audioroundtable
"This device and software is far more potent than I had realized."
- Bill Gross, California
Product Reviews using our Testers:
Stereomojo (WTPro)
Performance Auto & Sound Magazine (WT2 & WTPro)
- TEST REPORT, Clarion MultiFit Speaker Set,
PASMAG Apr 08
- TEST REPORT, Dynaudio Esotec System 362,
PASMAG Apr 08; by Dave MacKinnon
- TEST REPORT, Clarion Signature Series SSS601
Components,
PASMAG Mar 08
- TEST REPORT, Energy ENC525CV Speaker System,
PASMAG, 2007 Annual issue
- TEST REPORT, Cerwin Vega VMAX 12.4
PASMAG
Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity (WT2)
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