A long time ago in a garage far, far away...
Back in 1999 I went to work at Speakerlab on Roosevelt Way in Seattle for the second time in my career, located between the Ravenna District and Green Lake. This area is home to some of the most liberal folks in the nation - legend has it that there were more votes in the 2000 election for Ralph Nader than any other district the entire country. Having worked for Speakerlab exactly one block north between 1983 and 1985, I can tell you it should have been called the Birkenstock and Granola capital of the planet. After a short and frustrating effort to revive the old and very successful speaker kit line that made Speakerlab famous, I left with the intention of starting The LoudSpeaker Store.
I was 2 weeks away from dropping close to $10K on my website (they cost THAT much in 1999...) when I got a call from my old manager at Magnolia Hi-Fi, Rick Wigen, who was the audio buyer for MHF at the time. He asked if I might be interested in applying for the Sales Rep position that had just opened up with Klipsch, a company my Grandfather had represented in this territory for over 35 years. This was a bucket list job, so I jumped at the opportunity. I got the job. Grandpa Ray was tickled. Although the company he represented was long gone, now owned by a distant cousin of PWK, the company still carried the flame for big, high-sensitivity, horn-loaded speakers and had become one of the starring players in the global audio business. Like so many other companies in the industry, Klipsch was eventually bought up by a large international conglomerate - today the company is a division of Vox International.
Frustrated at the company’s sluggish response to a market that favored smaller speakers, I left in Dec 2002. I was less upset at the end of my employment than I was at having to return my Rep’s samples. My system went from a full Klipsch Reference surround system to a set of Klipsch ProMedia speakers. Great for desktop media but a living room Hi-Fi system they most certainly were NOT.
Then I remembered my old Speakerlab 30s, which were a joint effort between Speakerlab and the now-legendary Mile Nestorovic. I dug them out from a dark corner of a stuffed closet and was immediately disappointed - the foam surrounds had all turned to shreds - the speakers were unusable. I took them to Speakerlab, who sent them to their speaker repair guy for rebuild. 16 weeks later, they were done, and I was ready to dive into my old catalog of favorite albums and cds. I re-assembled them and was disappointed again, this time because they didn’t sound remotely like their old selves. It turned out that the speaker repair guy, although his workmanship was flawless, had used parts that were so far off-spec that they were wrecked.
So, how far off were they? The only way to find out was to have them measured for the electro-mechanical specs, known as the “Thiele-Small parameters”. One of these specs is called the “free-air resonance” (denoted as “Fs”), or the natural resonance of the woofer in open air. The 30 has two woofers, one ten-inch and one 8-inch, the Fs should be 19Hz and 27Hz respectively. Test results came back with the 10 hitting 45Hz and the 8 hitting 50Hz - too far off to be even vaguely useful. I took them back to the shop Speakerlab used at the time and was told that “these are the only parts we have for these woofers, there’s no way I can do the repair any differently”. Well, poo.
Being the tinkerer and problem-solving type, I searched for a way to return the woofers to their correct specs. I learned how to re-cone woofers by watching a video, and proceeded to re-cone each woofer several times before they tested for the correct Fs. Of course, there are many other specs they needed to hit, but I finally got them dialed in.
Finally, they sounded exactly like I remembered from the day I bought them from a co-worker at Speakerlab back in 1983. Goosebumps! Tight, deep and HONEST bass with fluid mids and soaring, airy highs. I called several of my former Speakerlab co-workers who had similar experiences and told them I had a spec-accurate solution for the woofers in the 30s and 40s, which used similar woofers. It wasn’t long before I had re-repaired a dozen sets. When someone suggested I should open my own shop, I recalled that I had planned to do just that before the Klipsch gig. So, in April 2003, I officially opened The LoudSpeaker Store in a rented garage.
At first, I intended to go at it full-time, but it didn’t generate enough income to live on. It was a slightly profitable hobby. Eventually we scored wholesale accounts with Magnolia Hi-Fi, Carlson Audio, American Music among others, and worked in the shop after my full-time job. In 2011, after working for 5+ years at Microsoft and suffering from terminal burnout, I attempted to make the shop full-time again. “An interesting move in today’s economy” one client said, and indeed, the revenue generated was a reflection of the fact that it was really still just a very enjoyable hobby, although it did help pay a few bills.
In 2012, we took over the speaker repair work at Speakerlab, which kept things going at a modest clip, and in 2014, with our only competitor retiring, things tried to take off, but we had to admit the limitations of a repair-only shop and began exploring the potential of expanding. As of January 2018, we are part of RJM Audio Group, LLC, along with RJM Audio Lab, the technical and R&D side of things, and the brand under which we will market our speakers. “RJM” stands for “Ray Johnston Memorial”, in tribute to my late grandfather, Ray Johnston, without whom I would never have gotten involved in this crazy business. He was an esteemed mentor to many, some of whom have mentored me. For that I will always be thankful.
In December 2017, the most recent owners of the legendary Seattle loudspeaker manufacturer, Speakerlab, offered RJM Audio Group, LLC the opportunity to acquire the trademark and technical archives. The acquisition of the archives and assignment of the trademark was completed in February of 2018.
We consider it a very high compliment to be chosen to carry on the old Speakerlab flame, and are thrilled to have the archives. Unfortunately, the brand enjoys very little recognition and therefore limited commercial value in today’s audio marketplace. It was difficult, but we made the decision to do the right thing and honor the sentiment of our friend, mentor and Speakerlab co-founder, the late David Graebener, who in the last conversation we had before he passed, suggested the brand would be better off “put to bed and allowed to rest in the glow of Nostalgia”. Of course, we will continue to provide expert service for your classic genuine Speakerlab speakers, along with introducing the RJM Audio Lab speaker line that will utilize the best of what we’ve learned from building and repairing speakers for over 40 years. With a few new and original touches, of course.
Please note that we have no affiliation whatever with any company marketing loudspeakers under the Speakerlab brand or any similar name.
For us, this is less about the gear and ALL about the enjoyment of music. Music is like a food group - a very important and diverse food group. Just like food and water, it is essential to life, and it is Universal. We may have nothing else in common but love of music - if that’s all we have, it’s enough for me.
