Specifications

M&K Sales Training Outline
page 4
May 98
http://www.mksound.com
M&K's Design Philosophy
As an audiophile recording engineer and a high-end loudspeaker designer, my strong belief has al-
ways been that a good loudspeaker should accurately and realistically reproduce whatever the micro-
phone captured, whether the source is a human voice, a musical instrument, an explosion, car crash,
etc.;
including the acoustical ambience of the environment in which the source was recorded.
Our philosophy is that exciting and lifelike sound and music reproduction takes place when your ears,
in effect, become the recording microphones. Our speakers are designed to allow you to hear exactly
what the microphones heard, placing you as close or as far away from the music or sound source as the
recording engineer placed the microphones.
Too many so-called “music” loudspeakers are designed with a philosophy that
all recordings should
sound as if the music comes from a stage 10 or 20 rows distant, even if a recording is closely miked with
performers as close as a few inches from the microphones (as is often done on film soundtracks, espe-
cially for dialog).
This “homogenizing” effect may be pleasant for some music recordings, but it inaccurately reproduces
both close-miked recordings and recordings that accurately capture the acoustic space of a recording
site. This is why many “music” speakers do so poorly when trying to reproduce both the intensity and
intimacy of closely miked sound effects and dialog on today’s best soundtracks.
Ken Kreisel, President
Kreisel’s earliest passion was for recording pipe
organs and other live musical performances.
These perfectionist recordings were of true audio-
phile quality, and many were cut as LPs, first for
demonstrations at Jonas Miller's salon and later
for sale because of their popularity and acclaim.
Kreisel was among the very first to explore the
limits of the phonograph record through direct-to-
disc recording, using M&K's own $150,000 modi-
fied cutting lathe and custom microphones and
mixers. Even today,
For Duke is recognized as
one of the few LP records defining the state-of-
the-art.
But in the early '70s, there were virtually no au-
diophile speakers capable of reproducing the deep
bass Kreisel's recordings had captured. The an-
swer? Kreisel started designing subwoofers!
In 1973, Walter Becker of Steely Dan asked
Kreisel for a studio reference subwoofer and moni-
toring system for the
Pretzel Logic mixdown ses-
sions. M&K's speaker business was born with the
balanced dual-driver subwoofer Kreisel designed
for the sessions. RealTime's acclaimed direct-to-
disc recordings soon followed.
By the end of the '70s, M&K was a leader again,
among the first to make commercial recordings
digitally, using an M&K-modified Sony 16-bit digi-
tal recorder. In fact, M&K was the first U.S. com-
pany to release Compact Discs! 25 CD titles are
available on the RealTime and Perpetua labels.
With M&K’s experience in Home Theatre dat-
ing back to Hollywood screening room design and
installation in the ’70s, M&K has long been at the
leading edge of music and film sound technology.
This is why M&K was among the very first com-
panies to join Lucasfilm in the Home THX program,
and why M&K speakers are considered to be the
best at reproducing both music and film
soundtracks. Numerous awards and number one
rankings in product reviews and shootouts have
followed and continue to this day.
And in 1997, M&K finally made its formal entry
into the world of professional audio, even though
M&K has been at home in recording studios from
day one). See "M&K In The Professional Sound
World" above for the details on this most recent
and exciting part of M&K's history.
Stay tuned. The best is yet to come!
Company Background & History