A look inside this state-of-the-art facility.
BY MAUREEN JENSON
A SELECT GROUP OF JOURNALISTS ASSEMBLED at the HARMAN Luxury Audio Experience Center and Design and Engineering facility in Northridge, California for a full day of amazing sights and sounds. The HARMAN Luxury Audio Team has crushed it with their new Experience Center. Every member of the team has the right to feel very proud.
From the moment we entered the jaw-dropping light and music entry hallway until we finished the day at the John Eargle Theater, it was a day of connecting, in the proper environment, with some of the greatest audio systems on the planet.
The enormous campus is home to HARMAN’s iconic luxury brands: Revel, ARCAM, Mark Levinson, JBL and JBL Synthesis. We met with the some of the most respected audio designers and engineers in the business as Jim Garrett, Senior Director of Product Strategy & Planning for HARMAN’s Luxury Audio Group stressed that the design and scientific engineering teams at HARMAN, “Want for nothing. Whatever they need they get!”
In addition to touring the design and engineering center, we also were privy to the power testing chamber (or gear torture testing chamber as I call it. This can consist of extremes in temperature, sound levels, etc.) and the anechoic chambers. HARMAN has a very impressive seven anechoic chambers, all used for different aspects of freestanding and in-wall loudspeaker testing in “free field” conditions. Free field meaning there are no reflected signals in a space that is designed so freakishly quiet, it’s been said some people can hear their own heart beating.
We had a taste of the extensive CAD speaker design modeling through a few SKUs. The Stage Architectural Series and the Stage XD weatherized speakers are crafted to be visually discreet, while their high-performance design elements ensure the delivery of clear and accurate sound. Offered in two sizes and built for extreme durability, Stage XD Series all-weather loudspeakers combine patented JBL acoustic technologies with IP67-rated weatherized waterproof enclosures.
Said audio designer Chris Hagen, principal engineer at HARMAN International, “Our speakers have to look as good as they sound. Through our designs we make sure they achieve both. We learn more as we keep pushing the design process until it turns into the final product, we never stop looking for improvements in performance.”
JBL introduced its “Classic Series” a couple of years ago featuring retro wood cabinets and a variety of cool, sort of retro fabric finishes. Now the company is introducing an exclusive, limited-edition version of this called the “Classic Series Black Edition.” Jim said that only ‘a few hundred of each’ will be made, and all will feature gloss black finishes on all sides, black grilles, and unique gold badging on the speakers and grilles. They are stunning.
From the invisible JBL Conceal Series in-wall speakers to the Synthesis SCL Series, HARMAN’s ability to scientifically design and execute superb audio systems is evident. Equally impressive is HARMAN’s efforts in education through the HARMAN University, online training with over 60 courses and over 5,000 students enrolled worldwide.
Above: Audio designer Chris Hagen, principal engineer at HARMAN International,
describes what we will experience in the power testing chamber as the speakers are
subjected to maximum power.
Below: Yours truly and other industry journalists in one of Harman’s
seven anechoic chambers.
Finishing the day in the famous John Eargle theater as Jim Garrett, Senior Director
Of Product Strategy & Planning for HARMAN’s Luxury Audio Group, discusses the theater’s
JBL Synthesis system. The room includes 13 SCL-1 and SCL-2 models, 13 overhead SCL-3 speakers,
nine separate amplifiers providing over 20,000 watts, controlled by a Synthesis SDP-75
processor and 10 subwoofers!
HARMAN is also investing in the loudspeaker design and branding of the future. HUEMEN, HARMAN’s in-house design firm in NYC, is uncovering through targeted research what the generations coming of age now and younger will want in their homes, their priorities and how they can be authentic and transparent in their lifestyles and how HARMAN will meet those needs in the future.
Every HARMAN Luxury dealer or integrator of their vast family of luxury brands needs to spend time at the new Experience Center. It is also the perfect location for interior designers, architects, building designers and others to learn, listen and focus their energies on what great audio can bring to the lives of their clients and designers.
