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Celestion Presents an Interview with Paul Hales, Owner and CEO of Theory Professional From its conception in 2018, Theory knew that if they were going to bring real value to the residential, commercial, and professional installation market, that they needed to be different.  With that as their inspiration, they quickly became renowned for providing unique, high-performance products with innovative form factors and a strong focus on sound quality that sets them apart from competitors. Celestion is pleased to present an exclusive interview with Paul Hales, the Owner and CEO of Theory Professional, where he shares his formative years, the origins of the company, their philosophies, culture, innovations, the future of their business, and his favourite music. What is your favourite album of all time and why? I find it difficult to name just one, but if pressured, I would narrow it down to Radiohead’s OK Computer and In Rainbows, and Counting Crows’ August and Everything After. With Radiohead, I appreciate Thom York’s melodic singing, and the complex textures and layering they achieve in their compositions, which combine progressive rock elements with beautiful melodies.  A number of their songs, Exit Music for a Film, The Tourist, and Lucky are just beautiful rock compositions. How did you get started in the audio industry? My interest stemmed from a combination of a love for music and my father’s background in hi-fi, as he built things like Heathkits and speakers using JBL drivers. I was exposed to music from a young age through my sisters, who were 10 years older than me. They turned me on to the Beatles and early 70s popular music.  When I was five or six, I remember receiving my very first record, a 45 of Hey Jude. Then I just embraced music, especially in late middle school and high school, I listened to hundreds and hundreds of hours of music every month in high school. In grade school, I played drums and cymbals in the band, and then in middle school, my parents bought me a Ludwig drum set, and I had a band with friends playing popular music of the time, like Kiss. Then, the little stereo I had broke. It was an all-in-one AM/FM receiver with an 8-track on the front and a record player on top. My dad would normally just fix it, but in this case, he couldn’t. I had been driving my parents crazy with the drumming and he said “Why don’t you sell that stupid drum set and buy a real stereo,” and so I did that. I got a good amount of money for the drum kit and spent $670 on a Hi-Fi system.  It was 1977, so that was a pretty decent rig, especially for a 12-year-old, and then I was hooked! My interest in audio equipment grew from there. I designed and built my first speakers at 16, purposefully taking a woodwork class in high school to construct the cabinets. I even built my own crossovers.  I really loved the whole process, the concepts of engineering, industrial design, being able to style these things. That inspired me to go to college with the intent of starting a speaker business, and I tailored my coursework at UC Davis to loudspeaker applications. How did you get started in the business itself? Take us on your path to Theory Professional. I started my first commercial speaker company, Hales Design Group, in 1988, focusing on high-end audiophile products. During the 1990s, I gained notoriety in the audiophile segment and devoted thousands of hours to correlating measured data with perceived sound quality. Towards the late 90s, I got disillusioned with audiophile products and all the industry dogma, in general. Hi-Fi sound is small and polite. Many of the technologies used in Hi-Fi products, including the widely used dome tweeters are very inefficient and can’t convey the real power and dynamics of live music. This feeling of disillusionment led me to join QSC in 2000 as their first employee on the loudspeaker side, establishing their R&D department for speakers. I spent four years designing professional speakers for various applications, learning how to create speakers with exceptional dynamic range that also sounded like hi-fi speakers. This has been my unique value proposition for the last 25 years. This approach now underpins two businesses: Pro Audio Technology, which caters to high-end private screening rooms with commercial cinema-style speakers that offer hi-fi accuracy, and Theory Audio Design (Theory Professional), which extends this approach to broader residential, commercial, and professional applications. I am the owner and CEO of both companies. Theory Professional is renowned in the industry. In your viewpoint, what’s the main reason for that? Our primary strength is our ability to achieve exceptional levels of accuracy in speakers, including large-format sound reinforcement systems. Theory Professional offers a unique approach in the small-to-medium commercial installed sound and sound reinforcement segments. While other brands often replicate existing designs, our products are entirely different; they are made from aluminium, feature high-end proprietary transducers, which Celestion supplies, and boast unique, compact, and shallow form factors. This innovative product, combined with hi-fi sound quality and high output, alongside a focus on superior design, has been very well-received by the market. What do you believe your most innovative product or service is? Our general philosophy is to keep our product catalogue simple, which in our competitors, we find to be overly complicated with hundreds of similar products. We aim for a more streamlined and premium approach, similar to Porsche’s car philosophy of offering fewer, highly effective models. A specific example of this is our ic6 Acoustic Core, a six-inch ceiling speaker that can also function as a pendant loudspeaker or a landscape loudspeaker when mounted in appropriate enclosures. This standardisation simplifies inventory and maintenance for our customers, allowing a single part to serve multiple audio needs. Outside of your company, what do you think has been the single most important technological achievement in our industry? That’s a tough one, and normally, I spend more time talking about the absence of technological advancements in our industry, particularly in loudspeakers. I have a supercomputer in my pocket and we have artificial intelligence now, but some speaker brands are still making the same models that they introduced in the 1970s. So, on the loudspeaker side, there hasn’t been that much innovation. Expanding to our industry in general, I believe the most significant achievement has been the advent and refinement of Class D audio amplification. Class D amplifiers have benefitted the industry by becoming much more efficient, lighter, and smaller, significantly reducing the size and weight of equipment racks while increasing power output. Crucially, their performance is now on par with linear amplifiers. What is the accomplishment you’re most proud of? I am proud of helping QSC develop their corporate logo and industrial design language for loudspeakers, which became distinctive yet tasteful and are still in use today, 25 years later. We began with a goal of making QSC loudspeakers identifiable from across the room, and they still are. However, I am probably most proud of the conception and positive reception of Theory Professional as a brand. We set out to disrupt the status quo, and despite being a small team, we are executing at a very high level, leading to early success with high-end projects and rapid industry adoption. Can you talk about the culture of your organisation and how you like to lead? Theory Professional operates with a small group of highly effective and dedicated individuals. Our culture revolves around high performance; we are a team of smart, hardworking people striving to achieve significant goals. We value individuals who are naturally driven to work hard, accomplish great things, and gain satisfaction from their achievements. To put it more obnoxiously, I have a sign outside of my office that reads “No stupid people beyond this point,” but “We only like to hire smart people,” might be a more polite way to say it. How are you poised for the future? We believe our future lies primarily in the commercial install side of the business, where we have already achieved early success with significant projects. Theory is establishing itself as a recognised brand in the residential market and is quickly gaining traction commercially since introducing Theory Professional in 2023. As a smaller business, our resilience and ability to quickly adapt to industry changes and customer demands gives us an advantage over larger companies that might find it harder to pivot rapidly. Our strong customer relationships and reliance on referrals also position us for continued growth, as new client relationships often begin with recommendations. We started talking about your favourite album of all time, but what are you enjoying listening to these days? I listen to two main types of music. For relaxation, I often stream a playlist of slow classical music based on Erik Satie, it’s mostly music from the late 1800s Impressionist era, such as Claude Debussy. When not relaxing, I listen to a wide range of genres, from classical to metal. When I am not trying to relax, our team at Theory Professional has a playlist called “Ones We Really Like”, featuring songs across various decades and genres, including 1950s acoustic jazz, early rock and roll, Led Zeppelin, Cream, The Moody Blues, and 90s popular music. But my favourite band is Tool and if they come out with a new album then I’ll listen to that non-stop for a couple of months straight. I was on an airplane flying to China for the first production run of Theory products and their Fear Inoculum record had just been released. I put on my earbuds, pressed play and thought, “what is happening inside my head right now?” I was obsessed with that record because of the complexity, the intelligence, and the polyrhythms between the bandmates. So, until a new Tool album comes out, I’ll probably stay with the playlist.

Over half a century from its original filming, Pink Floyd’s iconic concert film, Live at Pompeii, has been digitally re-mastered in 4K with a new high-resolution, Dolby Atmos audio mix by Steven Wilson. Thanks to the meticulous restoration efforts of author and audio historian, Chris Hewitt of CH Vintage Audio, a once in a lifetime opportunity arose for attendees of the world premiere screening to experience the film’s soundtrack through Pink Floyd’s original analogue PA system used during their 1971 performance in the ancient Roman Amphitheatre. The WEM PA system, groundbreaking for its time, features period-authentic Celestion G12, G10, and MH1000 drivers.

Before we get into Live at Pompeii, tell us about your background. How did you get into audio?
I started listening to rock albums in grammar school at about 14 years old. I grew out my hair and they kicked me out, so at age 16 I started attending college in Rochdale, which is just outside of Manchester. I didn’t go to many lectures. I got involved in the student union and found my calling putting gigs on. I spent most of my time promoting bands, going on student demonstrations, and going to music festivals. The next thing you know, I found myself working as a road manager and sound engineer. Before I turned 17, I worked for my first festival in England with the Grateful Dead, and now I’m about to turn 71 and still doing it.

Today I own CH Vintage Audio. We have one of the largest collections of 1960s and 1970s sound equipment from brands like WEM, Vox, HH, Marshall, Shure, Martin, Fender, Music Man, Selmer and many others. We provide everything from PAs to vintage mixing desks, tape machines, rack effects, microphones, vintage radios and more. We rent these items out for film, tv, music video and recording sessions.

Who are some of the other bands that you worked with?
I did a very early Motörhead tour. This was back when Lemmy had no money and was always asking to borrow things off people. Everyone called him “Lemmy Fiver.” He was true to his name and that’s where it came from in the first place.

When the punk thing came along, I worked with the Sex Pistols, the Stranglers, the Adverts, Chelsea, a band that featured Billy Idol on guitar, the Damned, and the Dickies when they came over from America … just about everybody at the end of the prog rock era and the start of the punk era.

Now can you tell us about Pink Floyd and your relationship with the band and their music?
I think the first time I saw Pink Floyd was about 1969 at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. The show started with the stage in absolute darkness. They had a WEM PA and all you could see in the dim light was the little orange glow of the UV paint on WEM badges on the speaker cabinets. They also had a couple of H&H amplifiers which had green luminescent panels on them.

The sound coming from the stage was of someone frying bacon and eggs and pouring milk on cornflakes. The first five or ten minutes of the show was actually the road crew, cooking and eating breakfast on the stage in darkness…then the band came on stage performing the track, Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast. Sounds were panning all around the room, I was blown away.

After the show I bought their album Ummagumma. There’s a picture on the back of the record sleeve taken at Biggin Hill Airfield, just outside South London, where the road crew, their van, and all their gear is laid out on the tarmac. Apparently, it was inspired by the way that the U.S. Navy lay out their equipment on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier when they do a display. Ever since, it was my dream to be able to take a picture like that.

About five years later, it was 1975, I’d just got back from watching Pink Floyd at Knebworth. We had a van that we’d hired to go to the show and I thought “today’s a nice sunny afternoon, we’ll just grab all my PA gear and set it up on this car park and laid out in the same way as Ummagumma. The caretaker of the car park came out panicking because he thought we were going to hold an illegal concert, but obviously we were just doing a photo shoot. It all started from that point, but never did I imagine where it would end up.

That’s a great segue to Live at Pompeii. Tell us about your inspiration to pair Pink Floyd’s original concert PA with the film.

I’d written four books on the history of live sound and Pink Floyd features prominently within them. We did a Hi-Fi show last year and were playing Floyd music through the Dark Side of the Moon PA and mixing desk. A guy approached me who had the books and asked if I still owned the Pompeii PA. He collects and restores vintage cinema equipment and told me he had a friend who owned a vintage cinema. He suggested that it might be cool if they tried to acquire an original cut of the film and then we could bring everything together.

This past February, I was in Abbey Road, Studio 2, filming a reinstallation of some 60s Beatles gear that I owned, when he rang me and said, “We may have found the 35mm film.” That was exciting, but then, two weeks later, he rang again to tell me that Stephen Wilson from Porcupine Tree had just remixed the Pompeii soundtrack, and it was finally coming out as an album. And he asked, “Do you want to use Pink Floyd’s actual sound system at the world premiere?” And that’s just how it happened.

How did you come to acquire the PA?
I started off by buying six WEM Audio Masters that belonged to Pink Floyd, five working and one non-working. Once you start to own a little bit of Pink Floyd gear, other people come out of the woodwork and say “I’ve got this. I’ve got that. Do you want this?” It just grew from there.

The problem now is I’ve got people offering me stuff that was used on the Division Bell tour that’s been stored in a warehouse for 30 years and asking for 100 grand because it was used by Pink Floyd once! [laughs]. Those are just a collection of wooden boxes with speakers in them, where on the other hand their PAs for Pompeii and the Dark Side of the Moon were unique.

What Pink Floyd was doing with live sound back then was groundbreaking, but as time progressed, the PAs that they used were great, but became fairly standard technology for the time. I’m just talking about their PAs here. Their concerts, whether it’s Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, or Nick Mason, always push the boundaries and always will.

Can you tell me specifics about the PA?
The Live at Pompeii PA was created by WEM, Watkins Electric Music, based in the U.K. WEM was one of the first companies to develop a product line dedicated to large scale concert sound reinforcement. One of the hallmarks of the WEM sound, and this PA was no different, was their choice of Celestion drivers for many of their models.

The Pompeii PA is specifically configured with each side (left and right stacks) comprised of 10 SL100 slave amps, six WEM 4 x12 PA columns with Celestion and Goodmans 12in speakers, two WEM 2 x 12 PA columns with Celestion 12in, a WEM Festival stack consisting of 2 x15in Celestion bass unit, 4 x 12in Celestion lower mid, 6 x10in Celestion cone speaker upper mid horns. Additional pressure unit horns cabinets comprised a four-way Celestion MH1000 and a three-way vertical MH1000 horn box, plus additional Vitavox 15 cell multicell horns.

The Celestion 12in and 10in cone speakers used were new designs, G12s and G10s, that were built using different cones and suspensions than the speakers that Celestion had previously been making for guitar amps. The MH1000 was a midrange compression driver developed by Les Ward.

Some of the components needed repair, can you talk about the restoration?
With the Pompeii PA, it’s all the actual speakers. Some Celestion 10s in the festival stats and the 12-inch Celestion G12s in the columns were blown. I just used off-the-shelf components. I’ve got quite a lot of Celestion drivers, even rare ones, some going back to the pre-ROLA time. We re-coned the speakers and were ready to go.

The mixing desk was more involved. We had to recreate it because it had been destroyed and we were fortunate to get Andy Bereza involved. He designed the original desk for Pink Floyd and later went on to found Allen & Heath. Andy still had all the original measurements and schematics for the mixer. Originally, we made a replica “dummy” mixing desk with 28-channels, but only two working ones. When Allen & Heath caught wind of what we’d done, they were so impressed, they offered to finish the job and turn it into a fully featured, working analogue desk with all the same components.

So, even though the original mixer got destroyed, it’s basically the same mixer that was used for Live at Pompeii and the Dark Side of the Moon tours, all the way up to the Wish You Were Here tour when it was retired.

Can you tell us what made this PA special?

Let’s start with the sound. We took the Pompeii PA into the cinema and their audio guy at first just wanted to give us a stereo feed and told us not to “play it too loud,” like he thought what we were doing was just a gimmick or a novelty. He went on to talk about his “state-of-the-art Dolby Atmos system, with fantastic sub-bass units, a digital desk, digital amplifiers, and racks of processors…” I listened and then politely asked “When I’ve plugged mine in will you at least hear it to see how it sounds?” Guess what? As soon as we turned the original Pompeii PA on, he changed his tune and said “Oh! We won’t use much of the cinema sound tonight other than for the surround channels. Your analogue PA sounds so much better.”

Technically, the special thing about the Pompeii system is that all the speakers are running full range. There are no electronic crossovers, because for the most part, they hadn’t been invented yet. Crossovers didn’t come into the mix until the Dark Side of The Moon Tour. We take a stereo feed from the soundtrack and everything on the same channel gets the same signal. The only thing approaching a crossover on the entire system are two 2.o uf capacitors on the positive leg of the cable on the horn drivers. Everything else, the 15s, 12s, and 10s, even the amps, all get the same signal.

The other thing I think that made the Live at Pompeii PA and WEM speakers in general are the fact that they used Celestion which are English speaker drivers. Speakers made in England sound different from anywhere else in the world, because English speakers are made in damp places. The Celestion drivers in this PA were made in East Anglia, Ipswich, whereas American speakers at the time were made in sunny California. In England, where it rains all the time and the humidity is so different, you have a “damp” cone when you manufacture the speaker and you get a totally different sound. I swear you can hear it in the tone.

Can you talk about the screenings? How were the results?
We did the world premiere of the film with the Pompeii PA at the Parkway Cinema in Barnsley, of all places, which is in the outback of Yorkshire. The cinema owner prides himself on having really good vintage projection equipment. The combination of the original analogue sound equipment in a vintage cinema was really something special. During an average showing they get about 20 people on any given night. We sold out the theatre with about 200 people, including three guys who’d driven from the south of France just to hear the Pompeii PA. They were planning to sleep in their car until I invited them back to my house.

And the results… Never in my life have I heard a sound system get a standing ovation before, but there were a lot of audio engineers and musicians in attendance. So many people in audio have grown up with Pink Floyd, I think if you put on a Pink Floyd whatever, you’ll always find that they turn out. I heard feedback like “The sound was amazing for such an early PA rig, loud but with crystal clear detail.” But the general consensus was that it was “a unique experience” and “felt so authentic getting to hear Pink Floyd’s Pompeii performances through the actual gear they had originally performed with.”

Just this week SONY Music, who now holds the rights to all of Pink Floyd’s music, sent me the new Live at Pompeii LP and Blu-Ray at the instruction of Nick Mason. I received a compliment slip from SONY to tell me I’m doing such a great job with this Pompeii PA.

What are you working on next? Do you have any other grand ideas that you’re going to tackle?
We’ve got two dates in June where we’ll be playing Live at Pompeii through the system again. We’re showing the system again at Nick Mason’s house on the 7th and 8th of June in Wiltshire, the Northwest Hi-Fi show in Cheshire, on the 20th and 21st of June, and PLASA, London Olympia the 7th through 9th of September 2025.

I also own David Bowie’s 1972-73 Ziggy Stardust PA that he toured the world with and Led Zeppelin’s 1970 PA. Like the Pompeii PA, this is the authentic PA equipment that they toured with, not just identical components. I’m currently getting those into fully working condition, then I want to try and get Robert Plant to perform and do some Bowie-themed events as well.

There was a guy from Essex who went all over America and acquired equipment that was used by Buddy Holly and Elvis. I bought it all… late 50s, early 60s stuff… Ampex tape machines, Altec speakers, RCA microphones and now I’m now working on a recreation of Sun Studio in England. We’re also recreating an Abbey Road control room, because I own most of the gear that all the Beatles songs were recorded and mixed on.

 

Thomann Music, one of the largest music retailers in the world, has been a family business since its founding just over 70 years ago in 1954. Located in the small village of Treppendorf, Germany, the company has grown to become a global leader in the music retail industry, with over 1,800 employees and a thriving online business. In an exclusive interview CEO Hans Thomann shared insights into his journey in the music retail business, the company’s phenomenal growth, the secrets to their customer-centric approach, and his vision for the future.

What is your favourite album of all time and why?

That’s tough to answer. My music tastes could be best described as an all-arounder, so my favourite album will change depending on my mood. I listen to everything from classical to contemporary rock.

How did you get your start in the music retail business?

In 1954, my father founded the music shop that would become today’s Thomann in Treppendorf. That’s part of the village of Brugebach in Bavaria, Germany.

Don’t tell the Labour Standards Office, but I started “working” in the shop when I was just a kid. I really loved working in the shop with my father and with great pride, remember selling my first instrument around the age of seven or eight.

Things got even more interesting for me during my formative years as a teenager and young adult. There was so much innovation in the MI space, with whole new classes of electric instruments, synthesizers, PA gear, and more coming onto the market. What an exciting time to be involved in the industry!

Our shop in Bavaria was far from the big cities. By keeping my fingers on the pulse of both local tastes and industry developments, I had a knack for connecting our customers with the instruments that they loved…I think my late father would agree. In 1990 I took over the company as CEO and I am still doing it today.

How did your background influence your job today and the company overall?

The two key points are: I come from a musical family and also worked for and now lead the family business.

My father’s great passion for music was the prime motivation that led to him start the shop. He had strayed from the path that my grandfather, a farmer, had laid out for him. He worked hard to become a musician, and after finding fulfillment in being a musician first, he then found fulfillment by providing musical instruments to fellow musicians in the region.

Growing up under the strong example that my father set, this passion for music is something that I, along with my brother and sisters inherited. We keep it alive within the family and within the company.

Most people who work at Thomann are musicians; they know what they’re talking about because they truly understand and care for our customers.

Secondly, I believe that when you’re in charge of a family business that makes you profoundly identify with and care about your job. That’s because you’re not a hired hand, you’re continuing a legacy. You see your staff as family and it’s easy to feel responsible for them.

Even when we became a very large business, I always knew it was possible to stay a family company. I never wanted outside investors who would skim the cream of our profits off the top while not having any investment in the industry beyond its financial aspects.

I am proud that three generations of my family work in the company right now and hopefully Thomann family members will be a part of the company forever.

You and your company are legends in the industry, what do you feel is the main reason for that?

We love music. Just like when my father started the company, music is our passion. I truly believe it is as simple as that.

Sure, we sell instruments, but we also know what those instruments and music can truly mean to people. It’s always been more important to us that our customers get the instrument that they really need and which will truly make them happy, rather than the one with the highest profit margin.

We’ve always wanted to be more than just another store, and we’ve done that by providing things like money-back guarantees and unparalleled after-sales service. And we support our customer’s growth by providing online content on all major social media channels and entire web portals devoted to musicians’ concerns and interests.

What do you think has been the single most important technological achievement in our industry?

For us as retailers, this has to be the Internet. Of course, there have been revolutionary developments within instrument categories, and even entirely new classes of instruments or other goods – electronics and software, to name just two. But the one thing that has completely revolutionized the world of retail is “online”. This is how we communicate with the vast majority of our customers; this is where our sales happen. We have a huge team that takes care of every aspect of our online store and social media communications, and our pioneering work in this area is frequently recognized in the industry.

When I took the helm at Thomann, I had the good luck of having a team that was confident that the Internet would offer real advantages for retailers. This was early on, but we were already doing a significant mail-order business, and that put us ahead of our competition as far as imagining how the retail landscape could extend beyond the brick-and-mortar walls of our shop.

We realized that as a small music store in the countryside, we couldn’t rely on customers coming to us, and the only way to grow was to take steps to go out and find them. Our competitors and even some of my friends thought I was certifiably mad when we started sending our “Hot Deals” catalogues to customers. Their belief at the time was “No one is going to buy something as personal as an instrument by mail,” they’d say as much. Well, look at where we are today!

So, the jump into online sales was not as much of a conceptual challenge for us as it was for other retailers. Of course, it was a new sales channel, but we could easily adapt to it by doing what we were already doing in catalogue form.

Luckily, everyone on our marketing and sales team were on the same page, unlike in other retail companies. There were no fights between old-guard traditionalists and “upstarts” and we ran both catalogue and online sales side-by-side for many years.

I’m convinced that the next big thing will be AI, of course, and I am confident that we are in a good position to use it in ways that benefit our customers, too.

What accomplishment are you most proud of?

I am very proud that I have continued and built upon my father’s legacy. The music retail business, of course, has grown to dimensions my father would never have thought possible – and to be honest, I didn’t foresee it in the early 1990s, either. But the Hans Thomann Foundation, which I launched in 2012, is how I most feel I am fulfilling my father’s legacy.

I spoke earlier about my father’s passion for music and how his dreams were not aligned with what his father had in mind for him. My father had to make his way in music with barely any familial support. He scrimped and scrounged to pay for music lessons, instruments…really, everything himself.

Many young people find themselves in similar situations to my father, especially those from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. Many young people don’t even have the chance to encounter the joy that music can make you feel in their kindergartens and schools anymore. The Hans Thomann Foundation supports a wide variety of projects and scholarships that make music accessible to more people, and I think my father would be proud.

Tell us about Thomann’s company culture and your philosophy in leading the team.

In many ways, as we’ve grown, we’ve still managed to keep the virtues of a small company. We’ve always been on a first-name basis at Thomann. To this day, everyone still calls me “Hans”, and they know they can get in touch with me directly if they have an issue. This is quite unusual in Germany, where the professional world is still more formal.

Of course, with the company being so much bigger now – our staff totals about 1,800 – we’ve put in more formal channels of communication with a team of ombudspeople, but I am still available to everyone.

Plus, our hierarchies are still comparatively flat, which improves communication between staff members at every level of the organization and me.

Lastly, we believe that happy employees make for happy customers and that is one of our key principles. To further this end, we provide our people with a range of benefits, such as discounted meals in the on-campus restaurant, a gym, gaming rooms, a quiet zone for break times, a staff kitchen and dining room, and many others. We also put on events including a Summer family day and a legendary Christmas bash.

How is Thomann poised for the future?

This is a very current topic for me. I am getting on in years and I’ve been thinking about how we can ensure that the Thomann spirit will continue even when myself and the others who’ve built the company from the ground up no longer work here.

Step one was to put in place a strong team of executives so that everything doesn’t depend on a single person. To that effect, we introduced a C-level team of executives a few years ago who oversee the general responsibility of large divisions of the business – Operations, Marketing, Logistics, HR, and so on.

Just this year, I’ve set up a foundation that is now essentially the sole owner of Musikhaus Thomann. I’ve transferred almost all of my shares in the company to the foundation. The foundation’s charter specifies that in the future the company must be run along such lines that the spirit of Thomann continues.

What music are you enjoying these days?

As I mentioned, my taste is very broad, but these days I’m finding myself listening to blues and rock more than any other genres.

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25 years ago, Loudspeakers Plus found a unique niche for themselves, supplying music dealers all over the U.S. with loudspeaker components. At the time, there were few outlets for dealers to buy replacement and repair parts, and often major manufacturers would not stock these items. Loudspeakers Plus became the “one-stop shop” that supported all the major loudspeaker brands so dealers could quickly and easily solve customer repair and replacement issues. Today, Loudspeakers Plus stocks over 95% of the speakers, high-frequency drivers, replacement parts, and components for virtually any major manufacturer that matters.

Founder and CEO Jay Peabody says that their formula for success is simple “Give every customer the right product at the right price.” And his team’s dedication and years of experience ensure they will get exactly what they need when they need it. We spoke with Jay about the origins of Loudspeakers Plus, the importance of providing great customer service, his thoughts about advances in the speaker industry, and more.

What is your favorite album of all time and why?
That’s tough, I don’t think I could pick just one. My parents exposed me to a lot of different kinds of music. Before I was 10 years old, I had seen concerts by the Monkeys, Johnny Cash, and Andres Segovia. It was an amazing, wide range of music. As I was coming of age in the 70s, I gravitated towards heavier music like Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, and Rush. But if I have to pick one, it would probably be Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy.
Great choice. Now, what first got you started in the audio industry?
I took kind of a convoluted path. When I left college, I had a degree in mass communications. I started working for my father’s promotional tech writing agency. I was writing copy and supervising product photography and things like that, but at the same time, I was an aspiring professional musician. I played bass guitar and sang background vocals. So, I was also a touring and recording artist for a few years. After some time, I realized that playing music probably wasn’t going to turn out the way I wanted it. My dad had a client in the music industry, and I started working for them. They made microphone connectors of all things. That snowballed into getting into the speaker business, and in 1999, I started my own company.

Was that Loudspeakers Plus? Can you tell us more about how it started?
Yes, it was. When I started with this other company, I moved up in the ranks and then I moved to another company and became a general manager, but the corporate thing didn’t work well for my personality, so I decided to do my own thing and just focus on speaker products. I took a chance with my savings and it seems to have turned out pretty well…at least I’ve been happy with it. Now we’ve been in business for 25 years. I must be doing something right. [Laughs]

Tell us about Loudspeakers Plus? We’d like to hear about both your business and the customers that you serve.
If you’re a speaker designer or small speaker builder, if you’re an artist or a musician, if you‘re a DJ or a PA company, or working on club, school, or corporate installs Loudspeakers Plus will not only provide you the original speaker parts that you need to design or build something, but also help replace and service them to get up and running fast. If we can’t help you, we’ll direct you to who you need to speak with.

It doesn’t matter what brand, people call us every day for help with JBL, EV, Mackie, and EAW products, to name a few. Those companies are great but contacting them is not the most efficient way for a customer to get support when all they need to do is replace one speaker driver. That’s where we step in. Basically, much of our business is supporting products that are out there to keep them going so customers don’t have to just throw them away when a part is damaged.
We don’t just do one-offs though; we’ll sell up to 50-70 speakers at a time. That’s the range where we operate.

How do you feel your background influenced your decision to do this, and how does your background influence the company overall?
Product-wise, I already understood what I was selling because they were the products that I used as a musician, speakers, so that was a no-brainer. One side of the business is understanding what it is that you’re selling. The other side is the attitude of how you approach people. Partnering with them and helping them solve problems has turned out to be the most successful part of our business. Over time we develop relationships where people can really count on us.

There’s no substitute for great customer service.
Yes, but it’s the kind of thing that you don’t see as often as you used to, especially with large corporations. As we go into the digital age, we’re less likely to connect human to human and engage with each other. Hopefully, as we continue to move forward, we’ll go back in the direction where we did have that more personal connection.
Where we’re a small business, when you call Loudspeakers Plus, you’re not talking to an endless phone tree or automated people who just push numbers, take orders, read from a script, and don’t know what they’re talking about. If I need something to help a customer, I can go back to the warehouse to find what they need or to the shipping department to send them what they need. I’ve done that from the beginning, so I know every aspect of the business. In fact, everyone in our company can be consulted to a point and do other things, outside of their job description to help customers, whatever it takes.

You and your company are well-known and well-respected in the industry. In your viewpoint, what’s the main reason for that?
In our small industry, word gets around and reputation is everything. If you talk to our customers, they’ll tell you that we help them, provide answers, give them advice, and solve problems quickly. We’ve done a great job of that, and I think our longevity reflects it.

What would you say the most important technological advancement has been in our industry?
There have been so many advancements, and it seems every few years those things are trumped by something better. I never thought I’d see wireless technology get to the point that it’s at as quickly as it has. I’m not just talking about wireless itself, but the integration of high-definition audio and acoustics with wireless technology. That doesn’t affect speakers as much as it does performance and musical instruments.We deal primarily with speaker components and it’s interesting to see their evolution over the past 150 years or so since the first speaker was built. The basic physics of speakers hasn’t changed much, but the technology and materials, and the understanding of acoustics and acoustic design have changed considerably. Those advancements have made speakers basically unrecognizable from products even 20 or 30 years ago, let alone 100 years ago.
So, the most significant innovations on the speaker side of the business have been in the acoustic design of speaker cabinets. Also using advanced materials like neodymium magnets which provide high power while being very lightweight. Those in my opinion, are the big innovations.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?
Our customers trust and respect us. I take great pride in that because we’ve built relationships where people can rely on us. I’m not just talking about when they need something in an emergency. Of course, we come through for them in those moments, but I’m also talking about the day-to-day when they are planning their business. Whether they’re doing a club install or getting a back line ready for a tour, they know who to call.
Can you tell me about your company culture and your philosophy for leading the team?
My philosophy is when someone asks you if you can do something, you’ll say ‘Yes, I can do it.’ If you can’t do it personally, you’ll talk to another team member, and they’ll help you. As a small business, we cross-train and can do much of each other’s jobs. Everyone here at Loudspeakers Plus can make a product recommendation or ship a box. Our customers count on that. It’s just whatever it takes for the customer at the time.

How are you poised for the future?
That’s a tough one. I never would have thought or predicted what we see today, even 10 years ago. We started the business in 1999, and things have changed in the world for everyone, in every aspect, not just our industry.

We think as a small business, our resiliency and ability to pivot and do things is how we are poised for the future. I’d like to think that we have an advantage over larger companies because it’s hard to stop a loaded train when it’s moving fast. But if you’re in a sports car, you can stop quickly and turn if you need to. That’s kind of a weird analogy, but the big players in our industry try to plan years in advance, and put so much energy into their focus on innovations. Because of that, they simply can’t switch and pivot like a small company like us. When the changes come, we can change quickly with them.
There’s no doubt that the customer relationships that we’ve built also have us prepared us for the future. One of the most important ways we grow our business is by referral. I can’t tell you how many phone calls we get every week that start with “I talked to someone and they said you could help…” In most cases, this starts a relationship that we’ll have for years to come.

What music are you listening to these days?
My musical tastes have matured in a lot of ways since I was playing bass in a metal band. I’ll listen to Eminem. I’ll listen to Megadeth. I’ll listen to yacht rock. I’ll listen to Paganini, and jazz, too. I’ve been listening to Charlie Parker and I’m reading a biography on him right now. I’ll even listen to house music. It runs the gamut.
Is there anything else you want to add?
I’ve had a long and wonderful relationship with Celestion and I have to say the whole 100th anniversary celebration with them at NAMM was just a total success. It was fantastic to get together with everybody and that night it wasn’t about business. We’ve already done the work to be successful and it was just about celebrating how we got to where we are through working together. My wife was with me, and it was such a feel-good thing. It’s one of those times I’ll think back on and fondly remember.

On the occasion of our 100^th anniversary, A Century of Sound: The Story of Celestion is a detailed and engrossing history that tells how Celestion grew from a company building radiograms in a tiny factory in South-West London to become the internationally renowned loudspeaker brand it is today.

Covering 226 pages, this hard backed volume is packed with photographs, illustrations and marketing materials that bring to life a journey spanning the advent of radio broadcasting through to the emergence of guitar speaker digital impulse responses, taking in the pivotal roles that Celestion has played in early home entertainment, the invention of speakers specifically for the guitar amplifier, the early days of pro PA systems, the golden age of home HiFi and the development of high-performance sound reinforcement.

Written by our own John Paice with contributions from Jerry Gilbert and long-term Celestion aficionado and guitar legend Brian May, A Century of Sound: The Story of Celestion is a must-read for all fans of audio technology and offers much to a wider audience interested in 20^th Century British social history, and the many twists and turns that occur along the way to attaining global brand recognition.

A Century of Sound: The Story of Celestion is available to buy now from selected on-line retailers.

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