[ 56 ]viewfromthe TOP
Building A SolidFoundation
ISOACOUSTICS PRESIDENT,DAVE MORRISONBY KELLEIGH WELCH

Since the introduction of its first product, the ISO-L8R155, at
Winter NAMM 2012, the Ontario-based company IsoAcoustics
has continued to reinvent the concept of the audio speakerstand, providing a series of unique products that help studios
improve the sound quality of their speakers.
At the helm of this bourgeoning
company is president Dave Morrison,
who patented his isolating stands in2010 after he was inspired to finda solution to isolate and control aspeaker system while working on thedesign team for a 1.72-million squarefoot broadcast center for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
“I worked for the CBC for 20years in Toronto and had a senior rolein the design team for the Broadcasting Center,” Morrison said. “Thiswas a very technical building withspecialized spaces constructed on
floating floors and maintaining thehighest standards for acoustic isolation and treatment. A feature of thisbuilding that often surprises people
is the fact that the entire building isbuilt upon 3,000 isolation pads located on bedrock, four floors below[evaluation carried out by the National Research Council (NRC) in Ottawa, and I made arrangements tobring the test equipment home when
I received these speakers, and thefounder and designer coincidentallycame to the studio we were working
in and he offered to join me in myset-up exercise at my home,” Morrison said.
Over that evening, Morrison said
he learned about the challenges designers face when setting up speakers, including edge reflections andcrossovers, and how some designers
set up their studios, home sound systems or commercial systems to bestproject the sound. Over the next few
years, Morrison took this knowledge
and started working with numerous
design concepts and materials to finda way to address these issues.

“The audio industry is such a blend oftechnology and artistic elements; thatmakes it so exciting, and to see theawareness and enthusiasm growing
for our products in new countries
around the globe is very rewarding.”
Dave Morrison

grade. When you think of it, the challenge goes beyond carrying the building, equipment, people and snow on
the roof on these pads…all the exterior walls below grade have to holdback the surrounding earth and yet
remain isolated from the entire structure as well.”Taking this concept of isolation,
Morrison developed a stand for studio speakers after he realized thatmany studios were not achieving theirspeakers’ full potential based on setup alone.
“I bought a pair of speakers thatcame out of the top of the CBC’s]“As I learned more about the reactance of the isolators and carriedout tests at the NRC, I went on topatent the system incorporated in theIsoAcoustics products today,” he explained. “In 2010, two of the largest manufacturers of studio monitors
were interested in licensing these designs, but we decided to do it on ourown, and so IsoAcoustics was born.”
The first product from IsoAcoustics was introduced in 2012 at Winter NAMM, and is designed for 5”
to 7” studio monitors. IsoAcostics
introduced its next product, the ISOL8R200 for larger studio monitors

Dave Morrison, President, IsoAcoustics

at AES in October 2012. Since then,the company has released the ISOL8R130, the ISO-L8R430 for larger
horizontal studio monitors and theISO-L8R200Sub for subwoofers.
As the company’s president since
its inception, Morrison credits his
background in business to the successof the company so far.
“My years of experience andpassion in this design and concept
has certainly been the backbone to
IsoAcoustics’ development and business strategy. I have also worked asa business consultant for a numberof large multi-national corporations,so I bring a business perspective tocompliment the ‘inventor,’” he said.
“The audio industry is such a blendof technology and artistic elements;that makes it so exciting, and to see
the awareness and enthusiasm growing for our products in new countries
around the globe is very rewarding.”
IsoAcoustics has two warehouses near Chicago and Toronto, which
distribute to the U.S. and Canadianmarkets. Morrison said the company
has also established a relationshipwith international partners to provide
direct distribution services to another25 countries around the world.
“The U.S., U.K. and Japan are
our strongest markets right now and
we will continue to grow quickly inthem,” Morrison said. “As we only
established distribution in Europe inrecent months, we’re expecting salesin these countries to grow very quickly as well. We will continue to expand

into other countries, but only where
we feel we are working with the rightpartners.”
Since the company is still so new,Morrison said his goal is to continue
to expand on the ISO-L8R430 andprovide stands for guitar and bass
amplifiers in the future.
“Our products are unique andmake a significant difference in soundclarity and quality. As audio professionals and enthusiasts become moreaware of our products and the benefits, our customer base will continue
to grow,” Morrison said. “We are asmall company that can quickly develop and implement new ideas. We
see the road ahead as a series of stepping stones; that systematically drives
our growth and directs our marketstrategies. We will continue to develop strong relationships and respondto what we perceive to be new andgrowing opportunities.”

IsoAcoustics
www.isoacoustics.com

THERE’S MORE  Watch
Dave Morrison demo
IsoAcoustics’ monitor stands at
Metalworks Studio in Toronto at
prosoundnetwork.com/sept2013.

[ September 2013 ]