ProFile
Dave Morrison
By Andrew King

“I’ve had a number of careers over the years,” begins
Dave Morrison, President and Founder of IsoAcoustics Inc., before delving into his professional history.
Having just recently hit the market with the ISO-L8R
speaker stands, already amassing acclaim across theindustry, he and the IsoAcoustics team are prepared for a busy
but productive 2012.
Growing up in and around Toronto and currently residingin the city’s suburb of Markham, Morrison began his career inaudio at the CBC in Toronto. The first 10 years of his 20-year stintwere spent working through a contractor for the Engineering
Headquarters Building Design and Construction group, building
and renovating radio and television studios, master controls, postsuites, and other support facilities in most of the broadcaster’s
23 technical facilities around the city. In the late ‘80s, he washired on in a senior role to work on the design team for the CBC’sBroadcasting Centre project.
When the building was commissioned, it was the world’s largest multimedia centre, meaning great care was taken to retain
the acoustic properties of the many technical spaces. After ashort stint managing the electrical section in operations, Morrison transferred to a management role in the CBC’s data centre,
overseeing IT projects and business systems.
He left the CBC and formed his own firm, D Morrison Consulting, managing the implementation of business systems for
multi-national corporations across North America and overseas
into the UK, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Asia. During this time
he was simultaneously working on the development of a speakerstand that would become the ISO-L8R, eventually contracting
Spark Innovations to work with him on the design and patentfilings. “I was aware of the National Research Council in Ottawa
from my years at the CBC, and went there to carry out testing andbetter understand how the design was working,” he recounts. It
must’ve been working well, because once the design had comeinto fruition, Morrison had offers from two major American studio
monitor manufacturers to produce it themselves under license,
but Morrison opted to form IsoAcoustics and take on the challenge of production and distribution himself.
Music has long been a hobby for Morrison, who was elated
when he first began working in radio and television. “My livingroom and dining room have been turned into a studio and test
lab over the years,” he shares,“and I’m often working into the earlyhours of the morning.” Other passions include playing the guitar
and recording music, as well as a fondness for Formula 1 racing– “especially the technology side,” he adds. He owns a 1,700cc
motorcycle that he’s aching to get back on the road come thebetter weather and some sports cars that he likes to take out on
the track when he’s able. “I used to race formula cars at Mosportand Shannonville,” he adds, “so I still have a bit of the racing bug.”As for the speaker stands in particular, Morrison’s interest in
the field was sparked in the '80s when he brought home his first

set of high-end speakers. “Recognizing the influence of the PIF
principles (placement, isolation, and focus) lead to this pursuitof an adjustable speaker stand system,” he says. “As the isolation
was further developed (on the product), we learned how to tune
it to maintain truer sound.” He says he’s always seen speakersystems as “living entities” that require proper installation andupkeep to breathe and provide the most accurate sound reproduction possible.
“I love the passion in this industry and the natural interaction between the technical and creative aspects,” Morrison says
about the audio community at large. “I also really enjoy seeing
the reaction people have when they hear what a profound difference our stands make when they hear them for the first time.
Whether we’re in a professional studio, at a trade show, or in the
pro audio section of a music store, the reactions are generally
the same.” Of course, that relates to his biggest ongoing professional challenge: getting people to recognize the acoustic merits
IsoAcoustics has to offer.
Throughout the coming year, though, Morrison and IsoAcoustics will be facing that challenge head-on, looking to establish
more connections at the upcoming Musikmesse in Frankfurt,
where the company is planning to meet with distributors andmajor manufacturers about European and Asian distribution, andThe PAL Show in Toronto. The company is also working to have its
ISO-L8R200 available come the summer. “We’ll then be following
up with the development of other products based on the same
patented design concept,” he says.
Should these future products boast even a fraction of thepotential already shown by the company’s flagship model, it’s
likely Morrison and IsoAcoustics will become familiar fixtures ofCanada’s pro audio industry in the near future.

Andrew King is the Editor of Professional Sound.
20 Professional Sound