User:Redcoates7/Ken Kantor

Kenneth L. Kantor

Ken Kantor is an audio designer and businessman who has helped shape the modern loudspeaker industry through a series of innovative products and technologies.

Kantor's interest in audio began at an early age, and he credits his father's choice of the AR-3 acoustic suspension loudspeaker with his first exposure to both stereo and powerful, undistorted bass. As he writes in the May 1997 issue of Audio magazine "The days of the dinospeaker were clearly numbered."

Kantor followed his love of sound to MIT, where he earned first a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (with a Minor in Music) in 1979, and then a Masters in the new Center for the Advanced Visual Studies. He stayed on at MIT until 1983 thanks to a Fellowship at the Center, performing graduate level teaching and research in art and media technology.

After leaving academia for the corporate world, Ken used his classical engineergin training to bring unique insights into the worlds of business and marketing. He has been profiled in the New York Times, been a guest on multiple radio and television venues and has appeared in dozens of interviews from Forbes to Rolling Stone.

Of particular interest to Kantor is psychoacoustics (the human perception of sound) which he studied at MIT, and this has become the underpinning for the innovative design work he has done for several companies.

Career Highlights

Acoustic Research Ken was Director of Advanced R&D beginning in 1983 for what was at the time the world’s largest loudspeaker manufacturer. While at AR, he introduced a number of innovative products including the Adaptive Digital Signal Processor(the world's first DSP room correction system), and the first psycho-acoustically enhanced loudspeaker system, the Magic Speaker.

NHT Co- founder and EVP of the highly successful loudspeaker company formed in 1986. Ken played a key role in formulation of the business, marketing and product development efforts. Innovations included Focused Image Geometry, the fundamental psycho-acoustic technology on which NHT founded. Additional designs include the SuperZero, the first affordable, highend mini-speaker, the industries first complete, matched home theater system, and a patented technology for in-ceiling loudspeakers which dramatically improved off-axis frequency response. NHT was sold to International Jensen in 1990, Ken was promoted to VP of Technology for the corporation where he initiated further patents in DSP and acoustics and aided the corporation in a successful IPO.

Tymphany Corporation Ken was a founder, CTO and Senior Research Fellow for this corporation. His principal invention was for a unique driver design (patents? Product name) that solved performance issues from small form factor speakers targeted at the oem car and television markets. Ken assisted in the acquistion of Danish Sound Technologies, the largest loudspeaker component manufacturer in Europe.

ZT Amplifiers Kantor is currently serving as founder and president of this musical instrument amplifier company, who is targeting a new generation of musicians worldwide. In many ways, the culmination of his many years of audio engineering experience, ZT uses proprietary DSP and amplifier technologies to deliver very high output from very small, affordable products.

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