Mark Levinson is a renowned audio engineer and entrepreneur who has advanced the state of the art in audio for more than 50 years. He is best known as the founder of high-end audio and premium car sound, as well as for creating the iconic audio brands “Mark Levinson,” “Cello, Ltd.” and “Red Rose Music,” which introduced new levels of excellence and performance in the industry. Levinson continues pushing the boundaries of audio technology and revolutionizing how people experience sound.
Mark Levinson’s new company is Daniel Hertz. Personally designed by Levinson, Daniel Hertz is introducing next-generation Wi-Fi speakers that leverage innovations like gallium nitride (GaN) technology that shatter traditional audio barriers in sound quality, size, weight and cost. GaN Systems conducted a Q&A with Levinson to talk about significant developments in audio—past, present and future.
Mark Levinson, founder, Daniel Hertz (Source: Daniel Hertz)
GaN Systems: How has the audio industry evolved, and how have you helped shape it?
Mark Levinson: From the beginning of the 20th century to the 1970s, audio technology evolved dramatically, from vacuum tubes to transistors to integrated circuits. Some audio historians consider the 1950s and 1960s the “Golden Age” of American hi-fi. Companies like Dynaco, Fisher, Scott, McIntosh and Marantz made great products that ushered in better sound quality and power output and allowed speakers and amplifiers that started the residential audio business.
By the late 1960s, mass-market offerings from the electronics industry took over. While this brought affordable audio to millions, it compromised performance and created a void for discerning music lovers.
In the 1960s, I was a young musician passionate about music, music reproduction and artisanal craft. I could play with some of the world’s best jazz musicians—like Sonny Rollins [and] Paul Bley—so I knew the joy of pure, live music. Wanting to replicate that sound and emotion, at age 26, I started Mark Levinson Audio Systems to design and build audio equipment with exceptional performance, quality and beauty.
We built the stage mixer used at the Woodstock Music Festival and then set out to create no-compromise audio-playback equipment. I was fortunate to have Richard Burwen as a mentor, who taught me never to compromise engineering. Our LNP-2 Preamplifier started the “high-end audio” industry.
In the late 1970s, digital audio formats were introduced, emerging as the standard for all consumer and professional audio applications. Digital audio offers many conveniences and advantages, but with serious disadvantages. This is a critical factor in the future of audio.
Daniel Hertz has uncovered the causes of substandard digital sound, developed methods to measure them and created a solution, now a patent-pending technology called Daniel Hertz C Wave, which is being introduced through Daniel Hertz products and licensing. Daniel Hertz technologies deliver the sound and feeling of pure analog audio from standard digital formats, including streaming.
The industry is limited by available technology, which is in general circa 1970s. Daniel Hertz has developed new implementations for semiconductors, software, electronics architectures and speakers that take audio to the next level with superior sound quality and advantages including C Wave. C Wave delivers the sound and feeling of pure analog audio from standard digital formats, including streaming.
GaN Systems: What challenges have held the audio industry back?
Levinson: Despite many notable audio advancements over the decades, the needs of both consumers and professionals continue to change and become increasingly complex. Providing superior sound quality in smaller form factors that users demand—and at reasonable costs—has been elusive.
Until now, there has been a direct correlation between an amplifier’s size, weight, heat and price. Historically, larger, more powerful amplifiers produce better sound quality than smaller, more affordable ones. The amplifier’s weight has directly impacted its sound quality, as heavier amps typically provide better sound quality than lightweight models. The heat produced by the amplifier also directly affects its performance, since amplifiers generate heat as they increase their wattage output. Until now, the cost of the amplifier has often been the determining factor in the sound quality it produces. Higher-end amplifiers generally have better sound quality due to higher build quality and increased wattage output.
GaN Systems: How are innovations like Class D audio and GaN changing the game in audio?
Levinson: Fortunately, innovations such as Class D audio and GaN technology are game-changers and enable us to make incredible advancements. Performance, which was previously unavailable, is now within reach.
With the introduction of DSP, we saw the emergence of Class D audio. Class D works by converting the analog signal into a digital format and using the digital signal to generate sound waves—an efficient sound-processing method. Due to its advantages over traditional methods, Class D audio is increasingly being used in recording studios, live sound systems and home audio systems, as it is more efficient and cost-effective and produces higher-quality sound than traditional audio systems.
Meanwhile, GaN is a type of semiconductor material that is commonly used in the electronics industry. Known for its high performance, reliability and efficiency, the technology is used in a variety of electronic devices, including phone and laptop PC chargers, factory drives, data-center power supplies and electric vehicles. GaN is also used in Class D audio amplifier systems, as it helps to improve the performance of the system and provide higher-quality sound.
GaN brings numerous benefits to Class D audio amplifier systems as well as other applications. GaN transistors can be switched at high frequency with more ideal switching waveforms, resulting in electronic systems that are highly efficient. As a result, less energy is lost as heat, allowing the elimination of cooling fans and heatsinks. GaN-based designs also have a higher power density than traditional Class D audio amplifier equipment, meaning that the overall size of the amplifier unit is much smaller.
GaN-based audio amplifiers offer superior sound quality, enabling greater dynamic range and detail and decreased distortion and noise. A GaN-based power stage provides a near-perfect high-power square-wave reproduction of the Class D PWM signal. This results in significant reduction of distortion, allowing for the best possible audio quality and providing clean, clear middle and high frequencies and precise sonic reproduction of low frequencies. GaN provides the ability to hear and appreciate true, transparent, natural sound.
We’re now seeing new Class D GaN-based audio designs optimized for sound quality, efficiency (no heatsinks), size and cost while enabling audio design engineers to create premium audio products more quickly at affordable prices while reducing time to market.
For the first time, we truly have an opportunity for a superior sound in a compact size at a far lower cost.
GaN Systems: What’s next in the world of audio?
Levinson: To illustrate what’s now possible, my company is preparing to launch, in conjunction with our GaN partner GaN Systems and legendary designer Skip Taylor, unsurpassed-sounding GaN-powered Wi-Fi speakers. These high-performance Wi-Fi speakers, which we demonstrated at CES 2023, marry GaN Systems’ Class-D high-performance GaN FET amplifier boards with our next-generation patent-pending technology. Music lovers will now have access to the first high-performance speakers in the industry with a small form factor and the sound and feeling of pure analog sound from all digital media at reasonable cost.
The future of audio is exciting, and both Daniel Hertz and GaN technology are part of it, enabling engineers to create better products with audio amplifier components. With superior performance, low cost, flexibility and the ability to integrate with other innovative technologies, GaN is quickly becoming a technological demand.
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