After working 20 years on the design and construction of radio and television studios for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Dave Morrison was ready for a new challenge. “With a background in the broadcasting industry, pro audio was the logical place to start,” he says today. The journey ahead ultimately led him to found IsoAcoustics in 2012 in order to market and distribute an adjustable isolation stand for studio monitors that he had developed and patented.
“To refer to our products as isolators is an overly simplistic view of what they deliver,” he says. “I’ve always been fascinated by the interaction of a speaker with its supporting structure, and its enormous influence on sound clarity and the phantom image. After leaving the CBC, I worked on countless designs and concepts that ultimately led me back to testing with the scientists at the National Research Council in Ottawa. I quickly found great support and feedback from audio professionals as I developed solutions for new challenges and applications; it’s been very rewarding to work with so many talented professionals who bring together so many artistic and technical elements.” While two studio monitor companies were interested in licensing the design, he ultimately decided to enter the market himself, starting the company and introducing its first stand, the ISO-L8R155, at NAMM 2012.
Today, IsoAcoustics is a family-owned business located in Markham, Ontario that has grown within the pro audio market while also opening a separate channel dedicated to products designed specifically for the home audio market. “Those products have a different look and feel, as they provide remarkable acoustic benefits for small and large loudspeakers, turntables, amplifiers and other audio equipment,” he reports.
Product of the Week: IsoAcoustics New Stage 1 Board
Morrison spends most of his time looking after finance, planning and new product development, but both his sons are key players in IsoAcoustics’ success as well. “Sean leads our creative and marketing group to develop our brand and assets, and they recently launched our new IsoAcoustics website and Product Selection Wizard tool,” he says. “Paul looks after sales, distribution and production scheduling, and deals with our distributors in over 70 countries; we also have small teams for accounting and customer service.”
The company’s largest markets are in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Korea and Germany, all of which are served through warehouses in the U.S., Europe and Asia. That kind of space is necessary, as the company has a current list of nearly 80 SKUs, and, as might be expected during pandemic times, it has seen an increase in demand for products applicable to home and project studios.
As IsoAcoustics nears its tenth anniversary, it continues to diversify, finding not only new applications for its technologies and products, but also approaches to the marketplace. “IsoAcoustics is a small and passionate company that continues to develop new products. We are very excited to be working on new OEM initiatives with a growing list of manufacturers in both the pro audio and home audio segments who are integrating our technology into their new and future products. Apart from that, there are always new developments on the horizon.”
