Our Design Philosophy

by David Nordschow

When I set out to design a new product, I get very excited about how I can create something that is both extremely useful to Bass players, and is outstanding in it’s musical execution and overall operational performance ability.

I approach speaker design in a way similar to how luthiers develop great acoustic instruments. I decide what kinds of musical situations it might be used for, how it will need to work to fulfill those requirements, and what I need to do to balance all the mechanical engineering choices against the artistic and tonal choices that need to be made, to create an outstanding product that player will truly love to use.

A good speaker system should bring out the best in an artist’s talent and playing style in a warm and musically additive way, without clouding, changing or obscuring the music being played. You should hear the Bass and the hands of the player - not the sound of the speaker.

After all the computer modeling that I do on each project, and in addition to all the mechanical and electrical design work that needs to happen, the project has to be properly tempered with artistic style and good tonal voicing. It is critical to make certain the speaker will have a voice that is very musical in nature, and has a great perceived tone quality that is both special and interesting to listen to and play through.

Then I get to put the new project in front of our group of great Bass players to see what they think. Our S.E.A.L. Team is comprised of outstanding players with diverse styles and tastes; everyone has their own point of view. This input is always very helpful in making sure that our products are the very best they can be.

After we get done, we do it all again just to be sure we liked it as well as we thought. Only then are we ready to see how the customers like the new products. Hopefully you’ll love them as well as we do.

~David Nordschow