What is 31 years old, supplied 32 tours in 2001, has 187 full-time employees, sold a million dollars worth of SM-58’s last year, as well as a whole bunch of mixing consoles, does millions of dollars worth of installs, and even has divisions in Japan and Europe? Hint: It is run by a guy who says that the differences between the different brands of modern concert sound gear are almost irrelevant. “Put it all in a big pile and you are splitting hairs. At this level, it truly comes down to the engineers."

That’s right, we’re talking Sound Image of Escondido, CA, headed up by the one and only David Shadoan. He wishes more engineers would do their homework before they order the latest toys that they have read about in the sound magazines, so he would not have to send them out a manual when they realize they have absolutely no idea how to work the thing.

“We have too many people reading magazines and not enough people listening, using those ears, those things God gave us,” says Chairman Dave. It’s no surprise that he is a former road dog himself, manning the monitor board in years past for headliners including Boz Scaggs, Jackson Browne, and Robert Cray.

Nowadays, Dave handles clients like country superstar Clint Black, who not only has a home studio outfitted with Yamaha 02R’s, but even uses them to mix his own monitors onstage, into four Sound Image wedges, and one earpiece. Sound Image is also supplying one of the biggest tours of the summer in the country market, Brooks and Dunn’s Neon Circus. Of course, the company has supplied artists in many genres of music, everyone from Jimmy Buffett to Billy Idol, Prince, Melissa Etheridge and Lenny Kravitz.

When I visited him at his shop north of San Diego, Dave told me some of the factors that motivates their clients: “They hire us because they trust us. I’ve got backup, we know everybody! Let’s face it, I’ve got friends all over this planet. They know if a console blows up in Ames, Iowa, I’ll have another one sitting there in two hours.”

For several years, Sound Image has developed and manufactured their own composite speakers, through their Audio Composite Engineering (ACE) affiliate company, headed up by Michael Adams.

When Dave and I walked around the Sound I mage warehouse, I saw the wood and metal shops that help keep gear functioning. We also took a lap through the area where rack-mount gear is stored, including pricey units like the Manley VoxBox. There were the very smooth Anthony DeMaria Labs stereo tube compressors, a dozen of which are in Jimmy Buffett’s studio, according to Dave, and the ADL tube d.i.’s. Dave personally mixed monitors for Babyface on some shows, who bought three of the d.i.’s for his home studio after being blown away by their sound.

In the metal shop

Manley Optical Compressors

We went off the topic of this article for a moment, and discovered that we agreed about something that many people consider heresy, namely that it is possible to mix IEM’s for an artist even if lacking a pair of matching molds for yourself. It is all about translation, in other words figuring out what the relationship is between whatever you’re using, be it inexpensive earbuds, huge traditional cans, or even a listen wedge, and what the artist is hearing. Once you establish how those relate, you can still do the job