“It was actually for a pacemaker,” Harvey says, “designed to emit a 140 dB tone to tell you the pacemaker was about to give you a zap, so have a seat.”
“I built a high-pass circuit and a little crossover network and that became the first twoway in ear monitor, and the first to make Alex happy.”
After making a sale to Van Halen openers Skid Row – six earpieces at $500 apiece – it didn’t take long for the light bulb to go on and for Harvey to launch his first company, Ultimate Ears, later that year.
Looking to find additional outlets for his talent and product, he cold-called Shure during a stopover in Chicago on a k.d. lang tour, kicking off a relationship that led to the design of the Shure E3 and E5 while also lending credibility to his own fledgling company.
Pushing Forward
For more than a decade, Harvey continuously improved his original product, designing over a dozen successful consumer earpieces and all of UE’s pro offerings.
Ultimately, he also released the company’s first 3-way earpiece, the UE-11, shortly before being forced out in 2007 by co-owner/ex-wife Mindy and a third party investor.
When his relationship with UE began to go south, Harvey and his current wife, Brittany, retreated to a lakefront property in Lake of the Ozarks to regroup.
While there, they discovered their newborn daughter, Katie, had a rare genetic disease and relocated again; first to Harvey’s hometown to be close to the local children’s hospital, and then, in 2008, to Orlando, a hub for hearing aid manufacturers, where Harvey could find trained technicians to aid in the manufacture of new products he’d designed for the aviation market.
Prevented from getting back into the pro audio business immediately by a non-compete clause, he took time to plot a path for the future.
“I knew I couldn’t live on my old products, I had to come out and push the technology forward.” Since launching the JH Audio music line in 2009 with the innovative JH13 Pro, featuring dual lows, mids, highs joined by an integrated 3-way crossover, that’s exactly what he’s done.
Previously, the dilemma was that anything he built could be reverse engineered by competitors, but no longer.
“They can mimic them, but they can’t get the components. We’re the only ones who have access to them. There were only 12 components in the JH13, but I called it the ‘13′ because I thought it would be lucky,” he laughs.
It was. Prior to attending a 2-day Head.fi meet in LA in May 2009 to demo the JH13, very few people knew Harvey was back in business. But just 10 days later JH Audio found itself with over $250,000 worth of orders from all over the globe.
Staying Engaged
Since then JH Audio has grown exponentially, adding products like the JH16 and a line of 3-way DSP hardwired belt packs; attracting A-list artists including Kenny Chesney, Disturbed, Keith Urban, and T-Pain, along with major theatrical companies like Blue Man and Cirque Du Soleil, as well as consumer audiophiles in droves.
Still, JH Audio remains a small, service-oriented company. “We have an 800-square-foot office and a 1,200-square-foot lab.”
It’s very much a family affair,” he adds, with his wife and co-owner Brittany serving as CFO/artist relations, and his eldest daughter Jaime in the role of COO.
Members of the UE team are also coming back, attracted by both JH Audio’s products and the culture of the company. In saying that, Harvey stresses, he’s not gloating, and nor is he bitter about his departure from UE, just immensely proud of JH Audio.
Now, more than ever, Harvey’s business philosophy is based on his longstanding motto. “It’s true rock and roll. We run this place like a touring crew – we don’t micro manage. We want to build the best fitting and best sounding product.”
“Our lab people want them to look like jewelry when they go out the door. I’m an engineer. I build tools for my peers and I still mix about eight to 12 weeks a year, because if I haven’t been out and been one of the beta testers, I can’t sell it.”
Fast Facts
Job Title: Co-founder/product designer/artist relations for JH Audio
Location: Apopka, FL
Years in the Business: 34
Favorite Tools: My Smaart rig and the JH16 Pro
Worked With: King Kobra, The Cult, Engelbert Humperdinck, Louis Miguel, David Lee Roth, Van Halen, k.d. lang, KISS, Linkin Park, Glee, TASCO, Ultimate Ears, Shure, JH Audio
Based in Toronto, Kevin Young is a freelance music and tech writer, professional musician and composer.