Who is Ken Kreisel?

You may not know Ken Kreisel, but you've undoubtedly seen classic movies like Star Wars, Chicago, Lord of the Rings, King Kong, The Incredibles, Black Hawk Down, and Pearl Harbor. All these movies were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound of Oscars. It is an Academy Award that recognizes the finest or most euphonic sound mixing, recording, sound design, and editing. And these films all used the M&K speakers designed by Ken Kreisel.

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Ken Kreisel is the founder of M&K Sound (Miller & Kreisel), inventor of the active subwoofer and satellite speaker system). There are many honorable moments during the 40-plus years of Ken Kreisel's loudspeaker design expertise. He has countless fans worldwide, including top film producers, sound engineers, music and video game engineers, photographers, music lovers, home theater enthusiasts, editor-in-chief of AV industry magazines, and more, covering all industries related to sound. Ken Kreisel products are not made just for films. Many soundtracks, CDs, DVDs, live musical events, and broadcasts were mixed using Ken Kreisel systems. Even in the gaming area, Ken Kreisel speakers shine. For example, the Call of Duty series, one of the highest-selling video games ever, its developing studio also uses Kreisel's studio monitoring systems for all the top-selling video games they produce. 

Ken Kreisel is a down-to-earth inventor who is always on the lookout for the latest technological solutions, with innovation in his bones, trying to find new technologies, providing the most cost-effective audio products, and avoiding audio gimmicks that don't work. Many of Hollywood's top film and music industry award-winning sound engineers and top studios use Ken Kreisel speakers and subwoofers for their most critical audio work.

Why do Ken Kreisel speakers and subwoofers sound so good and why do so many top recording engineers use them for their most critical sound decision? Because Ken Kreisel is a world expert at accurate sound recording and reproduction. As an audiophile recording engineer, Ken Kreisel has recorded everything from the world's largest church pipe organs to the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. Ken Kreisel subwoofers and speakers are designed to effortlessly and accurately reproduce all the detail and explosive impact picked up by the microphone, even the original sound of an explosion. Sound quality, low distortion, and precision are the primary criteria for Ken Kreisel to design speakers or subwoofers.

Memorible moments of Ken Kreisel

In 1969, Ken Kreisel started cooperating with Jonas Miller, who opened one of the world's first ultra-high-end audio salons: Jonas Miller Sound in California.

In 1973, Ken Kreisel designed and installed the first M&K Subwoofer and tri-amplified studio monitor system for Walter Becker of Steely Dan for the studio LP mixdown of Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic album. The Pretzel Logic album became a million-selling Top Ten hit and one of Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums. The subwoofers used were the world's first specially designed long-throw dual 12" drivers mounted in a unique, balanced drive configuration.

In 1974, Ken Kreisel and Jonas Miller launched Miller & Kreisel Sound (M&K) in Beverly Hills, CA, and started its subwoofer & speaker production. 

Ken Kreisel invented the modern-day "Satellite-Subwoofer" system in 1976 and debuted the world's first Self-Powered Subwoofer in 1977- the game-changer for the entire audio industry. In 1978, M&K sound released professional studio monitor speaker systems with incredible sound that incorporate innovative acoustic designs, including controlled vertical directivity, phase-focused crossovers with true driver group-delay time alignment, and dual-midrange and tweeter driver arrays, and minimal baffle coloration. 

From 1978 to 1985, M&K built numerous screening rooms for directors, producers, and the Hollywood elite, making Ken Kreisel the Home Theater pioneer. M&K also opened the FIRST exclusively direct-to-disc recording studio and released some of the best-sounding direct-to-disc LP's ever recorded, including For Duke, Hot Stix, Flamenco Fever, Fatha, and Power Glory under the name M&K RealTime Records. M&K RealTime Records was the FIRST label to release Compact Discs (CD's). The Philharmonia Hungarica Orchestra, recorded in Germany, was one of the first Kreisel's digital recordings. Kreisel also completed a series of audiophile classical recordings in the world-renowned recording studio Abbey Road in London.

In 1989, Kreisel introduced the industry's first push-pull dual-driver powered consumer subwoofer. Push-Pull is achieved by mounting one driver physically backward in the cabinet and wiring it backward, causing both driver cones to move mechanically in the same direction. The acoustic cancellation of even-order harmonic distortion creates cleaner, tighter, and more accurate musical bass reproduction, and maximum linearity is achieved. Kreisel also introduced the three-tweeter phased array coupled with the unique Phase-Focused crossover, which set a new standard in accuracy, clarity, focus, and dynamic range. The driver array provides tremendous headroom necessary for accurate transients and ensures a single, coherent, unified musical source to the listener.

In 1992, Kreisel introduced the first THX-approved consumer subwoofer. In 1993, Dolby Laboratories used M&K THX speakers to design and develop the Dolby Digital format, called AC-3 initially. At Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES), 1995, M&K was used by Dolby Laboratories for the world premiere demonstration of 5.1 AC-3 (now known as Dolby Digital). In 1996, Kreisel Invented the TRIPOLE Surround technology that produces near-perfect sound illumination for side and rear surround speakers to use in home theatres.

In 2001, Miller & Kreisel Sound was a recipient of the absolute sound Golden Ear Award. At the 2006 CES Show, Las Vegas - The Blu-ray Disc Association demoed the audio for the Blu-ray demonstration with Miller & Kreisel system. In 2006, HDTV Etc. Magazine wrote a "Sound Wars" interview about Ken Kreisel and his Miller & Kreisel THX speakers at Lucasfilm's Skywalker Ranch. In 2008, Sound & Vision's 50th Anniversary Edition listed Ken Kreisel and his invention of the Self-Powered Subwoofer as #32 of the 50 Greatest A/V Innovations in the last 50 years

Since the establishment of M&K in 1974, in the following 33 years, Ken's M&K Sound has reached its peak and is famous worldwide. Ken Kreisel left M&K in 2007 and re-started his own brand with a new company under his name - Ken Kreisel, in 2011. Haneasy International became the distributor of Ken Kreisel Sound in Taiwan in 2021. As the partnered retailer, we are excited to bring the latest product line of the Ken Kreisel series to loyal fans!

Check the full Ken Kreisel collection here.