With a portfolio of some of the most revered brands in home audio, few manufacturers can match the allure of Harman Luxury Audio.
Jim Garrett, senior director, product strategy and planning for Harman Luxury Audio, is a long-time home audio market veteran and enthusiast. Harman’s stable of brands includes Mark Levinson, JBL, JBL Synthesis, Arcam, Lexicon, and Revel, and in the latest CE Pro Podcast, Garrett explains how the company has evolved to meet the diverse needs of consumers enjoying everything from immersive audio to personal audio.
During his career Garrett has seen industry shift from what many would consider traditional audiophiles, to today’s consumers that are utilizing an array of media at home or remotely.
“Well, when I first started in the industry, it was a long time ago. I think we were still dealing with 8-tracks and things like that … no, just kidding. I think a number of things have changed. The pandemic changed things considerably over the last few years, but I think you’ve got consumers that are still — everybody loves music and movies — we’ve got greater access to content than we’ve ever had before — streaming videos, streaming audio — it’s such an amazing way to discover new music,” Garrett points out.
“People have really expanded what they are doing in their leisure time and how important movies and music are to people to relax and spend their downtime … so, having that access to it is great. How we deal with it on the product side, how we deliver the content has changed considerably,” he adds.
Pointing out some of the ways that Harman Luxury Audio and its brands have responded to the changes in which people consume content, Garrett notes the JBL brand for example recently released a set of active home audio speaker, as well as the brand’s first all-in-one speaker, the L75ms, which is part of JBL’s Classic Series. Other modern solutions from Harman include the 4305P and the 4329P.
“I think you are seeing now, the whole ease of access, ease of use. People are not really wanting the complexity of their audio systems anymore. We have entire generations of people that have grown up with nothing more than Bluetooth speakers or soundbars and those types of things,” Garrett says.
Insights into Harman Luxury Audio R&D Process
Providing a little peak behind the Harman product development curtain, Garrett says there are a myriad of elements involved in the product development process. They include discussions with consumers, as well as examining what its competitors are up to, and of course the engineering side of the process.
After gathering all the information it can, the team will then determine if Harman should be developing products for a particular category. “We’re going to stay out of categories that we don’t feel that we should be in,” he explains.
“The core business of Hi-Fi and home theater are … our wheelhouse. So, we’ll take and combine all that research and information that we have determined where the market is going, looking at the competition of course.”
Later in the conversation, Garrett discusses contributions that legendary figures in the home audio industry such as Dr. Floyd Toole, Todd Welti and Sean Olive have made to Harman Luxury Audio’s research and development efforts.
Additionally, the podcast discussion touched upon topics that include the growth of the custom installation industry and the support Harman provides dealers. Listen to or download the entire podcast episode above. Find past episodes of the CE Pro Podcast by subscribing to the CE Pro YouTube channel or our Apple and Spotify podcast feeds.