Obituary of John Morgan Eargle

John Morgan Eargle, a Fellow of both the Acoustical Society of America and the Audio Engineering Society, who made important contributions to recording practice, electroacoustic design and application, and surround sound production, passed away sometime around May 7, 2007. At the time of his death he ran his consulting firm, JME Consulting, and was also Senior Director of Product Development and Application for JBL Professional and Harman International Industries.

Mr. Eargle was born in Tulsa, OK on January 6, 1931 to Robert Gray and Josephine Virginia (Tennison) Eargle. His father was an Electrical Engineer for electric utilities in both Oklahoma and Texas . He learned to play the piano in grade school and later he also took up the organ. His aunt, Mary Louis Tennison, was a church organist and John would sit in for her at times. He also had permission from the manager, Mrs. Mary Turner, of the Paramount Theater in Texarkana, Arkansas, to practice on the organ in the theater. While he was in high school he worked part time for Paul Klipsch in Hope, Arkansas, which was about 30 miles from his home. Mr. Eargle graduated with honors from Texarkana High School in 1948.

John Eargle earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music in 1953, a Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan in 1954, a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Texas in 1962, and a Master of Engineering degree from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1970. His thesis, under the direction of Professor Daniel Schutzer, was titled “Four-Channel Stereophonic Transmission Over Two Normal Audio Channels.” He also studied acoustics with Dr. Cyril Harris at Columbia University.

His early professional affiliations were with Klipsch, RCA Records, Mercury Records, and the Altec Corporation. At RCA in the early 1960s he was instrumental in developing a project to provide clear, noise free re-recordings from old, worn, noisy, and in many cases, irreplaceable master recordings. This was done by re-recording material from old master discs onto high speed tape recorders, where the tape speed was in feet per second rather than inches per second. This enabled precise editing of the tapes due to the short duration of the pops and scratches relative to a musical note. One of the first works re-released using this technique was a six record set by Jimmy Rodgers from the 1920s and 1930s. This technique has since been replaced by computers.

He started JME Consulting in the early 1970s. One of his principal clients was JVC Corporation in Japan. He assisted them in developing and introducing CD-4, their entry into the quadraphonic sound format war.

Mr. Eargle was very involved in recording engineering, having recorded and/or produced approximately 275 records and compact discs, many under the Delos label. He engineered hundreds of recordings covering a wide spectrum of musical styles and ensembles in the USA and Europe, among which were the Seattle Symphony, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Westminster Choir, the chamber orchestras of Los Angeles, New York, and Moscow, and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. Among the soloists he recorded were John Browning, Arleen Auger, Janos Starker, Garrick Ohlsson, Carol Rosenberger, and Bella Davidovich.

He received the Grammy Award for Best Classical Engineering from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) for the year 2000 for his Delos recording of Dvorák’s Requiem and Symphony No. 9 performed by Zdenek Macal and the New Jersey Symphony.

Mr. Eargle joined the faculty of the Aspen Audio Recording Institute in 1980 and served the Aspen Music Festival and School in this capacity until his passing. He was also a member of the Corporate Board of Music Associates of Aspen.

Mr. Eargle was also a jazz aficionado and engineered recordings by Joe Williams, Red Holloway, Ruth Brown, Clark Terry, Tommy Newsom, Ruth Brown, and Etta James. His recording of Joe Williams for Delos, titled “Nothin’ But The Blues,” won a Grammy in 1984 for Best Jazz Vocal Performance Male. His recording of Ruth Brown for Fantasy Records, titled “Blues on Broadway,” won a Grammy in 1989 for Best Jazz Vocal Performance Female. As can be heard by the nuance and detail in his recordings, Mr. Eargle was a fine musician that complemented his technical engineering skills. A Bösendorfer Imperial piano was the central feature of his living room, and for a short time, it shared space with his Steinway D.

Among the architectural projects in which he was involved with the loudspeaker system design and installation are the Samuel Goldwyn Theater at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Beverly Hills facility, the two theaters at the Director’s Guild of America in Hollywood, and the Hollywood Bowl. He received a Scientific and Technical Award (Technical Oscar) for AMPAS in 2001, along with Mr. Don Keele and Mr. Mark Engebretson, for the concept, design and engineering of modern constant-directivity, direct radiator style motion picture loudspeaker systems.

He was a Fellow, Honorary Member, and past President of the Audio Engineering Society, and in 1984 was awarded the AES Bronze Medal. In addition to memberships in the AES, ASA, NARAS, and AMPAS he was a member of Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He was a member of Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu.

His books, many in multiple editions, include Sound Recording, Handbook of Recording Engineering; Handbook of Sound System Design; Electroacoustical Reference Data; The Loudspeaker Handbook; The Microphone Handbook; Music, Sound, and Technology; Audio Engineering for Sound Reinforcement (with Chris Foreman); The Microphone Book; and The JBL Story: 60 Years of Audio Innovation.

In addition to his extensive writings on and about sound and music reinforcement and recording techniques in the popular press, he has written and co-authored over 40 articles that have appeared in the Journals of the AES and SMPTE. He also provided erudite and entertaining patent reviews for Journal of the ASA.

Mr. Eargle was been a presenter on numerous occasions at the Los Angeles Chapter of the ASA, on many occasions for the many local chapters of the AES and the SMPTE, and for the Hollywood Sapphire group.

Mr. Eargle was gracious and generous with his knowledge and time. He was an expert’s expert.

He is survived by his brother, Robert Gray Eargle, sister, Pauline Dahlgren, three nephews, and three nieces.

Prepared by Neil A. Shaw, FASA with contributions from Garry Margolis