The beginnings of Russound
There’s an old joke that begins with someone in the streets of New York asking a local how to get to Carnegie Hall. Everyone knows the punch line. We at Russound like to think similarly about how we achieved our position as the number one brand in multiroom audio: practice, practice, practice.
While 2007 marks our 40th year in the audio business, there was no multiroom audio industry when Gaylord Russell founded Russound in Stratham, New Hampshire in 1967. The company supplied music and hi-fi enthusiasts with selector switches for speakers and source selectors for turntables, tape recorders, preamplifiers and equalizers.
As an engineer, Russell had a hard time maintaining the financing and resources to keep Russound afloat. His friend and fellow audio engineer, Henry Kloss, put him in touch with Anthony Hatch and Chuck Sicard, the principals of S&H Precision Metal Forming. S&H, along with their sister company, Sea Coast Manufacturing, made speaker boxes and component housings for various audio companies in New England.
For Sicard and Hatch, Russound’s need for both sheet metal and machined wood made the company a natural fit for their two other businesses. S&H acquired Russound, moving the company from Stratham to Hampton, New Hampshire.
In 1972 the three companies required more space, and moved to an old mill building in North Berwick, Maine. The companies continued to benefit from shared resources, shop space and equipment.
In the late 1970s, Russound entered the surround sound market with the QT-1, a quadraphonic patching and control center. Available as either a walnut vinyl-finished component or a 3U rack-mount device, it featured connections and switching for outboard recorders, equalizers, and noise reduction units.
By 1979, Russound was producing 12 different pieces of audio equipment and moved from North Berwick, Maine to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
