Jerry Harvey (inventor)

He has served as the sound engineer for artists as varied as Van Halen, Kiss, Morrissey, the Cult, the Knack, David Lee Roth, Mötley Crüe, k.d.

His first break in the music business occurred in 1980, when the Gland Slam Superjam rock tour starring April Wine, Judas Priest, and Sammy Hagar performed at the St. Louis Busch Stadium.

While Harvey was tinkering on his 1978 red Pontiac Trans Am, Hagar's people approached him on the street and asked to borrow his car in exchange for free tickets.

According to Inc. magazine, "From his perch on the left side of the stage behind a black drop, Harvey's job, essentially, was to make sure the band members liked what they heard (as opposed to the person behind the big board out in the crowd, who only has to please the drunken audience).

The in-ear monitors had two small speakers to separate output volume into low and high frequencies for bass and treble, and they fit into shells that were impressions of Alex's ears.

"[1] Sebastian Bach and other members of Skid Row, who were opening for Van Halen on tour, soon wanted their own monitors, and paid $3000 cash for six pairs.

After his third client Engelbert Humperdinck requested one, Harvey decided to create the company Ultimate Ears, and word began spreading through the rock community.

[1] Ultimate Ears contracted Westone, a Colorado Springs manufacturer of custom-fit earpieces, to create the shell casings for the musicians' commissions.

By 2000, Ultimate Ears was becoming a fixture among rock artists, and Harvey's pieces were used by the Rolling Stones, Faith Hill, Enrique Iglesias, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Near the end of 2001 Ultimate Ears had added some 200 artists including Cirque du Soleil, the Late Show with David Letterman, and various megachurches.

[1] However, after a member of the band's production staff introduced Harvey to the iPod, he left the tour early to begin designing a less expensive version of Ultimate Ears.

In order to secure outside capital to develop lower-cost custom earpieces, Harvey contacted Bob Allison of the investment holding company Innovate Partners.

[1] Allison convinced Harvey to create a Super.fi line of Ultimate Ears for the mass consumer market for $250, and helped them open a manufacturing operation in China.

They relocated to Harvey's hometown to be close to the local children's hospital, and then in 2008 to Orlando, in order to find trained hearing aid technicians to assist in manufacturing new products he had designed for aviators.

[4] Harvey was not allowed to return immediately to the pro audio business because of a signed non-compete clause, and stated "I knew I couldn’t live on my old products, I had to come out and push the technology forward.

By mid-2009, however, Harvey began supplementing the income by launching the JH Audio music line, including the JH13 Pro model, which features dual lows, mids, and highs joined by an integrated 3-way crossover.

[4] Harvey continues to mix live concert sound about eight to twelve weeks a year, partly to beta test new models under real stage conditions.