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About Mike Klasco

Mike Klasco is the president of Menlo Scientific, an audio consulting firm for the audio and loudspeaker industry, located in Richmond, CA. He is a graduate from New York University, with post graduate work in signal processing, and he holds multiple patents licensed or assigned. For the past 35 years, since founding Menlo Scientific, he has worked on product development, design and technical support, liaison between suppliers and manufacturing facilities, sourcing guidance, and certification for a large number of companies. Mike specializes in materials and fabrication techniques to enhance audio performance, has over 500 articles published in audio magazines and technical journals, and to this day continues to be a regular contributor for audioXpress and Voice Coil magazines. He presented papers at the Acoustical Society of America, held positions as Session Organizer for the Audio Engineering Society, Chairman of the Committee on Acoustics, and is an AES Life Member.

All items written by Mike Klasco

ISEAT 2019 - International Symposium on ElectroAcoustic Technologies - A Report from the Center of Global Speaker Manufacturing

November 27, 2019 by Mike Klasco

ISEAT 2019 - International Symposium on ElectroAcoustic Technologies - A Report from the Center of Global Speaker Manufacturing

Loudspeaker engineers have few choices for professional forums. The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is an outstanding international organization although not entirely focused on speakers. ALTI (formerly ALMA) is loudspeaker-centric but does not have a strong base in China. And although you may not have heard about iSEAT, for most Chinese speaker engineers that is their preferred professional organization. The International Symposium on Electro-Acoustic Technologies (ISEAT), founded in 2007, is held every two years and has successfully conducted six sessions.

Loudspeaker Enclosure Materials (Part 2)

July 31, 2019 by Mike Klasco

Loudspeaker Enclosure Materials (Part 2)

In the first part of this article, Mike Klasco discussed the contribution of the enclosure on perceived overall product quality as well as sonic clarity. This second part of the article looks closely at material testing, evaluation and manufacturability, and other more recent approaches to enclosure materials, including Thermosets and Thermoplastics, Bulk-Molded and Sheet-Molded Thermosets. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, May 2019.

Loudspeaker Enclosure Materials (Part 1)

July 24, 2019 by Mike Klasco

Loudspeaker Enclosure Materials (Part 1)

In this article for Voice Coil, Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific, Ltd.) reviews and looks ahead at all the materials and design approaches for loudspeaker enclosures. This article discusses enclosures using wood, MDF, plastic, plastic composites, moldable materials, coatings and pairings for those materials, while also looking at new cutting-edge bio-plastics materials. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, March 2019.

Remembering the Electro-Voice T35 Super Tweeter

July 9, 2019 by Mike Klasco

Remembering the Electro-Voice T35 Super Tweeter

Do you remember the Electro-Voice T35 Super Tweeter? This was a high-performance horn tweeter that even today has state-of-the-art wideband response, high sensitivity, and a history that spans over six decades! This trip down memory lane relates the story of the T35, with a look at not just the tweeters, but also the people behind these developments. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2010.

Trends in Microspeakers

July 2, 2019 by Mike Klasco

Trends in Microspeakers

Voice Coil April 2019 featured another great Focus article by Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific) discussing trends in Microspeakers. With more than 1.6 billion mobile phones built annually, each with a microspeaker for the speakerphone and another for the receiver, this side of the speaker industry attracts the giants. Get the full scoop on one of the hottest market segments.

New High-Performance Cone and Diaphragm Technology

April 25, 2019 by Mike Klasco

New High-Performance Cone and Diaphragm Technology

Always exploring all the latest information regarding cone and diaphragm technology, Voice Coil regularly publishes reports on key new materials with the potential to excite the loudspeaker industry. In this special focus article, Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific, Ltd.) explores new approaches that explore thin ply carbon materials, like Swedish advanced composite specialist Oxeon is attempting with its TeXtreme Thin Ply Carbon Technology. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, February 2019.

New Materials for Earphones and Headphones

April 3, 2019 by Mike Klasco

New Materials for Earphones and Headphones

For the January 2019 edition of Voice Coil magazine, Mike Klasco and Nora Wong have compiled a special Focus article on New Materials for Earphones and Headphones. For those looking to differentiate their new products, the two Menlo Scientific consultants provide a unique and valuable perspective on multiple possibilities and designs for drivers, materials for assemblies and enclosures, choices for headbands and ear cushions, signal processing, and even cables.

A Look at Soundbar Audio Signal Processing

December 12, 2018 by Mike Klasco

A Look at Soundbar Audio Signal Processing

In this article, we will take a look at what is trending in audio signal processing for the poster child of integrated electronics speakers… the soundbar. As an audio consumer product category, soundbars remain a top seller, having replaced receivers and their associated passive speaker systems, which have sadly been reduced to legacy product categories. More than 10 million soundbars are sold annually but most deliver barely more performance than a table radio. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, October 2018.

Spotlight: A Visit to SoundChip

September 12, 2018 by Mike Klasco

Spotlight: A Visit to SoundChip

In this Voice Coil Spotlight, Mike Klasco writes about SoundChip, a unique solution provider for active noise cancellation product engineering. SoundChip operates not as consultants but as solution providers and collaborators, enabling product development teams to access a vertically integrated portfolio of technologies, IPs, devices, tools, and services, needed to reliably develop and produce, at scale, high-performance noise cancelling headphones. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, July 2018.

Advanced Engineering Simulation Software

October 18, 2017 by Mike Klasco

Advanced Engineering Simulation Software

Simulation software for speaker design has been around since the 1970s. With the introduction of the IBM PC and DOS operating system in the early 1980s, Thiele-Small (T-S) simulation software for enclosure design became a must-have for speaker system designers. For the most sophisticated design efforts, there are now magnetic circuit design software and finite element analysis (FEA) cone and thermal prediction simulation software. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, March 2017.

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