engineering

John M. Eargle

John M. Eargle is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John M. Eargle rather than just read about it. In short: John Morgan Eargle (6 January 1931 in Tulsa, Oklahoma – 9 May 2007 in Hollywood, California) was an Oscar- and Grammy-winning audio engineer and a musician (piano and church and theater organ). He was the Chief Engineer for Delos International, author of seminal textbooks on audio, a consultant (and vice president of engineering) for 31 years at JBL, and past president and fellow of the Audio Engineering Society.

Key takeaways

John M. Eargle belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John M. Eargle to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John M. Eargle from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Morgan Eargle (6 January 1931 in Tulsa, Oklahoma – 9 May 2007 in Hollywood, California) was an Oscar- and Grammy-winning audio engineer and a musician (piano and church and theater organ). He was the Chief Engineer for Delos International, author of seminal textbooks on audio, a consultant (and vice president of engineering) for 31 years at JBL, and past president and fellow of the Audio Engineering Society. Eargle and his colleague, Mark E. Engebretsen (born 1942), can be directly credited for the revolution in cinema sound reproduction after 1980. They presented a paper to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers demonstrating new concepts in cinema loudspeaker design. This led directly to developments culminating in the THX sound system developed by Tomlinson Holman (born 1946). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the two, and a third colleague, D. B. (Don Broadus) Keele, Jr. (born 1940), a Scientific and Technical Award (a Technical Oscar) in 2001:

... for the concept, design and engineering of the modern constant-directivity, direct radiator style motion picture loudspeaker systems. The work of John M. Eargle, D.B. 'Don' Keele and Mark E. Engebretson has resulted in the over 20-year dominance of constant-directivity, direct radiator bass style cinema loudspeaker systems.

Career timeline

Growing up During his teenage years while at Texarkana High School in Arkansas, Eargle worked part-time for Paul Klipsch in Hope, Arkansas, which was about 30 miles from his home. Eargle graduated with honors from Texarkana Arkansas High School in 1948.

Recordings Eargle engineered more than 250 CD releases, many for Delos International, including 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. Eargle recorded soloists that include John Browning, Arleen Auger, Janos Starker, Garrick Ohlsson, Carol Rosenberger, and Bella Davidovich. During the 43rd Grammy Awards (February 2001), Eargle won a Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Classical his Delos recording of Dvořák's Requiem and Symphony No. 9 performed by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra – Zdenek Macal, conductor. John Eargle was posthumously awarded a Technical GRAMMY Award in 2008 at the Special Merit Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on the evening prior to the 50th GRAMMY Awards Telecast. The Technical GRAMMY Award is presented by vote of The Recording Academy's National Trustees to individuals who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. "John Eargle left an everlasting and profound impression on the audio industry," said Mark Gander, Vice President of Marketing, JBL Professional, who accepted the GRAMMY Award on behalf of John Eargle, along with John's niece, Cyndi Bird, and nephew and namesake, John Paul Eargle. "He was a brilliant engineer, musician, author and teacher. His 2008 Technical GRAMMY Award commemorates the industry-wide recognition of John's accomplishments, as well as the considerable time he devoted to sharing his expertise, experience and wisdom. A jazz aficionado, Eargle engineered recordings by Joe Williams, Red Holloway, Ruth Brown, Clark Terry, Tommy Newsom, 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, and his recording of Ruth Brown for Fantasy Records, Blues on Broadway, won a 1989 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female.

Education Music

Eargle studied music at the University of North Texas College of Music (1948 to 1950), the Eastman School of Music (Bachelor of Music, 1953), and the University of Michigan (Master of Music, 1954). His brother, Robert Gray Eargle, said that John Eargle had perfect pitch. Scientific & engineering

After serving in the military, Eargle studied electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering 1962) and engineering at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Master of Engineering, 1970). His thesis at Cooper Union, under the direction of Professor Daniel M. Schutzer (born 1940), was titled Four-Channel Stereophonic Transmission Over Two Normal Audio Channels. He also studied acoustics with Cyril M. Harris (1917–2011) at Columbia University.

Selected publications Academic textbooks

Handbook of Recording Engineering Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York (©1986) Second edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York (©1992) Third edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York (©1996) Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston (©2003) Fourth edition, Springer Science+Business Media, New York City (©2005) The Microphone Book Focal Press, Boston (©2001) Second edition, Focal Press, Oxford, United Kingdom (©2004) Music, Sound, and Technology Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York (©1990) Second edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York (©1995) Sound Recording Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York (©1976) Second edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York (©1980) Electroacoustical Reference Data Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York (©1994) Handbook of Sound System Design ELAR Publishing Co., Inc., Commack, New York (©1989) Loudspeaker Handbook First edition, Springer Press (©1997) Second edition, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston (©2003) Other publications

Audio Engineering for Sound Reinforcement, coauthored with Chris Foreman (paperback), Hal Leonard, Milwaukee (©2002) The JBL Story: 60 Years of Audio Innovation, Hal Leonard, Milwaukee (©2006) JBL Sound System Design Reference Manual Coauthored with George Lee Augspurger, published by JBL (©1982) (based largely on the Sound Workshop Manual, by George Lee Augspurger, born 1929, published by JBL, ©1977) Second edition, coauthored with George Lee Augspurger, published by JBL (©1986) Third edition, updated by John Eargle (©1999) Academic papers

Messiaen: His Style and Technique (masters thesis), University of Michigan (1954) Other scientific publications

Improvements in Monitor Loudspeaker Systems, coauthored with Don B. (Broadus) Keele, Jr. (born 1940), Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Vol. 31, No. 6, June 1983

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John M. Eargle

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John M. Eargle claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John M. Eargle before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John M. Eargle ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John M. Eargle

In research: John M. Eargle appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John M. Eargle in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John M. Eargle is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1931 births, 2007 deaths, 20th-century American inventors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John M. Eargle outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John M. Eargle in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John M. Eargle means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John M. Eargle out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John M. Eargle in simple terms?

Why does John M. Eargle matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John M. Eargle?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John M. Eargle.