Concept

This story begins like so many others in High-End audio. A music lover with extensive engineering background in a different field decides to tackle a challenge - to please himself. And because he can. He is racer Alvin Lloyd turned Vice President of Operations at Swift Engineering who was charged to oversee the construction of its high speed moving ground plane wind tunnel that became the most advanced testing & research facility of its day. He and his team developed the Swift 007.i C.A.R.T. that became the first US-built Indy car to take home the winning trophy in 14 years.

While still at Swift, Lloyd and two friends equally interested in audio discussed how they might apply their hard-won expertise in race car design and exotic composite materials to resonance control in audio equipment stands.

Could one translate the hard science behind building winning high-speed competition vehicles (for drivers such as Michael Andretti, Christian Fittipaldi, Jimmy Vasser, Roverto Moreno, Jacques Vellenueve and others) to the less life-threatening domain of audio-frequency resonance attenuation, yet maintain the highest standards of aesthetics and execution?

Leaving nothing to chance, the team of what would, under the leadership of Alvin Lloyd, become Grand Prix Audio decided on an in-depth survey of existing stand designs, to assess the status quo and determine what, if anything, they could bring to the table to advance the current state-of-the-art.

Before proceeding, Alvin Lloyd, Henry Wolf and Tom Huschilt hammered out a comprehensive Design Brief.