And while you may not know the founder of DEQX, Kim Ryrie, by name, if you’ve been around music for a few decades then you’ll almost certainly know the first company and product he designed.

The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) was first developed by Ryrie together with school-friend Peter Vogel in the basement of a family member’s house in Sydney. This was way back in 1979 and only a few short years later, Peter Gabriel would employ the electronic sounds of the Fairlight Series 1 on his third solo studio album.

Kim Ryrie (Left) and Peter Vogel (Right) circa 1980.

The following two decades saw three major evolutions of the Fairlight CMI as Ryrie and Vogel pushed the envelope of audio processing, computer based musical instruments, and just what the technology was capable of at the time.

A staggering commercial success, the Fairlight CMI went on to be used by artists including Kate Bush, Alan Parsons, Rick Wright, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and many more. The sound defined commercial pop music at the time.

Kate Bush with a Fairlight CMI, circa 1981

The point is, Ryrie was developing analogue/digital hybrid synthesizers way back in 1972 (the first prototype), and since 1973 has been working exclusively in the digital domain of audio and DSP.

These days Ryrie is focused on DEQX which in its simplest form calibrates both loudspeakers and the listening room in which they are listened to.

One of the first and easily the most famous studio in the world to employ DEQX correction was London’s Abbey Road Studios. DEQX was used to calibrate their surround sound mastering room.

The DEQX Calibrated process provides proprietary DSP correction for every driver in a speaker system, delivering matched phase response/time alignment and flat frequency response. It’s now being used in both the pro-audio market and in the loungerooms of audiophiles worldwide.

This week DEQX announced the next evolution of their already highly-acclaimed product, achieving “Roon Ready” certification.

Roon is pitched as “The music player for music lovers”, and we can honestly say that Roon is one of the best things to happen to digital audio since, well, ever. At least on the front-end side anyway.

Roon’s server software sits on your network whether it be installed on your laptop, PC, NAS drive or on dedicated hardware. It then looks at and manages your entire music library, dragging in the most comprehensive meta data on artists, albums, and much more and renders it all beautifully to your tablet, smartphone or computer interface.

Available this week via a free firmware update, owners of PreMATE+ and HDP-5 products will see their units become Roon endpoints, further adding to the vast feature list of DEQX.

Alan Langford, Product Technical Manager for DEQX told StereoNET:

We’re very excited to marry the world’s best DSP and speaker correction platform together with the undeniable leader in music library management, Roon. After nearly two years of development, we’re thrilled with the results and look forward to consumers enjoying the best possible user experience from DEQX and Roon.

All new PreMATE+ and HDP-5 units will ship with the latest firmware from this week. Existing product owners can contact DEQX directly for the free firmware upgrade instructions.

Get a first-hand demonstration of DEQX at the Melbourne International HiFi Show, November 3rd-5th, 2017 at the Pullman Mercure Hotel, Albert Park. Tickets on sale now.

For more information contact DEQX.