December 2020

We Ask 10 Questions For High-End Audio Manufacturers
Featuring Eli Gershman, Founder, Chief Designer, And Co-Owner Of Gershman Acoustics
Enjoy the Music.com's 25th Anniversary brings you a new special feature!

  During Enjoy the Music.com's very special 25th Anniversary we're asking various high-end audio manufacturers to answer the same ten questions. Their answers may surprise you! This month we're featuring Eli Gershman founder, Chief Designer And Co-Owner Of Gershman Acoustics. Gershman Acoustics is a designer and manufacturer of high-end audio loudspeakers since 1993. The combination of the world best technology and art for the discriminating audiophiles and music lovers! If you are a music lover and looking for natural sound, the way it was intended to be heard by the artists, then Gershman Acoustics speakers are the only speakers for you. Each speaker is carefully handcrafted in Canada.

Q. What is your first memory of falling in love with music?

A. My first memory of falling in love with music was very early in my childhood, listening with my mom to her favorite songs of Joan Baez and classical music on reel-to-reel tapes.

Q. How did you first get introduced to high-fidelity audio gear?

A. I was very fortunate to come across high-quality audio equipment when I was about ten years old, through a close childhood friend whose parents were well off and had an Akai system continuously playing in their home. I could tell that the sound coming from this system was much better than the sound that I had at home, and always liked spending time at my friend's house listening to music.

Q. What is your favorite piece of vintage hi-fi, and why?

A. My favorite vintage audio equipment is Dual Turntable 1229. I'm probably just being nostalgic, but that was the first Audio gear I was able to purchase.

Q. When did you decide to start a high-end audio company?

A. Since I was a young child, I had a passion for music, I was not a talented musician, so I began experimenting and designing speakers. I was never fully satisfied with my designs or the speakers I can afford, so I repeatedly tried to improve my final design, learning, reading, experimenting, and destroying many drivers along the way.

In my twenties, I was designing custom speakers for different applications and companies and custom designs for home systems. During 1993 I founded Gershman Acoustics and invited Ofra, my wife, to join me and manage the company's business side, and I proceeded with my passion and love of designing speakers.

Q. What, and when, was your company's first product?

A. Our very first product 1993, was the GAP model.

The Gershman Acoustics GAP model had A unique design and shape for the time. In 1993, most speaker designs were rectangular, too monotonous, and had acoustical flaws due to standing waves caused by parallel lines, rendering the speaker sound boxy. I always like to innovate and to try a creative approach: a pyramid, no parallel lines, time aligned design.

Q. What challenges did you face during those early years?

A. One of the most difficult challenges was to overcome the conservative view of how a speaker should look; most audiophiles and audio stores believed that a speaker should be rectangular. It wasn't easy to get the retailers to accept a new company with a unique speaker design that does not have a rectangular enclosure. Once we managed to get people to audition the Gershman GAP, people loved how the speaker sounded, but still, the retailers were worried that they would have a difficult time selling a speaker that is not mainstream design.

Q. How have your products evolved over the years?

A. We are continually experimenting, innovating, and developing new technology and ideas for our loudspeaker designs. Some examples of Gershman's Innovative designs are the SSAS implemented in the Black Swan and Posh models and the Bass Trap technology, which we implemented in the Grand Avant Garde model.
We always improve and upgrade our speakers, and most older models can be sent back to our factory to be upgraded to the current model.

Q. What is your company's most popular product(s)?

A. The Grand Avant Garde has been our most popular by far. It's been a dream speaker for many audiophiles and music lovers for many years. The price of the Grand Avant Garde is within a price range that many people can afford, or can save towards buying a pair.

The Grand Avant Garde performs beyond its price point, sounds incredible with any genres of music and the bass is tremendously low and tight, therefore, there is no need for a subwoofer. Customers are amazed by the size of the small and elegant enclosure and the WAF is great. Our customers fall in love with this model and keep it forever, so unfortunately it is very rare to come across a used pair of Grand Avant Garde for sale.

Q. What is your next planned product offering and its' features?

A. I can't reveal it yet, but it is coming soon, stay tuned!

Q. What advancements do you speculate high-end audio will offer ten years from now?

A. I see more work being done on developing digital room correction devices. I'm also looking forward to seeing some standardizing in the recording industry to help eliminate the recordings' inconsistencies.

Manufacturer
Gershman Acoustics
8707 Dufferin St. #331
Thornhill, Ont L4J 0A6
Canada

Voice: 416-561-2399
E-mail: gershmanacoustics@yahoo.com
Website: www.GershmanAcoustics.com