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Helen and John Meyer founded Meyer Sound. For forty years, their loudspeaker systems have ensured the right sound quality at the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Keystone
Anyone who attends a concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival can’t help but be amazed by the exceptional sound quality. For forty years, the California-based company Meyer Sound has been responsible for the festival’s first-class live sound.
Mathieu Jaton, director of the Montreux Jazz Festival, repeatedly emphasizes to the Keystone-SDA news agency that the sound experience is crucial: “The sound system is the heart of the Montreux Jazz Festival.” Whether indoors or outdoors, the sound must give listeners goosebumps.
For forty years, the festival has maintained a friendship with John and Helen Meyer. In 1986, the late festival founder Claude Nobs commissioned the Meyers to revolutionize the sound of the event. He had already met the couple back in the 1970s. It was an encounter between an “uncompromising, crazy sound fanatic”—as Jaton describes John Meyer—and a great lover of sound.
A friendship developed that led to “one of the longest-lasting and most solid sound partnerships in the music industry,” as the founding couple behind Meyer Sound describe it today. At ages 82 and 78, John and Helen Meyer are still at the helm of their company today. For them, the Montreux Jazz Festival is “the crown jewel,” the couple told Keystone-SDA while attending the two-week event in Montreux, Vaud.
The goal has always been to offer visitors and musicians alike the best immersive live music experience. The music must be reproduced flawlessly, precisely, without unwanted distortion, and at maximum volume. In Montreux, this quality and intimacy of sound are made possible.
The family-owned company was founded in Berkeley, California, in 1979. Today, Meyer Sound is one of the world’s leading providers of professional audio equipment and has offices in Germany, Canada, Mexico, and China. The Meyers currently employ 350 people. The company’s loudspeaker systems and acoustic technologies are used at concerts, in venues, in recording studios, and in home audio systems.
John Meyer has had a passion for audio technology since his youth. “I grew up with FM radio, and it’s always interested me.” He then took this passion for sound as far as possible, driven by a love of scientific experimentation. Over the years, the Montreux Jazz Festival has become a playground for him—a sort of laboratory for innovations in the audio field.
For over 30 years, the Meyers have been coming to the Vaud Riviera almost every year to listen to whatever is playing through their sound system. They say Bob Dylan, Prince, and Herbie Hancock were unforgettable.
Vincent Villard is in charge of the festival's production. The Meyer Sound technical crew is an integral part of the Montreux Jazz Festival's production team, according to the Valais-based sound engineer.
Preparations begin several months in advance: Starting as early as October, Villard and José Gaudin, an employee of the California-based company, analyze the acoustics of all indoor venues and outdoor stages, taking their respective conditions into account.
Then, a sound design is created for each concert venue. “The goal is to provide the best possible coverage of every area of the hall—from the very front to the very back, all the way up to the balcony seats.”
In January, the designs are implemented and the sound system is optimized. The entire sound spectrum—the resonance, the monitors, the bass, the treble—everything is meticulously adjusted. In the spring, the team meets briefly with the sound engineers from each band to plan every concert. During the festival, Meyer Sound staff are also on site to address the specific requests of the musicians.
Hauke-Christian Dittrich/dpa
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12.07.2026, 06:30
29.07.2026, 14:26
