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    Why > Beginnings

    Since 1980, Transparent Audio's three founders, Karen Sumner, Jack Sumner, and Carl Smith, have shared their passion to recreate music at home as if it were played live.

    A woman in an office setting stands behind a desk, opening a large cardboard box in front of stacks of electronic components and shelves filled with papers.

    The three founders are still dedicated to helping their dynamic team carry on their original mission to provide an unparalleled level of musical realism in home audio systems.

    A woman in a brown blazer holds a presentation box containing a high-end audio cable.

    Transparent Audio started out primarily as a distribution company that brought together a consortium of high end audio products that were capable of working together as a system to bring music to life in peoples' homes: amplifiers, speakers, turntables, and audio cables.

    Black metal display shelving holding boxed audio cables, with a product label on the bottom right shelf reading Transparent Cable.

    Transparent Audio built a strong reputation during its first ten years for providing some of the best products in the high-end audio industry with an unparalleled level of service and customer support.

    Two women stand in a workspace with a desk, a workbench, and a June calendar on the wall.

    With ten years of experience in the high end audio industry and a wealth of complimentary talent and experience in the areas of design, engineering, sales, marketing, and management, the founders made the commitment to build Transparent into a complete design, development, manufacturing, sales, and marketing company.

    A large pile of cardboard shipping boxes stacked outside a house near a white wall and a parked bicycle.

    Because signal and power cabling links every component of an audio system and has as much or more influence on the overall performance of an audio system compared to any other single component, Transparent decided to focus resources on this category.

    A man with a beard and glasses holds a black box containing a thick, black audio cable with exposed wire ends.

    In 1993, Transparent introduced its own brand of audio, video, digital and power cabling and power conditioning.

    Construction site with a wooden arched doorway frame, a red scissor lift, and workers sitting near piles of bricks.

    After 4 years of building cabling and power conditioning products for every audio and video application, Transparent outgrew its facility in Hollis Center, Maine.

    A split image showing a group of people cutting a ribbon at an indoor event on the left, and a brick building next to a moving truck parked on a roadside on the right.

    There was no more room for expansion in the original re-purposed 175-year old farmhouse with a large barn.

    A modern building with a high-pitched roof and an arched window surrounded by trees and shrubs in autumn.
    A reception area with a long dark wooden desk featuring two computer monitors, illuminated by three hanging pendant lights above a tiled floor with patterned rugs.

    In 1998, Transparent opened the doors on a brand new building, designed by the owners specifically for the purpose of providing the best infrastructure for their unique business.

    High-end home audio listening room with two large floor-standing speakers, specialized audio equipment on shelves, and three leather recliners facing the sound system.
    Three construction workers installing a wooden beam in a room with paneled walls.

    Transparent built a sound studio for listening testing in their new facility that is unmatched in the high end audio industry. The room is completely isolated within the building on its own heavily reinforced foundation. Walls and ceiling consist of 5 layers of screwed and glued 5/8-inch (15.9 mm) gypsum board.

    Three leather armchairs face a long sofa in a room with wood paneling and audio equipment.

    The mass of the walls and ceiling, the proprietary volume and dimensions of the room, and extensive RPG room treatment insure that the space supports full audio frequency reproduction and dynamic range without loss. The room is fully outfitted with a wide variety of the latest audio gear to test our designs in real world applications.

    A warehouse interior featuring rows of metal shelving filled with cardboard boxes and inventory, with a mezzanine level above and a center aisle leading to the back.

    Warehouse space in the new facility more than doubled over the past ten years to keep up with growth and the need to deliver new types of links for new applications.

    ⇦ The Complete System Innovation and Service ⇨