TEAM

The Audio Merge project was initiated in 2021 by Arnau Muñoz and Xavi Lizarraga, two sound engineers and audio freaks from Barcelona-Terrassa, who decided to join their strengths to build quality audio equipment focusing on to design, ergonomics and sound quality. We are very committed with our community so we work with a local providers network and we struggle for the Classic Gear Preservation and we believe in Audio Gear Analytics to improve our circuits.

STORY

Audio Merge adventure has brought us many funny, intense and priceless experiences. Indeed, we want to continue with this and other sonic adventures, and that’s why we want to encourage you to support us in a crowdfunding campaign that we will launch soon, aiming to produce the first KTBK series to you. Subscribe it and let us share with you the main events and details of our research, technical tips and other surprises!

The KTBK Challenge

The KTBK project started with a phone call in January 2020. Xavi, who is passionate about Dub, wanted to acquire a clone of the Altec 9069B for his productions. After speaking with Arnau, they decided to create their own Altec replica.

January 2020

Our Handmade Coil

The circuit of a passive filter consists only of passive elements, namely capacitors and coils. We had no issues getting the capacitors. Nevertheless, the multitap coil is inexistent in our era. So, we realized the best choice was to build our own coils manually, turn by turn.

March 10, 2020

The First Prototype

Arnau did a handmade luthier’s job building the multitap coil. After some experiments, we got our first prototype, which you probably have already seen in the videos that Xavi published in the Instagram profile of @xlaudiodesign

May 2020

The Audio Merge's Birth

During this period, we thought about the possibility of creating a cooperative for music tech creators. With this idea, we contacted the office of entrepreneurs of the City of Terrassa (Barcelona) that quickly became interested in our project.

August, 2020

KTBK vs Altec 9069B

After developing two more prototypes, through an Hispasonic user, we found an original unit in the hands of the great reggae-dub producer, Roberto Sánchez, who immediately lent his support and helped us compare our replica with the original one. The results of the comparison were surprisingly positive, we had a precise replica.

October, 2020

A Big Choice

The office of entrepreneurs of the City of Terrassa selected our project to participate in the Crowdfunding Bootcamp Terrassa to receive specialized training. We thought it was a good opportunity to accelerate our project and to test our team with a very challenging goal. So, we applied and luckily we were selected.

Nov, 2020

The Crowdfunding Campaign

During the last months, we have been preparing a crowdfunding campaign, with the aim of getting funds to produce the first KTBK’s series and doing what we like. No longer as a one-off project, which arises by chance, but to devote ourselves exclusively to made up new vintage audio equipments.

February 2021