Monsoon is a brand of loudspeaker

Loudspeaker

A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...

s, originally automotive speaker systems and later computer speakers. Monsoon was originally associated with OEM-sourced automotive audio speaker systems, notably supplied on a number of General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

 products and then later expanded onto other manufacturers such as Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...

. The brand name was also licensed to Sonigistix, a Richmond

Richmond, British Columbia

Richmond is a coastal city, incorporated in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Part of Metro Vancouver, its neighbouring communities are Vancouver and Burnaby to the north, New Westminster to the east, and Delta to the south, while the Strait of Georgia forms its western border...

, B.C., Canada company, and applied to their line of computer multimedia speakers.

Sonigistix

By 2000, Sonigistix expanded its product line and the Monsoon brand into the then burgeoning consumer computer multimedia

Multimedia

Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...

 market, developing a solid reputation for their flat-panel speaker designs that were popular with computer users keen on obtaining quality high fidelity from their computer hardware. Monsoon's speaker designs were based on planar magnetic technology, licensed from Eminent Technology

Eminent Technology

thumb|200px|Eminent Technology is a company established in 1983 by Bruce Thigpen to create innovative products for the audio field. Their first product was an air bearing straight line tracking tonearm for phonograph playback, this was the first implementation of a captured air bearing for tonearm...

 who developed the original concept. However, despite the brand's popularity among computer users – or perhaps because of it – within the next couple of years the assets of Sonigistix were purchased by Eastech, an Asian technology company that also focuses on providing consumer products in a variety of audio-based markets.

As for Sonigistix, a privately-held company by that name currently resides in Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.A. Although an online company profile on goliath.ecnext.com lists this Little Rock company as being in the home audio/video industry, it's not clear if this is the same company that originated in Canada. An owner's manual for the MM-700/iM-700 Flat Panel Audio System with a copyright of 2000 shows the Monsoon Multimedia Sales office address as Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...

.

Eastech

Monsoon-branded products continued for a time under Eastech (under the Level 9 name), but by late 2004 Monsoon computer speakers had essentially disappeared from the U.S. marketplace. By 2005, Eastech no longer sold Monsoon speakers.

Legacy

Monsoon-branded speakers, whether sold by Sonigistix or Level 9, have developed an almost cult-like following due to their perceived high sound quality and accuracy, particularly uncommon (at the time of their run) for the personal computer marketplace. Dedicated owners of Monsoon flat panel speakers will often go to great lengths to keep their old Monsoons running, primarily because it is assumed that replacements made and sold by other manufacturers may be inferior. When the Richmond, BC, factory closed, a loudspeaker repair shop in Vancouver, BC, obtained the remaining stock of tweeters, midranges and woofers as replacement parts. The replacement parts were exhausted by 2008, leaving the use of salvaged parts as the only options for units that have failed. The most common issue with midrange and tweeter elements is corroded NeFeB magnets. Sadly, this corrosion is a terminal condition and cannot be reversed or repaired.

As for the Monsoon brand, it remains a trademark of Delphi

Delphi (auto parts)

Delphi Automotive PLC is an automotive parts company headquartered in Troy, Michigan, USA. Delphi is one of the world's largest automotive parts manufacturers and has approximately 146,600 employees ....

. This allows GM to exploit the reputation that the Sonigistix products developed, by using the Monsoon brand for their current in-car entertainment products, although made by several other companies. Currently Monsoon in-car audio is optional on several GM cars.

External links

• History of Eminent Technologies including the planar transducer