Whenever we meet with our friends at QSC, the staff at Sweetwater can't help but recognize a certain kinship. We're both relatively small companies in our field that built our success on working hard to take care of our customers and our employees. It's the sort of ethic that shows in every product QSC makes, and we've seen the impact that makes, from the first time we checked out their breakthrough power amps to the first time a customer raved about one of their TouchMix digital mixers.
By the time Sweetwater started offering QSC products, the company had been producing top-quality music gear for about 40 years, so they came to us with a full complement of world-renowned equipment. The first things that caught our attention were their power amplifiers. That's hardly surprising, as Patrick Quilter, the founder of QSC, began his career by using his popular bass and guitar amplifiers as an excuse to play around with new amplification methods and DSP.
They were the early adopters of many technological breakthroughs, such as the network audio distribution system called CobraNet. Along with super-efficient and lightweight Class D amplification and powerful onboard sound processing, QSC power amps were a natural fit for Sweetwater's touring sound-reinforcement professionals. These power amps continue to be a perfect match for QSC passive loudspeakers, but they also complement their extensive range of powered speakers and subs wonderfully.
On that note, few who were in Sweetwater's Performance Theatre the morning QSC first demonstrated their K series will ever forget the experience. Onstage, there were a pair of apparently run-of-the-mill PA speakers, but the sound that filled the room was that of a respectable set of studio monitors. We were totally blown away! Needless to say, QSC speakers became an instant hit, and Sweetwater customers have been singing their praises of them ever since.
From high-tech amps and PA speakers, the leap into next-gen digital mixers was a short one. When the TouchMix series hit the market, everyone took note. These standalone digital mixers combined the reliability of direct hardware integration with a touchscreen user interface, introducing hands-on access to the deep power of digital mixing in a way that allowed engineers to craft sophisticated mixes on the fly. In addition to that, tight integration with iOS devices was a further indication of QSC's forward-thinking approach to modern mixing.
While QSC remains a small, US-based company, we're constantly amazed by the big ideas they bring to the market. It's always exciting to see what they'll offer the live sound professionals and working engineers who come to Sweetwater in search of the latest and greatest sound-reinforcement equipment. No matter what they bring to the table next, we're sure we can stand by QSC music gear.
