dB Sound

In the mid-1970’s, Harry Witz, an electrical construction engineer whose credits include Water Tower Place in Chicago, built his own speakers and consoles to use with his band. After parting ways with the band, he started his sound business under the name WOW Sound, renting out his PA system primarily to local Chicago-area acts including The Cryan' Shames, D'Thumb's with Tommy Aldridge, Ides of March, Survivor, and Cheap Trick. His first major clients were Roberta Flack and Alvin Lee/Ten Years After, and word of mouth soon brought additional gigs. In 1979, Witz merged WOW Sound with the sound division of Chicago-based Total Electronic Musical Service, whose major client at the time was Kansas, officially forming dB Sound, Inc.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Witz continued to land major clients. The first was Heart, for whom dB Sound not only provided PA but Witz handled mixing duties. Heart was followed by REO Speedwagon, KISS, Triumph, Prince, Richard Marx, Aerosmith, and AC/DC. By the time the Rolling Stones came knocking in the 1990s, dB Sound was one of the industry's leading live sound providers. Witz personally mixed more than 2,000 shows and produced several records for dB Sound clients, including Cheap Trick's Music for Hangovers and Silver. The company became known for proprietary technology: Witz re-engineered the dB speaker system into the flyable "HP" system in the early 1980s, then designed the "HD" system from scratch, some of which remain in use today. This work led to a partnership with Electro-Voice on the MT (Manifold Technology) PA system and the co-design of the X-Array, which debuted at a 1997 Rolling Stones concert in Chicago. That same tour introduced KT processing in every individual amp rack, a pioneering move that enabled time alignment and EQ of individual speakers before such DSP became commonplace.

The company grew to roughly 30 full-time staff (around 100 including freelancers), eventually occupying a 50,000-square-foot facility in Mount Prospect, Illinois. It diversified into corporate events, theatrical productions like Riverdance, equipment sales, and permanent installations, with international partnerships in Australia (POWA Audio), Japan (0dB), and the UK (SSE Audio) for worldwide coverage. Its speaker legacy includes the dB HP, dB HD, EV MT, EV CPM wedge, EV X-Array, EV X-Line, and EV XLC. In 2007, Witz sold dB Sound to Clair Showco, bringing clients like AC/DC and the Allman Brothers into what is now Clair Global. He served on the design team converting the i-4 to the i-5, along with the Vision system, CM22 wedge, and Cohesion 8, and subsequently helped launch Clair's Wi-Fi rental division, now known as Clair Data Services. Witz continues to design PA layouts, manage client relations, mix shows, and teach audio classes.