The origins of Cerwin-Vega date back to 1954, when a young aerospace engineer named Gene Czerwinski started a loudspeaker company. Czerwinski was driven by his love of music and his desire to recreate a live musical experience. The company quickly branched out into custom high-fidelity systems that promised the target audience of audio enthusiasts the next best thing to actually being at a concert, thanks to Czerwinski's focus on high-efficiency drivers. The company became known for its large, four-way speaker system with 18-inch woofers. According to the Cerwin-Vega website, this system, known as the Vega 500, could produce 130dB at 30 Hz--an incredible achievement, at the time. In 1957, Cerwin-Vega introduced the world's first solid-state amplifier, using a circuit influenced by 10,000-watt sonar amp Czerwinski had designed for the Bendix Corp.
The Cerwin-Vega brand's stature in the audio industry continued to grow as the years progressed. The company was primed for the popular music explosion of the 1960s, in which rock 'n' roll took center stage and dominated the charts. Studio musicians like Lee Sklar and Carol Kaye began using custom-made Cerwin-Vega woofers; musicians on tour with the Rolling Stones purchased musical instrument monitors also made by Czerwinski's firm. Around the same time, Cerwin-Vega began providing loudspeaker and system designs to many major manufacturers of musical instrument amplifiers, including Fender and Vox, according to the company website. Cerwin-Vega also designed and produced sound-reinforcement systems for recording studios and concert venues. Cerwin-Vega credits included outdoor sound systems for Disneyworld's Epcot Center, playback systems for A&M Records, cinema systems for LucasFilms and a sound-reinforcement system for the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
Cerwin-Vega made a definitive imprint on popular culture with the introduction of "Sensurround," a dramatic new innovation in movie sound that made its debut with the 1974 movie "Earthquake." The concept used giant subwoofer cabinets to produce low frequencies that literally "shook" the movie theater--or at least, fans' seats--during the earthquake scenes. Cerwin-Vega not only received credit for ushering in an era when special effects would play an increasingly important role in the movie experience, but also was honored with an Academy Award for special technical achievement.
Cerwin-Vega continued to improve and refine its core business of making home and professional sound equipment. Several original speaker designs were introduced in the 1970s, including the Stroker, a dual spider woofer currently used in the company's mobile audio products. Cerwin-Vega also developed a bass enhancement principle, called Thermo-Vapor Suspension, by filling its speaker cabinets with a particular gas that in essence tricks the woofer into seeing a larger enclosure. Also in the late 1970s, Cerwin-Vega became the first audio company to produce its own digital recordings to test loudspeaker designs.
Cerwin-Vega's attention throughout the 1980s and 1990s was riveted on the growing popularity of home theater systems--an outgrowth of the home video era, which had begun in 1978--as well as the mobile audio market. The popularity of all these new product lines prompted the company to expand its production facility and broaden distribution to the point where its products are now available in more than 40 countries. Cerwin-Vega also is heavily involved in research and development of new products and concepts, with its efforts now focused in such areas as air propagation distortion, multi-tone loudspeakers and driver technology.