About Peter Ledermann

Peter Ledermann
President / Chief Engineer

Peter Ledermann has a more than 50 year history in audio that stems from his very early years, initiating from a deep fascination with science, nature and music. He is chief engineer and CEO of Soundsmith, and runs a charity record company - DirectGrace records - to rescue children from severe forms of slave labor around the world.

Peter opened the Soundsmith repair center for high end audio in 1969 at Audio Experts in White Plains NY, and taught audio engineering and service as he has done continuously for more than 50 years. In Peter’s words “The best way to learn engineering is to study the forensics of failure. Often in engineering, as in life, one has to become well versed in learning what is it not before one can understand what it is. Understanding failure mechanisms due to aging as well as other types of design failure, both mechanical and electrical, as well as those relegated to flaws in assembly due to the rapidly evolving methods employed for manufacture are key elements to designing products that do not fail prematurely as well as those that perform flawlessly”.

In 1973 he was offered a position with RAM Audio in Danbury Connecticut, working with seasoned engineer Mr. Richard Majestic, formerly of CM labs in Norwalk CT. Peter was responsible for assisting with engineering and oversaw all of manufacturing and training production personnel in manufacturing two high end power amplifiers as well as two preamplifier designs, and a Strain Gauge cartridge/preamp system.

In 1976 Peter became Director of Engineering at the Bozak Corporation in Norwalk Connecticut, a well-regarded legacy American audio company. He re-engineered an analog rear channel delay system, all of Bozak’s complete line of varied electronics, and developed a new aluminum cone 6” wideband driver for his new miniature Bozak speaker model MB-80. He also designed a vented pole 8” aluminum driver, used in a dual cone cabinet with a 180 watt EQ/Amplifier he designed, one of the first miniature bass extension systems in the market, and designed to be paired with the MB-80 or other miniature stand mount speakers. He also re-engineered the complete line of “Listener Series” Bozak speakers, including developing several new models.

In 1980, Peter was hired by IBM to work at the prestigious T.J.. Watson research center, a think tank located in Yorktown Heights, NY. For 3 years Peter was part of the Surface Science research group, and was responsible for assisting with systems that support and employed varied instrument designs used in the effort to study surface science, including LEED, (low energy electron diffraction), CMA (cylindrical mirror assembly for inverse photo emission spectroscopy) and developed the world’s first angle resolved EELS (electron energy loss spectrometer) system. He also has knowledge in building and maintaining ultra high vacuum systems. For the next 8 years, Peter worked in APTL (Advanced Packaging Technology Laboratory) developing numerous inventions for which he received many awards. He is the primary inventor of 11 IBM patents. He has knowledge of advanced chip packaging, high power laser systems, designing and developing automated micromachining systems, board level advanced miniature and subminiature electronic assembly and semiconductor packaging development.

In 1991, Peter left IBM to pursue the Soundsmith effort full time. He continued to mentor and teach audio engineering through service, designed and developed his own line of speakers, amplifiers, preamplifiers and continued to develop new ideas for cartridges. Under license, he reverse engineered and re-created the tooling and expertise to manufacture B&O cartridges as they had stopped production in 1986. Under this agreement, Soundsmith became the only manufacturing center for all B&O cartridges sold world-wide. Peter developed a new commercially viable design for a new Strain Gauge cartridge which Soundsmith introduced at CES in 2001, along with a line of “fixed coil” ultra low mass “variable reluctance” moving iron cartridges which the company has been uniquely evolving since their introduction years ago by Soundsmith. Peter continues to invent, teach and develop new products both within and outside of the audio field.

Do yourself a favor and read Soundsmith Founder and President Peter Ledermann's essay, Animating Life.

In addition to being an artist and world-renowned audio engineer, Ledermann is also a published poet.

They Said What?

"The Otello powers through Hollywood Nights with an assurance and sense of drive that makes for a very entertaining performance. The instruments come out of the mix in a pleasingly three dimensional way and are topped off with an excellent rendition of Bob Seger’s vocals. The claim of reduced inertia from this fi xed-coil cartridge system seems to translate into a coherent and lively rhythmic performance."