Owners
Eelco Grimm
Creative director of Grimm Audio
Sound Engineer. Concept developer, system thinker and communicator. Lives for sound, music, and art in general. Lecturer and researcher at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, Music and Technology. Internationally recognized expert in Loudness Normalization matters, contributing to EBU R128 for broadcast and AES 77 for music streaming. Owner of the Fairytapes company for recording and acoustic consultancy. Former editor in chief of the leading Dutch professional audio magazine Pro-Audio Magazine. Married to his Brompton folding bike. Photographer and graphic designer in a parallel universe. Happy when sailing.
“The most musical technology freak I’ve ever met.”
Maarten van der Valk (Orchestra of the 18th Century)
Guido Tent
Technical director of Grimm Audio
Electrical Engineer. Responsible for development, supply chain and sales. Driven to create. Ran a career in analog electronics, RF and EMC (silicon and system design) at Philips. Former lecturer at Fontys University of Applied Science, Eindhoven. Runs Tentlabs in parallel. Music lover. Visits classical live performances regularly, but does not shun disco music from his tender years. Enjoys to cook, rides his Idworx bike as much as possible and likes to understand the nature of things. Tends to repair what seems beyond repair, just to intimidate apparatus.
“This is what you get when an engineer has ears.”
Brian Cherry (diyhifisupply)
Team
John-Paul Lizars
Sales Director North America. A passion for music and technology brought him to New York City in the early 1970’s to pursue a career in the recording arts. Soon he found himself at the epicenter of the downtown avant-garde art and music scene. Through affiliation with a state-of-the-art recording studio in Soho he worked with artists like Phillip Glass, Charlemagne Palestine and electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani. From the early 1980’s John-Paul held various sales and marketing positions in the emerging field of high-end audio. While working with Denon, Nakamichi, Cello, Sumiko / Fine Sounds Group and Aurender, John-Paul gathered a wealth of experience and know-how which he now brings to Grimm Audio’s North American sales effort.
Hans van Bommel
Production and logistics manager. Electrical Engineer. Started his career at SPS (Small Processor Systems) near Eindhoven. Joined Grimm Audio to enforce the production, testing and logistics team. Has always had a passion for music, which he currently enjoys as drummer in a punk rock band and volunteering at his local youth centre and at pop festivals.
Marco Schmidt
Mechanical and electrical engineer. Studied applied physics at Fontys Eindhoven. Started his career at the Philips Natlab working on soldering techniques and thermal management of laser diodes. Works at Grimm Audio on assembly, modifications and testing. Enjoys precise and accurate working. Owner of the “Schmidt-it” company, taking on diverse technical assignments. Has an insatiable urge to repair technical stuff of various kind, especially if it has wheels. Italian background, so his day starts with a strong coffee.
Gertjan Groot Hulze
Signal processing and system engineer. Bought a CD player in its introduction year with the savings from his newspaper route. Soon started modifying and looking for further improvements of the sound quality. The focus shifted to sonic differences between CD oversampling filters, and when fpga-boards became more affordable this really took off. An EE study at the Technical University Eindhoven led to work in the field of hifi-videorecorder and car radio system development, with a focus on mixed-signal integrated circuits. Considers audio development to be a journey of exploration and discovery of the human perception. Strives to get ‘everything’ out of music reproduction. Enjoys hiking and biking in his spare time.
Pieter Meijer
Electrical and systems engineer. Interested in all things technical, mechanical and electronical from the age of 12. Loves many kinds of music and enjoys beautiful sounds in general. After a bachelor in Information Technology, he started a career in car radio reception technologies. Audio always remained a dear hobby, which led to building active loudspeaker systems and recording classical music events with self designed or modified equipment. Autodidact car mechanic. Interested in photography as well. Always looking for creative or unorthodox ways to improve systems.
Justin Vis
Project manager. Electrical and Software Engineer. Studied in Eindhoven at Fontys University of Applied Sciences and graduated at Tentlabs. Interested in high quality electronics, music and programming. Known for his unusual hobby projects in said context. Joined Grimm Audio to work on development.
Michiel Schriever
Electrical and Software Engineer. Interested in the mechanics of (almost) all things and always looking for better solutions. After graduating in electrical engineering, Michiel was determined to start his own company for high quality musical instruments sound effects. Tasted the atmosphere at Grimm Audio during an internship and stayed around ever since, working on development and production testing. Considered to be a software fundamentalist.
Floris Schropp
Electrical Engineer. Born in Colorado, never lived without electronics from his childhood. Appreciates longevity in equipment, enforcing it if necessary. Combined with a special interest in audio due to the love of music, this results in a home brimmed with equipment.
Simon Jaasma
Software Engineer. Enjoyed his graduation internship and happily accepted the offer to stay. Creates software that makes life easier, while secretly honing his electrical and audio engineering skills. Always eager to learn, preferring practical experimentation over research papers. Rarely spotted without a hoodie.
Andrius Kulikauskas
Assembly worker. Since receiving a portable cassette player from his father in the 90s, when he was a teenager, music got a special place in his heart. As years went by and technologies changed rapidly, his favourite music changed from Rock to Drum & Bass and the cassette player was replaced with professional DJ equipment. Working as a DJ at various night clubs and underground rave parties, responding with a choice of music styles and sound effects to the mood of the audience, taught him that music is not only a form of art, but it connects people, music heals.
Peter van Willenswaard
Senior research scientist. Co-founder of Grimm Audio (partner from 2004-2010), now retired but unable to stop contributing. Owner of the aptly named company Audiomagic. Specialized in upgrades and design of digital audio and tube audio equipment. Former technical editor of Dutch professional audio magazine Pro-Audio Magazine. Long career as technical audio journalist (since 1979).
