JL Audio, part of Garmin, Ltd, has announced the launch of an interesting new audio system known as Primacy. With Primacy, JL Audio says it has redefined and expanded the high-performance audio market to a wider potential base of customers. What did they change to address this wider market?
They.changed.everything…
A couple of months back, I received a somewhat mysterious invitation to a media event being held by Garmin at its facility in Miramar, FL…the home of JL Audio. As far as I can recall, this is the first time I’ve ever received anything from Garmin, and frankly, I viewed it as a bit of an oddity.
Little did I know at the time that this was just the beginning of a persistent and prodigious campaign from not only Garmin PR, but company executives, to entice me to Mirmar to attend a “significant launch event.” What are you launching?” I reasonably asked. “I can’t tell you, but please, come!” they said.
I Head to Miramar
After a couple of rounds of interactions with the persistent (but always friendly) Garmin PR folks, I heard from a company executive. OK…that got my attention. And while even this executive wouldn’t reveal what the product was to be launched, he assured me the trip would be well worth my time.
So, off I went to Miramar…and I’m glad I did.
A Short Background on Garmin and JL Audio
To really appreciate what Primacy is, you first have to get a sense of where it comes from. So let’s take a quick peek at the major players here.
Garmin
Garmin was founded as “ProNav” in 1989 in Lenexa, KS, by Gary Burrell and Min Kao. (They would later take the Gar out of Gary and combine it with the min out of Min to change the name to Garmin.) Before then, Burrell worked for King Radio Corporation, a major supplier of general aviation avionics out of Kansas (today it is part of Honeywell). Kao was working for Magnavox, a major defense contractor in those days, and in 1983, Burrell recruited him to join King Radio. The two of them would come together to found ProNav/Garmin.
The first product by ProNav in 1989 was a GPS navigation unit for boaters called the GPS 100. When the GPS 100 was first shown at the 1990 International Marine Technology Exposition1, the company sold 5,000 units. In 1991, the U.S. Army became its first major customer.
Fast forward to today, and in fiscal 2025, Garmin reported revenues of $7.25 billion with a net income of $1.66 billion and $0 in debt. The company has 23,000 employees, located in 100 facilities, spread over 37 countries around the world. Garmin serves five major business verticals: Fitness, Outdoor, Aviation, Marine, and Automotive OEM.2
JL Audio
JL Audio was founded in 1975 by James Birch and Lucio Proni. Much like Garmin, the co-founders took the first letter of their respective first names to create the identity of the company. In 1977, the two partners, along with Stephen Seidl, invested in a Florida store known as Speaker Warehouse, which mainly focused on the retail sales and repair of loudspeakers.
Over the years, JL Audio grew dramatically, eventually dominating the car audio business in South Florida. They would come to be known for their speaker and electronics innovations, with a special reputation for subwoofers. JL Audio further diversified beyond car audio into marine audio and home audio solutions.
As JL Audio was always a private company, I have no historical financial data to share. However, I can say that the company had a total of 600 employees at the time of the acquisition by Garmin in 2023. Post-acquisition, that number has declined to around 450 employees or so.
Garmin Acquires JL Audio – Garmin acquired JL Audio in 2023, apparently drawn to the company by the synergy with high-end JL Audio solutions in car and marine audio segments, which, as I mentioned above, are two significant business segments it also serves.
Primacy is the love child of this pairing between Garmin and JL Audio. Doug Henderson, the Director of Audio for the company, made it clear in a presentation to the industry media in Miramar at the end of April, that creating the concept, designing the solution, and engineering and manufacturing Primacy was a huge undertaking that took the full support of the entire company.
In Miramar, We Meet Primacy
I’m sure most Strata-gee.com readers are familiar with Doug Henderson. He comes with solid high-end audio credentials. For more than a decade, Henderson served as President of B&W Group in North America. For this event, Henderson acted as our master of ceremonies to introduce a project that was surely his baby.
However, when the main presentation began, we first heard from Jarrod Seymour, a Garmin Vice President who introduced the gathered predominantly audio media – most of whom, like me, were not particularly familiar with Garmin – to a brief history of the company, much as I shared at the top of this post.
The Premise of Primacy
In creating Primacy, JL Audio looks to redefine and expand the high-end audio market.
The story begins with the premise that a wide customer base exists for high performance audio, but that we need a new way to present it. The time has arrived to break the 20th-century traditions, to integrate luxury audio into modern lifestyles and technologies. We have to eliminate complication, so that great sound is a natural part of our customers everyday lives.
Doug Henderson, JL Audio Director – Home Audio
A Bold Concept, Aiming for Exceptional
To break those 20th-century traditions, JL Audio offers Primacy. “Primacy means having the quality to surpass all others…preeminent,” Henderson told the media attendees.
Henderson went on to note that this bold concept was the “overarching goal set by Lucio Prony at the inception of the project to aim at the top. We weren’t aiming for ‘good,’ we were aiming for ‘exceptional.'”
To take performance to the next level, JL Audio determined that with Primacy, it needed to create a complete system with speakers, built-in power, a “centerpiece” connection and control center with preamplifier/DSP/streamer/and room acoustics correction processor. Primacy also includes an elegant and simple digital controller that reconnects users with a glorious large volume control knob and lighted indicator. Primacy can also be controlled via an app, available for desktop & mobile, as well as with third-party automation systems.
The JL Audio Team Changed Everything
In a prepared statement, Garmin’s Susan Lyman said…
Primacy reflects our unwavering commitment to integrate modern lifestyles and technologies into luxury audio that’s high performing, beautifully built and uniquely optimized for the space it’s in. The ultimate audio experience, Primacy lets you listen to music, movies and games like you’re there live, inside the scene, with amazing clarity of every sound.
Susan Lyman, Garmin Vice President of Consumer Sales and Marketing
JL Audio designers thought through every aspect of this system. As Henderson said in his presentation, the goal was to “[a]pply everything we know about loudspeakers and electronics and optimize it all to the highest degree possible.”
The Reveal and a Delayed Reaction
With that, Garmin engineers went up on the stage to remove the covers and unveil Primacy. Interestingly, there was a bit of a delayed reaction from the group. The industrial design of Primacy is not bright and bold compared to some other competitors. The design is not dramatic, such as B&W’s Nautilus, from Henderson’s former company. Rather, Primacy is more understated or refined.
Perhaps noting the reaction, Henderson said that the company “followed the restrained design language meant to appeal to our target customer.” He added that the line’s components were kept as compact as possible,” and given “soft, sculptural contours and clean lines.”
“Primacy is designed to complement, not clash, with a luxury home interior,” Henderson told journalists.
Getting Down to Details: Just What is Primacy?
Primacy consists of two fundamental systems: the S3 stand-mounted (or bookshelf-mounted if you have a sturdy bookshelf) DSP-enabled, 2-way, active speaker system; and the T6 floor-standing DSP-enabled, 3-way, active speaker system.
Each of these systems has an available stereo centerpiece unit that provides connectivity and control of the system, with its built-in preamplifier (with a phono preamp), triple-core DSP processing (with 32-bit/192kHz audio resolution), as well as the Primacy Automatic Room Optimization (P.A.R.O. or PARO) processor, and options to stream audio via a connected device. The systems also have available an elegant tabletop remote with a large, weighted, circular volume control that just.feels.right.
The S3 and T6 are built like tanks. Each unit’s chassis is made of thick, sand-cast aluminum alloy, which is then precisely machined by computer-controlled, 5-axis CNC machines to within 1/1000th of an inch. These chassis are incredibly heavy. When you add an extruded aluminum, machined front panel, and the premium finished side panels, these units are effectively inert. Each S3 weighs 82 lbs. Each T6 weighs 270 lbs.
A Deeper Dive – Primacy S3 Two-Way Active Speakers
The Primacy S3 offers one of the most robust and incredibly dynamic performances that I’ve ever heard from a smaller two-way system. It features…
- Tweeter – (1) 1″ dome tweeter with a pure carbon diaphragm
- Woofer – (1) 5.5″ mineral-filled polypropylene cone
- Power – Both tweeter and woofer drivers have a dedicated 200-watt Class D power amplifier for a system total of 400 watts
- Frequency Response – 55Hz – 20kHz, ±2dB, -3dB@44Hz, -6dB@36Hz
- Power Supply – Primacy features a triple-regulated power supply for rock steady performance
- Crossover – Lossless DSP crossover filtering. Filtering occurs at the amplifier input
- DSP – High-performance triple-core Digital Signal Processing operating at 32-bit/192 kHz audio resolution, provides precise control over crossover filters, equalization, dynamics, delay, and phase
- Dimensions – 20.7″ (H) x 10.1″ (W) x 13.5″ (D)
- Weight – 82 lbs (each)
A Deeper Dive – Primacy T6 Three-Way Active Speakers
The Primacy T6 turns it up to 11 and puts the entire symphony in your living room. This three-way floor-standing system must be heard to be appreciated!
- Tweeter – (1) 1″ dome tweeter with a pure carbon diaphragm
- Midrange – (1) 5.5″ midrange driver with mineral-filled polypropylene cone
- Woofer – (4) 5.5″ woofers with cast-alloy frame, highly rigid aluminum cone bodies with DMA-optimized motor designs and long linear excursion
- Power – (3) amplifiers, one for each speaker range…200 watts to tweeter, 200 watts to midrange, and 600 watts to woofers for a system total of 1,000 watts
- Frequency Response – 45 Hz – 20 kHz, ±2dB, -3dB @ 35Hz, -6dB @ 32Hz
- Power Supply – Triple-regulated power supply for rock steady performance
- Crossover – Lossless DSP crossover filtering. Filtering occurs at the amplifier input
- DSP – High-performance triple-core Digital Signal Processing operating at 32-bit/192 kHz audio resolution, provides precise control over crossover filters, equalization, dynamics, delay, and phase
- Dimensions – 48.9″ (H) x 14.2″ (W) x 21.2″ (D)
- Weight – 272 lbs (each)
Primacy Pricing & Availability
Primacy sells with several options, so I’ll give you a couple of basic setups to get an idea. An S3 system with two powered speakers and a Centerpiece control unit has an MSRP of $53,000 with stands and $50,000 without stands. A T6 system with two powered speakers and a Centerpiece control unit has an MSRP of $105,000.
Primacy is available now…
Summing Up Primacy
JL Audio started the Primacy project long before Garmin decided to acquire the company, and it was a massive effort for the team, according to Henderson. This product was designed from the ground up to a degree that many other brands simply can’t match.
The drivers? All custom-designed and manufactured by JL Audio. The DSP used internally in the speakers and for the remarkable PARO room optimization system capability is all custom-designed and created by JL Audio. The entire system is fully manufactured and assembled in Mirmar, FL.
The Greatest Challenge the JL Audio Team Ever Faced
As Henderson noted, Primacy was the greatest challenge the JL Audio team ever faced, challenging their engineers to advance drivers, enclosures, electronics, DSP for both internal speaker management and room correction, industrial design, and user experience. Primacy “compelled us to go further than ever before…” He was obviously very proud of Team JL Audio, as they pulled it off with flair.
Henderson also noted enthusiastically that “Garmin is all in on great audio and very supportive of home audio.” He added, “Garmin’s enthusiasm and vast technical resources were instrumental in bringing this project to completion…”
The Market Alignment Between Garmin and JL Audio is Strong
He is also quite certain that this new system approach, designed for the way today’s customers consume content like music, is going to greatly broaden the high-end audio business. By removing complexity and clutter while also elevating sound quality, Primacy, Henderson says, “reimagines high performance audio.”
The market alignment between the two companies is becoming clearer, as Henderson noted premium boat owners with craft stuffed with Garmin and JL Audio gear…as well as private pilots whose personal planes and jets are guided by Garmin gear, as well as “serious cyclists and golfers, doers and strivers who are affluent, appreciate quality and love their Garmin products…” are the very same audience that Primacy seeks to serve.
Primacy’s Primary Target Customer
The primary customer, the Audio Director told the media, is an affluent homeowner, a successful business owner or professional “with an enthusiast mentality,” a person who wants the best experience possible, who’s passionate about music, but is not necessarily a hobbyist audiophile whose interest is maintained by constantly changing gear, checking out their products, changing cables, etc.
This new line, Primacy, is intended to broaden the tent, to widen the opportunities for high-performance audio…to make it more accessible…to draw in new participants, including those who may have felt out of touch with legacy hi-fi providers.
JL Audio believes that Primacy is a revolutionary product that brings a generational improvement in performance and aesthetics that will be embraced by a new class of consumers. They believe that Primacy will propel them to primacy in today’s high-performance audio industry.
Learn more about JL Audio’s new Primacy line by visiting the Garmin at garmin.com.
NOTES
- Most of this background is from Wikipedia ↩︎
- From the Garmin SEC filing of Form 10-K, 2025 Annual Report ↩︎
Leave a Reply