R.I.P. Roger West of SoundLab

Roger West of SoundLab passed away on June 6th. He was a brilliant man and a dear friend. In addition to his widely-respected work at SoundLab which pushed the state of the art in electrostatic loudspeakers, he worked in the aerospace industry. He was instrumental in the design and development of the flight simulator for the General Dynamics F-16, which was so successful that the Air Force cut its acquisition of two-seat F-16 conversion trainers.

When Roger was young he wanted to be a musician. He played the violin and worked very hard at it, but eventually concluded that he would never be a great musician. So he decided that instead of creating beautiful music, he would re-create beautiful music. He went to work for Arthur Janszen and developed the electrostatic cells that were used in numerous Janszen designs (sometimes with a pattern-shaping lens), and which showed up in the original Wilson Audio Modular Monitor (WAMM). 

In the late 1970’s Roger started up SoundLab and introduced several innovations, resulting in electrostats that have an exceptionally wide and uniform radiation pattern and which produce very good bass response (no subwoofers needed).

Around this time he was hit in the eye by a racketball which resulted in a serious infection. His body had an auto-immune response malfunction which damaged his hearing. He lost all hearing in one ear and had greatly diminished hearing in the other for many years, eventually culminating in total hearing loss a couple of years ago. This never slowed him down - his passion was still re-creating beautiful music, though it would be for other people to enjoy.

I first crossed paths with Roger after purchasing the first demo pair of Millennium-1 electrostats in 1999, and I liked them so much I left the industry I had been working in for nearly two decades and became an in-home dealer for him. I visited him and his family many times over the years. He and his wife Connie even came to my wedding.

On June 6th of 2026 Roger worked a full day then went to bed, and passed away peacefully in his sleep. He was 92. SoundLab lives on under his son Brett, who has been building SoundLab speakers since before I bought my first pair twenty-seven years ago.

Here is a link to The Absolute Sound’s article: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/sound-lab-electrostats-remembers-dr-roger-west/