Meet the Team

With Meet The HARMAN Luxury Team, our goal is for you to get to know us better. In each edition we feature a different member of the team, and this month it's Gary Crocker, Senior Principal Hardware Engineer.

How would you describe what you do in your current role?

I’ve joined the HARMAN Luxury Audio team to design and develop hardware primarily for the Mark Levinson brand of products. I’m looking forward to the challenge and using my experience to push the new products forward.

What did you study in school? Did you always imagine yourself doing something like what you’re doing now or did the fates just take you in that direction?

I’ve always from an early age, as my parents tell me, had a keen interest in engineering. Apparently, I played with spark plugs, switches and wires from an early age. The school lessons that sparked my interest were ART, CDT ( Craft, Design, Technology ). My art lessons were spent talking about and listening to music rather than fine ART, I thank my art teacher for introducing me to such a wide range of music. I was lucky that my secondary school was very equipped with engineering machinery, as a teenager I was turning, milling and even sand casting.

How did your career path lead you to HARMAN?

I’ve worked in the high-end audio business for over three decades, developing world class audio products. Now at HARMAN Luxury Audio I have the opportunity to continue my career developing world class Hi-Fi products for the Mark Levinson brand.

What is the most important thing you have learned over your career?

To listen. Throughout my career I have developed world class products through repeated listening tests to progress the products to attain that goose bump audio experience a Hi-Fi system should give you.

Of course, it goes without saying, nothing can be achieved without teamwork.

Any other advice you would share with people just starting out in this industry?

In any Industry the most important thing is to learn and gain experience from experts in their field. I would say ask and keep asking questions, use that knowledge as a base to build your experience and develop.

What are you most proud of in your life? 

I’m most proud of my family, I’m married to my lovely wife Lisa and between us we have five children. In term of career achievements, my proudest designs thus far would be the Naim Audio 500 series and Statement series products. I put love and pride in most things I do, I have a strong belief that if a job is worth doing it should be done to the best of ability.

When did you realize you had a passion for music or audio? Was there any one band, song, or movie that did it for you?

From a very early age I was surrounded by music, my parents would always be playing vinyl so I grew up listening to the Beatles, The Hollies, Neil Diamond, ELO, ABBA to name a few. I would say the band that most opened by mind musically would be Pink Floyd.

What current technology impresses you the most?

I believe Artificial Intelligence is the technology of the future.

Favorite music genre? 

I have a very wide musical genre. It’s a well-known fact that the better the Hi-Fi system you use the wider your music genre becomes. I would say my go to genre would be prog rock

The desert island question, of course. If you were marooned for eternity & could listen to only 3 albums, what would they be?

That’s a tough question – so many to choose from…

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here

The War on Drugs – Lost In The Dream

Peter Gabriel – Plays Live (cheating a bit here as it’s a double album)

You have the floor. In closing, tell us anything else you want us to know about yourself.

I have a passion for music and electronics, I feel very lucky to merge both passions into a career.

At the age of 13 I spent the summer months working hard planting conifer trees, this enabled me to buy my first Hi-Fi system which was a ARCAM Alpha which I’m very happy to say is still being used to this day by my father.

I live in the UK very close to the New Forest on the border of Hampshire and Wiltshire. Within 10 minutes walking time I’m in the forest which I do regularly with our three dogs. In my spare time I enjoy making and restoring things, woodwork mainly and of course maintaining our bright orange 1979 VW T2 camper.