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 Colby Buddelmeyer, Director, Engineering, Mark Levinson.

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

I lead the Mark Levinson team in the development of new high-end consumer audio products. In

this role, I work to make sure that the products meet the stringent requirements established by the Brand’s heritage of technology.  I lead a multi-disciplinary team of electrical, software and mechanical engineers with the help of an excellent project manager.

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 have degrees in both Mechanical Engineering (Bachelor of Science) and Electrical Engineering (Masters of Science). When I was a child, I had always planned to work in aerospace and started my career developing rocket engines at Rocketdyne when it was owned by Boeing. When I came for my interview, my boss took me into the Santa Susana mountains to their field laboratory to witness an Atlas booster test fire from a quarter mile. It literally blew me away and soon after I was on my way from Ohio to sunny Southern California. I enjoyed working in aerospace but felt that I wanted to be more hands-on with the products I developed. I knew that I wanted to make consumer products and was lucky to find someone at HARMAN willing to take a chance on me. I found that my love of music had called me to make audio products which united my personal and professional interests.

How did your career path lead you to HARMAN? 

My audio career began at HARMAN in 2004 when I was hired as Mechanical Engineer for Revel Speakers. I started on the Concerta series and then moved on to designing the Ultima 2 product line. I learned a lot about making speakers, acoustics and the audio business during my time working for Revel. I left HARMAN in 2010 for a role as Senior Mechanical Engineer at Apogee Electronics.

Apogee is well known in the pro-audio world for their analog-to-digital converters. At that time, they wanted to move into the prosumer market with products that could work with iOS.  I worked to build a line of products for that need including the Duet 2, Jam, Mic and Quartet while I fixed issues with existing products and rebuilt their BOM system.

In 2012 I saw that Beats by Dre was ending their partnership with Monster Cable. I knew that they had a very small team of engineers as the first employees were all people I had known from HARMAN. I decided that if I didn’t hear from them within a few weeks, I would reach out. As luck would have it, I got the call the next week and joined Beats to start the Mechanical Engineering team. During my Beats tenure, I was promoted to Director of Mechanical Engineering and was responsible for all mechanical activities, but also had to wear a lot of other hats due to the small size of the team. I grew the mechanical team to 12 engineers and one industrial designer and helped to deliver the Pill, Studio 2, Solo 2, PowerBeats 2 and other products. Working at Beats was a very wild ride that required a lot of travel and yes, I did meet Dr. Dre.

In Fall of 2013, I was contacted by a former HARMAN colleague who had been tapped to start an acoustic research lab for Samsung. At the time there was not even a building, and we weren’t sure where the lab would be located. Still, I decided to take the risk as I saw the opportunity to make sound for TVs as a very exciting and challenging role. As one of the founders of the Valencia, CA Samsung Research America Acoustic Research lab, I first worked on designing and building the lab including the 4Pi chamber, 2pi chamber, listening rooms, transducer lab, and even the office space. After a couple of years, it became evident that we needed a full-time transducer engineer and so I held that role while we worked to bring on engineers with that specialization. After that, I was promoted to Director of Audio R&D where I continued to build out the lab by adding a model shop complete with CNC and laser cutter, a Reference Listening room for testing of surround codecs, and design of the mobile audio test systems for our research. All of this was in parallel with leading the Mechanical Engineering team in the design of new test equipment, lab upgrades, and prototype audio devices.

In February of this year, I saw the opening for the Mark Levinson Director of Engineering position at HARMAN. I really missed working on product as it felt like I had moved further and further into research. I knew that I wanted to pursue this opportunity and have been very excited to lead the team since April.

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

The most important thing I have learned in my career is to value and respect the people with whom you work. The audio business is very small, and your reputation is crucial to your success. I have always strived to be kind to those around me and to lead by example. Showing integrity and giving care to my peers and my employees has helped me to grow both as a leader and a person.

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

Audio is a field of mentorship, so I would say find some very smart people and learn from them. Challenge yourself and don’t be afraid to fail.

What are you most proud of in your life?

My greatest achievement is being a good dad to my daughter. In terms of my career, I’m very proud of starting two world-class engineering teams at Beats and Samsung, and to have co-designed (both mechanical and industrial design) the Revel Ultima 2 line. The flagship speaker, the Salon 2, won the Absolute Sound’s “Cost-no-object Loudspeaker” in 2007. 

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?

I knew I had a passion for music from about 12 years old. I had been beating on a guitar since I was very young and decided to play saxophone in my school band. Soon after, I started taking guitar lessons and never stopped playing. When I moved to Los Angeles I became friends with a guy who had a band and started playing music with him. Now, 25 years later, we still play together in his band called The Tyde. It’s a group influenced by the Byrds, Beach Boys, and an 80’s band from England called Felt. I’ve grown over the years and graduated to lead guitar in 2017. The Tyde released a new album this year called Season 5. I also play bass in a country band with my friends from Taos, New Mexico. Their band is called, the Trummors. We finished a new record this year simply titled “5” and it sounds fantastic! 

What current technology impresses you the most?

I recently was gifted a free month of Full Self Driving for my Tesla Model Y. I used it to drive from my home in Los Angeles to San Diego and was very impressed by how it was able to control the car. It was amazing and I was blown away at how advanced the technology felt.

Favorite music genre?

I have eclectic taste in music so that is a very difficult question. I guess if I had to choose, I would probably say indie rock and specifically the music put out on Creation Records and 4AD in the 1980s-90s.

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

Again, this is a very hard question and I’m thankful that I will likely never face such a choice. If I had to choose then I would select:

Felt – Absolute Classic Masterpieces

Red House Painters – Songs for A Blue Guitar

The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds

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

I’ve been playing and recording music in Los Angeles for around 25 years. I have a home recording studio where I produce music for myself and others. I started surfing in my 30’s and enjoy checking out the classic surf spots of California where I primarily ride a longboard. I love to go camping with my 6-year-old daughter.  I have over two thousand LPs.  Long Live Vinyl!!!