Derek Jarman adjusts the wooden speakers on his workbench, while a toe-tapping song from Icelandic blues and rock band Kaleo fills the garage of his downtown Squamish townhome.
Jarman is a mechanic by day and a custom speaker maker by night, unless it is a good day to mountain bike, in which case he is out on the trails. Jarman participates in the popular “toonie” rides for the Squamish Off-Road Cycling Association (SORCA).
The Squamish Chief met up with Jarman to talk speakers, music and Squamish growth. What follows is an edited version of that conversation.
Q: These wooden speakers are gorgeous, like works of art. How did you end up building custom speakers?
A: It is a little hobby I picked up a couple of years ago. I used to be really big into car audio and then kind of grew out of that. That is something you do in your 20s and 30s and so I naturally progressed into home audio.
I never really had any decent speakers in my house. All my good stereos were always in my car so then I started doing this and learning as I go.
Q: Were you interested in tinkering as a child? Most people wouldn’t think to make a sound system for themselves.
A: Yeah, my dad was a mechanic and my brother was a mechanic so I tinkered a lot with things when I was a kid. I built lots of stuff with Lego.
Q: How does one build a speaker?
A: Basically, what I do is I design everything from scratch. I have a bunch of computer programs that I use.
I design the size of the enclosure based on the speaker that I am going to put in it because everything works differently. And then I have more computer stuff that I measure them with to actually gauge the sound coming out and then I design a crossover – an electronic component that separates the high frequencies from the low – for it based on those measurements.
Q: The wood you use is amazing. What is it?
A: This front of the speaker is called spalted tamarind; it is from Bali. There’s a little business in town called Spalt Wood – they imported a bunch of really big slabs. The rest of the speaker is medium-density fibreboard. Then I buy wood veneers and glue them on.
Q: In terms of the internal components, do you have to ship most of it in?
A: There’s nothing in Squamish. Solen, a Quebec company, is pretty big and they have been around for years so I just buy all my stuff online from them. One shop that has everything I need. The odd thing I can’t get, I order out of the U.S.
Q: How long does it take to make a speaker?
A: If I focus on it and work on it every night of the week it would take a couple of months from beginning to end.
Q: You are on Instagram as @squamishdroc, and you sell your speakers. Do you sell a lot?
A: I have sold a few sets. I built the speakers that are up in the corner of A-Frame Brewing Co. And now I am making a sound-defuse panel for them because it gets really loud in there.
The neat thing with making custom speakers is if you are, say, rebuilding your fireplace and you are going to put your TV above it and you want to put speakers next to it, I can design and build something that fits in the space you actually have. Whereas, if you go to the store and you buy something, it may be a little too big or a little too small.
Q: How much does it cost you to build the speakers?
A: If you factor in the wood and the parts, depending on the size, maybe $300 or $400 and then, of course, my labour.
Q: How do you know what sounds right?
A: Listening to other speakers is a really big help. When I was younger I used to go to the stereo shops on West 4th Avenue and listen to the $20,000 speakers. A lot of it is personal preference.
Q: Does it bug you, as much as it does some audiophiles, how compressed music is these days?
A: I have some FLAC files on my computer – which are uncompressed, large music files – and you definitely notice a difference between the sound of a proper recording and something that has been compressed.
There’s a Sarah McLachlan live album she has and there is a song that is her playing the piano and singing. At one point she stops playing and keeps singing and you can literally hear her voice bouncing off the walls of the stadium. You would never pick that up with ear buds in.
Q: What kind of you music do you listen to, other than this Icelandic band, Kaleo?
A: I listen to everything.
Q: Even country?
A: I don’t do country. But I just got Metallica’s new album, so I have been listening to that. It is really good, actually. I don’t listen to a lot of classical, but pretty much anything that is a good recording.
Q: What is your history in Squamish?
A: We have been here for seven years. We moved from Whistler for work. I am a mechanic at Diamond Head Motors.
Q: How do you feel about how Squamish is changing?
A: I think it is great. I grew up in Coquitlam so I know what the city is all about. We lived in Whistler and we didn’t find a huge sense of community. It is more of a resort than a community. Then we moved here. We just love it. I mean everybody complains about the housing prices and people moving up from the city. But SORCA just hit its 1,000 members last week. That is huge.
I do the socials and the Toonie Rides and there are 200 people showing up for those. That is amazing.
**Please note, this column has been corrected since it was first posted. Jarman paticipates in the SORCA toonie races, he does not organize them as the earlier version of this article originally stated.
