The brothers Lothar Stamer, an engineer, and Hans Stamer, a finance specialist, founded STAMER MUSIKANLAGEN with a clear vision: to create high-quality loudspeaker systems for musicians and event organizers. Custom-built solutions for individual customers soon became a hallmark of the company, followed by a professional sound reinforcement division serving major events across southwestern Germany. This direct connection to the market made it possible to feed insights straight into product development.

After five years of growth, it was time for a new strategic direction. With the Hughes & Kettner brand and the pioneering QX4, the company made its move into international markets – first in Germany, and soon across Europe. Production shifted from traditional craftsmanship to industrial-scale manufacturing.

Successful expansion made a move to a new location necessary. The company relocated to a new industrial park in St. Wendel, with room for manufacturing and long-term growth. The year’s hit, the Hughes & Kettner Cream Machine, became the first product to sell more than 10,000 units and helped shape the brand’s reputation worldwide.

The clear distinction between the target audiences led to the creation of HK Audio as a standalone brand for PA systems, while Hughes & Kettner focused on guitar amplifiers. The first HK Audio product, the P1 system, was launched. At the same time, computer-controlled production marked the company’s move into “Industry 2.0”: greater capacity, tighter tolerances and optimized processes.

With LINEAR PRO, HK AUDIO made high-end sound quality accessible for the first time to smaller sound reinforcement companies and bands. This tradition continues to this day in the current LINEAR series and has cemented the brand’s reputation as a leading choice for practical, powerful and affordable solutions.

With the legendary R-SERIES, HK AUDIO introduces a new family of large-format PA systems featuring the world’s first FIR controller. The system proves so compelling that the Scorpions take it on a stadium tour.

The next major step in production was the launch of a new robot-equipped paint line. With absolute consistency, it applies a durable, environmentally friendly finish to 600 speaker cabinets a day.

In 1998, HK AUDIO launched LUCAS, its most successful product series to date. Once again, an innovative concept was the key to its success. For the first time, a complex sound reinforcement system worked on a plug-and-play basis, making great sound easy for everyone to achieve.

After the expansion options at Magdeburger Straße had been exhausted, a second site was opened just a few hundred metres away on Tritschlerstraße.
The new site also housed the company’s own EMC test lab and, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute, Europe’s largest Class 1 measurement room.

With COHEDRA, HK AUDIO introduced the brand’s first large-scale line array system. From then on, COHEDRA became the first choice wherever large-scale sound reinforcement called for exceptionally pure, uncolored sound.
In 2004, the HK AUDIO Demo Hall was inaugurated at the company’s site. Since then, it has regularly hosted user training sessions and dealer events.

With its groundbreaking concept, ELEMENTS became the most talked-about new product of the year and went on to become HK AUDIO’s most successful individual product of all time.
ELEMENTS was the first product to be made through an international production network, combining the capacity of the company’s headquarters in St. Wendel with that of its partners in Asia.

A major milestone for HK AUDIO was the development of the Multicell Transformer, which enables purer sound, more precise directivity and more compact designs. The technology was first used in the LUCAS NANO 600 system, which delivers astonishingly big sound for its size.

With the COSMO family, HK AUDIO introduces a groundbreaking new line array concept that, for the first time, allows components with different horizontal dispersion characteristics to be combined without compromising sound quality.
The POLAR 10 column PA system makes its world premiere as the first product in the series – and makes a splash from the outset.

With the launch of the SONAR series in November 2020, HK Audio brought professional features to an accessible price point for the first time.

Following ISE 2022, HK Audio stepped up product development across all segments. In Live Sound, the LINEAR 5 MK2 and LINEAR 9 series strengthened the company’s market position, while the Portable segment expanded with the POLAR column systems, including the POLAR 8 and the completed MK2 series. For permanent indoor installations, the ball-impact-resistant FINEO series was introduced, while the modular COSMO line array offered flexibility for large-scale events. In Concert Sound, the flagship long-throw model CONTOUR X 210 LT was also launched. The portfolio was further expanded with the LUNAR and PORTABLE SUB families for DJs and live performers. All these innovations have been – and continue to be – developed and manufactured in St. Wendel as “Made in Germany” products.