Both had a thorough grounding in the BBC Sound Department before establishing Leema in 1998. While Lee joined the Beeb two years after Mallory, he stayed on longer winning awards for the sound on many flagship dramas. Meanwhile Mallory left and helped set up a postproduction sound studio which grew into one of London’s largest independents. Both claim to play guitar and drums but their views on other things are revealingly different.
At what point in time did you decide that you wanted to design/manufacture/ distribute/ represent audio equipment?
Lee: It wasn’t my idea, it was his!
Mallory: I started designing and manufacturing audio products during the 80’s. I designed an integrated amplifier called the Cyclone Catalyst during that period. However, I was better known for a range of professional audio monitoring electronics under the brand name Magtrax. These products are still used by mixing studios, mastering houses and broadcast companies across the world. Magtrax products became the de-facto standard for surround monitoring during the 90’s
Apple Mac or PC?
Lee: I mostly use PC’s, one of my daughters has a Mac book pro which I like a lot, but ultimately I am not that
bothered. You have to keep a healthy perspective about computers, which, along with mobile phones and fax
machines, are the tools of the devil, they will rot your brain and destroy civilisation as we know it. Increasingly,
people feel isolated and remote whilst labouring under the illusion that they live in a tangible world. They don’t,
the dysfunction of reality is real and the Matrix is here! ………………………..Computers make you paranoid!
Mallory: PC – I run a huge number very technical applications which are simply not available on the Mac platform. I also push PC’s very hard, often running up to ten applications simultaneously on a three monitor Windows 7 platform. The open architecture of the PC is also important to me as a designer – I often run my own software and hardware in PCs.
What is it that you love about music?
Lee: My system is loud enough to drown out the ephemeral racket played continuously by my three teenage daughters!
Mallory: The fact that the diversity makes it interesting for everyone. Also, that the diversity brings much debate and polarises opinions often with extreme passion.
Bach or Beethoven?
Lee: Stravinsky
Mallory: Neither!
CD or Vinyl?
Lee: 2 inch 2 track running at 30 inches per second, strictly no noise reduction.
Mallory: Vinyl – Quite apart from the audio quality, vinyl is a complete experience – from the sleeve artwork
to the fact that you don’t jump from track to track. Playing a vinyl album in one sitting without interruption is one of the greatest ways to spend time and something that people just don’t do anymore.
What was your first product as a manufacturer/ distributor/ PR?
Lee: The Leema Xen reference micro monitor.
Mallory: In serious volumes, Magtrax monitoring systems and the Leema Xen loudspeaker.
What is your favourite food?
Lee: Any food, but preferably food that has never had a central nervous system
Mallory: Indian by a very long margin..
What is your point of reference when designing/ representing new products?
Lee: There can only be one reference, that’s the real sound of a real instrument played well by a real person.
Mallory: Live sound – We don’t use external references when designing. Lee and I have over sixty years experience in professional audio and Hi-Fi. We are both trained audio engineers and have worked on and recorded every type of audio source imaginable – spoken word, classical and contemporary music, location film and television sound, special effects etc. We have our own standards and are fortunate to have exactly the same audio preferences and judgement. The way other manufacturers products sound is of no direct interest to us. At the end of the day, every manufacturer believes that they do it the ‘right’ way.
Beatles or Rolling Stones?
Lee: Who?
Mallory: Neither!
What was the first record you ever bought?
Lee: I bought the soundtrack album for Dumbo, with attached colour picture book. My parents had taken me to see the film in London at the Odeon Marble Arch when I was about 7. The soundtrack albums were available in the cinema foyer, so I bought one with my birthday money. I still have it! However, I cannot play it because the song “baby of mine” (sung by Dumbo’s mother through the bars of her cage while she is incarcerated for going rogue in the circus parade) makes me burst in to inconsolable and hysterical sobbing even now, 45 years on. I’m welling up just thinking about it!
Mallory: 59th Street Bridge Song – Simon and Garfunkel – 1966.
What piece of Hi-Fi/Home Cinema equipment do you consider to be totally iconic?
Lee: Quad electrostatics, the original 57’s. My father was an electronics designer and an audio nut. Our home system was stacked Quadswith a spiral, horn loaded subwoofer under the floor, driven by multiple KEF B139 bass drivers. That system became my personal reference and I have rarely heard better.
Mallory: Revox A77 1/4” tape recorder.
What is your favourite film?
Lee: The Right Stuff
Mallory: 2001 A Space Odyssey.
What is your favourite album/piece of music?
Lee: Moving waves by Focus, the guitar solo on side 2 (for all you vinyl heads) inspired me to buy my first electric guitar, a Grant Les Paul copy in black. It cost £67!…………….. It was rubbish.
Mallory: Sensational Alex Harvey Band Live.
Do you play any musical instruments?
Lee: Six string guitar, Bass guitar and drums, Keyboards after a fashion.
Mallory: Guitar, bass, drums & keyboards.
What Hi-Fi System do you have at home?
Lee: A Sony Bluray machine, feeding a Leema triple system with 5 Leema Xen micro monitors and a custom subwoofer with an ultra long throw 12 inch driver and a 500 watt amp, built into the bay window, masquerading as a window seat.
Mallory: Antila IIS Eco/Pyxis/Hydra II/Xanda II
Is there one place on Planet Earth that you would like to visit or revisit?
Lee: Pauline Jessops’ bedroom, May the 17th 1975 about 4 in the afternoon while her parents are at work!
Mallory: New York – I don’t generally like cities, but for many reasons New York is my favourite place.
What music are you currently listening to?
Lee: Morglbl …………….” jazz for the deaf”. (it’s on Spotify)
Mallory: Jessie J and Eminem
How do you see the future for this industry?
Lee: If we can educate the iPod generation to appreciate quality, then the future is rosy.
Mallory: Moving away from conventional audio products to on demand cloud streaming.
How do you think audio/visual products will develop during the next 20 years?
Lee: They will get cleverer and cleverer but manufacturers need to ensure they produce products the public want. Cloud based systems are the obvious route forwards but the communications infrastructure in the UK needs to be rapidly upgraded in order for such systems to work reliably and efficiently.
Mallory: There needs to be much more effort put into visual display systems. The current (passing) trend of 3D TV using glasses is hopeless. 3D projection without glasses and cloud based ondemand playback will be vital. These technologies are almost here now. Over the next two decades it’s anyone’s guess. However, if product and
technology life-cycles don’t slow down from the current pace, the buying public will soon get tired of making
major purchases that are out of date within a year or so. The full interview can be seen, with others,
on our website.
