Loyd Ivey

Loyd (Lee) Ivey (born May 18th, 1951) is the founder, President, chairman and CEO of Mitek Corporation. Loyd Ivey was born in Marble Hill, Missouri.

Early life

Loyd Ivey was born into a European family which farmed during the summer and were traveling circus gypsies after the harvest. By the age of six Loyd had self-taught himself to play the saxophone; however, there was no need for a blues saxist in the family act, so, at the age of eight, he was asked to leave the act. For the next few years Loyd served as a roadie for his family but was not a part of the act.

Move to Chicago

Loyd Ivey was unsatisfied with his current life with his family, so, in 1967, he moved to Chicago to pursue his dream of becoming a great white blues saxophonist. However, 1967 was the time when the world saw big changes towards the era of psychadelic rock, and little opportunity was present for a blues saxist.

Business Acqusition

Late one night, Loyd met a drunk man named Johnny G who owned a cabinet company. Johnney bet his company against Loyd's being able to play a gypsy melody from his childhood. As it went, Loyd was able to play the melody and Johnny really did transfer the company to Loyd over the few years by working with him and showing him how to run the business.

Cabinets to Speakers

By the early 1970's, Loyd had full control of the company, but once again found himself not entirely satisfied, even with the financial stability he now had. Upon remodeling a room, he came across a pair of old speakers that sounded terrible. He rebuilt them so that they sounded good. This quickly became an obsession. Loyd built multitudes of floor-standing speakers, using up all his cabinet supplies and most of his money in the process.

Lucky for Ivey, the disco era was just coming into full swing and people quickly learned of Ivey's obsession as a high demand for large speakers appeared. They knew that Ivey was passionate about speakers so Ivey's business pretty much shifted over from cabinets to speakers just like that.

Business Names

Loyd Ivey has gone through many business names, changing them at seemingly any whim.

Disco Era

Ivey changed the name of his business very many times during the mid late 1970's. These include, but are not limited to: American Loudspeakers, American Acoustics, American Acoustics by Loyd, AAL, ATM, AA, Triple A, Loydco, Super Loydco, Graphyx, Magnum, Ivey Electronics, Speaker-o-rama, Super Disco Loydco, Matracs, Motown, Mytricks, Loydtex, Kotex and Mitek. Eventually, MTX Audio was settled upon.

Mid 90's

Loyd Ivey changed the name of his company several times in the 90's, too, including Oakton, Cricket, Magnum and Soundcraftsmen.

Today

Ivey eventually changed the name of his corporation back to Mitek, but kept MTX Audio, making that a brand name.

Innovations

Loyd Ivey may be credible for the advent of the car audio revolution of the early 80's. In the late 70's, while listening to the stock radio in his truck, he was unsatisfied with it's performance. Disco was going out and Ivey had a great surplus of large speakers. He custom made bix speaker boxes coated in rat fur to put in his truck, using big disco speakers. Thus, the MTX bass expander was born.

Personal Interests

Loyd Ivey is an aviation enthusiast and is a liscensed pilot.

Anything audio related, aside from being his business, he has a great interest in.

ee also

MTX Audio

References

http://www.loydivey.com/

http://www.ce.org/AboutCEA/CEAInitiatives/1169.htm