Sound Pioneer & Pro Audio Gear Guru Bob Heil Passes Away At 83. First manufactuer Display Rock N Roll Hall of Fame

A sound Pioneer has passed away. Bob Heil the likable and fun founder of Heil Sound and Audio has died. He was 83 years old after a battle with cancer. He died peacefully at Belleville Memorial Hospital Feb 28, 2024.  Born in Benton Illinois but soon in his teens moved to St. Louis Missouri where he played his  Wurlitzer organ at the famed Fabulous Fox Theatre. 

Heil won many awards over the years for his innovation in professional audio equipment and dynamic Microphones.  In 2007 Bob won the well-deserved Parnelli Award for Innovator of the Year. The same year the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame invited him to set up a display of his historic gear at the Columbus Ohio showrooms.  There he set up the Heil Talk Box first made for Joe Walsh and the [Mavis} Modular Mixing console that was used on The Who's Quadrophenia tour back in the early 1970's

Starting Heil Sound

Bob first started Heil Sound in the mid-1960s and pretty much created the template for modern Rock Pro Audio sound systems and setup. Speaker stacks, mixing consoles, tweeters, and audio components for touring bands and the sound engineers that ran them

Speakers and mixing systems for the Music Festival Circuit. He later developed his own line of microphones as well. Eventually, everyone called Heil Sound to get their equipment. One of the first people was Jerry Garcia himself. He was booked at the Fox Theatre in St Louis in 1970. Bob rigged the theatre (where he was the house organ player), with a brand new system just for the Grateful Dead.

The result was amazing, now you could hear the lyrics clearly and the experience for the audience was much better. Heil Sound began producing similar speakers and mixing systems to sell to other Bands and touring sound engineers at the time.

The show was a huge success, and the Grateful Dead asked Heil, his crew, and his sound system to join them on the road. Heil's setup would later become a template for the modern concert touring sound system at the time.

Heil Sound company quickly got accounts from sound engineers and managers who worked directly with The Who, Jeff Beck, Stevie Wonder, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, and the list goes on.

Bob got contracts with the biggest touring bands and sound companies for several decades.

Bob Heil was a true pioneer of this industry and will be greatly missed. We send our condolences to the Heil Family and all his closest friends and employees

If you have time please read about another brilliant Sound tech and Studio Microphone expert Toni Roger Fishman the gifted CEO of Telefunken Elektroakustik.  He also recently passed away.