Early in his tenure as Parasound’s new owner, David Sheriff made a commitment to the company’s legendary designer, John Curl, to bring more of his new ideas to the fore. To accelerate this process, Sheriff has hired Darren Myers as Vice President of Research and Development.
Myers was most recently Senior Analog Design Engineer for PS Audio, and earlier a designer for Classe Audio and Bowers & Wilkins Loudspeakers. He is a passionate music enthusiast who describes being obsessed over just about every aspect of its reproduction since hearing his first Wilson Audio system when he was 16 years old. Myers has an electrical engineering degree from the University of North Carolina with a specialization in microelectronics. His designs have earned countless awards including Stereophile’s Analog Product of the Year for 2020 and The Absolute Sound’s Amplifier of the Year for 2021.
Myers will work closely with John Curl and the company’s in-house design team lead by Bob MacDonald, Director of Product Development, to broaden the scope of Parasound’s high-end family of products and also to bring Parasound quality and performance to new products in the custom installation and integration realm.
“When I first met John Curl late last year,” said Sheriff, “he had more great ideas for new products and product upgrades than he had time to fulfill them. Now, Darren has lots of new ideas of his own, and he is looking forward to working with John in a variety of areas. I am very optimistic the synergy of these two will grow the company and provide exciting new products for audio enthusiasts.”
Said Myers, “Words cannot convey my excitement around joining forces with David Sheriff, John Curl, and the rest of the outstanding team at Parasound. I share the Parasound philosophy that values subjective listening as well as objective performance, and I believe that both perspectives are equally essential to making the world’s highest performing products. My mission with our design team will be to take an outstanding brand that is known for value and integrity to one that is also known for its innovation.”
Darren will enhance existing products and provide additional models to expand Parasound’s demographic footprint with audio enthusiasts and custom installations, as well as expand into new related markets.
Parasound was founded in 1981 by Richard Schram, who sold the company to David Sherriff in December 2022. Parasound remains a privately-owned U.S. company that specializes in providing affordable audio components to the critical listener. The company’s ever-improving line of products has garnered a reputation for performance, value, and reliability. The highest quality standards are assured by Parasound’s close relationships with their Taiwan manufacturers that date back to 1982.
The Audiophile Design Legacy of Engineer, Darren Meyers
Darren Meyers isn’t the loudest voice in high-end audio, nor does he lean into the “cult of personality” approach that defines some of his contemporaries. But his work speaks clearly—and consistently—for itself. In a world where some designers are almost as much a brand as the products they build, Meyers has taken a quieter route. Yet over the last two decades, his designs have played a significant role in reshaping what audiophiles can expect from well-engineered, affordably priced electronics.
Meyers started gaining serious attention during his time at Parasound, where he worked alongside the legendary John Curl. While Curl’s name has long been attached to the high-performance Halo JC series, Meyers was part of the team bringing those designs into production, fine-tuning circuit layouts, and adapting them to real-world use. His engineering input was practical, deliberate, and focused on sonic transparency—a trait that would carry over into the next chapter of his career.
At PS Audio, based in Boulder, Colorado, Meyers stepped into a lead role as Senior Analog Engineer. There, he spearheaded the design of the Stellar series, a range of components that blurred the line between mid-tier and reference-grade equipment. Unlike the legacy brands that depend on inflated marketing and ornate chassis design, the Stellar gear—like the Gain Cell DAC, S300 stereo amplifier, and M700 monoblocks—delivered real-world performance grounded in electrical fundamentals.
One of Meyers’ defining design choices at PS Audio has been the combination of discrete Class A analog input stages with Class D power output. This hybrid approach avoids the coloration or limitations of traditional topologies, while also keeping the physical footprint and heat output under control. The result is gear that sounds detailed and engaging without resorting to heavy voicing or warmth for its own sake. It’s clean, fast, and honest.
When you compare Darren Meyers to other prominent, often “celebrity” audio designers, the differences are clear. John Curl, now a colleague again via PS Audio’s acquisition of assets and deeper engineering collaborations, has earned legendary status for designs that go back to the original Mark Levinson JC-2. Curl’s work is often associated with transparency and brute-force amplifier capability, and rightfully so—he’s one of the most influential amplifier designers of his generation.
Andrew Jones, by contrast, is known for bringing high-end speaker design to the masses. From his time at KEF and TAD to his more accessible work with Pioneer and now MoFi, Jones’ appeal lies in his ability to create speakers with coherent imaging and tonal accuracy—often at price points that seem impossible for the level of performance achieved. His reputation rides on his ability to defy expectations.
Peter Madnick, formerly of Audio Alchemy and now involved in a number of modern high-end electronics brands, has carved out a niche designing digital and analog gear that leans heavily on technical elegance and modular architecture. His products often cater to a very specific type of enthusiast—someone who values flexibility, resolution, and technical depth.
Meyers, in comparison, has focused on delivering meaningful performance to a wide base of users. He doesn’t seek to reinvent circuit theory or turn design into art for art’s sake. Instead, his products are grounded in the idea that great sound doesn’t require exotic materials or mystical explanations. It requires clean power, smart layout, and attention to detail—nothing more, nothing less.
Importantly, Meyers doesn’t chase trends. He doesn’t try to revive tube nostalgia or over-complicate the user experience. His approach is straightforward, and his designs are informed by both lab data and extended listening sessions. In fact, he’s known for conducting extensive listening tests and revisions on prototypes—often obsessing over fine details that most users might never consciously notice, but still appreciate in the overall presentation.
What separates Darren Meyers from some of the more brand-oriented designers is that he’s more concerned with system performance than personal branding. You won’t see his signature etched onto a faceplate, and you won’t find pages of poetic marketing language around his work. But you will find components that measure well, sound better, and integrate easily into a wide range of systems.
His influence at PS Audio continues to grow, and his legacy is still in progress. But even now, Meyers has established himself as one of the most grounded, capable, and technically disciplined designers working in audio today.
