Founded in Los Angeles in 1958 by WW2 veteran Jack Wilson, Auratone grew from a small GI-Bill-funded home-audio workshop into one of the most influential monitor brands in recording history, culminating in the early-1970s release of the 5C Super Sound Cube, a compact sealed single-driver reference speaker designed to reveal real-world mix translation on consumer systems; its brutally honest mid-range and crossover-free design made it a staple of studios worldwide and a key tool in mixing Michael Jackson’s *Thriller*, with Bruce Swedien completing most of the mix on 5Cs, while artists and engineers from Paul McCartney and ABBA to Tom Elmhirst and Jack Antonoff have continued the tradition; after Wilson’s passing in 2005, his grandson Alex Jacobsen revived the brand in 2014 using original cone materials, and today Auratone remains family owned, US-built, and integral to modern hit-making.
