I de beste albumene med oppslukende lyd: Neumann-monitorer leverer Grammy-prisvinnende lyd

Los Angeles, California, 6.februar 2026 — I verdenen av romlig lydproduksjon er nøyaktighet og konsistens ikke til forhandling. Fra store popproduksjoner til storslått orkestersountracks fortsetter Neumanns studiomonitorer å forme lyden av prisvinnende lyd. De siste Grammy®-seierne for Best Immersive Audio Album av de anerkjente lydteknikerne George Massenburg, Michael Romanowski, Eric Schilling, og produsenten Herbert Waltl har alle én teknisk konstant: Neumann KH-serie med monitorer.

Fra popikoner til episke musikkverk

Enten de remikser den ikoniske Alicia Keys-katalogen (med hjelp fra Keys´ produsent og tekniker Ann Mincieli), former den storslåtte musikken til God of War: Ragnarök, eller produserer den sjangerblandende Divine Tides av Stewart Copeland og Ricky Kej, har disse lydteknikerne og produsentene stolt på Neumanns monitorer i KH-serien for å omsette sine kreative visjoner med fantastisk gjengivelse - på tvers av formater, sjangre og avspillingssystemer.

Disse albumene ble i stor grad til i Media HYPERIUM-studioet i California, som ble bygget i 2020 av den multiplatina- og tre ganger Grammy-vinnende produsenten Herbert Waltl i samarbeid med lydteknikeren Eric Schilling. Waltl har vunnet Grammy Awards for Årets album og Beste surroundlydalbum, begge for Ray Charles’ Genius Loves Company, samt for Beste immersive lydalbum for Divine Tides, i tillegg til flere nominasjoner. Musikmikseren for Grammy-showet og den åtte ganger Grammy-vinnende lydteknikeren Eric Schilling har rollen som sjefstekniker i studioet, som er utstyrt med et spesialdesignet Neumann-system for å støtte miksing av romlig lyd. Schilling har vunnet prisen for Beste immersive lydalbum for blant annet Alicia, The Diary of Alicia Keys og Divine Tides.

Les resten av pressemeldingen på engelsk nedenfor.

“Everything we’ve done here the last few years was mixed on Neumann speakers,” says Schilling of his partnership with Waltl. “We’ve got KH 420s, 310s, 120s, and the subs. The room is tuned around them, and the sound just translates — I’m never surprised when I hear a mix outside this room.” Schilling adds, “The sound [doesn't] fall apart at higher volumes — it [stays] musical. That’s rare.”

A reliable system that delivers sonic truth

The mediaHYPERIUM room features seven KH 420 tri-amplified mains and dual KH 870 subwoofers, anchored by KH 310s and KH 120s in height and floor positions — a hybrid layout that switches seamlessly between immersive formats.

While Schilling and Waltl work out of mediaHYPERIUM, their frequent collaborator Michael Romanowski heads up Coast Mastering in Berkeley as Chief Mastering Engineer. He is one of the very first immersive audio mastering engineers and has won Grammy Awards for Best Immersive Audio Album for Alicia, The Diary Of Alicia Keys, and The United States Army Field Band And Soldiers' Chorus’ Soundtrack of the American Soldier, plus several other wins and nominations. The in-demand engineer has outfitted his own mastering and mix environments with Neumann KH 310s and KH 120s, and regularly co-leads immersive projects with the others. “I love how natural they sound ... They’re accurate. What you hear is what you get,” Romanowski says of the monitors. “That’s what makes them the best tools for immersive. Some monitors are shouty — they’re trying too hard. Not Neumann. They’re smooth, accurate, and never fatiguing. They’re just honest – that's what you need.”

Precision meets emotion

For frequent collaborator George Massenburg, immersive audio is not just about technical fidelity — it's about emotion. “You need transparency to reach a listener’s heart,” he says. “Monitoring must be musical, not just analytical. Neumann monitors helped us keep the listener in mind, to build a story in three dimensions.” Through a career lasting over 50 years, Massenburg is a globally renowned producer, engineer, audio equipment and studio designer. He is the founder of Massenburg DesignWorks and George Massenburg Labs, and has won a Grammy for Technical Achievement. His studio work has gained him international recognition and six Grammys (including the Grammy for Technical Achievement in 1998, making him one of only seventeen individuals to receive that honor at the time), as well as numerous nominations and awards. Additionally, he has earned Grammy Awards for The Diary Of Alicia Keys, Alicia, Patty Loveless’ Mountain Soul II, and more.

Massenburg contributed immersive mixes to Alicia Keys’ “Underdog” and other tracks, often working remotely and referencing across multiple systems. Despite those variables, Neumann’s consistency stood out. “We could trust what we were hearing. When I took mixes from my place to Eric and Herbert’s room at mediaHYPERIUM, the character held up.”

A dream team with seamless collaboration

Massenburg, Romanowski, Schilling and Waltl developed a seamless collaborative workflow — reviewing ADM files, referencing between systems, and constantly adjusting mixes for translation. Neumann’s consistency across sizes and formats proved crucial. “I’ve worked on many speakers, but these make the experience more fun,” says Schilling. “Even when I travel, the smaller Neumann systems carry the same character. I trust them.”

That trust and seamless collaboration is a cornerstone of their Grammy success. Together, the four have taken home multiple wins in the Best Immersive Audio Album category over the past four years – a category historically won by artists like Beyoncé, Paul McCartney and The Beatles.

Building an entire ecosystem over several decades

The Grammy-winning Divine Tides project, which fuses global instrumentation with lush production, was another immersive success story crafted on Neumann monitors. So too was God of War: Ragnarök, with over 400 audio tracks and larger-than-life orchestral arrangements. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a string quartet or a monster score — the system just handles it,” says Waltl. “We’ve had composers and artists walk in, listen, and say, ‘This is one of the best sounding immersive rooms we’ve ever heard.’”

Waltl, who founded mediaHYPERIUM in 1996, recalls first hearing Neumann monitors at Skywalker Sound. “The KH 310s impressed me from the start,” he says. “Now, we’ve built an entire ecosystem around them — not just for mixing, but also listening, teaching, and inspiring. The speakers let the music speak.”

Grammy Awards 2026 Update

At the awards ceremony on February 2, 2026, Michael Romanowski was once again honored with a Grammy. This time for mastering Justin Gray's album Immersed, which was specifically composed, recorded and produced for immersive audio.

More information:

mediaHYPERIUM: https://www.mediahyperium.com/

Coast Mastering: https://www.coastmastering.com/

Massenburg DesignWorks: ​ ​ https://massenburgdesignworks.com/

About Neumann

Georg Neumann GmbH, known as “Neumann.Berlin”, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of studio-grade audio equipment and the creator of recording microphone legends such as the U 47, M 49, U 67, and U 87. Founded in 1928, the company has been recognized with numerous international awards for its technological innovations. Since 2010, Neumann.Berlin has expanded its expertise in electro-acoustic transducer design to also include the studio monitor market, building upon the legacy of the legendary loudspeaker innovator Klein + Hummel. The first Neumann studio headphones were introduced in 2019, and since 2022, the company has increased its focus on reference solutions for live audio. With the introduction of the first audio interface MT 48, and its revolutionary converter technology, Neumann now offers all the necessary technologies needed to capture and deliver sound at the highest level. Georg Neumann GmbH has been part of the Sennheiser Group since 1991 and is represented worldwide by the Sennheiser network of subsidiaries and long-standing trading partners. www.neumann.com

Stay up to date and follow Neumann on: FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE