ABOUT US

From our humble beginnings in 1994 inside a small business unit in the beautiful East Devon Countryside, a team of two joined forces bringing both knowledge & passion from their respective fields (Pro Audio & Hi-Fi) to form MC²… One primary goal to produce sonically accurate audio for the global professional audio market.

It all started with the MC Series back in the early 90s. These were designed as amplification for both live sound and installation, but they became widely adopted and accepted into studio applications owing to their sonic qualities. They quickly made an impact in the studio industry and their natural path to Hi-Fi began, resulting in their usage in the home, particularly in Asia and Europe.

The MC series was very successful for many years and in particular, the MC1250 was considered by many as the best-sounding Pro Audio amplifier ever produced, hence it’s now legendary status. When they were finally discontinued back in 2012 they were superseded by the S-Series reference amplifiers, which became an instant hit. In essence, they took everything that was loved about the former models and improved them.

LEGENDARY BRITISH AUDIO ELECTRONICS

After a life spent designing developing and building truly special and legendary British audio electronics, Terry Clarke the creator, founder, and the very soul of our company asked the head of R&D Alex Cooper to build something extra special.

He asked him to direct us to create something to give back, something to take his sound to the home, a showpiece for the world, a sonic delicacy.

“Focus on sound, not budget or rugged tough touring durability – money is no problem. Your challenge is to make the best amp possible without compromise, without constraints of any kind. Make it brilliant, make something wonderful and truly fantastic, something that’s living in the past but also in the future! ”

So, we did! We started work on the project coined “ULTRA” back in 2019 – not just a power amp but a range of Hi-Fi products with a pre/power combo to launch.

The heart, success, and passion of both MC² & XTA have been channeled into this new creation. Led by General Manager Robert Bradshaw-Smith, Head of R&D Alex Cooper, and overseen by Technical directors/company owners, John Austin & Terry Clarke we have brought the heart and soul of Live Sound to the home! With 2 separate production facilities based in Devon & Worcestershire, we have the capacity and experience to construct high-quality audio tools… From kitting out Air studios to supplying audio processors for NASA, and the main stage at Glastonbury, we have earned our reputation as a high-level, solid, and reliable audio brand.

ULTRAFIDE became more than a new product range, it developed into a vision, a labour of love! Special care and attention are paid to every single unit; hand built in the beautiful county of Devon!

In a world of limits, barriers, and constraints, discover the pure power of Ultrafide Audio – when limits are left at the door!

OUR FOUNDATIONS

THE BRAINS BEHIND

THE OPERATION

Terry Clarke and Alex Cooper are extremely well versed and hugely respected in the field of Pro Audio. Having been engineers/designers/innovators since the 60’s & 80’s, and both active musicians, this has helped to mold the fundamentals of MC² and sister company XTA today. They have decades of experience of audio electronic design/engineering and have both won the prestigious Gotellier Award for their contribution to professional audio. They are considered industry legends and pioneers with many notable products such as the TEKNIK 7, SM2, DP Series, DN11+11, MC1250 & XL4.

Terry was famous (or infamous) for tinkering with things; disassembling and modifying guitars & recording equipment whilst he was a guitar player in bands (or “groups” as they were known back then). He even played in a band (The Cruisers) with Clifford T Ward and has also played with Robert Plant (who was a friend from school) over the years! Back in those days (60’s) there was no Pro Audio industry, so Terry played an important role from the very beginning with his musical background and whilst working on recording studios with Bruce Brown.

Terry worked for Decca in their tape recorder department and after leaving them he set up the renowned Klark Teknik with his brother Phil in 1971, and later in 1987 acquired Midas. Their first product for KT was actually not audio related, but a coin-operated car wash machine! The first audio product designed by Terry @ KT was the TEKNIK-7, it was the first analogue EQ of its kind and ground-breaking at the time.

Terry is pictured here winning the Gottelier award in 2011.

Terry designed a very high-quality ½ inch tape recorder for the BBC called the SM2, but it was physically very big and the company decided it would rather make smaller products, so sold the design to Leevers Rich who continued producing them for many years. The most notable products from his KT days were the DN11+11 (later known as the DN22), the DN27, DN60, and the DN70 digital audio delay line, as famously used by Mark Knopfler. The DN60 was probably one of the most iconic pieces of equipment KT made with a 28×16 matrix of bright red LED’s that showed a pictorial representation of the sound; this was a real benefit to sound engineers. Even recently they could still be seen in a famous car manufacturer’s advertisement as part of the “lab equipment” used to fine-tune the car’s entertainment systems!

Alex worked on many notable products such as the early Midas consoles XL3, XL4, and then headed up the design on the latter XL8, Pro 2, 3, & 4 series consoles. Moving to the current time Alex heads up R&D for MC² & XTA and was a head designer on the newest products in the range, the DELTA & DPA Series DSP integrated high fidelity touring amplification, with high-resolution network audio transport.

Moving back over to the console side he led design on XTA’s most notable product since their ground-breaking DP226 & 448 processors; the MX36 DSP-enabled console switching system.

Alex also made guitar amplifiers in the early 2000s, and sold a few to famous guitar players; most notably Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Pete Townsend (The Who), Micky Moody (Whitesnake), Uli Jon Roth (Scorpions), & Mick Box (Uria Heep).