PROFILE
Jon Jukes
By Andrew King
“W
hat ever happened
to the easy pace
of retail?” jokes Jon
Jukes, comparing his
current touch-and-
go schedule as an acoustician to the far
more predictable one he enjoyed during
his almost 40 years in music retail.
Just a few years ago, in 2013, Jukes re-
signed from his post as manager of Long &
McQuade’s Waterloo, ON store and jumped
into acoustics full time with his own com-
pany, CS Acoustics, a design, consultancy,
and manufacturing firm that specializes in
custom large-room treatments and instal-
lations. The company’s name is a nod to his
family’s history in music and retail.
Jukes grew up on a small farm outside
of New Hamburg, ON, a short drive from
Kitchener-Waterloo. His parents opened
The Carpenter Shop in nearby Stratford,
ON in 1973 – a full-line music store and
Christian bookstore.
“My mother would sell guitars and
Bibles, usually to two different clienteles,
but in the same shop,” Jukes explains.
“When I was nine, I started working in the
store, mostly cleaning where I could be
hidden from the customers. By the time
I was 12, I was full-time in summers and
on weekends during school. I learned to
love the customers and the gear and really
enjoyed selling.”
As a teenager, he started mixing live
sound for his father’s singing group on
gear that “wasn’t exactly state of the art.”
That gave him a solid understanding of
signal path, EQ, and the other dynamics
involved in a good mix, “So even at a young
age,” he adds, “I was interested in live audio
and some recording.”
The Carpenter Shop expanded into
Waterloo, ON in 1996 and Jukes stayed in
the family business while keeping busy
with various audio-related side projects.
In 2003, Long & McQuade acquired the
two stores – the chain’s 23 rd and 24 th in
Canada – and Jukes stayed on as the store
manager in Waterloo.
Through the subsequent years, he did a
number of sound system installs, particu-
larly in churches, which planted the seeds
for his future career change. “I always felt
there was a need for the acoustics to be
clearer, but I didn’t understand much about
the art,” he says. “I ran into Joe De Buglio,
who was a Tannoy rep at the time, and
questioned him a lot about room acoustics
and the behaviour of sound and so on.”
Jukes delved into the science and was
soon working on projects alongside De
Buglio. His first acoustics job was a demo
room for A.C. Simmonds & Sons, which at
the time was distributing audio brands
like Shure and Galaxy Audio. “They had
taken on Bag End speakers and needed
help in the space, particularly with the
bass and low mids. We did the job and it
worked out great.”
When he and his wife, Elizabeth, wel-
comed their two sons, Jukes took a break
from acoustics, but in 2009, he “got the itch
again.” He and De Buglio once again col-
laborated to treat a gymnasium that had
been used as a worship space for about
800 people. Achieving a 20dB reduction
down to 100 Hz, needless to say, Jukes was
pretty jazzed.
“By 2013, it was pretty much 40 years
since I had been working around the MI
retail floor and I was ready for a change.
I resigned from L&M and launched into
acoustics full-time with my own company.”
CS Acoustics maintains a focus on
custom, large room installations, including
a host of houses of worship, and has also
started manufacturing treatment products
that ship to other provinces and states for
clients to self-install.
“Two years ago, I went searching for a
plastic-based component for some of the
diffusers we manufacture,” Jukes begins.
“I found plastic recycling technology that
was unique and had potential not only as
a standalone business, but to allow us to
manufacture more of the components for
our acoustic products, so we decided to
start this plastics recycling factory that, to
be honest, turned out to be tougher than
I thought.”
The factory runs 24 hours per day, six
days a week, and Jukes admits it’s been
the source of some long days and many
challenges; however, after two years of de-
velopment, his two businesses are begin-
ning to dovetail. “CS Acoustics is presently
working on a large club and good-sized
church, incorporating our recycled plastic
components in acoustical products. It’s
going to be awhile until this is all seamless,
but it’s exciting to bring these two incred-
ibly diverse worlds together.”
He reiterates that the ebb and flow of
his schedule remains an ongoing chal-
lenge; things can go from sluggish to
hectic at the snap of a finger. “This is not
for the faint of heart,” he says, noting 2018
will be a busy year; however, he’s working
on bringing a balance back into his life to
spend more time with his family. “When I
left retail, it took me two years to figure out
what a Saturday was for,” he jokes. “Right
now, it’s a little too busy,” and yet it’s clear
he’s passionate about his work.
“I love taking a room and transform-
ing it into a cool-sounding space. It’s crazy
when you start installing a job and you
have to yell at each other to communicate,
but by the time we’re on the last wall, you
can talk in a normal voice across the same
distance. I get to create an acoustic signa-
ture of a room that should last for 50 to 100
years. Now how cool is that?”
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of
Professional Sound.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 21