Los Angeles - May18, 2007 - On May 17, the LA Times posted an obituary for audio engineer John Eargle. Eargle wrote technical books on sound recording and worked as a consultant for electroacoustical product development, was found dead May 9 at his home in the Hollywood Hills. He was 76.

The LA Times reports that Eargle apparently died peacefully, said a spokesman for JBL Professional, the Northridge-based speaker company where Eargle was a consultant for 31 years. The cause of death has not been determined.

The obituary notes that Eargle engineered or produced more than 275 recordings with artists that include Joe Williams, Ruth Brown, Etta James, the London Symphony and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He won a Grammy Award in 2001 for best engineered classical album for Dvorak: Requiem and Symphony No. 9, with Zdenek Macal leading the New Jersey Symphony and the Westminster Symphonic Choir. Eargle was director of recording for Delos. In 2002, Eargle and two other engineers were given a scientific and technical award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for development of cinema loudspeaker systems.

Eargle was the author of several publications, including The Handbook of Recording Engineering, The Microphone Handbook, The Handbook of Sound System Design and The Loudspeaker Handbook.

Eargle was born Jan. 6, 1931, in Tulsa, OK. A memorial website has been created at http://www.johnmeargle.com.