Sean Olive

With a background spanning music, sound recording, psychoacoustics and product innovation, Sean Olive has shaped the field of sound quality research for four decades. After early research in collaboration with Floyd Toole at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Olive joined Harman International in 1993, ultimately serving as Senior Fellow while leading groundbreaking work in loudspeakers, headphones, automotive audio and room acoustics. Since May 2025, he has worked as an independent consultant and continues to conduct research and publish papers. A Fellow and Past President of the AES, Olive is also the author of more than 55 research papers, and co-author of Floyd Toole’s Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers, Rooms and Headphones (4th Edition) published in 2025. He holds degrees in music from the University of Toronto and Masters and PhD degrees in Sound Recording from McGill University.