Martin Glasband (Mar 17, 1950 -November 7, 2017) Founder of Equi=Tech and original researcher and developer of balanced power technology.
Martin Glasband was born and raised in the heart of Los Angeles, California where he spent the earlier part of his life in relative chaos along with three siblings and numerous dogs. At the tender age of eight, with an innate and insatiable curiosity, Martin was already building transistor radios in the family garage and discovering his life-long passion for everything electrical. His high school electronics shop teacher told Martin’s parents that there was nothing he could teach Martin…in fact, HE became the student.
Always a “do-it-yourselfer”, Martin chose a path of practical (rather than academic) training, moved to Selma, Oregon, and started his professional career as an electrician, wiring garages.
After reading the entire electrical codebook cover to cover, he then graduated to houses, and subsequently to commercial businesses and recording studios. Some 20 years later, he was handling large electrical engineering projects and writing code that found its way to being published in the NEC (National Electronics Code. He became fascinated by a narrow part of the electrical power industry that deals with power quality… i.e. that portion of the electrical engineering trade that is concerned with how power affects the performance of sensitive electronic equipment and electric motors. He came upon the balanced power solution when designing an electrical plan for a large recording studio project in Los Angeles in 1988. Needless to say, the project was highly successful. Soon thereafter, Martin found that he could produce these systems on a smaller scale with much the same results. In 1992 Equi=Tech was born. He built a few balanced power systems that could just plug right into an AC outlet and run an entire recording rig. The results were amazing, and the rest is history.
Martin could speak endlessly and effortlessly about balanced power, the many benefits it offered and was an enthusiastic, amiable and accessible teacher, eager to impart his love for electronics and particularly the gains he had made for the entire electronics industry through his research. He lectured on many occasions, created relationships with multiple high profile individuals who became loyal Equi=Tech fans, and helped to develop better options for a wide variety of end users, from NASA, the Library of Congress, Oakridge National Labs, to Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Skywalker Studios, Lucasfilms, and an endless and growing list of artists and performance venues of all shapes, sizes and categories. He loved people, and especially his dogs who he gave human names to (i.e.; Gordon and Steve). He was a practiced fisherman, loved the outdoors and nature, and spent countless hours deep sea and fresh water fishing in his spare time.
In 2015 Martin’s health began to deteriorate due to several serious medical issues. He contacted his sister, Jan,a free-lance commercial graphic artist and theatrical producer, and asked for her help in running Equi=Tech, which had also began to decline due to his failing health.
In 2017 Martin passed away, leaving the company in the hands of Jan Glasband and Erik Praytor, Martin’s long-time production manager, who together, managed to begin to rebuild what was, and is, the original and foremost manufacturer of balanced power and isolation transformer products in the country, if not the world.