Say „K&M" and you think of the microphone stand that stands in nearly every rehearsal room on earth — without ever realizing the name is simply the two founders' surnames fused together. The company was founded in 1949 in Wertheim am Main, Germany, by Karl König and Erich Meyer, both originally from Thuringia, where their original factory in Zella-Mehlis had been expropriated under Soviet occupation. They started from scratch with just six employees, producing music stands and — oddly enough for today's specialization — measuring instruments. Demand for stage gear surged with the rise of rock 'n' roll (Elvis Presley, the Beatles), pushing K&M to expand into instrument and microphone stands — the moment that shaped the company into what we know today.
The real engine of innovation was Martin König, the founder's son, who joined the company in 1950 and, over the following decades, patented dozens of designs — from instrument stands that fold up small enough to store inside a brass instrument's bell, to a ring-lock mechanism for stabilizing loudspeaker cabinets. In the late 1970s, K&M introduced the 214/6 speaker stand with an innovative locking-bolt height-adjustment system, which quickly became the professional industry standard. Interestingly, the classic 101 music stand and the 210/2 microphone stand are still manufactured today in nearly the same way they were in the 1950s.
At Wired Tunes we carry the full range of K&M stands and holders — microphone, speaker, keyboard, guitar, and music stands. It's the kind of gear that rarely makes magazine covers, but without which no stage, studio, or rehearsal room could actually function — the sturdy foundation that literally everything else on stage rests on.
