Trade Regrets: Ike Cabasso

DJ market pioneer, Ike Cabasso, passed away on May 10 at the age of 79.

Founder of Gemini Sound Products (originally Gemini Speaker Systems), Cabasso was instrumental in the expansion of DJ-ing as a mainstream musical art form.

First embracing the emerging DJ market in the early 1970s, Ike Cabasso created a new division, Gemini Sound Products, in 1974 and offered their first product – the DJ-1 mixer – shortly afterwards. By the late ‘70s and the disco boom, Gemini’s DJ division had begun to outstrip the speaker business and mixers became much more than simply a sideline operation for the company. Throughout the 1980s, ‘90s, and through to the present day, Gemini’s products evolved with ongoing technological advances and, under Ike’s direction, Gemini Sound became an internationally distributed DJ brand known for innovative product design offered at affordable price points.

Cabasso stepped down from day-to-day management of the company in the early 2000s, but remained a valued advisor to his sons Artie and Alan, GCI Technologies’ (Gemini’s brand owner) current CEO and president, respectively.