At THX, I Am Building On Its Strong Legacy Of Branding While Driving Innovations That Truly Benefit The End User, Says Tuyen Pham

With a legacy rooted in cinematic excellence and iconic sound, THX Ltd. has long stood at the forefront of high-fidelity audio and video innovation. With Tuyen Pham as Chief Executive Officer, the company enters an exciting new chapter — one defined by cutting-edge innovation, global expansion, and a sharpened focus on the future of immersive media experiences.

An engineer by training and an entrepreneur by instinct, Pham brings over two decades of industry experience to THX. At the helm of THX, Pham is marrying the brand’s storied heritage with a vision for the next generation of entertainment. He brings not only deep technical expertise but also a global perspective, having successfully led cross-border operations, built multicultural teams, and raised significant financial capital throughout his career.

As per Pham, his mission is clear: to preserve the gold standard of THX certification while pushing the boundaries of audio and visual excellence for today’s consumers — whether they’re watching films, playing games, or listening to music.

In this exclusive interview with Benzinga, Pham shares his vision for THX, the innovations on the horizon, and how he plans to continue delivering world-class experiences in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Here’s an excerpt from the interaction.

Share your journey from founding A-Volute to leading THX. How have your experiences shaped your vision for THX’s future?

I’m deeply focused on innovation, a key factor that helped A-Volute succeed against much larger brands in the past. At THX, I’m building on its strong legacy of branding while driving innovations that truly benefit the end user. Unlike A-Volute, where despite powering millions of devices, creating a recognizable brand was a challenge, THX already has an established reputation built over 40 years. 

My vision for THX remains true to its founding mission—delivering the best audio and video experiences. I’m pushing for innovations that are not just new for the sake of it, but practical and meaningful for users. This approach ensures that we stay ahead of trends and continue to provide value with each new device and experience we help create. 

THX has a storied legacy in audio excellence. How do you plan to balance this heritage with the need for innovation in today’s market?

Everything is moving quickly these days with changes in habits, platforms, and technology. China, particularly Shenzhen, is at the forefront of innovation in AI, robotics, hardware, and consumer electronics. THX is committed to staying ahead of these trends and forecasting future ones to reshape how we consume media.

Our goal is to remain at the forefront of high-end audio quality while leveraging our branding, audio-marketing, industry expertise, and technology to help partners push boundaries. For instance, we recently helped launch the first THX-certified ARC-V 5 headphones, a significant milestone in the industry. This reflects our commitment to helping brands validate and market their products while integrating cutting-edge audio technologies, like the immersive THX special audio technology for a truly high-quality listening experience. 

The partnership with Skullcandy brings THX Spatial Audio to a broader audience. What does this collaboration signify for THX’s strategic direction?

We want to be everywhere, meaning that we want to help every device, and Skullcandy is a very well-known brand, especially in the US and Europe, and this also helps us to reach a younger generation. And this is very key for us, to be able to put the THX branding in the front of eyes of all generations. And it helps Skullcandy to bring THX technology on board to reach and market to the audiophile audiences which is a THX strong suit.

Of course THX is very well known for the cinemas and a lot of movies, especially with DVDs, we’re having the THX logo at the beginning, but how can we continue that, and how we can expose more users to THX, and this is one of the ways we’re doing it, is helping new partners to do that, and also help them to integrate new technologies there. 

So is Dolby one of the competitors? I would say Dolby is sometimes a partner, because we have some products like Soundbars from SCI Robotics or ZTE that can decode Dolby and have THX together. Sometimes we’re competitors, but I would say that we are all in the audio field, and what is very interesting to me is that we all have the same mission, to make sure the audio is good, and to make sure to educate about the importance of audio.  

With your background in immersive audio, how do you see THX influencing the evolution of audio experiences across different platforms?

We are currently focused on two key initiatives to push spatial sound to the next level. The first is our involvement in the Alliance of Open Media (AOM), specifically within the IMF workgroup, where we are helping to develop the Eclipsa audio format that has been announced. This new format allows content creators to encode media using a completely free codec, making it accessible for all consumer electronics to decode and experience multi-channel audio, 3D sound objects, or advanced ambisonics.

By making this technology freely available, we aim to broaden the adoption of spatial audio and enhance the overall audio experience for users. The second initiative, which we announced at GDC, Razer Wyvrn, involves the development of a game developer’s plugin. This THX game plugin,  offered on the Wyvrn platform, will be integrated into sound engines across games, enabling them to output spatial sound, with the first output being in the IMF format. By pushing these boundaries, we are working to expose more people to the benefits of spatial audio, both in gaming and other media experiences.

THX’s technologies are now integrated into various consumer electronics. How do you ensure consistency and quality across these diverse applications?

THX possesses deep expertise in audio and video technology and marketing, with a particular focus on audio. Our core asset is our knowledge of what constitutes great audio, how to measure it, and how to help partners build better products. We offer this expertise to help partners improve their designs, from hardware to component selection. Some partners come to us early in the process, allowing us to guide them through the hardware design, component choices, and even the materials used inside the products.

Our commitment to quality extends throughout the entire process. When certifying an audio product, we perform over 450 measurements, including electrical and acoustic tests, to ensure top-notch performance. We identify areas for improvement, leaving little room for error. The THX logo represents the highest performance achievable at a given price point.

In an era where audio technology is rapidly advancing, what challenges do you foresee, and how is THX preparing to address them?

So the first aspect is audio. So the output of audio, it’s either headphones, now there’s a new category of OWS, open wireless stereo headphones. There will be, I’m sure, a lot of new categories.

So we always do R&D to be able to categorize those outputs, and then also keep our certification program up to date to that. So that’s the first thing. I think also on the, there’s AI, which is impacting a lot, all the audio processing.

And of course we are ready for that, we are using more and more AI functions, like in the software you will see, you have camera-based AI head tracking, which follows your head and can compensate the movement of your head while you’re playing a game or while you’re watching a movie. So we’re integrating more and more of those technologies. So there might be a switch on how, let’s say, the content is generated by AI, but we’ll make sure that those contents always sound great or always look great.

Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for THX in terms of innovation, market presence, and consumer engagement?

I want the THX logo to be everywhere and to become really the logo that gives trust to the end users. My vision for the THX logo is to make it a universal symbol of trust and excellence.  When consumers see the THX logo, they should be assured that the product delivers the best performance available at that price point. Unlike some brands that only perform a single measurement, THX conducts hundreds of rigorous tests to ensure every product meets the highest standards. We’re committed to doing the hard work, helping our partners improve their products and achieve consistent quality.

Currently, THX has a global presence, with headquarters and R&D based in California, along with offices in Europe and China. We’ve had a footprint in China for over eight years, with offices in both Beijing and Shenzhen, and we also have a presence in Taiwan. As the demand for high-quality audio and video devices increases, we’re focusing more on expanding our operations in Shenzhen. We’re building a large lab to assist our partners with precise performance measurements for both audio and video products, offering quick turnarounds to keep up with the fast pace of the industry.

While we already have strong partnerships in Europe, our primary focus for the next few years will be in China, particularly Shenzhen. The region is becoming a hotbed for innovation, with many emerging brands in the tech space, making it a key area for THX’s expansion and growth. We’re excited to be at the forefront of these developments and continue helping brands bring top-tier products to the market.