A Lawrence-based maker of high-end audio speakers is operating under new ownership.

MartinLogan Ltd., whose high-tech speakers are popular with audiophiles and movie stars, this month was purchased by ShoreView Industries Inc., a Minneapolis-based investment group.

Gayle Sanders, who co-founded the company and has been its majority owner, remains with the company as a consultant. The rest of the company’s senior management and other employees are remaining in Lawrence, where MartinLogan’s business looks to grow with a financial push from ShoreView.

“We have sufficient capital to manage our growth,” said Rafael Nevares, MartinLogan’s president. “We’ve got ambitious plans and now we can fund them.”

The company isn’t going anywhere, Nevares said. Since being hired as president in 2002, he’s been managing day-to-day operations from Orange County, Calif.

Gayle Sanders, co-founder of MartinLogan Ltd., pictured with two of the company's high-tech speakers, is a company consultant after its sale to ShoreView Industries Inc.

Next week, he’ll be moving his family to Lawrence to dedicate his full-time attention to growing the company and its business. All 80 employees – all but a handful of them in Lawrence – are remaining with the company, which will continue designing, engineering and manufacturing its high-end speakers in town, and looking for ways to expand the company’s market reach even more.

“Any expansion or growth that we do will be in Lawrence,” Nevares said. “I can’t tell you what that might be, but if we add employees, that will be in Lawrence. If we add space, that will be in Lawrence.”

MartinLogan already has grown into four buildings at 2001 Del., where it makes speaker sets that sell for as much as $120,000 and whose design is surpassed only by their sound quality.

MartinLogan speakers are owned by movie stars, musicians and others. They also routinely are featured in movies – such as “War of the Worlds” – and have shown up in TV series, such as Joey and Chandler’s apartment in “Friends.”

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Nevares expects the company to retain its market strength.

“We’re like Harley-Davidson,” he said. “What makes Harley-Davidson cool isn’t the fact that a bunch of attorneys and dentists own Harleys. What makes them cool is that cool, hobbyist, Harley customer, and then that’s what makes it cool for dentists and attorneys to buy them.

“However, if dentists and attorneys weren’t buying them, and doctors aren’t buying Harleys, then it would never be profitable. They couldn’t survive just on that core customer, and that’s sort of our thing.”

That’s why MartinLogan launched its Design series a few years ago. The lower-priced products – starting at $599 – are sold in about 200 Magnolia Home Theater stores, which are located inside Best Buy stores in major markets. The speakers are designed and engineered in Lawrence, but manufactured overseas.

The Design series has helped MartinLogan’s overall sales jump more than 40 percent so far this year, Nevares said, but that doesn’t mean customers should expect MartinLogan products to get any cheaper.

“We make products from $600 to $120,000, and that’s the range our brand is going to play into,” he said. “Our brand isn’t going any lower, and there isn’t anything higher.”