Highly recognized for his work, and globally esteemed for his outstanding contributions to both the audio engineering and consumer technology worlds, Dr. Toole was inducted into into the Consumer Technology Association Hall of Fame in 2015, and was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award by CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association) in 2008, and the Beryllium Driver Lifetime Achievement award from ALMA (Association of Loudspeaker Manufacturing & Acoustics International) in 2011. Now an Honorary Member of the National Council of Acoustical Consultants, Dr. Toole is also a Fellow of AES, American Acoustical Society and CEDIA.

He retired in 2007, and remained a consultant to Harman International research group until 2019, where he continued to be a central resource for acoustical research and technology development relating to the consumer, professional and automotive audio industries.

Dr. Toole is the expert on judging sound, in any type of room, from any type of equipment. An anechoic measurement technique based on his NRC research in the 1980s, then further developed in the Harman research group, is now a core component in ANSI/CTA-2034B. “Standard Method of Measurement for In-Home Loudspeakers”, Consumer Technology Association, Technology and Standards Dept., www.CTA.tech. His research on generating subjective ratings of sound quality in typical listening rooms is widely used, and as a result, technically accurate, timbrally neutral loudspeakers are being made as a matter of course, today.