Harbeth (Sunny after the rain)
Harbeth - a famous British speaker brand.
Finally let’s talk about the famous “BBC speaker”. Harbeth is a typical small BBC factory. Its founder was Dudley Harwood, one of the designers of 3/5A. Dudley Harwood and Spencer Hughes, two chief designers who worked for the BBC Loudspeaker Research and Development Department of the British Broadcasting Corporation, each created two well-known audio brands. Harbeth was founded by Harwood, and Spendor was founded by Hugh. To this day, the old factory that still faithfully inherits the tradition of BBC monitor speakers is Yuhouchuqing. Currently, in addition to obtaining authorization from the BBC to continue to produce LS5/12a speakers, Yuhouchuqing's monitor speaker series from Monitor 20, 30 to 40 are actually cloned versions of the original BBC's LS3/5a, LS5/9 and LS5/8 respectively. Even the size of the speakers is almost the same. The difference, of course, is that Yuhouchuqing’s monitor speakers use more modern materials and more sophisticated components.
Here is a brief talk about the origins of "BBC speakers" and these BBC factories. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) completely replaced the speakers for language and music monitoring in the early 1970s and designed this generation of speakers. Spencer Hughes and Dudley Harwood are responsible for the task. The design requirements are actually to highlight the realism of voice reproduction and take into account classical music; there are no deliberate requirements on bandwidth and dynamic range, and stereo broadcasting is not even considered in practical applications. Single-sound broadcasting is often used. Only speakers!
Harbeth Speaker
Don’t forget, this was the period from the late 1960s to the early 1970s when FM radio was being promoted, and there was no digital recording yet. ! In order to achieve this design requirement that does not seem to have high technical requirements, but seems to be rich in humanistic connotations nowadays, the designer chose a simple two-way audio separation scheme based on his keen ear and the traditional British conservative and pragmatic style. .
At the same time, we have worked hard on the unit, crossover, cabinet size and structure, and have made clear choices: at the expense of reducing the sensitivity of the speaker, narrowing the bandwidth, and sacrificing the dynamic range and maximum sound pressure.
With this clear choice, there are always gains and losses. Take the smallest size 3/5A, designed for mobile interview monitoring, as an example. Due to the use of a small sealed box, a low-sensitivity unit, and a complex crossover, the sensitivity is as low as an unprecedented 82dB/W/M. The volume is small, but the distortion is Extremely low, seamless full-frequency connection, moist and elegant mids and highs, solid vocals, singing, string music, piano... all benefit from it. After being converted to stereophonic use, equipped with a tripod and given a high-end amplifier driver, its sound field, layering and positioning were so good that people at that time were shocked by an unprecedented miracle. It seemed to be "unintentional", but now it seems that it is not strangeness.
Harbeth (Sunny after the rain)
The high-end FM broadcast bandwidth is only 14000Hz, which makes designers 5/9 when designing medium-sized monitor boxes and 5/8 large-scale monitor boxes. , dare to use the Audax large-diameter silk dome unit with excellent midrange texture and insufficient treble extension (replacing the orthodox tweeter unit with a midrange and treble unit) to achieve an invincible midrange texture.
This method was also used in later ATC speakers. As for the bass unit, it used a transparent thick polypropylene cone unit that was just born at that time. This type of unit has low distortion, low efficiency, and its damping characteristics are very different from those of the paper cone unit. The tone is slower, darker, and "sticky". To tame it and maximize its strengths and avoid weaknesses, it is necessary to carefully adjust the sound on the crossover and cabinets, and measure the sound according to the size, which is a great test of skill.
In fact, after 5/9 and 5/8, the two old masters retired after their success, and the successors of the BBC no longer have the masterpieces of this unit. It is true that "when the generals leave, the trees fall away". The difficulty of speaker design is due to This is visible!
Harbeth (Sunny after the Rain)
At that time, related to the BBC plan, there was also the production of transparent basin bass units for Rogers speakers 5/9 and 5/8. KEF, on the other hand, manufactures the B110 bass and T27 tweeter units specifically for 3/5A. After that, Hughes and Harwood retired. In order not to bury their lifelong efforts and "use their remaining energy", they each opened a small company and continued to develop speakers at home. Mr. Harwood opened Harbeth. At this time, the "BBC Speaker" has been recommended by the audio industry and has become a legend in the audiophile circle. Many audio agents from various countries come here because of its reputation. Especially in the audiophile circles of Japan and Hong Kong, Harwood's sound taste is highly praised. The Hong Kong agent said that It is called "the sun shines after the rain", which is very expressive.
As the original designer of the BBC box, Harwood will naturally maintain its charming mid-range when calibrating the sound. At the same time, Harwood is well aware that today's audiophiles have different requirements for high-frequency air and analysis than in the past. , moderately increases the high-frequency extension, while the low-frequency is recommended to be loose and natural, and the sense of speed is most in tune with classical music. Based on a lifetime of skill training and hand-tuned by a master, Harbeth's voice has won many tasteful friends. However, the old man is old and not good at management. Harbeth is just a family workshop and cannot meet the needs of the market.
In 1986, young Alan Shaw appeared, and Mr. Harwood handed over the company to him. Harbeth embarked on the path of formal development while maintaining the original BBC tradition. Alan Shaw has good management and operation and correct market concept. First, he applied for a license from the BBC and resumed the manufacturing of the best-selling 3/5A in Hong Kong. At the same time, he launched the Compact as a premium medium-sized bookshelf box. Then he completed the production of MK-V, the last design left by Harwood, which is now HL5. In this way, Harbeth has formed a set of two-way BBC speakers from childhood to adulthood, establishing the image of "the orthodox heir to BBC sound" in the audiophile circle.
After that, Alan Shaw designed the P3 to adapt to AV requirements and as a backup option in case 3/5A was discontinued. P3 has built a rare reputation among enthusiasts and is regarded as the "legitimate successor of 3/5A".
In the early 1990s, the BBC announced its last speaker design, the 5/12 Dyna unit. Harbeth lost no time and obtained the production license as soon as possible, further solidifying the image of "BBC orthodoxy"
Since then, in the craze of home theater, Harbeth has been maverick and unswerving, still adhering to the small-scale orthodoxy Speaker manufacturers are extremely cautious about launching new products (only one successor to the Compact, the Compact7, has appeared).
When Alan Shaw, Alan Shaw’s new boss, designed Harbeth monitor speakers, he always had high-fidelity vocals as his ultimate goal. He believes that once the designed speakers can emit extremely realistic human voices, other sounds must also be extremely realistic and natural. He also pointed out that any speaker whose bass has shocking impact (this is the frequency response characteristic of many AV-specific speakers) must be the result of strengthening the low-frequency range. In other words, there must be a certain amount of sound in the mid-frequency domain. Compromise is possible, after all, you cannot have both.
In terms of the use of speaker units, Alan Shaw believes that the sound of a bextrene cone (bextrene is a diaphragm material jointly developed by Harwood and Hughes) often has an "excessive nasal falsetto" sound. tendency, while the sound of the Polypropylene cone (a diaphragm material developed by Harwood when he was working at the BBC) was dull and lackluster. Therefore, he collaborated with Brighton University and developed a new diaphragm after three years of research. The membrane material, namely the patented RADIAL diaphragm, is used in current products. Most speaker cabinets are designed to directly glue six-sided flat plates, and then lock the monomer to the front baffle with screws. Harbeth's approach is rather strange. For many years, it has first made a square box frame, which is four other panels in addition to the front and rear baffles. Next, lock the front and rear baffles to the "frame" box with screws.
To this day, there is no doubt that Harbeth is the most honest British speaker brand that represents the great tradition of the BBC.