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("Be true to your intentions")
("From little steps to giant leaps") |
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Here is my journey from 'Schoolboy's ambition' and a few observations relating to the design process leading to marketable loudspeakers that I've developed during the past twenty years.
The Notebook introduction gives an overview of the various chapters. If possible please read Chapter 7 as it distills my entire knowledge of listening to loudspeakers. |
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| Guiding beliefs |
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Before a loudspeaker designer can begin to think about conceiving a new product, he has to have in mind a certain path to the final objective - a method of harmoniously working with tools and accumulated knowledge. A little technical knowledge is of course a great asset, but it's not the primary skill. Nor is any ability to play a musical instrument or even to read music (neither of which I can do).
Loudspeaker designers tend to work in small groups or alone. I tend to work alone. It's not because I'm unsociable, or that I won't share the progress (I do with technical colleagues) but that the task of breathing life into wood again is all consuming, and needs total focus. I don't have - and I don't want a 'listening panel' of critics who influence the design. It's entirely my own responsibility. So, not having other designers to observe at work it is only very recently that I have begun to wonder how different my approach is to others. I seem to have an ability to listen critically to reproduced human voice - even an unfamiliar one - and to be able to identify those characteristics, or colourations, which could only have been added by the loudspeaker. This is the the only explanation I can reach for the fact that so many commercial design fall far short of the Harbeth standard of clarity and naturalness in the middle frequencies. Our palate is now so highly attuned to these colourations - and hence their elimination - that what we hear, others seem completely untroubled by. It doesn't matter how I jump up and down and say "listen to that nasality" - if the other listener has an untrained palate, he simply isn't going to detect the flavour. But so few listeners want to train their palate: that's a real pity. Why tolerate mediocrity when a really fine wine just needs a little more of a stretch?
Here are some ground rules that seem to have worked for me along the route: |
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Rule #1: Work harmoniously with eyes, ears and test equipment and to seek associations between observations, to postulate working theories, to develop and apply them.
Rule #2: Approach loudspeaker design with an open mind. If assumptions have to be made, define them. Immediately prove them if you can. If they can't be state that they are working assumptions and revisit them with more knowledge and time. Revise constantly throughout a working career.
Rule #3: Be suspicious of fashion and trends. They are the consequence of the commercial process and have no automatic place in the pursuit of excellence.
Rule #4: Aim for progress in modern materials and techniques. Excel in the minutia.
Rule #5: Document and write-up every step of the process in a daily log-book; build a knowledge base for anyone following after me.
Rule #6: Beware! Self-congratulation is the enemy of scientific progress.
Rule #7: Enjoy the difficult steps and those totally frustrating weeks.
Rule #9: Give the customers a square deal: the lowest possible price, longest lasting speakers. |
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| Picture gallery |
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 There is no better place to think through an acoustic issue than in an English garden in the summer |
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 Instantaneous A-B relay switch-over box allows listening comparison of alternative crossovers - see Designer's Notebook, Listening |
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 Real speakers have to be measured in real rooms both in the near-field and far-field |
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 On an warm, windless day the outdoors makes an excellent measurement environment especially when using gated measurements |
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 . . . and perfect inspiration for prototyping.
(Note all-important mug of tea and unlaced shoes -essential tools) |
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©AAS 2005 Harbeth UK |
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