An introduction

In 1985 Harwood was introduced by a supplier to an entirely new type of plastic which could, theoretically, be moulded into a speaker cone. This new material evidently had excellent acoustic properties and just the right mass. It did not have polypropylene’s rubbery molecular structure which dried out the ‘presence band’ of the audio range, just below the transition to the tweeter, a range from which the listener interprets the airiness and freshness in music. The extreme difficulty of vacuum forming a 3D cone shape from the new material, far less malleable than polypropylene was to prove chronic, and unaware of the looming supply problems Harwood announced his new Mk4 monitor to an eager public. The self-evident sonic transparency and natural tonality over conventional speakers led to a flood of orders. Regular supply would be unachievable.

As a youngster excited by the technology of maverick radio broadcasters bobbing about in the 1960s North sea Alan Shaw became a Saturday assistant his local BBC radio station. This gave him access to presenters live and through the glass in the control room to their reproduced voice over the monitor speakers. It fuelled his curiosity about the BBC monitor concept, and to Shorter (LS5/1) and Harwood’s inventions (LS5/5, LS3/5a).

Some ten years later, Shaw, working in the Japanese semiconductor industry, had the opportunity to visit Harwood, about whom he had read extensively. Harwood’s commercial predicament now he was well past retirement age was self-evident — the premature launching of the new-technology Mk4 Monitor but having to revert to producing the diaphragm technology of the previous models. Shaw’s, half Harwood’s age and having first-hand experience with Japanese Quality Control, supply-chain management, and product innovation suited the Harbeth commercial challenges perfectly. And so, thirty years on with Shaw at the helm, Harbeth was to steadily grow and evolve.