When musical enthusiasts and lovers of technology abandon themselves to their reveries about high fidelity, they are usually only looking for an excellent listening experience. Particularly in the case of loudspeakers, innovative design is frequently neglected in favour of good sound. Apart from that, when the transducers have to be built in the size of a refrigerator, this may often have a disturbing effect on the interior harmony. Already fifty years ago in the year 1935 Professor Olson – a pioneer in electro-acoustics – analysed the influence of the box’s shape on its sound. He discovered that cube- or cuboid-shaped forms represent acoustically unfavourable solutions when it comes to achieving high quality reproduction.
At the same time BAUHAUS formulated its guiding principle FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION.
Based on this Jürgen Beckers developed his three claims:
– form follows emotion –
Loudspeakers should present a richness of musical information that turns listening into an experience.
– form follows sense –
Pioneering design combined with superior technology and high-class excellence in workmanship should provide for sensual musical pleasure in every respect.
– form follows fun –
Transcendent ideas that transform an item of daily use into a sound sculpture that conveys fun in itself.
This is how the Headline series was developed – an asymmetrical, octagonal, columnar form.
The development process that stood behind the naming was intended to make the comparison between the original sound field and the characteristics of reproduction particularly clear. This was achieved through the help of a dummy head and finally led to acoustic optimisation.
All of the models have one design element in common – a shadow groove at the head of the box – a sort of “hat” which serves as a visual finish.
The Bamberg series was developed in 1985. It was superseded by the Würzburg series in 1992 and has now been completed by the Munich series in 2011.