Harbeth Speakers

 

 

Harbeth was founded in 1977 by the former head of research of BBC, Dudley Harwood, got its name from his surname – ‘HARwood’ and his wife’s given name ‘elizaBETH’. Harwood was one of most known engineers, the animator of the British scene since the 50-ties. But this story starts before the company was founded, in the early 70-ties, when Dudley was still employed at BBC. One of the most important needs was to design a small near field monitor, that could be used for mobile transmission studios. This is how the model LS3/5a was created, which is the best selling and longest produced model in all loudspeaker history.

 

 

About Harbeth Speakers

Alan Shaw became a Saturday assistant his local BBC radio station in the 1960's. 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. Over forty years on with Shaw at the helm, Harbeth was to steadily grow and evolve.