You're always welcome Glenn! C'mon down!
Sand-filled Baffle Epiphany!
- Thread starter Crestwood23
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- sfb/3 w90 wharfedale
PastTechFan
Super Member
Wow, lucky you!Looking forward to hearing more impressions of these, especially against the W90.
^ What HE said! I've lusted after a pair of those since I first heard tell of them. Love my W90s, but Open Baffle is something else!
Congratulations!
These also came with a cool brochure that I've never seen before:
Gang-Twanger
Resident Wharfedaliophool
I expected this thread, as I knew you got them (obviously 
), but I missed it somehow. Yeah, I knew these were special, but I admit I've kept it under my hat for the most part. I do technically own a single one, which is stored at a fellow AK'er's house on the other side of the country, but now I think it's time to work on expediting the shipping of it and get that thing out here where it belongs. Mine is the same version, the Windsor Deluxe, though it's the FS version. Yours, Tyler, look to be like '59-'60, based on that catalog. MAYBE '61, but I think the catalog was different by '62. Thanks for posting those pages. I agree about scanning them. See the Coaxial 12? The only true coaxial fullrange driver they made with an alnico magnet (and someday I'll have a pair).
Regarding the huge image, I think that's the open-baffle thing. That has a 12" woofer and a 10" midwoofer, so I figured it could do some dynamics acrobatics. Must be the greatest mono system speaker ever (well, except for maybe the big daddy corner cab, and I do have a pair of the 9cu.ft woofer enclosures for that... Just need the tops). One thing about the W90 though, when you really lock in the placement, there's something about the dual mid/dual tweeter array that I like with classic rock stuff, like when there's panning going on. I told people though, most of their 1950's models were omni-directional, and that's because Gilbert Briggs cared very-deeply about eliminating directionality. I think part of the reason why the W*0 models were NOT omni-directional was because that's where the market was headed.
Tyler, how big is your room? What are the dimensions? I moved my W90's back a bit further again last night, and I think I have them in the golden ratio now, and the measurements, from both sides of the baffle, and they're about 2-3ft from the back wall and maybe 5.5-6ft from each other, and about 8 to 8.5ft from my listening spot. I can't remember the exact golden ratio, but I know they're closer. The open-baffle thing must really-affect the dynamics for it to be in even the same as W90's runnjng at a good volume. Depends on the room, I imagine. W90's can sound quite-big in a larger room. I've heard it. But they must be A LOT more-finicky about precise placement, whereas, I imagine you can just pick up the SFB's and put them out towards the inner part of the room and just set them down, and still get a good image.I bet it's big center image too. TALL.
Oh, and yes... I'm a jealous lover of Wharfedales myself, so trust me, I feel your pain, guys... I would type up the detailed SFB/3 story, as it is quite and interesting one, but typing hand is too-broken-up over the news.
(Nah, I kid.. I kid..... I just typed up some rather-long private messages, so my jealous hand is tired.)
Beautiful though, those are... That's for sure, and what luck getting later ones with the roll surrounds. They probably stopped making them altogether by '63 or '64. By the way, jealous speaker-lovers, Tyler has paid his dues on these, especially-considering what he went through with the first pair he tried to get... I wish my uncle from New Jersey was still alive (Not THAT Tony), 'cause he had the resources to handle such a situation, and he would have handled it alright... People piss me off.
I love October... My favorite month of the year, I think... Too bad the foliage is a bust though, but I still love that period right after the first frost.
), but I missed it somehow. Yeah, I knew these were special, but I admit I've kept it under my hat for the most part. I do technically own a single one, which is stored at a fellow AK'er's house on the other side of the country, but now I think it's time to work on expediting the shipping of it and get that thing out here where it belongs. Mine is the same version, the Windsor Deluxe, though it's the FS version. Yours, Tyler, look to be like '59-'60, based on that catalog. MAYBE '61, but I think the catalog was different by '62. Thanks for posting those pages. I agree about scanning them. See the Coaxial 12? The only true coaxial fullrange driver they made with an alnico magnet (and someday I'll have a pair).Regarding the huge image, I think that's the open-baffle thing. That has a 12" woofer and a 10" midwoofer, so I figured it could do some dynamics acrobatics. Must be the greatest mono system speaker ever (well, except for maybe the big daddy corner cab, and I do have a pair of the 9cu.ft woofer enclosures for that... Just need the tops). One thing about the W90 though, when you really lock in the placement, there's something about the dual mid/dual tweeter array that I like with classic rock stuff, like when there's panning going on. I told people though, most of their 1950's models were omni-directional, and that's because Gilbert Briggs cared very-deeply about eliminating directionality. I think part of the reason why the W*0 models were NOT omni-directional was because that's where the market was headed.
Tyler, how big is your room? What are the dimensions? I moved my W90's back a bit further again last night, and I think I have them in the golden ratio now, and the measurements, from both sides of the baffle, and they're about 2-3ft from the back wall and maybe 5.5-6ft from each other, and about 8 to 8.5ft from my listening spot. I can't remember the exact golden ratio, but I know they're closer. The open-baffle thing must really-affect the dynamics for it to be in even the same as W90's runnjng at a good volume. Depends on the room, I imagine. W90's can sound quite-big in a larger room. I've heard it. But they must be A LOT more-finicky about precise placement, whereas, I imagine you can just pick up the SFB's and put them out towards the inner part of the room and just set them down, and still get a good image.I bet it's big center image too. TALL.
Oh, and yes... I'm a jealous lover of Wharfedales myself, so trust me, I feel your pain, guys... I would type up the detailed SFB/3 story, as it is quite and interesting one, but typing hand is too-broken-up over the news.
(Nah, I kid.. I kid..... I just typed up some rather-long private messages, so my jealous hand is tired.)
Beautiful though, those are... That's for sure, and what luck getting later ones with the roll surrounds. They probably stopped making them altogether by '63 or '64. By the way, jealous speaker-lovers, Tyler has paid his dues on these, especially-considering what he went through with the first pair he tried to get... I wish my uncle from New Jersey was still alive (Not THAT Tony), 'cause he had the resources to handle such a situation, and he would have handled it alright... People piss me off.
I love October... My favorite month of the year, I think... Too bad the foliage is a bust though, but I still love that period right after the first frost.
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Gang-Twanger
Resident Wharfedaliophool
Well, what he did here is great, as long as the pics remain at the source (some photo-hosting entity, zi assume?). Thanks for this. I'm copying now. I could never open that 33-page file on the troelsgraven blog for the '62 catalog, which I really would love, but this makes up for it. Great stuff, as it shows what was available HERE in the states. And by the way, Gilbert Briggs signed off on the BIC versions. He was very-cautious about that, ESPECIALLY with this model, which he and Raymond Cooke had put so much thought and effort into back in '56.
Wharfedale intoduced the Super 3 tweeter in the spring of '55, right around the time when Peter Walker gave his ESL prototype demonstration in London, and then Raymond Cooke accepted a job at Wharfedale in the latter part of '55, and the foam surround technology came soon afterwards (a result of a meeting with Cooke and one of their suppliers). And then he and Briggs and others spent a good 6-7 months testing the new foam surround material, and in the spring of '56 (around the time Peter Walker was again in London demonstrating his ESL, only this time it was the commercially-available version, the ESL-57), Briggs and Cooke felt they had enough evidence about the performance of the foam surrounds to convince them to upgrade the entire driver line to foam (and thus CS became FS). And this gave them the driver-performance needed to convince them to re-investigate the open-baffle idea, which had been abandoned by the industry some 20 years earlier, and Briggs and Cooke spent the next 4-5 months experimenting with baffle materials and various drivers, and what became the end result in the fall of '56 was the SFB/3.
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Gang-Twanger
Resident Wharfedaliophool
One thing I remember you saying is how they're more-sensitive to lesser recordings than the W90's. That was a surprise, considering the omni-directional design. Holy crap, it's 7PM already??? Dayammmm...
It's bloody-cold out today, man.... Colder than Mother Nature's black heart.
It's bloody-cold out today, man.... Colder than Mother Nature's black heart.
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Gang-Twanger
Resident Wharfedaliophool
In the case of the SFB's, the CORE of the thing is sand-filled. Being an open-baffle design, they found that tightly-packed sand had the best dampening/anti-resonance properties of any commercially-feasible materials (The only alternatives that perform better are bricks and concrete), and they were already using the Super 3 facing upward by '55 when it replaced the Super 5 tweeter/mid (which was itself being mounted facing upwards by the early '50's), and with the Quad ESL demonstration that wowed everybody, plus that early foam surround technology, you can kinda' see how this model took shape. My guess is that the disintegration factor of the foam is a big part of what killed this model. I don't know. Maybe not, as 0it was upgraded to the RS/DD-era drivers in probably '59 when the W2, W3,and W4 were introd0uced. Still, I have trouble buying that "Stereo killed the SFB" story. I mean, the Quad ESL lived on, so why not the SFB? What was the Quad's excuse? A doctor's note? And besides, Wharfedale was selling W90's and Airedales before the SFB was discontinued. Both were available in '62-'63, I think, as was the even BIGGER corner monsters.
That speaker played Carnegie Hall....
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? ...
Open-baffle, man...... Open-baffle... Apparently.
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Yeah that Coaxial 12 is very cool - was that Gilbert's answer to Tannoy I wonder?
My basement listening room is 10' x 17' x 7' with 2 OC 703 bass taps, OC 703 ceiling cloud panels, and a few movable OC 703 panels (first reflection points, on the wall behind my head when seated, and behind teach speaker). Floor is wall to wall carpet over concrete. I have everything setup along the long wall, with the SFB's about 2' out from the wall behind them, 7' in between from center of L speaker to center of R speaker, and about 7' from my ears sitting in the sweet spot. So far I've found them to image best toed in at a pretty steep 40-45deg angle. I have noticed that so far the SFB's seem to be a little more forgiving with placement than the w90's - whereas the 90's are like a tractor-beam of magic if you hit them at JUST the right angle - like within an inch - the SFB's have a wider sweet spot for sure.
LOL yeah, still trying to "resolve" that situation... I am in FULL agreement that a lot of people SUCK.
All of my images are hosted via my Flickr account Hopefully that's not going anywhere soon, but just in case I'll scan it proper and upload here to AK sometime soon.
So Briggs and Walker were jazzed about this new foam technology and decided to try it out on the SFB's, then after a few years they realize foam is not all its cracked up to be so they switch back to their trusty old wool felt surrounds? Is that right? What advantages did foam provide? Why didn't they just stick with what they knew would work right off the bat?
Yes, although I don't have enough listening time with them to conclude anything yet. So far the stuff that sounded incredible on my W90's sounds MORE INCREDIBLE on the SFB's - bigger, more dynamic, more spacious, more real - but some of the stuff that sounded great/good on the W90's only sounds good/meh on the SFB's. Not sure that makes sense but that's what I'm hearing in my early days with these. To complicate things further, I was able to do some horse trading and brought a sweeeeet little MC225 into the stable just the other day (fully restored by AKer Dshoaf no less). This amp is legendary for a reason and is giving my 8b a run for its money! It's been a very nice match with the SFB's, I think the 8b has it beat on overall top to bottom extension, but there was something going on with the 225 the other night that was literally giving me chills. Life is good!
Gang-Twanger
Resident Wharfedaliophool
Yeah that Coaxial 12 is very cool - was that Gilbert's answer to Tannoy I wonder?
Probably. That would be my guess. Tannoy had a major foothold on the FR market in England/Europe at the time, although I should check out the extension specs for Tannoy in the late '50's and see if their 2-ways really had anything over the Super-type drivers. The extension of the Super 12 was no lower than that of their best woofer/tweeter separates at the time, and what's more-natural than no crossover at all? My guess is, Briggs was incredibly-unwavering in his quest for natural sound reproduction,,so he likely wasn't too-keen on crossovers and was probably very-adamant about the idea of ever using one with his beloved Super-type drivers. That might also explain why they never made a 15" FR (which I think is too-bad, 'cause I bet it would have been really-nice.
Yeah, that's as close as my W90's were. I pushed them back quite a bit, as well as inward, which further flattened out the response. Rooms are funny like that, ESPECIALLY with the W90. Extremely-placement-sensitive. Forget within an inch. Hell, I do it within a QUARTER of an inch. You really have to with that speaker, having a tweeter at the far-left and far-right of the baffle. That part is most-important, measuring those two points. I make sure they are identical across the board, both speakers. If one side of one speaker is 100" from the centerpoint of your listening spot, then the other 3 sides should be 100" as well. That way you know they're both pointing right at you. That's the best way to flatten the W90's response. Optimum, precise placement. It's nice when you finally get it locked in though. You feel a sense of accomplishment, and the W90's kind of force that lesson on you. Spend enough days with the W90's poorly-positioned, and you'll be ready to chuck those things out the window (which is not easy at 125lbs apiece).
LOL yeah, still trying to "resolve" that situation... I am in FULL agreement that a lot of people SUCK.
May the ghosts of Briggs & Cooke take a giant sh*t on him.
Yeah, that would be awesome. The catalog you have is especially-cool because it's Briggs/Cooke-era ('55-'61). Like Biggles was saying, it would be cool to go back in time and audition all those models/drivers in the store or at one of the big trade shows (which Gilbert Briggs would often attend). Arnold Hatton played a big part in overseeing the continuity of the Wharfedale brand in the states, having been put in charge of BIC-Wharfedale in late '56, right around the time the SFB/3 was about to debut (He was initially sent there on a six-month secondment to BIC, but he and his wife loved the states and stayed on there to run the BIC-Wharfedale entity). Hattn was British and was a long-standing employee and friend of Briggs, having joined Wharfedale in it's earliest days back in 1934 when the factory was in the basement at Leeds Rd. He was one of the first five employees, the only others at the time being Frank Mann and Ezra Broadley, both of whom were still with the company when your SFB's were made (Gilbert's first employee, his wife aside, was a guy with not-so-great soldering skills... Gilbert had received some complaints by his customers about the soldering joints, so when he spoke to the employee about stepping up the quality, the employee felt his work was just fine... Gilbert's answer was his immediate dismissal... Broadley was his replacement and stayed until the early '70's when his health declined. Hatton eventually relocated back to England around this time, maybe a year later, taking a position back at the facilities in Bradford, but he ran BIC-Wharfedale for at least 20 years.
By the way, at the Brighouse location, about 6 miles from downtown Bradford (and which was the site of their first relocation after 5 years at the basement factory on Leeds Rd), Gilbert had a Steinway grand piano in his office! Can you imagine? He also gave very-high priority to answering letters (His policy was to answer them within 24 hours).
At the time, the foam gave significantly-better performance than the earlier CS/AL-era surrounds, and considering the state of the industry at the time, which had been rocked by Peter Walker's ESL demo, Gilbert's mission was exactly that... Performance.
The later cloth surround was a molded, resin-impregnated fabric, rubber-treated to damp resonances. That's straight from the original W90 brochure from '62. Much more-advanced than the cloth surrounds of the early to mid '50's, and obviously, as good a performer as the foam stuff (Gilbert wasn't much for backstepping).
Yes, although I don't have enough listening time with them to conclude anything yet. So far the stuff that sounded incredible on my W90's sounds MORE INCREDIBLE on the SFB's - bigger, more dynamic, more spacious, more real - but some of the stuff that sounded great/good on the W90's only sounds good/meh on the SFB's. Not sure that makes sense but that's what I'm hearing in my early days with these. To complicate things further, I was able to do some horse trading and brought a sweeeeet little MC225 into the stable just the other day (fully restored by AKer Dshoaf no less). This amp is legendary for a reason and is giving my 8b a run for its money! It's been a very nice match with the SFB's, I think the 8b has it beat on overall top to bottom extension, but there was something going on with the 225 the other night that was literally giving me chills. Life is good!
Man, this is killing me... I'm so jealous… And this multi-quoting business took me forever, so I've had SFB's on the brain the last few hours..
I'll tell ya' though, the W90 is a great BIG speaker for smaller-sized rooms where horn-loaded Altecs and others won't necessarily work. Mine have the dual sand-filled panels, so what's behind them is of no importance. I have three pairs of speakers and an open-back Fender combo with a 12" driver inside, all parked behind the left W90, and that's never been an issue. The corner of the room was the real issue, as my W90's became more-accurate/flatter as I moved the speaker to the right and away from it. The doorway in the center, behind the speakers, didn't end up posing as big a problem as I had initially-suspected. It's surprising, the kind of sound I've been able to get in this room, considering the shoddy state of acoustic affairs in here. The room's got more than a few issues.
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Very Cool, congrats. Please keep us updated on how they work out for you.
EDIT: BTW, you guys are a wealth of Warfie Info. I have a set of W60? stuck in an closet somewhere, I picked them up 4-5 years ago from the original owner. I really like the cosmetics and build - not so much the sound (I'm more of the marantz\klipsch kinda guy).
But I appreciate the Wharfies and keep my eyes out for them on CL - if I see a set of W70, W90 come up or these open baffles (not likely), I'm gonna try to get em.
EDIT: BTW, you guys are a wealth of Warfie Info. I have a set of W60? stuck in an closet somewhere, I picked them up 4-5 years ago from the original owner. I really like the cosmetics and build - not so much the sound (I'm more of the marantz\klipsch kinda guy).
But I appreciate the Wharfies and keep my eyes out for them on CL - if I see a set of W70, W90 come up or these open baffles (not likely), I'm gonna try to get em.
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Gang-Twanger
Resident Wharfedaliophool
Have you tried them with tubes and some late '60's classic rock like the Beatles or early Santana? With some quality tube gear and attention to placement, they can shed their cabinets. A lot of midrange depth in those when they're in their comfort zone. But they need tubes to sound their best, especially the all-alnico W60's, which I have myself. A sweet speaker for classic jazz, Sinatra-type crooners, funk, soul, psychedelic-rock, and classic rock stuff like Stones and Zeppelin. Underrated, that speaker.
Gang-Twanger
Resident Wharfedaliophool
Thanks!
Here's one of the sellers pics of the back:
Did you try the built-in stand thingies that pull out? I guess it's for tipping back the thing?
It's funny though. I told people those alnico Super 3's were not to be f***ed with, but people get caught up in specs and assume it's totally-rolled-off and completely-incapable of any "air". Not true. On late '60's classic rock, that tweeter's got all the air in the world. A very-capable driver. Plus, it just looks so-damn-cool. You can stare to your heart's content too with that open back. Frigging mojo-tweeter. Blues musicians have the mojo hand, we have the mojo-tweeter.
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Gang-Twanger
Resident Wharfedaliophool
One more thing... Been thinking about this the last twenty minutes.
I probably don't even want to know, but I bet those really drive home "Dark Side Of The Moon", especially with the upfiring tweeter and dynamic bass. The W90's do a mean DSOTM themselves, but the SFB's seem to fit right into the spirit of that album and probably melt your brain like that German guy in "Raiders".
Nah, the W90's do a pretty-damn-good DSOTM too... I guess it's been a while..."Any Colour You Lack" sounds awesome.
Get it? ... "Lack"? ... "Colour"... The sand thing? ... Achromatic? ...[TAP-TAP-TAP] ... Is this thing on? ...
Ahhh, you guys are no fun.
I probably don't even want to know, but I bet those really drive home "Dark Side Of The Moon", especially with the upfiring tweeter and dynamic bass. The W90's do a mean DSOTM themselves, but the SFB's seem to fit right into the spirit of that album and probably melt your brain like that German guy in "Raiders".
Nah, the W90's do a pretty-damn-good DSOTM too... I guess it's been a while..."Any Colour You Lack" sounds awesome.
Get it? ... "Lack"? ... "Colour"... The sand thing? ... Achromatic? ...[TAP-TAP-TAP] ... Is this thing on? ...
Ahhh, you guys are no fun.
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Gang-Twanger
Resident Wharfedaliophool
Thanks again for the hi-quality pics of the brochure pages. I copied them for my own reference needs. That stuff comes in handy for sure, and you did a good job of capturing them in high enough resolution that we can read the fine print with ease, which is the most-important part of it. Good lookin' out.
Imagine what it must have been like back then, cherry-picking from that catalog? Your SFB's must be from around 1959-'60, judging by the fact that almost every other model is still FS-era (The Super 12/RS/DD debuted in June of '61), also there is no W60 mentioned, which WAS introduced in 1960, so your SFB's must be from the period between the '59 debut of the W* models and the debut of the W60. The SFB would surely have been among the first two models to receive the RS-DD treatment, and my guess would be 1959, when the W2, W3, & W4 were introduced, or not long after, as it was one of their TOTL models. Maybe late '59 to early/mid 1960. The W60 was a big deal, ESPECIALLY on the east coast, so if the W60 was out, that catalog would have likely shown it.
So, have you come up for air since getting those things? They must be sweeter than sweet (and then some). I wonder how a pair of those would work outside in open air, with no walls/objects for the tweeter sound to bounce off (Would an omni-directional design like this work in an open-air setting? And what about others, like Bose and that sort of thing?).
By the way, I thought you might get a kick out of this. I was re-reading a bit in the book I have, particularly about the period between '59-'61, as I was looking for info to narrow down the date of manufacture for your SFB's, and I realized something interesting about that phase of the company (The FIRST of several transition periods at Wharfedale):
In early 1959, when the sale to Rank took effect, Gilbert Briggs had voiced his intention of retiring fairly-soon, so in June of that year, Rank appointed John Balls (an engineer at ICI) as "Managing Director designate" to understudy Briggs. During Balls' first year in Idle, the company saw a 40% turnover increase and a 50% increase in net profit, which was in large part a result of his strong working relationship with Raymond Cooke, and by March of '61, the BIC/Wharfedale development was really-beginning to pan out, with BIC pushing hard for a much steadier supply of drivers from England, which represented a potentially-huge increase in sales.
Gilbert's reaction to this was to forget about retiring, and he persuaded Rank that his presence was needed to "steady the ship". This left John Balls wondering about his future, and that's when he got a visit from his old friend Bob Pearch, MD of Kent Engineering & Foundry, whom Balls knew from his previous job at ICI. Pearch's father, who owned K. E. & F., wanted to retire and insisted that his son find a working partner, and Pearch proposed the idea to Balls about him taking the position, and he accepted, leaving Wharfedale in March of 1961.
Balls kept in touch with Raymond Cooke during his first few months at K.E.& F., and he also realized that all the facilities were in place there to make loudspeakers. Cooke was having his own doubts about the future at Wharfedale, especially when John Balls was not replaced, and in May of '61, Balls proposed that he and Cooke form a new company, with Pearch as third director. Cooke immediately started working on possible designs and ideas while he made his decision whether or not to take the plunge, and in the end of July, when he finally informed Gilbert Briggs of his intentions to start his own company with former Rank MD-designate, John Balls, Gilbert was livid and ordered Cooke to clean out his desk immediately and leave the premises.
It's no wonder why Briggs was furious, and why he and Cooke didn't speak to each other for some time (They later rekindled their friendship, which lasted until Briggs' death in 1978), but you can also see Cooke's side as well. Interesting though. I totally forgot that John Balls had been appointed by Rank (as MD-in-waiting) to be groomed as Gilbert's eventual replacement once he retired. That puts a bit of a sting in the situation, on BOTH sides.
Imagine what it must have been like back then, cherry-picking from that catalog? Your SFB's must be from around 1959-'60, judging by the fact that almost every other model is still FS-era (The Super 12/RS/DD debuted in June of '61), also there is no W60 mentioned, which WAS introduced in 1960, so your SFB's must be from the period between the '59 debut of the W* models and the debut of the W60. The SFB would surely have been among the first two models to receive the RS-DD treatment, and my guess would be 1959, when the W2, W3, & W4 were introduced, or not long after, as it was one of their TOTL models. Maybe late '59 to early/mid 1960. The W60 was a big deal, ESPECIALLY on the east coast, so if the W60 was out, that catalog would have likely shown it.
So, have you come up for air since getting those things? They must be sweeter than sweet (and then some). I wonder how a pair of those would work outside in open air, with no walls/objects for the tweeter sound to bounce off (Would an omni-directional design like this work in an open-air setting? And what about others, like Bose and that sort of thing?).
By the way, I thought you might get a kick out of this. I was re-reading a bit in the book I have, particularly about the period between '59-'61, as I was looking for info to narrow down the date of manufacture for your SFB's, and I realized something interesting about that phase of the company (The FIRST of several transition periods at Wharfedale):
In early 1959, when the sale to Rank took effect, Gilbert Briggs had voiced his intention of retiring fairly-soon, so in June of that year, Rank appointed John Balls (an engineer at ICI) as "Managing Director designate" to understudy Briggs. During Balls' first year in Idle, the company saw a 40% turnover increase and a 50% increase in net profit, which was in large part a result of his strong working relationship with Raymond Cooke, and by March of '61, the BIC/Wharfedale development was really-beginning to pan out, with BIC pushing hard for a much steadier supply of drivers from England, which represented a potentially-huge increase in sales.
Gilbert's reaction to this was to forget about retiring, and he persuaded Rank that his presence was needed to "steady the ship". This left John Balls wondering about his future, and that's when he got a visit from his old friend Bob Pearch, MD of Kent Engineering & Foundry, whom Balls knew from his previous job at ICI. Pearch's father, who owned K. E. & F., wanted to retire and insisted that his son find a working partner, and Pearch proposed the idea to Balls about him taking the position, and he accepted, leaving Wharfedale in March of 1961.
Balls kept in touch with Raymond Cooke during his first few months at K.E.& F., and he also realized that all the facilities were in place there to make loudspeakers. Cooke was having his own doubts about the future at Wharfedale, especially when John Balls was not replaced, and in May of '61, Balls proposed that he and Cooke form a new company, with Pearch as third director. Cooke immediately started working on possible designs and ideas while he made his decision whether or not to take the plunge, and in the end of July, when he finally informed Gilbert Briggs of his intentions to start his own company with former Rank MD-designate, John Balls, Gilbert was livid and ordered Cooke to clean out his desk immediately and leave the premises.
It's no wonder why Briggs was furious, and why he and Cooke didn't speak to each other for some time (They later rekindled their friendship, which lasted until Briggs' death in 1978), but you can also see Cooke's side as well. Interesting though. I totally forgot that John Balls had been appointed by Rank (as MD-in-waiting) to be groomed as Gilbert's eventual replacement once he retired. That puts a bit of a sting in the situation, on BOTH sides.
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Hmm I don't see any built-in stand thingies?
Haven't played DSOTM yet, but I agree that it would probably be face-melting... I'll have to try it. I do know that The Kinks "Milk Cow Blues" in mono sounds like Ray Davies is standing between the speakers.
Great info GT, thanks for this. Really fascinating history, and interesting connection with KEF. I finally came up for air, but not by choice! My Blueberry started to develop a noisy right channel - looks like a resistor replacement is in order. In the meantime I swapped in my Macintosh C26 pre and the poor thing just can't hold a candle to the Blueberry, I've been spoiled! Hopefully the repair won't take long so I can get back to business.
GD70
Lunatic Member
How far are you from Woodbury Commons?
