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Spencer Hughes (audio engineer)

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Spencer Hughes
Born1924 (1924)
Died1983(1983-00-00) (aged 58–59)
NationalityBritish
OccupationAudio engineer
Known forSpendor speakers

Spencer Hughes (1924–1983)[1][2] was an English audio engineer who worked at the BBC research department in the 1960s. He founded Spendor to manufacture loudspeakers incorporating results of his research.

Research

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One object of the research was a membrane made from a polystyrene ("Bextrene") for mid-range speakers or woofers.[3] In his letter he describes the work as follows: ″Bins full of malformed cones were produced before any measure of success was achieved ...″ And in the team worked Dudley Harwood, who founded in 1977 Harbeth Acoustics, too.[4][5][3]

Business

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In 1969 he and his wife founded Spendor, the name of which is derived from the first names of both,[6] to produce loudspeakers.[7][8][4]

Spendor version of legendary LS3/5a

The first product was the BC1, which Spencer designed while still working for the BBC.[4] Several other designs followed, for example BC3,[7] SA1. Spendor also made the BBC LS3/5a under licence from the BBC.[9]

The BC1 is bigger, and was used in many radio stations, too.[6][7] In consequence the sound quality influenced many UK speaker designs.[3]

Family

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Hughes and his wife Dorothy had a son Derek; he worked at Spendor (in his letter from 1980 Spencer mentioned him as assist with research and development and general running of the factory).[4] After the untimely death of Spencer in 1983 he worked with his mother in the capacity of Technical Director, producing the original versions of what is now the Classic Series[10] and is still working at loudspeakers as freelance consultant designer.[11][12]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Spendor Classic Brochure (2011)". Retrieved 21 March 2020. (PDF, 3,2 MB)
  2. ^ "HiFiVision" (in German). September 1994: 38. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ a b c Colloms, Martin (24 July 2018). "1.3 The BBC Contribution". High Performance Loudspeakers: Optimising High Fidelity Loudspeaker Systems (7th ed.). Wiley. ISBN 9781118706251. Retrieved 18 March 2020 – via Google books.
  4. ^ a b c d Letter regarding History of the BC1 by Spencer Hughes 1980, retrieved 22 March 2020.
  5. ^ https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/7270516/spendor-sp1-2r2-loudspeaker Report from December 2011 at Yumpu, retrieved 22 March 2020.
  6. ^ a b Holt, J. Gordon (1 October 2000). "Spendor BC-1 loudspeaker". stereophile.com. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  7. ^ a b c Price, David (December 2019). "Insider Feature Spendor" (PDF). HiFi.Choice. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  8. ^ Tellig, Sam (19 November 2014). "Spendor D7 loudspeaker". Stereophile. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  9. ^ Holt, J. Gordon; Various (1 March 1977). "BBC LS3/5a loudspeaker". stereophile.com. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  10. ^ Seydor, Paul (2 December 2008). "Stirling Broadcast LS3/5a V2 Loudspeaker". The Absolute Sound.
  11. ^ "Products". stirlingbroadcast.net. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  12. ^ Website of Derek Hughes, retrieved 21 March 2020.
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