A reference overview of Jensen’s Bass Ultraflex enclosures from Jensen Hi-Fi Speaker Systems (1956), treating the 15″, 12″, and 8″ cabinets as one scaled design family defined by fixed internal volume and duct geometry.
Mini-Onken – Jacques Mahul, L’Audiophile 1982
In 1982, Jacques Mahul explored how the classic Onken bass-reflex principle could be reduced in scale without losing musical integrity. This article—faithfully translated from L’Audiophile—details the Mini-Onken enclosure, its theoretical foundations, precise calculations, and the development of the Focal 10C01, offering rare insight into the transition from Japanese Onken designs to what would later become Focal/JMLab.
Getting Bored (and Why That’s Not a Bad Thing)
Getting bored with a system that sounds right is an uncomfortable realization. My GPA/Altec 604s aren’t doing anything wrong—but they’ve stopped provoking questions. This post is about that moment, the need to keep experimenting, and why it has led me away from familiar ground toward smaller bass drivers, larger multicell horns, and the historical thinking behind the Petite Onken and the writings of Jean Hiraga.
Construction of the ONKEN bass enclosure – Jean Hiraga, L’Audiophile 1977
Jean Hiraga’s 1977 article on the ONKEN bass enclosure is a landmark text in high-efficiency loudspeaker design. This faithful English translation presents the original construction details, measurements, and listening observations, allowing modern readers to engage directly with Hiraga’s approach to bass reproduction.
Le Petite Onken – Jean Hiraga, L’Audiophile 1982
The Petit Onken article published by Jean Hiraga published in L’Audiophile no.25. september 1982 translated to english
JBL L-100 Speakers – An overview and guide to to the 70’s icon
This article will be an overview of the three different major versions of the consumer JBL L-100 speaker, also known as the L-100 Century speaker. This is maybe one of the most iconic and well-known speakers in the world. It is rather simple, moderately priced and easy to get your hands on and they sound …
The new JBL 4343 are in the house
And so it happened! After 4 months of living on the couch at my friends house and having all my gear packed away, I got back into my own apartment last weekend. It meant moving out my sister Saturday and slowly starting to make the space new again. New colours on the walls, filling in …
JBL’s are taking over!
Okay, this is maybe getting a bit out of hand! While hosting my buddy Louis JBL 212 set, I stumbled across a pair of L56. Having heard they are usually not regarded as good – actually the contrary, I found that I should give them a go. They were cheap, and not in the best …
Building the 4343
My JBL 4343 are clones of the original JBL 4343, built as close as I could for now. It all started several years ago when I first decided I wanted to build a big mid 70’s. Back in 2011 I started to collect drivers for a 4345, because if you can – why not go …