[Vintage-Audio] Re Speakers From Yesteryear

[Michael OBrien]

Hi All

I grew up in Darien and I remember the Bozak plant on
the post rd. (route 1) in Norwalk, CT which the next
town from Darien. They were still there in the mid to
late 70's

Mike

--- Robert Nickels <W9RAN@oneradio.net> wrote:
> > Bozaks: What ever became of this company?
> 
> In searching for an answer to Duane's question, I
> came across a website in
> South Africa that I think will be of interest to
> many here.  You might want
> to check out The History of Audio Development:
> http://www.avsa.co.za/misc/sept_audiodev1.html
> 
> But I could only find snippets of information about
> the original Bozak
> Company.  (Unfortunately, as is so often the case,
> there is a new "in name
> only" Bozak company today, but it has no connection
> to the one we know -
> don't ya just hate that??)
> 
> I did learn that the company was founded by audio
> pioneer Rudi T. Bozak, who
> was made a fellow of the Audio Engineering Society
> in 1965 and received the
> John H Potts award in 1970.  He was a graduate of
> the Milwaukee School of
> Engineering.
> 
> In 1950, he was hired as a consultant to McIntosh
> Labs and helped develop a
> 24 inch square loudspeaker.  But the performance was
> awful, and the project
> was cancelled.  He later made the drivers for the
> McIntosh F-100 as part of
> McIntosh's continued effort to enter the speaker
> business  -
> http://www.sundial.net/~rogerr/lsd1.htm
> 
> Sometime thereafter he started his own company to
> make the Bozak speakers we
> know  in Darrien CT.  The model B-410  set the high
> water mark, but all of
> their speaker seem to have been well-received and
> are sought after today.
> The B-410 "Concert Grand" contained four 12"
> woofers, two 10" midranges,
> four "treble speakers", and at 275 pounds and $862
> each, they must have been
> Bozak's answer to the EV Patrician.  (And after
> reading Ron K's comment
> about the rich Hammond owner, I wonder if this might
> be the speakers he
> sold?)
> 
> I found a 2 page spread in a 1969 Arrow Electronics
> catalog, showing a good
> selection of speakers, components and nice looking 2
> and 3-way systems and
> even PA speakers and pro-grade PA amps and mixers. 
> With prices in the
> $2-300 range back then, they definitely weren't
> playing in the shallow end
> of the pool!
> 
> The Bozak company evidently folded up in the late
> 70s or early 80's, accordi
> ng to comments on a newsgroup.    A company led by
> ex-employees called
> N.E.A.R. (New England Audio Resource founded in
> 1988), bought much of the
> tooling and know-how on his metal drivers and
> variable density woofer cone
> technology. They can still rebuild Bozak speakers - 
> near@maine   Evidently
> Bozak developed special tooling for spinning metal
> cones.   This is
> interesting to me, because the Bozak B-1000s I have
> are housed in round
> metal enclosures designed for outdoor use, and now I
> suspect they may use
> this metal cone technology.  (Guess Mr. Screwdriver
> and I will have to find
> out!)
> 
> In any event, it seems that NEAR is the closest
> living relative of the
> original Bozak, and now are owned by Bogen. 
> http://www.nearspeakers.com/
> To my surprise, they still make and use the metal
> alloy cones that were
> originally developed by Rudi Bozak.
> http://www.nearspeakers.com/tech.html
> They also make outdoor speakers that look like rocks
> - but I prefer speakers
> that look - well, like speakers!
> 
> Thanks for the exercise, Duane and I wonder what
> others here can add about
> the history of this company?
> 
> 73, Bob W9RAN
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
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