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Reproduction Manuals Catalog - ELAC History (Miracord) |
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A little history and information about Electroacustic GMBH (ELAC) |
ELECTROACUSTIC GmbH is a German company best known
in most parts of the world as ELAC or Miracord. Their turntables from
primarily the 1950s through 1970s are very well known. They were distributed in the USA by Benjamin
Electronic Sound Corp. who sometimes re-badged them as Benjamin Miracord. In Canada,
they were distributed by
White Electronic Development Corp. Ltd.
On April 15, 1908, Dr Phil Heinrich Hecht started working in Kiel,
Germany on underwater sound technology. In 1911, a company called Signalgesellschaft
GmbH was founded. The managers were Dr Phil Hecht, Dr Phil Wilhelm Rudolph, Walter Hahnemann,
and Gerhard Schmidt.
After World War I, Dr Hecht, Gerhard Schmidt, and Dr Rudolph founded the ELECTROACUSTIC
GmbH. The company prospered and grew to have a total workforce of about
5000. World War II interrupted their progress and the company nearly
ground to a halt. They maintained operations with a downsized workforce
of approximately 250 workers and by making sewing machines and other
products.
In the late 1940s they introduce their first turntable using the ELAC
brand name and produce 5600 the first year. They will eventually produce
approximately 4 million turntables. Through their work with producing
high purity Seignette salt crystals, they introduce the crystal phono
pickup (KST1) which requires only 270 mN (milli-newtons) (approximately
27 gm) tracking force instead of the 600 to 1200 mN (approximately 60 -
120 gm) which was common at the time. By the mid-1950s, three German
companies consisting of ELAC, Dual and Perpetuum Ebner (PE) enjoy a 90%
worldwide market share for
turntables.
In
1957 ELAC patents an electro-magnetic pick-up which established them as
a world leader in pickups. They license it to companies around the world
including Shure. Further development of this technology led to what
becomes known as Moving-Magnet
cartridge systems or simply MM. By the late 1960s, ELAC hi-fi magnet pick-ups
had tracking
forces below 10 mN (approximately 1 gm).
About 1978 turntable manufacturers experienced a dramatic downturn in
sales. ELAC is split with the underwater sound portion of the company
being bought by Honeywell and the phono division is renamed ELAC Ingenieurtechnik.
The (again) downsized company continues on a much reduced scale and with
other work such as industrial robots.
Despite changes in marketing strategies and a successful new stylus
design, the company continues to have difficulties and is once again
reorganized. In 1982, John & Partner Vertriebsgesellschaft
mbH takes over ELAC's marketing and distribution. A new Moving-Coil
pickup, the EMC-1 is introduced along with new products.
In the mid 1980s, the company moved into the speaker business. From that
time forward they begin developing new concepts of loudspeaker dispersion characteristics,
room acoustics, and computer modeling of listening environment
simulations. They acquired the AXIOM Elektroakustik GmgH speaker company
and integrated the Linear Acoustic brand into ELAC.
1990 sees a new subsidiary named ELAC Technische Software GmbH (ETS).
Through ETS they develop complex computer modeling and begin bringing
new technologies to the speaker industry. They acquired the A.R.E.S.
speaker brand. The Heil Air Motion Transformer concept if refined with
their introduction of ELAC "JET" tweeters. The new focus in speakers and
acoustic technologies resulted in industry recognition and numerous awards throughout
the 1990s.
In 1997 they end production of pickups and further concentrate on
loudspeakers. In 1998 they consolidate the JOHN & PARTNER and ELAC
Phonosysteme into one company and once again take their original name of
ELAC ELECTROACUSTIC
GMBH. New innovations continue as involve themselves in developing
loudspeakers for use in automobile air ducts, cinema sound and surround
sound technologies.
The 1990s saw many industry awards and growing popularity, particularly
in the Asian markets. By 2004, ELAC was the best known German speaker
company in China. |
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