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H.J.Leak & Co. Ltd
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The Leak company was founded in 1934 by Harold Joseph Leak and was sold to the Rank
Organisation in January 1969. During the 1950's and 60's, the company produced high-
The sale of the business to Rank saw an expanded range of models, and considerable further development of loudspeakers, but Rank was not able position the brand to counter competition from Japanese electronics manufacturers, so by the late 1970s electronics and speaker production ceased under the LEAK name.
Early days
The company, H.J.Leak & Co. Ltd, of London, England, initially focussed on provision
of amplifiers for public address systems and theatres, with only a few staff. Typical
designs used were similar to those found in the Partridge Public Address Manuals
of the time, which used Osram's DA30 power triodes in push-
During the latter part of the Second World War, the company started developing amplifiers that made extensive use of negative feedback to achieve very high performance. This approach had been invented by Harold Black of Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1934, but it was slow to emerge as popular method for controlling amplifier performance.
Point One
In September 1945 the company released the first of the "Point One" series of amplifiers,
so named because the total harmonic distortion was 0.1% at rated output. This represented
a major leap forward in accepted standards for high-
In 1948, the original four-
Subsequent amplifiers from the company all used the same circuit topology at the
TL/12, but took advantage of newer more efficient power valves and the so-
Barlow published a paper in Wireless World (December 1958) which suggested that benefits
might be gained from the use of foil-
Leak continued to produce ‘Sandwich’ speakers for many years, and if you listen to them today you might be forgiven if you criticise the high frequency ability of the speakers – but without a doubt they were revolutionary in their time.
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Leak 600 Sandwich Speakers
In 1961 Leak released a revolutionary loudspeaker design that gave true piston action of the cone. This was the leak "Sandwich" loudspeaker, so named because the diaphragm was made from a thick section (approx 10mm) of expanded polystyrene sandwiched between two outer skins of aluminium.
The sandwich diaphragm was the result of work undertaken by D.A.Barlow at the Banbury Aluminium Development Laboratory.
Here's an extract from the LEAK ‘Stereo 30 Plus’ brochure of the late 60’s
" Stereo Reproduction.
Over the past ten years stereo sound reproduction has become such a part of our lives as the motor car and jet travel. In view of the astonishing sense of realism and the lack of listening fatigue it is not surprising that stereo should have attained such great popularity.
What may surprise many people is how long stereo has been known to communication engineers. H.J.Leak carried out his first stereo microphone transmission (with D.W.Turpin) in 19311 and subsequent experiments proved the feasibility of stereo sound as we know it today
What is relatively new about stereo is its availability to the general public by high quality records and the increasing use of stereo radio.
Old or new, H.J.Leak & Company has always been acknowledged as the leader in the field. And our products prove it"
All I can say to that is ……AMEN!!