KEF LS50W & LSX
It started with a mass-produced polystyrene cup, the kind used for hot drinks, made by vacuum-forming a foamed plastic over a shaping tool. These were patented in the USA back in 1957, at which time one Raymond Cooke (pictured above right) was designing loudspeaker drive units as Technical Director of Wharfedale, a position he’d taken after working for the BBC’s Designs Department. By 1960 the humble polystyrene cup had made its way across the Atlantic, and when Cooke first saw one, the proverbial light bulb illuminated above his head. At the time his loudspeaker driver cones were made from paper pulp, using a process that was expensive, time-consuming and difficult to achieve consistency. But suddenly, here was a new technique, a new material, and one capable of mass production. Could drive units be formed in the same way?
His Wharfedale masters being unresponsive to his excitement, in 1961 Cooke left the company and set up his own at the Kent Engineering and Foundry. KEF Electronics was born.
Over the decades that followed, KEF’s success spoke for itself. From its first ‘slimline’ speakers to its reference designs and on to wildly-successful midrange hi-fi with the likes of the long-running Coda series, Cooke’s engineering focus and materials research paid
