19AES-H07: Compression Drive DNA: The Origin and Seeds of Progress

Presenters:
Thomas Dunker
Bjørn Kolbrek, Celestion - Ipswich, UK

The successful commercialization of sound films in 1926 by Western Electric and Vitaphone marked the start of large scale high quality sound reproduction. Central in the success of the Vitaphone was the Western Electric 555 compression driver, the grandmother of modern compression drivers, developed by the Bell Labs. We will take a closer look at the technology inside this remarkable driver through never-before-published reports, including unimplemented proposed improvements.

Further Bell Labs development into high-power wide-range drivers resulted in the second generation of compression drivers, in the form of the Western Electric 594A. This driver marks the start of modern compression driver design and is worthy of some detailed discussion.