Fane Acoustics

Fane Acoustics, Ltd., of Batley, Yorkshire.

Manufacturers of high-fidelity loudspeakers.

1958 Founded by A. E. Falkus and D. A. Newbold. after they left Richard Allan Radio.

The name Fane was originally derived from the names of the two founders of the company

They began business making loudspeakers which they baked at one of their homes, in the kitchen oven. FANE made commercial loudspeakers for radio and television sets as well as the new "hi-fi" industry as the new technologies and economy of the post-war era saw a huge expansion in affordable consumer products.

1959 Driver units for household or reinforcement use were advertised in 1959. One unit was equipped with aluminium voice coil windings, a favourite technique of Arthur Falkus to extend high frequency response.

1965 Fane Acoustics developed the IonoFane, a revolutionary plasma tweeter capable of incredible high frequency response utilising patented technologies. It was used by the BBC as a monitoring loudspeaker; Bowers and Wilkins also made units under license to Sony in Japan.

1967 Arthur Falkus developed the glass fibre voice coil which enabled speaker power handling to double, meeting the demands of the burgeoning electric guitar trade. FANE was the first manufacturer to produce a speaker capable of handling 100 W and generate sound pressure levels in excess of 100 dB.

Many world-renowned brands used FANE drivers and famous artists used equipment containing FANE speaker components.

FANE units were used theatres such as Carnegie Hall, New York, and the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen. Turbosound, who selected FANE for all their custom designed loudspeaker requirements, were the choice of the world’s leading venues and entertainers.

Introduced the first commercially available 24-inch loudspeaker and 4-inch voice coils.

1986 Acquired respected English loudspeaker brand McKenzie.

1989 FANE was purchased by the Wharfedale Group. Arthur Barnes, the chief executive, left the company.

2007 the Barnes family purchased FANE with the objective of restoring the brand’s fortunes. FANE was relocated from its then manufacturing plant in Leeds to its current home in Castleford.

2018 FANE was continuing to engage with a continually changing global audio industry, at the forefront of audio design and engineering.

See Also

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Sources of Information

• Company site [1]