Rudy Bozak
Encyclopedia
Rudolph Thomas Bozak was an audio electronics and acoustics designer and engineer in the field of sound reproduction. His parents were Bohemian Czech immigrants; Rudy was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania
. Bozak studied at Milwaukee School of Engineering
; in 1981, the school awarded him an honorary doctorate in engineering. Bozak married Lillian Gilleski; the two had three daughters: Lillian, Mary and Barbara.
, an electronics manufacturer based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
. Bozak would later employ Allen-Bradley components in his own electronic designs.
Bozak moved to the East Coast
in 1935 to work for Cinaudagraph out of Stamford, Connecticut
. Two years later he was chief engineer. At the 1939 New York World's Fair
, a tower topped with a cluster of eight 27" Cinaudagraph loudspeakers in 30" frames with huge 450 lb. field coil
magnets covered low frequency duties for a 2-way PA system at Flushing Meadows. The loudspeakers were mounted into horns with 14' wide mouths and were each driven by a 500 watt amplifier derived from a high-power radio broadcast tube. In June, 1940, Electronics magazine published an article that Bozak had written about the design of the 27" loudspeaker.
During World War II
, Bozak worked with Lincoln Walsh
at Dinion Coil Company in Caledonia, New York
developing very high voltage power supplies for radar.
Bozak joined C. G. Conn
in 1944 to help them develop an electronic organ
. While in Elkhart, Indiana
, he noticed that the human sense of hearing was unpredictable at best. Years later, Bozak recounted this story about the Conn electronic organ project: "The general sales manager, who was a pianist and played organ, sat down and played the thing and said it was great, just what we were looking for. A week later he was invited back into the laboratory and sat down and played the instrument again. He didn’t play ten or fifteen bars when he said, This goddamn thing doesn’t sound right. What did you guys do to it?’ We said we hadn’t done anything. Well, he didn’t believe us. ‘You did something to it. You messed it up here,’ he said. ‘Restore it back to the way you had it.’ So what we did was let the damn instrument sit there for another week, and he comes back and plays it again. ‘Now this is the way it should be,’ he says."
In 1948 Bozak moved his family to North Tonawanda, New York
to develop organ loudspeakers for Wurlitzer
. While there, Bozak experimented at home in a loudspeaker laboratory he housed in his basement. One design of his featured a kettle drum shell as the loudspeaker enclosure.
In 1950 Bozak was hired as a consultant by McIntosh Laboratory
to develop a square loudspeaker driver unit but it was not an engineering success. In 1952 he was making driver units for the McIntosh F100 speaker system. Though these sold reasonably well, McIntosh did not develop the design further. This experience led him to form his own company, Bozak Loudspeakers, in Stamford, Connecticut
.
Bozak met Emory Cook in the early 1950s; the two hit it off and began working in a shared warehouse basement facility in Stamford. Cook and Bozak thrilled the audio world in 1951 with Cook's ground-breaking stereo recording of train sounds at night: Rail Dynamics. Together, Bozak and Cook implemented a stereo loudspeaker system that would be able to show Cook's stereo recordings to best effect.
By the mid-1950s, Bozak had expanded into new quarters at 587 Connecticut Avenue in South Norwalk, with an export office in Hicksville, New York
.
The foundation of Bozak loudspeaker design was the unique Bozak cone. The woofer cone was molded from a slurry containing paper pulp, lamb's wool and other ingredients in a secret process. The cone was made thicker at the center, becoming progressively thinner toward the periphery. An additional doping of the inner area further strengthened the cone center. The result was a cone with 'variable density' from center to rim with virtually no breakup or standing waves, the major sources of distortion in more conventional paper cones.
The original midrange and tweeter cones were paper. In 1961 the B-209 midrange cone was changed to a radical new design. The material was very thin spun aluminum which took much of its strength from its curvilinear profile along the radius. The cone received a thin coating of latex
in order to damp
the surface reflections that otherwise would occur on a metal surface which is vibrated rapidly. The design was patented and was largely responsible for the superb transient response of the Bozak B-209B and B-209C midrange.
In 1961 the original B-200X paper-cone tweeter re-appeared as the B-200Y, using the same basic cone design of the midrange.
The Concert Grand was the crown jewel of Bozak speaker systems since its introduction in 1951. This refrigerator-sized speaker system originally contained four B-199 12" woofers, one 8 Ohm B-209 6" midrange driver and eight tweeters. The B-310 and B-310A were the mono versions in which the tweeters were arranged as a sector of a sphere for widest distribution of high frequencies. The 'stereo' B-310B and B-400 had the eight tweeters arranged in a vertical row. All Concert Grand models starting from the B-310A contained two 16 Ohm B-209 midrange drivers. The Concert Grand loudspeakers were designed to fill large spaces and were not at their best with listeners closer than 20 feet away. In 1965, a pair of B-410 Concert Grands cost US$2000. Such a high price limited ownership to a small number of hi-fi
aficionados and audiophile
s. The model line continued to be manufactured by Bozak until 1977. Henry Mancini
and Benny Goodman
, good friends of Rudy Bozak, owned Concert Grand speaker systems. Jack Webb
put a pair in his Mark VII Productions listening room.
In 1961, Bozak introduced the B-4000 Symphony. This was sort of "half a Concert Grand," using two 12" woofers, one midrange and the same vertical array of eight tweeters as the Concert Grands. Again, the Symphony was considered to have better imaging than its "big brother" (which was also consider by some listeners to be bass heavy) but was at its best when listeners were no closer than 15 feet. The Symphony was eventually offered in four cabinet styles.
The backbone of the Bozak line was the B-302A system, offered in several cabinet styles over a period of years. The 302A systems consisted of one 12" woofer, one midrange driver and one tweeter pair. A 'starter' version, the B-300, was a 2-way system consisting of one 12" woofer and one tweeter
pair mounted across the front of the woofer. A single capacitor sufficed as the crossover 'network' for the B-300. The system could be expanded to a 3-way B-302A by adding a midrange and full 3-way Bozak crossover.
Acoustic suspension
arrived in the loudspeaker marketplace in 1955, making it possible to get low bass from a small, bookshelf-sized enclosure. This seriously affected the sales of "big box" speaker systems of all brands. Rudy Bozak never offered an acoustic suspension speaker system; he stated that the full transient response and clean bass for which his woofers were famous could not be obtained with the heavier, reinforced woofer cones necessary for acoustic suspension. Bozak began offering smaller speaker systems to answer consumer demand, but none were noted for exceptional performance until the LS-200 and LS-200A of the late 1970s.
For the 1964 New York World's Fair
, Bozak again put forward a new loudspeaker design; this time in the Vatican Pavilion. Hemispherical ceiling-mounted loudspeakers (the CM-109-2) were developed and installed with great success.
Bozak accepted occasional United States Department of Defense
contracts including an underwater low frequency driver intended for acoustic communication between ocean-going vessels and a vibration platform
that Bozak employees called "The Shaker" which was meant to test the integrity of electronic assemblies in action.
The company name changed from "R.T. Bozak Co." to "Bozak, Inc" in the mid- 1960s.
s which allowed the development of the concept of disc jockey
mixing and 'discotheques'. Beginning with the Bozak CMA-6-1 and CMA-10-1, 6 and 10-input monaural
units of the mid 1960s, the peak of development was reached with the stereo
Bozak CMA-10-2DL; a unit that was very quickly accepted as the standard of its day. The Bozak CMA mixers were very expensive: they used high-grade Allen-Bradley components, hand-selected transistors, and were of modular construction for ease of servicing and expansion.
C/M Laboratories, co-founded by Wayne Chou and a Mr. Morris, collaborated with Rudy Bozak on the construction of the predecessor to the DJ mixer. C/M Labs designed the CMA-10 mixer intended for orchestral sound reinforcement; it was produced in small quantities. C/M Labs also designed and built amplifiers and other integrated electronics for Bozak and used Bozak speakers to test their gear. Eventually, Bozak brought these electronic products into the Bozak brand and developed them further. The CMA-10-2DL mixer was designed at Bozak for sale to discotheques.
Bozak didn't cease production of DJ mixers until some years after the death of Rudy Bozak. Buzzy Beck (a former engineer) and Paul Hammarlund carried on the work for a time. Meanwhile the design of the famed CMA series of mixers was cloned by UREI
as their model 1620 until they ceased production at which point the mixer was cloned by Rane Corp.
as their model 2016a. In 2005, Soundcraft
began to offer a UREI-Soundcraft badged 1620LE, with 'LE' standing for 'Limited Edition'.
The Bozak brand is now owned by Analog Developments Ltd. who have released electronic products such as the ISO-X isolator and the AR-6 DJ mixer. They own the website www.bozak.com.
in 1975 to emulate a concert hall experience outdoors; Jaffe received a patent for the concept.
amplifiers.
The B-401 Rhapsody speaker was reviewed in August, 1974, in High Fidelity, where it was said to have good power handling and a more constant impedance curve than most. Other auditors found a lack of bass response.
The last Bozak project that Rudy Bozak himself was an integral part of involved a thorough redesign of the B-200Y tweeter which had been a staple of Bozak loudspeakers since its introduction in 1962. The new design echoed earlier changes to the B-209 midrange: the standard tweeter cone shape was modified into a dished open horn shape that flattened out gradually from the center to the periphery. The new design became the B-200Z. Its basic curvilinear configuration was settled in 1974 but production didn't get underway until 1976 and early 1977. The new tweeter extended high frequency response to 16,000 Hz.
When Rudy Bozak turned 67 in 1977, he offered an opportunity for an employee buy-out headed by Bob Betts, his chief engineer. The arrangements required the personal loans of several key employees and would take a few months to transact. Bozak didn't wait for an employee buy-out; with a handshake promise to retain certain crucial employees, Rudy sold the rights to his corporation to an existing business headed by Joseph Schlig. Bozak stayed on in a minor consulting role. Quality was seen to go quickly downhill; the new owners appeared to longtime employees as being interested only in pulling money out of the operation. Betts and other company management officers left the company one by one.
Still, several good loudspeaker designs came out of a new engineering effort. In 1975, Bruce Zayde was hired by Bozak and Schlig as technical director; he began by implementing computer-aided design
(CAD) as a tool, hosted on an HP 9800 running a COMTRAN
program developed by Deane Jensen. Zayde introduced Thiele/Small
design principles regarding system development so that loudspeakers could be optimized at the outset for any proposed configuration. The LS-300 became the first Bozak loudspeaker model to be produced wholly from a preconceived design goal. It was also the first Bozak loudspeaker with reflex ports. It was positively reviewed in April, 1979, in High Fidelity.
Rudy Bozak was not in favor of using ports or vents to tune loudspeaker enclosures for greater low-frequency output from a smaller box. He was a purist; he felt that the impulse and transient response of ported designs was inferior and that the augmented bass was too boomy. By the late 1970s, this stance was considered old fashioned; the greater majority of home and professional loudspeakers were using ported designs. As the first ported loudspeaker model was being prototyped at his former company, Rudy Bozak remained skeptical but was willing to stand back and observe the results achieved using the new scientific design methods.
In 1976, Peter Ledermann was hired as assistant to Bruce Zayde but on his second day was thrust into the role of Director of Engineering; Zayde was quitting. Ledermann spent the next two years re-engineering the complete electronic product line, including putting into production the 902, a bucket-brigade based rear channel delay unit. His efforts put Bozak once again into the position of being able to produce and service electronic products reliably and repeatedly. Later, working with Richard Majestic, for whom Ledermann worked previously at RAM Audio, the two men designed the new Listener series, the LS-200A, 220-A, 330-A and others, employing a soft dome tweeter for the first time, as the Bozak tweeter did not have the top end range extension needed to attract the changing marketplace.
Ledermann relates how Rudy Bozak himself was treated by Bozak's management: "...the new owners of the company relegated him to a dark, unlit corner of the upper floor of the production building near the bundles of stocked cotton wool acoustic stuffing. At the right time of afternoon, when the light streamed in from one of the few windows, you could see the air filled with particulate matter and through it, if you knew where to look, a small, round faced man with felt cap could be usually found sitting in the dark at his old desk with the one small lamp illuminating his face." In 1979, Ledermann designed the Bozak MB80 bookshelf speaker and brought it to the marketplace. This compact loudspeaker contained a soft dome tweeter, a 6" 209-W wide range aluminum driver designed by Ledermann, and a modified first order crossover. The MB-80 employed tweeter clipping protection and indication. Rudy Bozak took note of the project, but did not participate in the design.
In early 1982, Rudy Bozak died. His wife Lillian and their son-in-law Don Parks reorganized the company and quality of workmanship made a brief comeback from 1983 to 1985. The LS-200A loudspeaker, a ported model, was reviewed in May, 1984, in Stereo Review
. The facility relocated several times: Newington
, Bristol
and New Britain
but management was unable to sustain the effort. Finally, the company's assets were put into truck trailers to await final disposition. The company tooling was sold to Bill Kieltyka, president of New England Audio Resource (N.E.A.R.), an audiophile loudspeaker manufacturer based in Lewiston, Maine
. N.E.A.R. redesigned the Bozak Bard outdoor speaker to have an epoxy-covered wooden enclosure rather than the original aluminum one. Much later, in 1997, Bogen bought N.E.A.R. to obtain the rights to Bozak's former outdoor speaker line. A civil court case was initiated by Seal Audio, Inc. (Joseph Schlig, CEO, President and Director) against Bozak, Inc. The Bozak name was sold to overseas interests who began to produce Bozak-branded equipment in China.
state law as it established precedent in defining the timing of objections to state referees when serving as fact finders appointed by the chief justice. In Connecticut, consent is required by both parties when a state referee is appointed. Seal Audio had filed no objection to the findings of the state referee until the case was taken to appeal; the Supreme Court of Connecticut found implicit consent in Seal Audio's lack of objection at that time. The case has subsequently been quoted as meaning that "a party cannot withhold objection in anticipation of favorable outcome while reserving right to impeach decision if it later proves to be unfavorable."
.
By 1963, Bozak was on the Board of Governors of the Audio Engineering Society
for two years. He served in the same capacity again for two years starting in 1970. Bozak was awarded an AES Fellowship in 1965 for "valuable contributions to the advancement in or dissemination of knowledge of audio engineering or in the promotion of its application in practice." In 1970, Rudi T. Bozak won the AES John H. Potts Award (now the Gold Medal), their highest award for outstanding, sustained achievement in the field of audio engineering.
song titles and lyrics where the word can stand for the Bozak DJ mixer as well as for ability and virility:
A producer known as "Mister Bozack" has worked with Def Jam Recordings
on several rap albums for Redman and EPMD.
Uniontown, Pennsylvania
Uniontown is a city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh and part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. Population in 1900, 7,344; in 1910, 13,344; in 1920, 15,692; and in 1940, 21,819. The population was 10,372 at the 2010 census...
. Bozak studied at Milwaukee School of Engineering
Milwaukee School of Engineering
The Milwaukee School of Engineering is a private university located in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. MSOE is best known for its applications-oriented curriculum, close association with business and industry, and extremely high placement rate...
; in 1981, the school awarded him an honorary doctorate in engineering. Bozak married Lillian Gilleski; the two had three daughters: Lillian, Mary and Barbara.
Loudspeakers
Fresh out of college in 1933, Rudy Bozak began working for Allen-BradleyAllen-Bradley
Allen-Bradley is the brand-name of a line of Factory Automation Equipment manufactured by Rockwell Automation . The company, with revenues of approximately US$4.5 billion in 2006, manufactures programmable automation controllers , human-machine interfaces, sensors, safety components and systems,...
, an electronics manufacturer based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
. Bozak would later employ Allen-Bradley components in his own electronic designs.
Bozak moved to the East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
in 1935 to work for Cinaudagraph out of Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
. Two years later he was chief engineer. At the 1939 New York World's Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
, a tower topped with a cluster of eight 27" Cinaudagraph loudspeakers in 30" frames with huge 450 lb. field coil
Field coil
A field coil is a component of an electro-magnetic machine, typically a rotating electrical machine such as a motor or generator. A current-carrying coil is used to generate a magnetic field....
magnets covered low frequency duties for a 2-way PA system at Flushing Meadows. The loudspeakers were mounted into horns with 14' wide mouths and were each driven by a 500 watt amplifier derived from a high-power radio broadcast tube. In June, 1940, Electronics magazine published an article that Bozak had written about the design of the 27" loudspeaker.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Bozak worked with Lincoln Walsh
Lincoln Walsh
Lincoln Walsh was an engineer and inventor.Walsh was educated at Stevens Institute of Technology, Columbia University and at Brooklyn College. Before World War II, he founded the Brook Amplifier Company...
at Dinion Coil Company in Caledonia, New York
Caledonia, New York
Caledonia, New York may refer to:*Caledonia , New York, located in Livingston County*Caledonia , New York, located within the Town of Caledonia...
developing very high voltage power supplies for radar.
Bozak joined C. G. Conn
C. G. Conn
C.G. Conn Ltd., sometimes called Conn Instruments or commonly just Conn, was a United States manufacturer of musical instruments, especially brass instruments. In 1985 their Strobotuner division was bought by Peterson Electro-Musical Products, who continue to service their line of products.Assets...
in 1944 to help them develop an electronic organ
Electronic organ
An electronic organ is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally, it was designed to imitate the sound of pipe organs, theatre organs, band sounds, or orchestral sounds....
. While in Elkhart, Indiana
Elkhart, Indiana
Elkhart is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located east of South Bend, northwest of Fort Wayne, east of Chicago, and north of Indianapolis...
, he noticed that the human sense of hearing was unpredictable at best. Years later, Bozak recounted this story about the Conn electronic organ project: "The general sales manager, who was a pianist and played organ, sat down and played the thing and said it was great, just what we were looking for. A week later he was invited back into the laboratory and sat down and played the instrument again. He didn’t play ten or fifteen bars when he said, This goddamn thing doesn’t sound right. What did you guys do to it?’ We said we hadn’t done anything. Well, he didn’t believe us. ‘You did something to it. You messed it up here,’ he said. ‘Restore it back to the way you had it.’ So what we did was let the damn instrument sit there for another week, and he comes back and plays it again. ‘Now this is the way it should be,’ he says."
In 1948 Bozak moved his family to North Tonawanda, New York
North Tonawanda, New York
North Tonawanda is a city in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 31,568 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is named after Tonawanda Creek, its south border...
to develop organ loudspeakers for Wurlitzer
Wurlitzer
The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, was an American company that produced stringed instruments, woodwinds, brass instruments, theatre organs, band organs, orchestrions, electronic organs, electric pianos and jukeboxes....
. While there, Bozak experimented at home in a loudspeaker laboratory he housed in his basement. One design of his featured a kettle drum shell as the loudspeaker enclosure.
In 1950 Bozak was hired as a consultant by McIntosh Laboratory
McIntosh Laboratory
McIntosh Laboratory is an American manufacturer of high-end audio equipment based in Binghamton, New York. The company was founded in 1949 by Frank McIntosh,. The "classic" vacuum tube components of the 1960s include the MC275 power amplifier, the C22 preamplifier, and the MR67 tuner...
to develop a square loudspeaker driver unit but it was not an engineering success. In 1952 he was making driver units for the McIntosh F100 speaker system. Though these sold reasonably well, McIntosh did not develop the design further. This experience led him to form his own company, Bozak Loudspeakers, in Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
.
Bozak met Emory Cook in the early 1950s; the two hit it off and began working in a shared warehouse basement facility in Stamford. Cook and Bozak thrilled the audio world in 1951 with Cook's ground-breaking stereo recording of train sounds at night: Rail Dynamics. Together, Bozak and Cook implemented a stereo loudspeaker system that would be able to show Cook's stereo recordings to best effect.
By the mid-1950s, Bozak had expanded into new quarters at 587 Connecticut Avenue in South Norwalk, with an export office in Hicksville, New York
Hicksville, New York
Hicksville is a hamlet and census-designated place located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population of the CDP was 41,547 at the 2010 census...
.
The foundation of Bozak loudspeaker design was the unique Bozak cone. The woofer cone was molded from a slurry containing paper pulp, lamb's wool and other ingredients in a secret process. The cone was made thicker at the center, becoming progressively thinner toward the periphery. An additional doping of the inner area further strengthened the cone center. The result was a cone with 'variable density' from center to rim with virtually no breakup or standing waves, the major sources of distortion in more conventional paper cones.
The original midrange and tweeter cones were paper. In 1961 the B-209 midrange cone was changed to a radical new design. The material was very thin spun aluminum which took much of its strength from its curvilinear profile along the radius. The cone received a thin coating of latex
Latex
Latex is the stable dispersion of polymer microparticles in an aqueous medium. Latexes may be natural or synthetic.Latex as found in nature is a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants . It is a complex emulsion consisting of proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins,...
in order to damp
Damping
In physics, damping is any effect that tends to reduce the amplitude of oscillations in an oscillatory system, particularly the harmonic oscillator.In mechanics, friction is one such damping effect...
the surface reflections that otherwise would occur on a metal surface which is vibrated rapidly. The design was patented and was largely responsible for the superb transient response of the Bozak B-209B and B-209C midrange.
In 1961 the original B-200X paper-cone tweeter re-appeared as the B-200Y, using the same basic cone design of the midrange.
The Concert Grand was the crown jewel of Bozak speaker systems since its introduction in 1951. This refrigerator-sized speaker system originally contained four B-199 12" woofers, one 8 Ohm B-209 6" midrange driver and eight tweeters. The B-310 and B-310A were the mono versions in which the tweeters were arranged as a sector of a sphere for widest distribution of high frequencies. The 'stereo' B-310B and B-400 had the eight tweeters arranged in a vertical row. All Concert Grand models starting from the B-310A contained two 16 Ohm B-209 midrange drivers. The Concert Grand loudspeakers were designed to fill large spaces and were not at their best with listeners closer than 20 feet away. In 1965, a pair of B-410 Concert Grands cost US$2000. Such a high price limited ownership to a small number of hi-fi
High fidelity
High fidelity—or hi-fi—reproduction is a term used by home stereo listeners and home audio enthusiasts to refer to high-quality reproduction of sound or images, to distinguish it from the poorer quality sound produced by inexpensive audio equipment...
aficionados and audiophile
Audiophile
An audiophile is a person who enjoys listening to recorded music, usually in a home. Some audiophiles are more interested in collecting and listening to music, while others are more interested in collecting and listening to audio components, whose "sound quality" they consider as important as the...
s. The model line continued to be manufactured by Bozak until 1977. Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
and Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
, good friends of Rudy Bozak, owned Concert Grand speaker systems. Jack Webb
Jack Webb
John Randolph "Jack" Webb , also known by the pseudonym John Randolph, was an American actor, television producer, director and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet...
put a pair in his Mark VII Productions listening room.
In 1961, Bozak introduced the B-4000 Symphony. This was sort of "half a Concert Grand," using two 12" woofers, one midrange and the same vertical array of eight tweeters as the Concert Grands. Again, the Symphony was considered to have better imaging than its "big brother" (which was also consider by some listeners to be bass heavy) but was at its best when listeners were no closer than 15 feet. The Symphony was eventually offered in four cabinet styles.
The backbone of the Bozak line was the B-302A system, offered in several cabinet styles over a period of years. The 302A systems consisted of one 12" woofer, one midrange driver and one tweeter pair. A 'starter' version, the B-300, was a 2-way system consisting of one 12" woofer and one tweeter
pair mounted across the front of the woofer. A single capacitor sufficed as the crossover 'network' for the B-300. The system could be expanded to a 3-way B-302A by adding a midrange and full 3-way Bozak crossover.
Acoustic suspension
Acoustic suspension
The acoustic suspension woofer is a type of loudspeaker that reduces bass distortion caused by non-linear, stiff mechanical suspensions in conventional loudspeakers...
arrived in the loudspeaker marketplace in 1955, making it possible to get low bass from a small, bookshelf-sized enclosure. This seriously affected the sales of "big box" speaker systems of all brands. Rudy Bozak never offered an acoustic suspension speaker system; he stated that the full transient response and clean bass for which his woofers were famous could not be obtained with the heavier, reinforced woofer cones necessary for acoustic suspension. Bozak began offering smaller speaker systems to answer consumer demand, but none were noted for exceptional performance until the LS-200 and LS-200A of the late 1970s.
Commercial sound
For commercial sound reinforcement, Bozak introduced a biamped columnar loudspeaker in 1962. In 1963, the newly-established commercial loudspeaker division was employing about 60 people dedicated to manufacturing the columnar model which was proving a great success. At 17½ years of age Bob Betts was hired as technician but was put in charge of the Acoustics Lab by 1965. Betts became chief engineer in 1968. Rudy Bozak had no sons; he traveled extensively with Betts on company business and tutored Betts to help him with his college homework.For the 1964 New York World's Fair
1964 New York World's Fair
The 1964/1965 New York World's Fair was the third major world's fair to be held in New York City. Hailing itself as a "universal and international" exposition, the fair's theme was "Peace Through Understanding," dedicated to "Man's Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe";...
, Bozak again put forward a new loudspeaker design; this time in the Vatican Pavilion. Hemispherical ceiling-mounted loudspeakers (the CM-109-2) were developed and installed with great success.
Bozak accepted occasional United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
contracts including an underwater low frequency driver intended for acoustic communication between ocean-going vessels and a vibration platform
Vibrator (mechanical)
A vibrator is a mechanical device to generate vibrations. The vibration is often generated by an electric motor with an unbalanced mass on its driveshaft.There are many different types of vibrator...
that Bozak employees called "The Shaker" which was meant to test the integrity of electronic assemblies in action.
The company name changed from "R.T. Bozak Co." to "Bozak, Inc" in the mid- 1960s.
DJ mixers
Bozak is often remembered today for his advanced designs of DJ mixerDJ mixer
A DJ mixer is a type of audio mixing console used by disc jockeys.The key features that differentiate a DJ mixer from other types of audio mixers are the ability to redirect a non-playing source to headphones and the presence of a crossfader, which allows for an easier transition between two sources...
s which allowed the development of the concept of disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
mixing and 'discotheques'. Beginning with the Bozak CMA-6-1 and CMA-10-1, 6 and 10-input monaural
Monaural
Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path...
units of the mid 1960s, the peak of development was reached with the stereo
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
Bozak CMA-10-2DL; a unit that was very quickly accepted as the standard of its day. The Bozak CMA mixers were very expensive: they used high-grade Allen-Bradley components, hand-selected transistors, and were of modular construction for ease of servicing and expansion.
C/M Laboratories, co-founded by Wayne Chou and a Mr. Morris, collaborated with Rudy Bozak on the construction of the predecessor to the DJ mixer. C/M Labs designed the CMA-10 mixer intended for orchestral sound reinforcement; it was produced in small quantities. C/M Labs also designed and built amplifiers and other integrated electronics for Bozak and used Bozak speakers to test their gear. Eventually, Bozak brought these electronic products into the Bozak brand and developed them further. The CMA-10-2DL mixer was designed at Bozak for sale to discotheques.
Bozak didn't cease production of DJ mixers until some years after the death of Rudy Bozak. Buzzy Beck (a former engineer) and Paul Hammarlund carried on the work for a time. Meanwhile the design of the famed CMA series of mixers was cloned by UREI
Universal Audio
Universal Audio is the fifth and final studio album by Scottish indie rock band The Delgados, released September 20, 2004. The album is considered to showcase a more 'stripped down' sound than its predecessor Hate, featuring less orchestral themes....
as their model 1620 until they ceased production at which point the mixer was cloned by Rane Corp.
Rane Corp.
Rane Corporation is a pro audio equipment manufacturer. Located in Mukilteo, Washington, it was made up of former employees of Phase Linear Corporation, and started out with products aimed at small live bands...
as their model 2016a. In 2005, Soundcraft
Soundcraft
Soundcraft is a British manufacturer of mixing consoles and other professional audio equipment. It was founded by sound engineer Phil Dudderidge and electronics designer Graham Blyth in 1973.-History:...
began to offer a UREI-Soundcraft badged 1620LE, with 'LE' standing for 'Limited Edition'.
The Bozak brand is now owned by Analog Developments Ltd. who have released electronic products such as the ISO-X isolator and the AR-6 DJ mixer. They own the website www.bozak.com.
Digital delay
Bozak developed an electronic digital delay device in the early 1970s and used it to align loudspeakers in time within event spaces. The Bozak DA-4003 delay, Bozak amplifiers and various Bozak loudspeaker models were used by Donald E. Gilbeau and Dr. J. Christopher JaffeJ. Christopher Jaffe
J. Christopher Jaffe is recognized for leadership in architectural-acoustic design.-Work:Jaffe graduated from the School of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1949 and then went on to graduate studies in theater at Columbia University.During the course of his work he has consulted...
in 1975 to emulate a concert hall experience outdoors; Jaffe received a patent for the concept.
Final years
Saul Marantz joined Bozak as consultant in the mid 1970s. He helped with esthetic details of certain products. When both Bozak and Marantz teamed up to demonstrate loudspeakers at Hi-Fi events and audio engineering conventions, a sizable crowd would form. Bozak shifted from using McIntosh amplifiers for powering his loudspeakers to using MarantzMarantz
Marantz is a company that develops and sells upper-mid range to high-end audio products.The first Marantz audio product was designed and built by Saul B. Marantz in his home in Kew Gardens, New York...
amplifiers.
The B-401 Rhapsody speaker was reviewed in August, 1974, in High Fidelity, where it was said to have good power handling and a more constant impedance curve than most. Other auditors found a lack of bass response.
The last Bozak project that Rudy Bozak himself was an integral part of involved a thorough redesign of the B-200Y tweeter which had been a staple of Bozak loudspeakers since its introduction in 1962. The new design echoed earlier changes to the B-209 midrange: the standard tweeter cone shape was modified into a dished open horn shape that flattened out gradually from the center to the periphery. The new design became the B-200Z. Its basic curvilinear configuration was settled in 1974 but production didn't get underway until 1976 and early 1977. The new tweeter extended high frequency response to 16,000 Hz.
When Rudy Bozak turned 67 in 1977, he offered an opportunity for an employee buy-out headed by Bob Betts, his chief engineer. The arrangements required the personal loans of several key employees and would take a few months to transact. Bozak didn't wait for an employee buy-out; with a handshake promise to retain certain crucial employees, Rudy sold the rights to his corporation to an existing business headed by Joseph Schlig. Bozak stayed on in a minor consulting role. Quality was seen to go quickly downhill; the new owners appeared to longtime employees as being interested only in pulling money out of the operation. Betts and other company management officers left the company one by one.
Still, several good loudspeaker designs came out of a new engineering effort. In 1975, Bruce Zayde was hired by Bozak and Schlig as technical director; he began by implementing computer-aided design
Computer-aided design
Computer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...
(CAD) as a tool, hosted on an HP 9800 running a COMTRAN
COMTRAN
COMTRAN is an early programming language developed at IBM. It was intended as the business programming equivalent of the scientific programming language FORTRAN . It served as one of the forerunners to the COBOL language...
program developed by Deane Jensen. Zayde introduced Thiele/Small
Thiele/Small
"Thiele/Small" commonly refers to a set of electromechanical parameters that define the specified low frequency performance of a loudspeaker driver. These parameters are published in specification sheets by driver manufacturers so that designers have a guide in selecting off-the-shelf drivers for...
design principles regarding system development so that loudspeakers could be optimized at the outset for any proposed configuration. The LS-300 became the first Bozak loudspeaker model to be produced wholly from a preconceived design goal. It was also the first Bozak loudspeaker with reflex ports. It was positively reviewed in April, 1979, in High Fidelity.
Rudy Bozak was not in favor of using ports or vents to tune loudspeaker enclosures for greater low-frequency output from a smaller box. He was a purist; he felt that the impulse and transient response of ported designs was inferior and that the augmented bass was too boomy. By the late 1970s, this stance was considered old fashioned; the greater majority of home and professional loudspeakers were using ported designs. As the first ported loudspeaker model was being prototyped at his former company, Rudy Bozak remained skeptical but was willing to stand back and observe the results achieved using the new scientific design methods.
In 1976, Peter Ledermann was hired as assistant to Bruce Zayde but on his second day was thrust into the role of Director of Engineering; Zayde was quitting. Ledermann spent the next two years re-engineering the complete electronic product line, including putting into production the 902, a bucket-brigade based rear channel delay unit. His efforts put Bozak once again into the position of being able to produce and service electronic products reliably and repeatedly. Later, working with Richard Majestic, for whom Ledermann worked previously at RAM Audio, the two men designed the new Listener series, the LS-200A, 220-A, 330-A and others, employing a soft dome tweeter for the first time, as the Bozak tweeter did not have the top end range extension needed to attract the changing marketplace.
Ledermann relates how Rudy Bozak himself was treated by Bozak's management: "...the new owners of the company relegated him to a dark, unlit corner of the upper floor of the production building near the bundles of stocked cotton wool acoustic stuffing. At the right time of afternoon, when the light streamed in from one of the few windows, you could see the air filled with particulate matter and through it, if you knew where to look, a small, round faced man with felt cap could be usually found sitting in the dark at his old desk with the one small lamp illuminating his face." In 1979, Ledermann designed the Bozak MB80 bookshelf speaker and brought it to the marketplace. This compact loudspeaker contained a soft dome tweeter, a 6" 209-W wide range aluminum driver designed by Ledermann, and a modified first order crossover. The MB-80 employed tweeter clipping protection and indication. Rudy Bozak took note of the project, but did not participate in the design.
In early 1982, Rudy Bozak died. His wife Lillian and their son-in-law Don Parks reorganized the company and quality of workmanship made a brief comeback from 1983 to 1985. The LS-200A loudspeaker, a ported model, was reviewed in May, 1984, in Stereo Review
Stereo Review
Stereo Review was an American magazine first published in 1958 by Ziff-Davis with the title HiFi and Music Review. It was one of a handful of magazines then available for the individual interested in high fidelity. Throughout its life it published a blend of record and equipment reviews, articles...
. The facility relocated several times: Newington
Newington, Connecticut
Newington is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2000 census, it had a total population of 29,306. The Connecticut Department of Transportation has its headquarters in Newington....
, Bristol
Bristol, Connecticut
Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States southwest of Hartford. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 61,353. Bristol is primarily known as the home of ESPN, whose central studios are in the city. Bristol is also home to...
and New Britain
New Britain, Connecticut
New Britain is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately 9 miles southwest of Hartford. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 71,254....
but management was unable to sustain the effort. Finally, the company's assets were put into truck trailers to await final disposition. The company tooling was sold to Bill Kieltyka, president of New England Audio Resource (N.E.A.R.), an audiophile loudspeaker manufacturer based in Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
. N.E.A.R. redesigned the Bozak Bard outdoor speaker to have an epoxy-covered wooden enclosure rather than the original aluminum one. Much later, in 1997, Bogen bought N.E.A.R. to obtain the rights to Bozak's former outdoor speaker line. A civil court case was initiated by Seal Audio, Inc. (Joseph Schlig, CEO, President and Director) against Bozak, Inc. The Bozak name was sold to overseas interests who began to produce Bozak-branded equipment in China.
Legal precedent
In 1986, the appeal was decided in the court case between Seal Audio, Inc. and Bozak, Inc. Aside from the verdict, the case is often quoted in ConnecticutConnecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
state law as it established precedent in defining the timing of objections to state referees when serving as fact finders appointed by the chief justice. In Connecticut, consent is required by both parties when a state referee is appointed. Seal Audio had filed no objection to the findings of the state referee until the case was taken to appeal; the Supreme Court of Connecticut found implicit consent in Seal Audio's lack of objection at that time. The case has subsequently been quoted as meaning that "a party cannot withhold objection in anticipation of favorable outcome while reserving right to impeach decision if it later proves to be unfavorable."
Professional organizations
In 1938, Bozak was elected to Associate Grade membership with the Institute of Radio EngineersInstitute of Radio Engineers
The Institute of Radio Engineers was a professional organization which existed from 1912 until January 1, 1963, when it merged with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers .-Founding:Following several attempts to form a...
.
By 1963, Bozak was on the Board of Governors of the Audio Engineering Society
Audio Engineering Society
Established in 1948, the Audio Engineering Society draws its membership from amongst engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or products for audio, and persons working...
for two years. He served in the same capacity again for two years starting in 1970. Bozak was awarded an AES Fellowship in 1965 for "valuable contributions to the advancement in or dissemination of knowledge of audio engineering or in the promotion of its application in practice." In 1970, Rudi T. Bozak won the AES John H. Potts Award (now the Gold Medal), their highest award for outstanding, sustained achievement in the field of audio engineering.
Patents
- Switch for electrical musical instruments. US patent 2567870. C.G.Conn Ltd., 1951.
- Metallic diaphragm for electrodynamic loudspeakerss. US patent 3093207. R.T.Bozak Mfg. Co., 1963.
- Compliant annulus for loudspeaker and related circuit. US patent 3436494. R.T.Bozak Mfg. Co., 1969.
- Edge-damped diaphragm for electrodynamic loudspeakers. US patent 3837425. Bozak, Inc., 1973.
Popular culture
Many references to Bozak (often spelled Bozack) can be found in modern hip hop musicHip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
song titles and lyrics where the word can stand for the Bozak DJ mixer as well as for ability and virility:
- NewcleusNewcleusNewcleus is an American electro and old school hip hop group that gained popularity in the early 1980s. They are primarily known for their 12-inch singles "Jam-On's Revenge", re-released as "Jam on Revenge " , and "Jam on It" ....
Jam On It - EPMDEPMDEPMD is an American hip hop group from Brentwood, New York. The group's name is a concatenation of the members' name "E" and "PMD" or an acronym for "Erick and Parrish Making Dollars", referencing its members, emcees Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith...
Get The Bozack, Back to the Rap and Mr. Bozack - 3rd Bass3rd Bass3rd Bass was an American hip-hop group that rose to fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and was notable for being one of the first successful interracial hip-hop groups.-Career:...
Kick Em In The Grill - Redman Jam 4 U
- Tom Browne Funkin for Jamaica
- Beastie BoysBeastie BoysBeastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
'Sure Shot
A producer known as "Mister Bozack" has worked with Def Jam Recordings
Def Jam Recordings
Def Jam Recordings is an American record label, focused primarily on hip hop and urban music, owned by Universal Music Group, and operates as a part of The Island Def Jam Motown Music Group...
on several rap albums for Redman and EPMD.
See also
- MarantzMarantzMarantz is a company that develops and sells upper-mid range to high-end audio products.The first Marantz audio product was designed and built by Saul B. Marantz in his home in Kew Gardens, New York...
- McIntosh Laboratories