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Don's View

History of the Morrison Loudspeaker

The Morrison loudspeaker systems are all derived from the original concept developed by the late A.Stewart Hegeman.

Among his many contributions to the audio world were the development of the dome tweeter, the design of the original Dynaco tuner, the original Harmon Kardon Citation series of preamps and power amps and numerous other pieces of gear which have become collector's items. His work in the field of speaker design led to a radical concept resulting in a product bearing the Hegeman name.

The Hegeman Model One speaker system was introduced in 1969. It was one of the best kept secrets for several years that here was a music reproducer essentially hand built and costing far too little. It was the first speaker system to incorporate several engineering milestones; point source signal launch, l/4 wave loading of the woofer, hand built drive units etc. Because of the incredibly low selling price and total lack of hype the product was pretty much ignored by the "soothsayers of the high end".

It wasn't until after Hegeman passed away (Aug.1986) that a certain audio guru/editor sheepishly admitted to me that a pair of Hegeman model ones were used as a reference in evaluating associated equipment. This fact was never mentioned in the publication. This attitude pretty much sums up the arrogance of the high-end writers and reveals the elitist shits for what they are.

In terms of reproducing the illusion of a string quartet in a living room the Hegeman model one was basically correct - not perfect, but correct. Here at last was a speaker which didn't sound like yet another glorified and overpriced P.A. system.

A barrage of health and financial problems brought the production of the Hegeman speakers to a close in New Jersey in 1977. Hegeman, not wishing to see all the years of work end so abruptly, gave me a six-week crash course in speaker building. The inventory consisted of a truckload of cabinets, woofer baskets, wire, aluminum etc. The agreement consisted of a handshake between Hegeman and Morrison.

The product name changed to Morrison for obvious reasons at this point and manufacturing began in Toronto.

It should be noted that all design improvements were reflected in a higher selling price. The groundwork laid by Hegeman provided me with the opportunity to continue the research leading to a better product but not at the price at which it was initially marketed. In fact the product as distributed by Hegeman was priced so low that it was later calculated that he lost money on every pair sold. A situation certain to raise the eyebrows of the accountants. A number of improvements and refinements to the speakers took place over the years including:

• removal of the top lip of the cabinet around the perimeter of the baffle board
• use of a custom made tweeter
• rounding of the corners of the tunnels in the cabinets
• Beefing up the cabinet walls
• better quality binding posts
• improved woofer magnet system

The Model one was continued with minor improvements until 1986. The walnut grain appearance was changed to a lacquer finish. Any colour was available of course ... as long as the choice was black. Up to that time the cabinet walls or "shells" were made of 3/8-inch particleboard. The black lacquer version was made of 1/2-inch MDF (high density particleboard). The tweeter was changed to a SEAS H-400 then later to the more reliable H-417. At this point the spherical dispersion plug over the tweeter dome became permanently fitted into place.

The next major improvement came in 1991 when the baffle board was no longer set at an angle. The "flat top" version now became the model 1.5. The early prototypes of the Hegeman speakers fired straight up in this fashion and were capable of projecting a more accurate stereo image under optimum conditions.

The Model 1.5 cabinet walls were increased to 1-inch MDF material, which allowed a larger radius on the corners to further reduce diffraction. The woofer was upgraded by drilling a hole through the pole piece of the magnet structure thus eliminating a midrange colouration. In early 1994 the SEAS tweeter was changed to a 1 inch titanium dome with extensive changes including a new smaller dispersion plug.

The model 1.5 had been pushed about as far as possible at the end of 1994. The Pre-3 preamp and AMP-2 power amps were revealing some of the limitations of the speakers. This led to several months of R&D time on a series of ideas for a new model.

Don Morrison

Morrison Audio