Braun L480-1

Despite their modest size and full-surface metal grilles, the 1974 Braun L480/1 loudspeakers deliver exceptional tonal accuracy and overall musicality. But are these characteristics enough to qualify them as near-field monitors for use in a recording studio? We shall find out.

Like the Braun L480/1 speakers, I am a child of the 1970s and was born in Frankfurt am Main. This was still a time and region shaped by the German 'Wirtschaftswunder', a term coined during the economic boom that followed World War II. It was based on the perplexing phenomenon of brilliant engineers and skilled workers being found in a newly developing economic zone with extremely low wages.

Frankfurt am Main has always been an important hub for trade and financial services. During the post-war era, politicians wanted to see a resurgence of trademark products that would provide people with reassurance and a distinctly modern style. The Germans wanted to break with traditions that had caused them more hardship than benefit, and embark on a cleaner, more predictable future. Their yearning for stability and order is also evident in the design choices of the time.

Too real had been the sacrifices that still lingered in the fear-ridden minds of the Germany’s population. Most families had experienced unimaginable losses and were living through the emotional aftermath. The infrastructure had only recently been rebuilt, and in the many new homes lived young families who found it difficult to trust in the stability and who were eager to erase the scars of the past by focusing on something new and beautiful. Those who could show their status were again likely to do so, but in a subtle non-boisterous way that would not offend those less fortunate.

The Braun designs of the 1970s and '80s reflect these contrasting needs. Combining a clean, forward-looking aesthetic with superb build quality and functionality, it blends unobtrusively with other household furniture. It is pleasing to the eye for the uninitiated and a marvel of technology for those in the know. Designers such as Dieter Rams, head of the Braun design team from 1961 to 1995, embraced the prominent design schools of their time, such as Bauhaus and its successor HfG Ulm, and applied these aesthetics to industrial product design.

Although Braun publicly praised Dieter Rams for his contributions to its products, little is known about the small team of acoustic engineers that provided the actual substance to his designs. What is known, however, is that products such as the L480/1 speakers were developed in tandem with the engineers and not hierarchically from the design team downwards. In true Bauhaus fashion “form follows function”, with functionality being the decisive factor. While Rams defined the general look and feel, the placement concept, and system integration, the final dimensions, driver selection, crossover design, and voicing were the job of the engineers.

The coordination of design and electronics followed the structure and processes established by Fritz Eichler, whose approach to “systems thinking” has inspired many successful companies ever since. By the 1970s, Braun had a dedicated in-house loudspeaker development group that designed its own drivers. This meant that the L480/1 series featured newly developed flat paper cones, a proprietary 25 mm Braun dome tweeter, and crossovers specially engineered for placement near a wall. Production and assembly took place locally in Kronberg i.T., with samples regularly moving between Kronberg and Frankfurt.

When developing the L480/1 speakers, the acoustic engineers aimed to produce a 'natural' sound without accentuating any frequencies for dramatic effect. In doing so, the company embraced the BBC tradition of speaker design, as opposed to the exaggerated West Coast Sound familiar to Americans, or the Taunus Sound as it is sometimes known in Germany. The L480/1 succeeded the L450 series, which were also sealed cabinets with crossovers that compensated for wall placement and relative near-field monitoring. Both speakers were designed to fit Braun's wall-mounted hi-fi stereo furniture (see also: Braun Wandanlage).

The first Braun HiFi system I ever heard was that of my uncle in Munich. It was the complete Atelier system consisting of turntable, tuner, cassette deck, CD player, and amplifier with speakers. My uncle was an engineer, first with Siemens and later with the European Space Agency ESA, and he was meticulous when it came to his possessions. The Broun Atelier HiFi system was his prized possession, and even as a child, I could hear that the sound quality was exceptional. I wonder how many of you have similar childhood memories of HiFi systems you have heard.

My purchase of the L480/1 was influenced by my early memories of Braun speakers, as well as my desire to connect with other Hi-Fi enthusiasts in our local area. It turned out that the person selling the speakers was a retired schoolteacher in his 90s who had collected Braun products for many years. He was preparing to leave Germany for Greece in frustration at the state of the country. Unfortunately, I could not test the speakers before purchasing them because the amplifier would not start up. The L480/1 still uses the old DIN connectors, which were designed to prevent users from accidentally switching the polarity, but which have since fallen out of fashion. Feeling sorry for the old man, I wished him well in Greece and carried the speakers to my car, one under each arm.

Back in my studio, I cut off the DIN plugs and stripped the ends of the wires. I then set up the L480/1 on a pair of heavy-duty MDF loudspeaker stands, connecting them to my upgraded Rotel RC-960BX preamplifier and B&K ST140 power amplifier. My music source was a Dual CS505-3 turntable fitted with an upgraded stylus. My first impression was that the speakers sounded slightly muddy and lacked bass. I could also hear that the woofer on one of the speakers was scraping. I used a screwdriver to remove the metal grille and loosen the bass driver screws. To my surprise, I saw that there was a threaded metal counter holding each screw, which allowed the drivers to be inserted perfectly every time. 

The driver itself was in mint condition. Even after 50 years of service, the surround showed no signs of brittleness, discolouration or decay. The magnet revealed that the driver was produced in 1973, and the rear of the driver was dust-protected and dampened via a tight mesh. It was not unusual for drivers to settle after so many years, resulting in the voice coil scraping against the narrow gaps in the magnet. I turned the driver by 90 degrees and screwed it back in to solve the issue. I then secured the metal grilles in place with strips of black tape, in the same way that the original tacky glue had held them in place. When I sat down to listen, the scraping noise had gone, but the overall sound remained muddy and bass-light.

It was only when I read that these speakers were designed for wall mounting that I took them to the control room of our small studio, where I placed them on the desk alongside the B&K amplifier. This time, I used my M3 MacBook paired with a Zoom L-20 mixer as the music source. The L480/1s instantly came to life in a way that I would not have thought possible. The music sounded honest and truthful, with a natural timbre. It was the kind of sound I had been hoping for from dedicated studio speakers, but had not yet achieved. I quickly ordered wall mounts and installed them a few days later. I found that the L480/1s produced the best sound when toed in towards the listening position. While most speakers benefit from off-axis placement, the Brauns did not.

The bass only sounded correct in our small room when the speakers were angled in relation to the wall. Parallel mounting reduced the bass substantially, which took away from the natural groove that these speakers are capable of producing. The vocals sounded especially pleasant, with no trace of artificial technology getting in the way. The music had an organic flow that allowed for hours of carefree listening. The treble provided enough detail to detect any issues in a mix, without imposing or highlighting any frequencies. During the day, the system faithfully reproduced the edgy harshness caused by the turmoil of industry on the power lines. At night, however, the music became smooth and even, as one would expect from high-quality recordings.

In fact, the Braun L480/1 make it easy to detect flaws in both the recordings and the equipment used. The validate tonal correctness and punish inaccuracy. They can do tempo and mood equally well and serve synthesiser notes and samples just as they do justice to natural instruments. When recording, I can confidently set gain, compression, and delay without getting overwhelmed by the mix of things. Tonal separation is sufficiently present to discern instrument character. In my opinion, they have all the qualities required to be classified as studio monitors. In fact, it is probably true that most consumers in the market will have gear available to them that acoustically ranks far below the accuracy of these small speakers, especially when listened to in such nearfield listening environments. 

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Specifications

• Type: 2-way wall-mount speaker
• Construction: Sealed (acoustic suspension)
• Power handling: 30 watts (DIN nominal)
• Nominal impedance: 4 Ohms
• Woofer: 130 - 160mm paper cone (low profile)
• Tweeter: 25mm dome (early Braun dome)
• Frequency response: ~ 40 Hz - 20,000 Hz
• Crossover frequency: ~ 2-3 kHz, estimated
• Dimensions: (H) 47cm × (W) 28cm × (D) 11cm
• Weight: 4.5-5.5 kg (11-12kg shipping weight)
• Cabinet color: Satin white lacquer or melamine
• Front grille: perforated metal, sliver/grey
• Design philosophy: Dieter Rams, reduced form
• Country of manufacture: Frankfurt, Germany
• Year(s): 1971 - 1973 varying configurations

Dieter Rams

was born in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1932. He is known as the jack of all trades who gave direction to the famous Braun design from the 50s to well beyond the 1980s: Rams who initially started out as carpenter, went on to study architecture and became a notable furniture and interior designer before he joined Braun to contribute to some of the companies acclaimed designs. Rams joined the Frankfurt-based consumer electronics maker in 1955 and went on to become the company’s chief designer, a position he retained until retirement. 

Sometimes christened “Mr. Braun” by the company’s advertising, Rams strictly maintained a design philosophy that had been laid out for Braun by Fritz Eichler, Hans Gugelot (lecturer at the Hochschule für Gestaltung, Ulm), as well as Herbert Hirche and Wilhelm Wagenfeld (both former Bauhaus scholars). Their design philosophy was most notable for its reduced form and user-friendliness, the combination of which made Braun highly attractive as a consumer brand from the mid 1950s. Rams has been quoted as saying: “Indifference towards people and the reality in which they live is actually the one and only cardinal sin in design."

To assure the continuation of great design, Rams developed a list of characteristics coined “Ten Principles of Good Design”. These are: innovation, usefulness, aesthetics, usability, unobtrusiveness, honesty, longevity, thoroughness, environmental friendliness throughout the product lifecycle. All principles sound strikingly modern and are found in consumer goods from Apple iPhones to Tesla cars.

Braun AG was sold to The Gillette Company in 1967, which in turn was acquired by Proctor & Gamble in 2005. P&G kept up the production of Braun groomers and shavers—the company’s bread and butter business since 1949—while small household appliances holding the Braun name are manufactured by De’Longhi since 2012.

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