Wilson Benesch

Wilson Benesch is a British company that designs and manufactures high-end audio equipment, like loudspeakers and turntables. Wilson Benesch was founded in 1989 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Today the company is regarded as an audio design companies in the United Kingdom. Wilson Benesch operates its entire design and manufacturing operation from Falcon House, an art-deco styled building in the North-West of the city and the original home of Batchelors, built in the 1930s.
Wilson Benesch's first product was the Wilson Benesch Turntable launched in 1991. Since then Wilson Benesch has consistently developed turntables, loudspeakers, and furniture. The company has frequently used carbon fibre composites and metal alloys within its manufacturing process.
Despite its name, there are no relations between Wilson Benesch and the US loudspeaker manufacturer Wilson Audio.
In-house design and manufacturing.
Wilson Benesch states that it manufactures almost 90% of all product components in-house from raw materials. Design work is completed using Dassault Systemes three-dimensional CAD/CAM software, with the company operating machinery, including but not limited to CNC machines for metal alloy components and Vacuum Resin Transfer Moulding Machinery for the production of carbon fibre composite components.
In 2012 Wilson Benesch took out a loan with Finance Yorkshire, who provide seedcorn, loan and equity investments via the UK Government, European Regional Development Fund and European Investment Bank to help businesses grow and develop. The loan allowed Wilson Benesch to expand its manufacturing operation and commence end-to-end production of its new reference loudspeaker, the Cardinal.
Technology, research and development.
Research and development (R&amp;D) has been central to the development of Wilson Benesch. From the outset, finance and subsequent earnings from sales of the initial products were invested in new product development.
In addition, Wilson Benesch has secured funding through grant applications to Her Majesty's Government for innovative, high-risk, research and development projects. These projects have drawn on collaborative partnerships with scientists in a number of fields and from a number of universities, including, University of Leeds, University of Oxford, University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, as well as other technology companies and institutes such as the Advanced Manufacturing Park and Hypetex. Since its foundation, Wilson Benesch has been successful in six separate grant funding applications, accounting for more than £600,000 of publicly funded research and development. These programs have often been conducted by the company as part of a match funded agreement, with Wilson Benesch committing as much as 50% of the total R&amp;D budget.
Noteworthy innovations resulting directly from grant funded research:
Carbon fibre and carbon nanotube composite technology.
Since Wilson Benesch was founded in 1989, the company has consistently developed audio products based around the innovative application of carbon fibre composite materials technology. Wilson Benesch uses carbon fibre composite materials technology to extract the unique stiffness and damping properties of the material. The composite material proved to provide high specific stiffness and internal damping, minimising distortion. Wilson Benesch often use geometric forms within the design of composite structures to optimise this stiffness, often reducing the weight of the component in the process and reducing the number of flat surfaces in the finished product that can create problems with distortion and standing waves.
Noteworthy carbon composite innovations and introductions to the audio industry:
Proprietary drive technology.
Wilson Benesch developed its first drive technology in house through the Bishop Project, resulting in the Tactic Multirole Drive Unit. The Tactic Drive Unit allowed Wilson Benesch to use the same drive unit for its midrange and bass drive units. In addition the Wilson Benesch introduced an unusual adaptation of the Isobaric loudspeaker configuration in the Bishop loudspeaker in 1999. The design featured two Tactic Drive Units in a clamshell or push-pull formation, the external drive unit has its rear magnet outside the cabinet. Wilson Benesch called this formation the Isobaric Drive System.
Since the Tactic Drive Unit, Wilson Benesch has introduced the Wide Bandwidth One drive unit, with the launch of the Wide Bandwidth Collection in 2007. And following this the Tactic II drive unit, which the company refers to as the third iteration of the original Tactic.
Wilson Benesch has also developed its own tweeter technology for reproduction of high frequency sound. The company introduced its tweeter with the launch of its current reference loudspeaker line, the Geometry Series. It calls the tweeter the Semisphere Tweeter.
Products.
Geometry Series.
The company's reference loudspeaker line. Features the company's latest drive unit technology and all the designs are based upon metal alloy and carbon fibre composite material construction. The series consists of, Vertex, Vector, Fulcrum, Discovery II, A.C.T. One Evolution, Endeavour and the flagship of the series, the Cardinal. The Torus Infrasonic Generator was brought into this product line in 2016.
Square series II.
The Square Series II is constructed from more traditional wood based materials technology and rectilinear forms. The series incorporates drive technology from the Odyssey Series. The series consists of, Square One, Square Two, Square Three, Square Centre and the flagship of the series, the Square Five.
Analogue collection.
Wilson Benesch's oldest product line, incorporating all analogue replay systems including turntables and tonearms. The series consists of, Circle 25 Turntable, A.C.T. 25 Tonearm, Nanotube One Tonearm.
Hi-Fi Furniture.
Wilson Benesch currently manufactures a Hi-Fi rack called the R1 Hi-Fi Rack.