THE STORY, THE EXPERIENCE

 

The Homage Series is Burwell and Sons flagship line of loudspeakers. The Homage’s are often described as visually stunning, magnificent music makers, and while that would be enough for most manufacturers, we took things to another level with our use of historic and legendary vintage speaker components. Legendary is a title that is earned and Altec Lansing and James B, Lansing are universally acknowledged as giants in the industry, and these components are some of the most sought after among music enthusiasts. To own a set of these loudspeakers is not unlike owning a classic American muscle car. An expression of performance and innovation still viable today.

 

We’ve named our horn speakers The Homage’s to honor the great visionaries throughout history we feel have contributed to the advancement of humankind. We believe sound reproduction is one of the great gifts we are all blessed to enjoy, and rivals the discovery of electricity and flight. The technology we use in our speaker designs dates back a century or more, and our modest contributions merely focus on a more artistic presentation. Greater men than us figured it all out long ago, and we just followed the trail these men blazed right back to today.

 

The cabinetry we employ follows the design principles of the iconic Altec Lansing A7 Voice Of The Theater. The science behind the design is a simple yet elegant use of physics. The “horn” shape of the cabinet performs much of the “work” of the speaker enabling it to consume very little power to project a tremendous amount of sound. We appreciate the aesthetics of the design as it avoids showy displays of equipment staring at you while offering us numerous surfaces to use as a canvass for creativity. By incorporating different finishes and materials the cabinetry alone can define each set of Homage’s as one of a kind.

 

Our hand crafted exotic hardwood horns certainly add an artistic element to the equation. Science suggests that wood eliminates the “honky", "metallic” sound of the original metal horns we emulate, but the timeless beauty combined with human’s instinctive attraction to wood is what influenced our choice of materials. We feel the visual presentation of our horns greatly enhances the perception of the sonic performance. The build technique we’ve developed for the horns is labor intensive and anything but practical, but it’s very unique, and enables us to turn precious bulk hardwoods or the most unlikely scraps into musical heirlooms.

 

The experience of listening to music on Burwell and Sons horn loudspeakers is truly remarkable. The scale of the experience is huge. Listening sessions that leave you exhausted with exhilaration as you were the conductor, or the drummer, or the piano player is the ride of a lifetime and the Homage’s are the vehicle to take you there. The writers and reviewers we respect express the experience more eloquently than we can, and we invite you to delve further into our site to explore their opinions. We also offer a more in depth story behind our philosophies and principles that cover the look, the performance, the heritage, and the experience of Burwell and Sons Homage Series loudspeakers, and ultimately, the story.

 

The inherent result of our approach we’ve developed to designing and building our loudspeakers has inevitably led to each and every set being a true, one of a kind creation. Behind each set is a wonderful story about a batch of wood we reclaim, or the antique woofers we rescue. Each build sends us off on fantastic treasure hunts as we track down pieces and parts, meeting the most fascinating people as they recount their stories behind these historic relics and how it changed their lives. Many of these people were parting ways with equipment that has been in service fifty years or more, and we get to restore it and send it out to their new homes for the next fifty years. It’s pretty exciting and we’re having more fun than we deserve. To share in the fun, we’ve taken to naming each set that reflects their unique character, and we chronicle the build process and the history behind the drivers and materials we find. As each creation finds its new home, the final chapters are written and presented in a hardbound book with its name and picture on the cover and titled “The Story”.