Braun LE1

When Braun LE1 ( speaker unit 1) it was the first offered on the German market speakers with electrostatic functional principle. Licensed the technology from the British Acoustical Manufacturing Co. Ltd. / Huntingdon ( QUAD ), which brought before the ESL57 on the market.

The exterior design was made by the designer Dieter Rams.

Around 1959 the market launch, the license allowed the marketing in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. About 500 couples to have been built. Manufacture took place until 1966. Yesterday ( 2013) are again offered speakers that are built under license Rams.

The inner workings correspond substantially with the ESL57, but there are some differences. While the stator are identical, the transformers and the high-voltage cascade were designed from Braun.

The LE1 could be connected via a 4-wire special cables ( audio signal and 220 volt supply ) with the following Braun- tube amplifiers: CV 11 ( from the Modular System Studio 2), CSV13 and CSV60.

One advantage of these speakers is very transparent sound, vocals and acoustic single instruments (such as piano or violin) are mapped very close to reality. Disadvantages are relatively weak bass and strong directivity.

The speaker system consists of two woofers and a mid-high with transition frequencies at 250 and 5000 Hz

• Radiation angle: 70 degrees horizontally, vertically 15 - 30 degrees
• Load: 15 Watt
• Impedance Z = 15 Ohm