WHT Designer Mark Mozgawa has always been involved in the making of high quality PA, instrument and studio loudspeakers. Previously employed as a musician he has had the advantage of using countless different types of loudspeakers on stage and in a studio environment.

"In the midst of one tour my speaker box went missing during transport. The sound engineer came to the rescue and lent me a rather huge PA box called a "J Bin". I had used horn speakers for my instrument a few times in the past and I knew that horns were faster and more accurate than ported boxes but nothing had ever impressed me as much as that "J Bin" box.

The difference between ported speakers and that "J Bin" was enormous. The sound was significantly clearer and the response was much faster. Just a slight, sensitive touch on the string and the notes were out of the box in microseconds.

No sound was left bouncing inside the box. There was simply no comparison, the "J Bin" was a big winner here. This particular, if accidental experiment made me realize how slow and muddy the ported boxes can sound. Eventually my speaker box was found but at that point I just couldn't go back to the original boomy, awkward sound so I convinced the sound engineer to let me use the "J Bin" till the end of the tour.

Next tour started in three weeks and by that time I had managed to build and bring my own "J Bin" with me. It was based on 2 x 12" Celestion drivers and a smaller design with a folded horn. I was able to do some modifications to the speaker box during rehearsals, and used the opportunity for trial
and error. Towards the end of that tour which saw me fine tuning my first scoop speaker, I had removed the folded horn from the inside of the speaker box and from that point the speaker was sounding ideal. The fine tuning went for the next two years and in 1980 I had my final design.

Finally, all the musicians in the band could hear my bass clearly. The brass section, drummer and piano player would all remark about how great the bass sounded every night.

Many years passed and in 1994 I happened upon a scoop design used for hi-fi systems. I later found out that it was a typical folded horn with scoop which utilized typical PA drivers. Subsequently, my goal became as such; to introduce the "J Bin" to the Audiophiles. Unfortunately that project would require big financing. Apart from the money and time which were unavailable to me at that time, one more element was missing. It was the absence of efficient woofers and tweeters which at the same time would posses a hi- fi quality.

Sure, it would have been simple to throw in some PA woofers and some compression tweeters for midrange and high frequencies but these units are not designed to be listened to from such a short distance, namely 2.5 to 6 meters. PA drivers are screaming at that distance and they require complicated passive crossovers (causing plenty of phase shifts) to make them somewhat acceptable in audiophile context. It is easy to criticize other designers however they must be given considerable credit for bringing the lack of efficiency (in 99% of typical ported speaker designs) to the discussion forum.

Later I was involved in marketing a few hi fi products where I was able to listen to more than 150 high end systems in a relatively short period of time. It was the best R&D time possible and it was a priceless education.

I am only able to count 3 speakers which would make the grade in terms of faithful music reproduction. The rest were simply dull, weak and didn't come close to the final result of a studio mastering. A typical aforementioned system had a boomy slow bass, very artificial mids and a closed treble.

The sound of instruments, particularly violins and double basses, were quite different to what I had become accustomed to playing as a live musician. On one particular system, listening to a favorite Brubeck track I became aware that the snare was completely omitted in the mix. I checked the system wiring just to see if the mid section was disconnected but it was all intact. I was absolutely shocked and made a point of checking the Cd's mix on my home stereo through headphones to see if anything drastic had happened to the CD. As soon as the track began playing, the snare had reappeared.

A typical question from audiophiles was; How does my system compare to the other systems you've had the chance to audition?

My question to them became, Is your reference another system, or a live musical performance?
I suddenly realized that I could offer something fresh to the market, which was formerly absent.

Subsequently I began my "Scoop/Reflector" project with a relatively small budget and 10 years after the fact, my own WHT PR1 was being tuned to my private recordings."