Audio Video News

Unlike other notable engineers in the industry who've managed to closely associate their names with the products and technologies they've developed, William Hecht, the inventor of the soft-dome tweeter, has had a quite successful career working behind the scenes. Although most of us take the soft-dome tweeter for granted, it's been the most widely used tweeter design worldwide since it was first patented in 1967.

Hecht's company, United Speaker Systems (the parent company of Phase Technology), has been very successful but fairly anonymous, too, primarily building speakers for other well-known and well-respected speaker companies. In the 50 years since he began United Speaker Systems, Hecht has created over 550 different speakers for more than 40 companies - including designing and building the history-making XP-1 bookshelf speaker for Avery Fisher.

Hecht also holds patents on the manufacturing process for solid flat-piston drivers, the self-damping woofer voice coil, the silicone-injected driver for resonance damping, and the basket-less woofer/midrange driver mounting system.

Dealerscope, an industry trade publication, inducted Hecht into the magazine's "Hall of Fame" on January 30th in recognition of his influence over the audio entertainment industry and for the products his company has developed over the past five decades.

Although now 83 years old, Hecht continues to work at the Phase Technology factory with his son, Ken, who is a significant speaker designer in his own right. The elder Hecht says he listens to every speaker design and argues to have it changed if he doesn't think it sounds right.

After 50 years, maybe he should get an award for that, too.