British loudspeaker maker Harbeth will soon be unveiling an update to their hallowed Monitor 40 loudspeaker.

 

Loudspeaker design owes much to the work done at the BBC back in the day, and every audiophile is familiar with the term "BBC dip". When it comes to that tradition, no loudspeaker makers have a more undisputed BBC pedigree than Rogers, Spendor and Harbeth.  Harbeth was founded in 1977 by  a senior BBC research engineer.  Harbeth's largest customer in the UK is the BBC, if that says anything about their loudspeakers' faithfulness to that tradition. The Monitor 40.1 is to be shown at this January's CES in Las Vegas. The new flagship Harbeth's development was spurred by the discontinuation of the previous bass driver. The new 40.1 is said to be optimized for livelier reproduction in people's home environments, instead of the dry acoustics of the studio. No specifications on the freshened Monitor 40.1 at this time.

 

The original Monitor 40 was designed as a replacement for the legendary LS5/8, which died with Rogers. The Rogers name has been resurrected by a Chinese firm, but none of the loudspeakers have been produced in the UK since 1998.