About LFSys
I'm not sure why, but I’ve had a fascination with loudspeakers for many years. The first system I built when still in my teens was the Bailey transmission line design based on KEF drivers. This eventually led to my working for KEF straight out of university. I’ve been professionally involved in the audio/musical equipment sector on and off for a large part of my working life.
When the opportunity arose, I started my own distribution company and within a few years was supplying over 500 music shops in the UK and exporting throughout Europe. I launched a number of products that soon became brand leaders here in the UK - names like Seymour Duncan pickups, Hotlicks videos, Hughes and Kettner amplification and DR strings.
During this time, I also designed and manufactured a range of PA speakers under the TEK brand that would go on to achieve success in the UK, Europe and the Middle East, particularly in the installation market. This led to a number of design commissions for other companies, such Fender and Yamaha, and to a niche B2B company that manufactured thousands of crossovers a year for many UK-based PA manufacturers.
I’ve always played music in bands in my spare time. After an extended break, when I had other priorities, I returned to playing the bass a few years ago – and found that things had changed. Gone were the large stacks of speakers and heavy amps. They had been replaced by lightweight amps and much smaller speaker cabinets.
So I bought some of the latest gear. The lightweight amps were great but the cabs proved a disappointment. First, my (highly regarded) compact cab regularly ran out of steam when I needed to play really loud and second, more importantly, I struggled to hear what I was playing when I was standing close to the cab. Which was more often than not.
This experience led me on a journey through the world of bass guitar cabinet design. The solutions to these problems aren’t rocket science, but they do require a greater investment in HF drivers and crossovers than most manufacturers are prepared to make. That's why I decided to make these cabinets available in limited quantities to my fellow bass players directly from my workshop.
Stephen McLuckie