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= Lenard Audio Company =

Background
Lenard Audio is an Australian audio design company specialising in electroacoustic engineering. Since the late 1970’s Lenard Audio was established as a brand name representing the designs of John Lenard Burnett and was incorporated by John’s daughter, Phaenelagh (Nel) Burnett as Lenard Audio Pty Ltd in Australia in 2014. “Lenard” is the middle name of John Lenard Burnett who founded Lenard Sound, in 1966.

Lenard came to prominence in Australia at what is arguably the most exciting time in rock history, 1966 – 1972. During this time live music was dominated by instruments being heard directly through amps with vocals being heard via a separate PA.

(insert a photo of a quad box and amp)

Although Lenard was predominantly known for guitar amplifiers and “quad boxes” for guitarists and bass players in the Australian market, for concerts a tactical approach developed where amps were slaved to form large active PA systems with the amps’ equalisation forming the crossover points. The quad and double 15” boxes were stacked into groups with up to 20 x 200 watt amps per side used to create 2 and 3 way active systems. For larger concerts the stage was walled with amps slaved into groups of 4-8 quad boxes for guitars and keyboards and four 4 x 15” cabinets driven by 400 watt amps for the bass. This created enormous energy on stage, often larger than typical concerts today.

(Insert a photo of the “Free” gig)

By 1976 Lenard Sound was folded, however John continued to work with Michael Dixon, Rod Elliott and Richard Priddle on the development and research of system designs. By 1978 this work had resulted in the design completion of large-scale fully 4-way active self-powered systems that provided startling clarity and realism.

This team continued to collaborate on audio research for a number of years, in particular with the development of large-scale active systems. By the mid-1980’s, John adapted this research to the development of a series of designs starting with the Opal range.

Reference system and standardisation
“Cleaning the Airwaves”© by “Removing Ear Pollution”©.

The Opal system was designed and developed to the scale that provides the baseline reference from which all Lenard system designs are based and as the baseline for audio design more broadly. The core principle of this being focussed on the 4-way active crossover design which all subsequent Lenard systems also include.

These design principles include five (5) primary attributes which form the foundation of a proposed standardisation for the audio industry, the Lenard Audio Application Standards©. These proposed standards run in order of precedence and are intended to provide the audio industry a baseline from which consistency of the experience of sound and music in all environments can attain to, ultimately achieving transparency and consistency across all sound reproduction platforms.


 * 1) Intelligibility and voice articulation – ensuring clarity and separation between the instruments and voices
 * 2) Spectral energy balance – sound balance consistent at all power levels
 * 3) Harmonic detail – raising the sound ceiling
 * 4) Bass discernment – bass notes reproduced evenly
 * 5) Directivity control – broadening the stereo “sweet spot”

The attributes identified above are a representation of the critical requirements of any sound system design to enable full fidelity of sound. It is Lenard Audio's intention to work with creators and industry to verify and obtain consensus on these attributes in order to establish a universal standardisation framework for audio hardware design and sound/music recording.

Fully 4-way Active
Fully 4-way active is the function of a loudspeaker system where the sound/musical signal is divided into 4 dedicated registers/frequency bands (generally between 20Hz-20kHz), represented by 4 separate loudspeaker drivers (4-way), by an active electronic crossover prior to being sent to the amplifiers. The divided amplified signal is then sent directly to its dedicated speaker only.

Fully 4-way active can be distinguished from other system structures as per the below table. *divisions refer to dedicated registers/frequency bands. The distinction of “fully” refers to the system requiring the inclusion of a 4-way active crossover.

Design evolution
All Lenard Audio designs are fully integrated and include 4-way active crossovers, attaining to achieve the highest level possible of the five (5) primary application standard attributes.

Following the development of the Opal systems, in the late 1990’s Lenard designed the K4 cinema and concert system, achieving a virtual 3D sound experience known as “Cinesthesia”®. Since then Lenard has continued to developed a range of fully 3-way and fully 4-way active systems for domestic, commercial and professional applications. The goal has been to achieve the transparency and consistency of experience across all platforms, applications and environments, only adjusting for dynamic range.