Manger – A journey through time

100% MADE IN GERMANY

ACOUSTICAL REALITY

THE HEARING PHENOMENON

A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

PRECISION IN SOUND IS OUR PASSION

1968

First patent application

Josef Manger returned from a 3 year stay in Australia to take over the family business at home in Germany. He decided to start importing PA systems from famous US brands like Marshall, Fender, Klipsch for the classic radio and TV shop.
While mainly selling these products to bands and musicians he got introduced to the sound of instruments and its reproduction through audio systems. He soon realized that the reproduction of music through state-of-the-art technology was not the same experience that you could have during a live concert.
Wondering why, he began his meticulous research by measuring the frequency response of various speakers. When compared it became obvious that they are technically all quite similar, even though the sound is quite different. Josef W. Manger started to drill down on his idea to investigate the time behaviour and step response. He quickly noticed huge differences between the tested speakers.
In his relentless pursuit for better solutions, Josef W. Manger started to look for alternative setups for electroacoustics and materials. The easy part was to figure out that conventional drivers work like mass-spring systems, swinging after excitation. This problem led him to his first solution and patent: a woofer with a free air resonance of 7 Hz.

Push-pull moving coil loudspeaker having electromagnetic centering means

An electrodynamic acoustic transducer such as a loudspeaker or a microphone in which the datum or center position of the diaphragm is determined by two voice coils. The coils are fixed to one another and to the diaphragm and cut magnetic fields. Datum currents are provided for the coils and the coilds are of non-uniform density of winding and/or the magnetic fields are nun-uniform. The coils and the datum currents are arranged to proved the balanced forces on the coils only when the diaphragm is in the datum position.

1969

W01 – the first generation

In 1969, the idea of the resistance-inhibited transducer was born. After the sobering realization that the first idea, which was the basis for the first patent, came at the wrong end, namely at the slow movements, ie low frequencies.
According to the principle Josef W. Manger: ”There is nothing bad, which would not have any good”. He had developed the drive for his bending wave converter with the first patent.

1972

2nd patent – Membrane

After being granted his first patent, Josf W. Manger soon realized that the main limit to natural audio reproduction cannot be found in the slow motion movements of the low end, but in the fast movements of the tweeter. His reasearch took him to a paper from the inventors of the piston driver: Rice and Kellogg. In their paper, the two described the idea of a mechanical resistor being the prime principle for sound reproduction. Since “no” has never been an option for the entrepreneur Josef W Manger, his vision was now supported by a clear aim which led him to his second patent:

Abstract

An electro-acoustic transducer has a diaphragm with a moving coil. The diaphragm consists of a flat textile carrier impregnated with a highly attenuating filling material and is highly elastic in its plane but inelastic in bending.

1974

First publication

The German special interest magazine ”Funkschau” features the fully functional Manger Sound Transducer W02 along with detailled theoretical background information.

1974

47th AES Convention, Copenhagen

First technical presentation of the Manger® sound transducer during the 47th AES (Audio Engineering Society) Convention in Copenhagen, Denmark

”AN IMPULSEXACT TRANSDUCER WITH ELECTRODYNAMIC DRIVING UNIT”

In this paper the principals of a new transducer system are given. This new idea is governed by the rules, that ther must be no time delaying energy storaging during the transformation of the electrical form of energy into the mechanical form of energy as fa as the audio range is concerned. How this is achieved is described in details and measured results are represented and compared with conventional loudspeakers.

1975

First international presentation

Presentation at the IEE (The Institution of Electrical Engineers) in London by Josef W. Manger

1976

W02 – the next Generation

The unique and remarkable time behaviour of the bending wave principle is demonstrated by the W02.

1978

Continued development & international patents

Further developments on the diaphragm: Three layer sandwich diaphragm – This leads to considerable improvements of the bending wave behaviour and already at this time a frequency range up to 30 kHz. The Manger Sound Transducer W03 reached a considerable sensitivity of appr. 84 dB/1 W/1 m – Further worldwide patent applications.

1978

Trademarks

Manger Sound Transducer® and Manger Sound System® become trademarks in Germany

1978

Proof from the expert

Theoretical proof of the bending wave principle by Prof.Dr. Manfred Heckl (†), Berlin (author of ”Structure borne sound”).

See our full feature on Prof.Dr. Manfred Heckls mathematical proof here.

This pic shows the movement of the plate referred to the theoretical calculations at one frequency.

1979

Legendary S05 Discus recognized with a design award

This year marks the development of the iconic Manger Sound System S05 which has also been awarded a design price.
Several patent applications to follow worldwide.

If you are curious, take a look into the S05 brochure (German)

1980

S05 further improved

S05 – the flying disc with its extraordinary look creates a lot of attention

and from the beginning it was one of the quality criteria of the Manger sound system: ” You can listen at low levels without missing nothing.”

1982

Josef W. Manger is honored with Diesel Medaille

Diesel Medaille in silver for Josef W. Manger – Award for extraordinary developments and inventions by the German institute of inventions

1983

STEREO report

The German magazine STEREO reported in detail about the new prototype of the coming Manger sound system. Josef W. Manger visited the magazine with the prototype and the complete measuring equipment for showing the time response of it.

https://seastone.audio/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/1983_Stereo_NeuerMangerWandler.pdf

1986

AES talk in Montreux

”Free-field pressure stepfunction tests acoustic transformation chain” by Josef W. Manger – Talk at the 80th AES convention in Montreux

Read the complete Preprint

1986

First full active monitor system

Presentation of the Manger Sound System MSS, a fully active floorstanding studio monitor at the 15th Tonmeistertagung (Conference of Sound Engineers) in Munich. The talk ”Transient behaviour of microphones and loudspeakers” by Josef W. Manger, was widely discussed.

The Manger Sound System MSS is the ancestor of the Zeroboxes and was soon used at many studios and institutes in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as a reference monitor system.

Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Munich
Hochschule für Musik, Wuerzburg
Hochschule der Künste, Berlin
Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung, Berlin
ZKM, Karlsruhe
Musikakademie der Stadt, Basel
etc.

1990

The Manger Sound Transducer enters serial production

Begin of the serial production of the Manger Sound Transducer in Mellrichstadt (Germany)

1990-1996

Introducing a new line: the Zerobox

Development of the Zeroboxes – Zerobox 103, Zerobox 107 and Zerobox 109

Zerobox means: ”There is no cabinet footprint, by the pressure change. Side-mounted drivers support pneumatically the front driver and create an infinite baffle.”

1991

Introducing even stronger Neodymium magnets

The induction in the 0,95 mm small air gap reaches 1,3 Tesla through the new Neodymium magnet. This new rare earth magnet material finally pushes the sensititvity up to 91 dB (1 W/ 1m).

Neodymium

Another chief use of neodymium is as the free pure element. It is used as a component in the alloys used to make high-strength neodymium magnets—powerful permanent magnets. These magnets are widely used in such products as microphones, professional loudspeakers, in-ear headphones, and computer hard disks, where low magnet mass or volume, or strong magnetic fields are required. Larger neodymium magnets are used in high power versus weight electric motors (for example in hybrid cars) and generators (for example aircraft and wind turbine electric generators). (excerpt from Wikipedia)

1992

Tonmeistertagung

Josef W. Manger and Ulrich Kraus (Tonmeister and Professor at Hochschule fuer Musik, Munich) preparing the test assembly for their speech at Tonmeistertagung 1992.

1998

DAGA Zurich

”Verbesserte Möglichkeit für die Untersuchung aperiodischer Druckverläufe als Basis für Ortung und Quellenerkennung” by Josef W. Manger – Talk at DAGA Zurich (German Acoustic Congress)

1999

ASA talk

”A sound transducer with a flat, flexible diaphragm working with bending waves” by Daniela L. Manger at the Joint Meeting ”Berlin 99”: 137th regular meeting of the Acoustical Society of America; 2nd convention of the EAA: Forum Acusticum; integrating the 25th German Acoustics DAGA Conference

2000

Manger CD

We decided to release our own music sampler. We were simply not satisfied with the material that was available. Even today this Manger CD is used as a reference by many manufacturers and customers in the high end industry.

»It’s the best in business.« – Gunnar Rasmussen, owner of Gryphon Audio

2001

The Manger Holoprofile®

Patent pending for the Manger Holoprofile® – a dedicated sound guide for the Manger sound transducer

If you want to go deeper, you can read the patent description: here

2002

Manger hits the clubs

Never say no! This was our conviction for the very first sound reinforcement project for a club in Berlin. With the precision of the Manger sound transducer we were aware that there happens no hearing threshold shift and ringing on high sound pressure levels. So with custom-made speakers we equipped the first club in Berlin.

2003

Manger technology in demand for public locations

Manger planned and installed a complete sound reinforcement system for a market and event hall in Nuremberg-Fuerth.

The star of opening concert was Rebekka Bakken.

2006

More custom sound reinforcement systems

Manger planned and installed a complete sound reinforcement system for a church in Berlin.

2009

“The best studio monitor in the world”

After a longer absence from the Proaudio market we decided to return.

So over a time of 3 years we developed the reference studio monitor MSMc1 – and it seems that we made it right since the ’Professional audio’ magazine titled it as ”The best studio monitor in the world”

1000 Volt Production, Istanbul
Peter Gorges, Bremen – Music technologies
Claudius Bruese, Cologne – Composer
WERYTON, Munich – Music production
Schallplattenscheidtechnik Brüggemann, Frankfurt – Vinyl mastering
Moscow NTV, Moscow – Post production
Sanbreeze, Berlin – DVD Authoring
Hubert von Goisern, Salzburg – Composer
et al.

Read the complete review:

2010

Manger branches out into microphone technology

Patent pending of a new microphone technique – Abstract of the German patent application

”3D-Stereospaltmikrofon zum Umwandeln von Schallbewegungen der Umgebungsluft in zwei elektrische Spannungen, bestehend aus einer Mikrofonkapsel in der Form eines Hohlkörpers, die eine einzige Öffnung aufweist und die mit einer Membrane als Elektrode abgedeckt ist, die aus einer flexiblen und einer elektrisch leitfähigen Folie besteht und die elektrisch isoliert befestigt ist und die zu einer Metallplatte als Gegenelektrode beabstandet ist, die innerhalb der Mikrofonkapsel befestigt ist, wobei die Metallplatte durch einen Spalt in eine linke Metallplatte als linke Gegenelektrode und eine rechte Metallplatte als rechte Gegenelektrode aufgeteilt ist, die elektrisch voneinander isoliert sind und je einen eigenen elektrischen Anschluss aufweisen.”

2011

First active floorstanding speaker

First presentation of the full active floor standing speaker MSMs1 at Klangschloss in Switzerland

The MSMs1 wins several awards in Germany and abroad.

2012

Manger goes Bauhaus Dessau

The auditorium gets four Manger speakers just beside columns – custom-made.

2012

Focus open gold

MSMc1 wins the Focus Open Gold – Indepedent international design price

On the pic beside Daniela Manger, the designer Stefan Harlé

2013

Manger is chosen by Francksche Stiftungen Halle

”We are extremely happy that we chose Manger as sound reinforcement system.
We now have a much higher speech intelligibility at lower volumes” –
Director Thomas Müller-Bahlke, Francksche Stiftung

2013

image hifi award 2013

The s1 received the image hifi award 2013 in the category loudspeakers.

2014

German Design Award

The c1 is beside many other awards in Germany and abroad also a nominee for the German Design Award 2014.

2016

i1 – the first in-wall speaker

i1 – in-wall speaker
An innovative solution of an in-wall cabinet and
the Manger Sound Transducer. As it is predicted by its
bandwidth and the low depth for in-wall. In 2015 we
decided to start with a design of an in-wall speaker.

The in-wall cabinet is a dedicated sandwich
construction, which combines materials for
a high sound reduction.
A clever mounting mechanism let adjust the depth
of the Manger driver with our without cover.

The explosion graphiques below visualize all the
details of this innovative cabinet construction.

28.06.2016

25th company anniversary

Daniela Manger got the honorary certificate for her 25 years company anniversary in Mellrichstadt. The company, which she overtook from her parents started was actually established by her grand parents. The speaker business was established by her father Josef W. Manger, the inventor of the Manger sound transducer in the late 60’s.

27.10.2016

Death of Josef W. Manger

The inventor Josef W. Manger dies at the age of 87 years after a short illness. The magazine ’fidelity’ honors him with a wonderful obituary ”Der Zeit voraus”