« L’atelier du Haut-Parleur » was created by Michel Fertin in 1958 in Béziers. The company designed, built and commercialised amplifiers and electrodynamic speakers of standard design. Its creator continued this activity until 2001 when he retired and sold the brand.
Jean-Marie Semblat acquired it under the name of Fertin Acoustic. This music-loving inventor with a scientific background was dissatisfied with the mediocre quality of standard electrodynamic speakers and sought technical solutions which would bring about a marked improvement in their musicality. Since the 1960s, several specialists have moved towards technologies based on a principle of different reproduction such as the electrostatic speaker or the isodynamic cell . Despite certain undeniable technical advantages, these principles, as novel as they may be, are all penalised by the suspension which supports the membrane and which causes various distorsions (slow transitory response, hysteresis, deformations which cause excessive shades, etc.) What is more, these technologies are not capable of exploring the lowest frequencies.
Jean-Marie Semblat decided to remove this suspension. He developed a wide-band speaker fitted with a very light membrane, suspended and held into position by a unique system of carbon rods. It virtually levitates and this allows the speaker equipped with a very powerful magnetic circuit to restore the whole audible spectrum, from the lowest to the highest registers. The acoustic and electric parameters of the transducer (its resonant frequency is situated around 24 hertz) come closer to the theoretical ideal, which gives us spectacular listening results of precision, clarity and accuracy of tone, breathing new life into the music.
This test was so conclusive that Jean-Marie Semblat also developed prototype bass speakers on the same basis and with the same success. However, the development of other members of the Model 7 range (30cm, 38cm, 46 cm, etc.) was impossible to carry out alone, so he decided to devote himself to research and ceded his invention to Fertin Acoustics, a new company set up to maintain production, management and marketing. This company is managed by four associates including Jean-Marie Semblat who is responsible for Research and Development.
