Göbel High End is not a one-man show - in Alling, a total of five people are engaged in production and development - but nevertheless all strongly influenced by company founder and owner Oliver Göbel. It’s not a coincidence that his family coat of arms serves as the company logo. At the tender age of 14, Oliver Göbel was devoted to building loudspeakers. This passion then also influenced his career choice: He was trained in communication electronics, did his Masters in telecommunications and worked in audio development at Siemens. That is where he first came into contact with bending wave drivers. He conducted extensive material tests in this field with precise Siemens measuring instruments and well documented his results. Long term, the development of large-scale technology was neither sound-oriented nor audiophile enough for Oliver Göbel, so he decided to start his own business in 2003. One year later the first product, the bending wave loudspeaker Detaille, covered the entire frequency range over 160 Hz and was supplemented with well suited proprietary subwoofers. Another year later, a patent for Göbel bending wave technology was granted. Following that was the development of the in-wall speaker Modul and in 2008 establishing the Göbel Audio GmbH as an OEM partner for other companies. In the same year Grundig released the new edition of the iconic Audiorama loudspeaker. The success of Audio GmbH allowed Göbel High End then the development of the “money is no object” series Epoque, which was first presented in 2010. The smallest model is now standing in my listening room after a little effort (I already mentioned the weight of the so innocent looking speaker).

After the Manger MSMs1 and the German Physiks, the Epoque Fine is already the third bending wave loudspeaker in less than a year that I am devoting myself to in great detail. And yet there are considerable differences between these variations of the same principle. Though closely followed by German Physiks, the Fine driver covers the widest frequency range. In contrast to this omnidirectional driver, it delivers signals up to 4000 hertz forwards and backwards, anything higher than that, only forwards, however with a dispersion range of almost 180 degrees. A conventional driver could never do this. Oliver Göbels’ creation differs from Manger’s in that it operates as a rigid bending wave driver, which also under the so-called coincidence frequency (this is the frequency at which the phase velocity of the diaphragm is identical with that in the air) emits sound as a bending wave.

The core material of the nine layer diaphragm under the externally visible carbon fiber weave is a special wood that, due to its inherent inhomogeneity, possesses no distinct resonance. During the manufacturing process, different layers of fabrics and resins are compressed and sealed in a highly developed pressing process. By arranging the layers of fabric, the dimensions of the diaphragm and the fiber orientation of the core material, the amplitude of the stimulated bending wave from the diaphragm is continuously being damped during run-time, explains Oliver Göbel. The biggest problem with a bending wave driver is namely the introduction and damping of energy in the diaphragm. While he doesn’t mention much about structural details of the driver, he is willing to report that, by combining aluminum, wood, silicone, rubber and foam rubber to attach the edges of the diaphragm to the frame, he had succeeded in keeping a steady wavelength of the diaphragm over the entire frequency range of seven octaves. Reflections on the outer edges were entirely avoided. The incisions in the diaphragm primarily served the purpose of diffusely dispelling parasitic vibrations so that no standing wave fields could be created. It would require the angles and positions of the cuts to be exactly calculated and executed to a hundredth of a millimeter. It was only possible to accomplish the latter requirement with a computer-controlled laser.