35th Anniversary Year

Wilson Benesch Ltd. was founded in 1989 and quickly established the brand within the global high end audio industry with its first product, a turntable, and a short time later its accompanying A.C.T. One Tonearm. These innovative products immediately received critical acclaim from the press across Europe and Asia, subsequently collecting multiple ‘product of the year’ awards and becoming reference in StereoSound Japan and Stereo Germany. These products were lauded not only for their raw performance, but also for their innovations, introducing to the high-end audio industry the concept of ‘advanced composite technology’. The turntable announced the world’s first advanced composite turntable component the sub-chassis. Exploiting the anisotropic properties of two carbon fibre skins and Nomex honeycomb core design. For the first time aerospace materials were being used in audio applications. A year later the world’s first single piece carbon fibre tonearm followed which featured a helically wound, tapered tube carbon fibre structure. These groundbreaking designs were collaboratively developed with a former Rolls Royce engineer. They firmly established Wilson Benesch as a global brand, propelling a small start-up into the forefront of the high-end audio industry.

The Wilson Benesch A.C.T. One loudspeaker then showcased the company’s ability to innovate and lead the way in the loudspeaker design and manufacturing. In 1993, the A.C.T. One staked its place in the audio history books in much the same way as the analogue products had. It introduced the world’s first floorstanding speaker comprised of a curved enclosure again, based upon advanced composites carbon fibre components. Additionally, it featured a metal baffle and a sculptured sloping 20-degree top. Each of these pioneering design features have gone on to distinguish the Wilson Benesch marque from its peers. The A.C.T. one loudspeaker propelled the forward momentum of the company as it garnered countless awards and widespread critical acclaim from the press and the wider manufacturing industry. The design would go to win not one but two technology awards at the CES. The latest iteration of this design remains industry leading within its class some three decades on.

2024 marks the 35th anniversary year. Through more than three decades the story of innovation has been documented through 53 products that are distributed across Europe, the USA, Asia, and Australasia in more than 30 countries. The company continues to grow, operating in its 25,000 square foot facility in Sheffield, South Yorkshire which incorporates all aspects of the company’s activities as a vertically aligned design and manufacturing centre of excellence.

Wilson Benesch has to its credit sought out and exploited the most advanced solutions in materials science and modern manufacturing technologies. Today a fleet of new CNC machining centres, precision grinding, a series of purpose-built carbon and bio-based composite machines that enable multiple different manufacturing techniques for creating advanced composite components, additive manufacturing, coil winding, laser cutting and etching, and real wood veneering all reside within the same building, along with research, development, and design in a fully integrated business. Through consistent re-investment of profits, the company has demonstrated a consistent ability to push the boundaries of design through scientific development with scientists at the forefront of emerging technologies.

But Wilson Benesch is more than the sum of its parts, the companies design and development programs extend well beyond its facility. Wilson Benesch is today a company with extensive collaborative contacts that span across a global scientific community. These partnerships have defined the company through publicly financed projects. By winning British and European funding, governments have actively contributed to supporting the ambitions of more than 15 projects totalling more than £2 million pounds of public money. The funding has fostered collaborations with prestigious universities that include Leeds University, Sheffield University, Sheffield Hallam University, Bristol, Manchester and in 2024 Wilson Benesch will enter into a collaborative partnership with Cambridge University. In addition to universities, it is also important to recognise the enormous contribution from renowned centres of excellence like The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and the FEMTO Institute in Besancon, France. But of course, there are many SMEs that also support the company, and these play a very important role in helping Wilson Benesch achieve its unique products. All grants are highly competitive in nature and a proven track record in the outcomes of grant projects is a key arbiter in the ability of Wilson Benesch winning grant funding. Wilson Benesch’s track record in quality pure research and innovation, as well as the company’s impressive track record of delivering exceptional outcomes and products are the corner stone of these successful applications. To date, Wilson Benesch stands alone as the only British audio manufacturer to have secured such funding.

With hundreds of awards from leading high-end journals spanning the globe, the small start-up that fledged 35 years ago is firmly established as a leader in the industry. The Wilson Benesch brand is now synonymous with not one but numerous advanced technologies that show the way to better performance in audio reproduction. Without the loyal team of people who are the Wilson Benesch family none of this would be possible and our accompanying image gallery on this blog post is a testament to some of those people in the Wilson Benesch family today. So many highly skilled engineers have committed themselves to the journey, some for more than 20 years. It is the world class expertise that is resident within the company that has made The Fibonacci Series possible. The Fibonacci Series is both evolutionary and revolutionary. The acoustic approach can be seen to have evolved but the materials science and manufacturing techniques are revolutionary. For over thirty years “The Future is Carbon” has shared space with the Wilson Benesch logo. 2022 saw the announcement of The Fibonacci Series which incorporates decades of work and announces next generation materials science that whilst being carbon based are now drawn from a totally different source that is not oil based. The scientifically proven acoustic benefits of bio-based materials science are the new technologies that will redefine loudspeaker cabinets of the future. Only by taking each small step that has been taken over thirty-five years has this giant leap been possible.

2024 will be seen as the year that a 35-year-old company came back to analogue which is where it began. Full circle some would say. In its thirty-five years Wilson Benesch has only ever created two analogue systems. Both designs brought something new and original to the market. The GMT System One will mark another giant leap forward being completely original in every single detail. It is a comprehensive reinterpretation of how an analogue system should function, how it should be manufactured and how it should sound. Nothing has ever been seen like this before. This entirely different approach is borne of a lifetime’s dedication to research and development. The minutest details of how everything functions has been completely reappraised and with it our expectations of what is possible. The quality of transcription has as a result attained new levels that will redefine the new benchmark that others will aspire to. The State-of-the-Art analogue system, courtesy of Wilson Benesch. After 35 years we can say again and with perhaps some pride that, The Future is Carbon.