JBL’s Principal Engineer Chris Hagen talks to us about speaker design, compression drivers and a life lived around music and hi-fi
Chris Hagen’s official job title is Principal Engineer for the JBL Luxury Audio Group, and he is responsible for designing some of our favourite speakers of recent years. He first started working for JBL back in 1988, his first job being to develop the L100 T3 speaker.
In a neatly poetic coincidence, one of his recent projects has been designing the reborn and hugely successful new JBL L100 Classic speakers. During our recent visit to JBL’s loudspeaker facilities in Northridge, California, we spoke to him about his life in audio, how his interest was kindled and where it led him.
What Hi-Fi?: What made you interested in hi-fi?
Chris Hagen: As a young teenager I was keen to be able to play my music whenever I wanted to. I didn’t have much money, but was able to afford a receiver and a turntable, and then kind of ran out of cash. I saw ads in the back of US hi-fi magazines talking about building your own speakers to save cash. That started a whole journey.
At first, I just configured speakers at an industrial-design level, but then began to learn about the working parts and how to design crossovers. It ultimately burgeoned into getting a job in the speaker industry.
What was your first hi-fi system?
I played my first records on my mum’s Sears portable, but the first system that I bought was a Sansui 771 receiver and a BIC turntable. I think it was a 960 but it may have been the 980.
How did you come to work for JBL?
My first job in audio was at Rogersound Labs here in Southern California in Canoga Park, in fact, designing speakers. In 1988 I looked for another place to work, and I started sending out resumés. I actually got a response pretty quickly from JBL. They gave me an interview and the next thing I knew I was working on the L100 T3 and L20 T3 projects.
What do you do at JBL now?
It’s largely the same thing I’ve always done – design speaker systems. I participate in the cabinet design to make sure that the cabinets are acoustically and mechanically sound. And I take part in driver selection where possible. In the JBL Synthesis SCL-2 high-end in-wall speaker I chose the 8in woofer, then designed the crossovers.
What is involved in bringing a speaker range to market?
Most times the original idea comes from the market or from JBL’s Future Roadmap Plan, but occasionally from the engineers.
The decision on what the range should be is typically based on market an
