18/08/2026
A nice piece of Norwegian HiFi history!
The Hi-Fi Hall of Fame is celebrating the birthday of Ragnar Lian, a Norwegian engineer who designed some groundbreaking loudspeakers.
Lian was born on August 17, 1933 in Hof, Norway. He attended Aarhus Teknikum University and graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1961. After graduating, he worked for a number of Scandinavian speaker manufacturers, including SEAS, Scan-Speak, and Bang & Olufsen.
In his time at SEAS, Lian designed some high performing woofers including the 21 TV-EW and the 25 TV-EW, which were some of the earliest speakers to employ a rubber surround. He also introduced the industry's first soft dome tweeter, the SEAS H87, which used a textile (cloth) diaphragm and a pure aluminum wire voice coil. These drivers were used in the famous Dynaco A25 loudspeaker (in Europe, known as the Scan-Dyna A25), one of the best selling speakers of all time.
During his tenure at Scan-Speak, Lian developed the “Symmetric Drive” concept. This innovation employed a copper cap on the pole piece to ensure a symmetrical relationship between voice coil inductance and excursion. The result is reduced distortion, which is always a good thing in speakers!
At Bang & Olufsen, Lian helped to develop the iconic Beovox C75 speaker. Lian collaborated closely with Danish designer Jacob Jensen on the C75, and the speaker achieved worldwide recognition for industrial design, culminating in its display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The C75 sold very well and remained in production for many years.
Ragnar Lian, a pioneer in loudspeaker technology, passed away in November 2008 after a distinguished career. His innovations brought the joy of high-fidelity sound to countless homes worldwide. We are grateful for his many contributions.
Please visit our website for profiles of other Hi-Fi greats: HiFiHallofFame.com/
