Edward M. Long (1932 – December 17, 2016) was an
audio engineer known for introducing the first near-field
studio monitor
Studio monitors are loudspeakers in speaker enclosures specifically designed for professional audio production applications, such as recording studios, filmmaking, television studios, radio studios and project or home studios, where accurate ...
s and the first Time-Aligned
loudspeaker
A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or ...
crossover
Crossover may refer to:
Entertainment
Albums and songs
* ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album)
* ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987
* ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album)
* ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album)
* ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...
.
In 2021, Ed Long was inducted into the
TEC Awards The TEC Awards is an annual program recognizing the achievements of audio professionals. The awards are given to honor technically innovative products as well as companies and individuals who have excelled in sound for television, film, recordings, ...
Technology Hall of Fame for his development of the concept of near-field monitoring.
Career
Long was born in
Canandaigua, New York
Canandaigua (; ''Utaʼnaráhkhwaʼ'' in Tuscarora) is a city in Ontario County, New York, United States. Its population was 10,545 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Ontario County; some administrative offices are at the county complex ...
. During the Korean War he taught pulse techniques, multiplexing and FM theory at Fort Monmouth Signal School. He completed his engineering studies at Fisher College in 1957. Long became a project engineer at Sylvania Home electronics and did design work on loudspeaker systems there and also at Audio Dynamics Corporation. He later became senior acoustics engineer at C.T.S. of Paducah, Inc., where he assisted in the manufacture of loudspeaker systems. In 1968 he joined Ampex Corporation as a senior acoustics engineer.
In 1972 he moved to Northern California and formed Calibration Standard Instrument, a consulting firm and manufacture of loudspeaker systems.
Long developed a passive crossover for loudspeakers which aligned the bandpasses in time. Invented and trademarked in 1976 as "Time Alignment", the crossover design was influential in loudspeaker development from the late 1970s throughout the 1980s.
Long and Ronald J. Wickersham developed and patented a method for extending low-frequency response of a loudspeaker
Bag End Licensed and implemented the patent into
subwoofer
A subwoofer (or sub) is a loudspeaker designed to reproduce low-pitched audio frequencies known as bass and sub-bass, lower in frequency than those which can be (optimally) generated by a woofer. The typical frequency range for a subwoofer is ...
. products known as ELF speakers.
Personal life
Long retired in 2003. He died on December 17, 2016, at his home in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
, at the age of 84.
References
* AES E-Library, Design Parameters of a Dual Woofer Loudspeaker System, Author: Long, Edward M Affiliation: Consumer Equipment Division, Ampex Corporation, Elk Grove Village, IL, JAES Volume 17 Issue 5 pp. 515–524; October 1969 http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=1559
* Method and apparatus for operating a loudspeaker below resonant frequency, United States Patent 4481662
{{DEFAULTSORT:Long, Ed
1932 births
2016 deaths
American acoustical engineers
American electrical engineers
People from Oakland, California
Engineers from California