H.J. Leak & Co.
Harold Joseph Leak founded H.J. Leak & Co. in London in 1934. The firm started with amplifiers for public address and theatres, then in September 1945 released the first "Point One" amplifier, the Type 15: 15 watts at 0.1% distortion, using KT66 valves as triodes and 26 dB of feedback over four stages. The name came from that distortion figure, at a time when around 2% was considered acceptable.
The three-stage TL/12 of 1948 gave the same performance at a lower price and carried the company through the hi-fi boom. Later models such as the TL/10, TL/25, TL/12-Plus, TL/25-Plus, TL/50-Plus, Stereo 20 and Stereo 60 kept the TL/12 layout with ultra-linear output stages. Leak also made tuners, pickups, tonearms and the Sandwich loudspeaker.
The Rank Organisation bought the business in January 1969, and production under the Leak name ended in the late 1970s. The archive has a boxed TL25 Plus.
In 1934 Harold Joseph Leak founded H.J. Leak & Co in London, UK – and promotes the company with his own name, adversting himself as “Sound Engineer – Technician”. In 1936 Leak & Co. release a P.A. Amplifier, with exhibits at Olympia Exhibition. 13 Watts output using push-pull PX25 power triodes. 40Hz to 12kHz +/- 1dB.
H.J. Leak does not appear in listings of exhibitors for Olympia, so the company may have used another company’s stand for the exhibit). This amplifer was supposedly advertised in Wireless World around 1938, although a search has failed to locate the advertisement. About 1949/1950 the Leak “550″ two-way moving coil loudspeaker was released. This loudspeaker was used in the many live-versus reproduced sound demonstrations Harold Leak conducted. Harold Leak died on August 27, 1989.
Source: www.44bx.com/leak
