Jensen/Rola/Muter speaker history

Posted by Thermionic27609 (A) on September 12, 2010 at 08:19:27

As I've been working on more vintage musical instrument amps, I've been getting curious about the relationship between Jensen and Rola, so I decided to do a little online research. I'm particularly interested in what happened around 1972 when, reportedly, Jensen's Chicago production was closed down and taken over by Rola. It's not easy to find out very much about this history; it's easy to find out about British Rola/Celestion, but that's not what I'm after.

In 1943 Peter L. Jensen left The Jensen Manufacturing Company, and, at some point (by 1956 for certain) Jensen Mfg. was acquired by The Muter Company of Chicago.

In 1945, The Muter Company of Chicago acquired The Rola Company of Cleveland, Ohio from the widow of the founder.

Thus, for years, even though I would have assumed they were independent competitors, Jensen Mfg. and Rola were both subsidiaries of the same parent corporation--Muter.

Around 1972, all Jensen speaker production was moved to the Rola production facilities (still in Cleveland?). I've heard rumors that this was due to declining quality of the Jensen drivers, but I don't know if that's the whole story. (Worn-out production equipment? Bad management? Changing market?)

And I found a reference to McIntosh engineers checking out "the Rola-Jensen speaker manufacturing facilities in Punxsutawney and Dubois, PA" in 1973.

Anyone got the inside story?

As a disclaimer, let me say that I'm aware that things aren't necessarily true or accurate just because something is posted online :-) The "facts" above come from other sources.

David

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Topic - Jensen/Rola/Muter speaker history - Thermionic27609 08:19:27 09/12/10 (2)

RE: Jensen/Rola/Muter speaker history - JohnNEO 14:08:53 11/16/11 (1)

RE: Jensen/Rola/Muter speaker history - AJAYQ 08:29:44 02/21/15 (0)

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