New LEAK Sandwich Speakers A Legacy Reborn in Hi-Fi
By HiFi Editorial24 February 2026
Key Highlights
LEAK's original 1961 Sandwich speaker revolutionized audio with its innovative polystyrene-aluminum cone design.
The design solved distortion issues by enhancing cone stiffness without adding excess weight.
New Sandwich 150 and 250 models build on this legacy using advanced materials like aircraft-grade foam.
Back in the early days of hi-fi, around 1961, LEAK wasn't just making speakers—they were making history. Their original Sandwich speaker was a game-changer because it solved a big problem of the time: speaker cones that weren't stiff enough. You see, back then, the stiffness of the speaker cone was a make-or-break factor for sound quality. If the cone wasn't rigid enough, the sound got distorted, which was pretty common and a real buzzkill for music lovers.
So what LEAK did was kind of like what tech companies today do when they come up with a new smartphone or gadget—they found a clever workaround. They took expanded polystyrene, which is light and has good damping properties, and they sandwiched it between two aluminum sheets. This wasn't just for kicks—it was to give the cone the stiffness it lacked without adding too much weight. That way, the speaker could move back and forth really fast without bending out of shape. And just like that, the sound got a lot clearer, the bass felt right, and music had more punch to it.
