When clients visit our shop, they understand that we care about quality, period. Our clients also trust us to help them build a system that suits their individual needs, regardless of whether that means selling them our products, or those made by other hi-fi manufacturers. Our listening room is a place to listen and make your own decisions and come to your own conclusions, with no high-pressure sales tactics. We are an authorized dealer of DeVore Fidelity, Grimm Audio, Network Acoustics, Black Cat Cables, Linear Tube Audio, Technics, Weiss Engineering, ModWright and more. Contact us to schedule your own visit so you can listen to a range of setups. Thank you Bryan!!
#audio #Audiophile #loudspeakersystem
Starting off the New Year by reflecting on my adventure with Le Cleac'h horns nearly a decade ago. I enjoyed this challenge (it was definitely a challenge) and I learned a hell of a lot about loudspeaker design during the project, most obviously the complex relationships between drivers and crossovers. While it may be surprising to hear that this experiment eventually informed the design of the F&R Ravens, which are single-drivers, the Le Cleac'h experience was influential in that it gave me a strong understanding of what every driver and component was doing, and helped me determine what sonic traits I wanted to celebrate and refine in a simpler design.
#loudspeakers #audio #audiophilespeakers #audioexperiment #fernandrobyaudio
Since I got back from Axpona last month, I’ve found myself thinking less about individual products and more about how systems actually behave over time, in living rooms, shared spaces, and the environments where people really spend time listening to music.
I talked through a lot of these ideas in interviews I recorded back in April with @sdguidetohifi and @stereophile .
After sitting with these conversations for a bit, I ended up pulling some of the broader themes together into a longer piece on hi-fi systems, materials, manufacturing, rooms and long-term listening.
Link in bio.
Thanks for the conversations @sully_the_guy and @micallefjasswaxx
A few people have reached out recently asking about the differences between the Raven II and Raven III, so I thought it would be useful to show them together.
Both speakers use custom drivers made for us in Norway by @seasspeakers . They start out from the same general single-driver approach, but they tend to fit into systems a little differently.
The Raven II is the more modular option. The sealed cabinet makes them easier to place in a wider range of rooms (these are what I have on the bookshelves in my living room system), and they pair really naturally with subwoofers for people who want to build out a more distributed full-range system over time. If you don't want them on shelves, we offer custom isolation speaker stands made of steel and Richlite.
The Raven III starts with the same foundation and expands it into a compact full-range front-ported floorstanding speaker with more low-end extension than the Raven II and a more self-contained presentation from a single pair. Sometimes a sub just won’t fit, or somebody simply wants a more integrated solution from the start.
We use both approaches ourselves (at home and at the shop) depending on the room and the system. A lot of the decision really comes down to how somebody wants to live with their setup day to day.
#hifi
#audiophile
#fullrangespeaker
#speakersystem
#listeningroom
A lot of our days move back and forth between very different kinds of work. Sometimes that means developing something like the Archival Turntable, or building a custom plinth around a specific motor system, or working in speaker production mode. Other times it’s spending an afternoon in the office setting up a Technics table before it heads out into a client’s home.
We spent part of yesterday setting up an SL-1200GME with a Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC cartridge. Securing the cartridge, aligning the needle, adjusting tracking force are small adjustments that may not look particularly dramatic from the outside, but they absolutely matter.
This has always been one of the more enjoyable parts of the work for me: understanding how components interact in a real system, paying attention to the details, and helping systems come together over time.
#Technics #sl1200gme #hifi #analogaudio #Soundsmith
“I would prefer for my systems and products to be handed down, rather than traded in.”
I said this during an interview w/Sully from @sdguidetohifi at Axpona, and it probably gets closer to how I think about this work than anything else.
I spend a lot of time thinking about what makes something worth keeping—not just how something sounds on day one, but how it’s made, how it lives in a space, and whether it still feels meaningful years later.
I’ve never been very interested in building things that are meant to be replaced. We’d rather make things people want to live with, repair, and pass along.
It was a thoughtful conversation about design, listening, and building systems for the long term.
#industrialdesign #vinylsystem #listeningroom
When someone buys a turntable from us, we're thinking about more than just the table itself.
Every Technics table we sell includes one of our solid brass record weights along with one of our signature F&R LP tote bags. We machine & patina the weight in-house here in Richmond; we like how it adds a small but very real improvement in record stability and playback. The record tote is something all of us here use, all the time, for everything. It's an easy (and washable) bag to have on hand if you're buying albums (or just running to the grocery store).
It’s not a bundle or a promotion. These are small things, but they’re part of how a system comes together over time.
#turntable #vinylplayback #hifi #audiophile #madeinusa
Highlights of our first day of Axpona, in addition to good coffee:
- Our setup went very smoothly yesterday and last night, and our team got a solid night's rest, which always helps.
- The room is balanced and we've got our speaker placement really dialed in.
- It really does take a full day to build a system in a hotel room, but it's incredibly rewarding when it clicks into place and you can finally just sit and listen to it.
- The Archival Turntable is performing beautifully with the @grimmaudio PW1 phono preamp (we've also got Grimm's amazing MU2 DAC in our system when we switch over to digital).
- Also in our lineup for the show: @lineartubeaudio 's MicroZOTL preamplifier & Ultralinear power amp, and Graceline Level 3 cables & interconnects from @blackcatcable
- these are powering our Raven II bookshelf speakers, which we’re showing on our custom isolation speaker stands. We love the custom drivers from @seasspeakers - the Raven IIs are in solid walnut here but we also make them in solid ash
- One of the most exciting things for us this year is to host @network_acoustics new product launch of their Muon2 Ethernet Filter & Muno2 Switch. Rob O. from NA traveled from the UK to be with us for the show, which is amazing. We're also showing their Eno2 Ethernet Filter as well as their Origin Power Supply (for our wi-fi router).
- The equipment rack and all of the isolation accessories are made by us in Richmond.
This room is a great example of our system-first approach - bringing many different elements together to build a coherent, rewarding and satisfying whole.
#axpona
#hifi
#audiophile
#turntable
#listeningroom
Nice shots of Clark hand-finishing a walnut plinth for the Archival Turntable.
This is one of the slower parts of the manufacturing process, but it’s really important. A lot of this work isn’t visible to the eye when the turntable is finished and in its complete form, but it absolutely has a direct impact on how it performs.
Jana from @jana.loves.hifi spent time w/ us recently documenting every part of the design & manufacturing process. She’s working on a longer video that she’ll be publishing on her channels in a few months—to say we’re excited about it is a bit of an understatement.
We’ve got the Archival with us in Chicago/Schaumburg this weekend for Axpona as part of a full system.
Like everyone else, just trying to keep up with the current state of things, on top of being super busy at the shop. And we’re headed to Axpona next week. Sometimes it’s hard to find the time to post. But on our way out the door we stopped and listened to this system for awhile. Here’s the rundown, much of which will come with us to Chicago next weekend. Let us know if you plan on being there, we’re going to be in Room 584.
- F&R Archival Turntable w/ Technics SP-10R *SME M2-12R tonearm *Soundsmith Zephyr Mimic moving iron cartridge
- Grimm Audio PW1 phono preamp
- LTA MicroZOTL preamplifier
- Komuro K300S power amp
- Ray Tubes 300B Reserve vacuum tubes
- Black Cat Graceline Level 3 cables
- DeVore Fidelity O/Bronze
- F&R equipment rack
- F&R isolation record weight
- F&R isolation feet
#axpona #listeningroom #audiophile
An exploded view of the Archival Turntable.
We made this to show what’s actually going on inside the structure. A lot of the work, especially in the plinth, isn’t visible once everything is assembled, but it’s doing a lot of work in terms of stability and isolation.
This is just a way of laying it out so you can see how the components relate to each other. The SME tonearm and Technics SP-10R, along with our custom walnut plinth, Richlite armboard and subplate, and all of the isolation elements we build into each one.
It’s the same way we tend to think about systems in general—how everything works together, not just on its own.
We’ll have the Archival in Chicago next week for Axpona as part of a full system built around that idea.
#hifi #audiodesign #turntable #systemsdesign #productdesign #industrialdesign #recordplayer
