Fern & Roby, located in Richmond, VA, is a very different type of audio company. Christopher Hildebrand and his wife Sara started Fern & Roby in 2013. As of now, they make their own speakers, turntables, furniture and hardware, and they also design resources for other companies.
All of their products have a rich warm look with beautiful patinas. They also partner with other local artisans and other audio companies. By the
Fern & Roby THE RAVENS
The speakers pictured above above are the Fern & Roby THE RAVENS, floor-standing, single-driver loudspeakers. They sell for $9,500 a pair. When I saw a picture of these, my first thought was why didn’t Klipsch make stands like those for their Heresy speakers.
THE RAVENS are wonderful-sounding speakers with great tone and aliveness. The source in their room at AXPONA 2019 was their reference turntable, the Tredegar, mounted with a Schroeder Reference Tonearm. I included the Tredegar in a turntables post a couple of days ago. The preamp was an LTA MZ3 mated with the LTA ZOTL40 power amp. The sound was more about tone, rhythm and scale than audiophile effects.
Dad’s Speakers Only Better
If you’re my age or older, the speaker on the bookshelf should look familiar to you. Think KLH 17. They were the first speakers I bought for myself. They were also Chris Hildebrand’s father’s speakers that Chris grew up listening to.
Chris said that when they decided to build speakers, Sara said, “Let’s make speakers like my dad’s.” So, they ended up building THE RAVENS and the THE RAVENS II. THE RAVENS II is a bookshelf speaker like the KLH 17, and it is the exact same dimensions at the KLH 17. It doesn’t sound like the KLH 17 though. It sounds more like its big brother. I will soon be
Reference Turntable – the Tredegar
Their reference turntable, the Tredegar, is pictured above mounted with a Schroder Reference Tonearm. The Tredegar is made out of cast iron and bronze. It weighs in at 100 pounds.
Let me finish by saying that this was a very musical system, and I found the looks and the sound to be very pleasing. Chris and Sara aren’t the only people doing this kind of work, but they are in a very select group. If we had more people like them in high-end audio, we would reach a more diverse group of people.
Click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpvxLSnAFdk for a short video about Fern & Roby.
