Speaker Talk

We cover the sustainability of bamboo, a material we both value highly as a lower carbon impact alternative. Then it’s on to our current thinking about marketing, specifically social media and upcoming in-person events, as Trystan has a launch planned for his new product, Ivy (which is also a beautiful example of how the Ogam rebrand has lent itself to product nomenclature!). This leads us to reflect again on the exact appeal of our products and how best to get that message across to the...

Trystan’s moved into his new workshop and is busy making it functional after a minor flood - good start! We also hear about how his new full range speaker is being received by his mixing engineer friend and studio clients in a near field monitoring scenario - very well it seems which is a fantastic reception for the new model. I discuss progress on my 2-way mini monitor prototype, and re-hash the concept and intended execution. It’s sounding really good - once the placement is sorted out,...

It’s been a minute, so lots to catch up on! Trystan reveals a rebrand, Gwedd has become Ogam - he explains it’s origins in Celtic lore, and in a direct foundation in the natural world, thereby focusing attention on the values of sustainability so central to his vision. I expound on R&D developments, as I start to look for a future hardware platform to hitch the Lucie wagon to - after MiniDSP has pulled the pin on their OEM activities. There’s not much in the way of answers yet, but...

I report back on some recent in-store room correction demos, in which the takeaway is there is definitely a law of diminishing returns if you’ve already applied physical room treatments. In your average ‘live’ room with no existing treatment however, we can do wonders. Trystan’s progressing on his 3DTek router build, and we reflect on where we are in overall progress, roughly 6 months into these conversations, and coming to terms with balancing the various activities required to grow our...

Lucie has some challenges ahead, as MiniDSP announce they are moving away from the OEM market to focus on boxed retail products. While this is disheartening , it may be the impetus needed to expand our own in-house capabilities, as resources allow. In the meantime I’m preparing to present at two upcoming events in Melbourne and Adelaide retailers respectively. Trystan’s been at a maker fair in Birmingham alongside 3DTek, and he’s brought home a CNC router! we discuss some basics about these...

In which I again have not much to report (professionally at least), but I do have some questions about Tidal, in relation to some tracks that I get asked to play in demo scenarios that sound, well, patently bad, while others are described as revelatory and the best rendition the requester has ever heard! Is it the system? is it the source? is it the master? Who knows! Trystan’s got some new material in from a supplier, and we discuss his plan of attack and a possible impending foray into...

It's been fairly quiet at Lucie HQ, but that presents some opportunity for 'quality assurance testing' and thinking about ways to streamline production costs of the pre-amp as I go forward. Trystan however has been out and about demonstrating his two ways side by side with a pair of Tannoy Arden 15s in a studio control room. We explore the design of the Tannoys and what differences we might expect between the two loudspeakers in the space, and how that played out from Trystan's point of...

Trystan’s attended the Bristol hi-fi show, and I’m keen to find out what the mood was like for the attendees and exhibitors, and what gear/companies stood out. We go into more detail about the merits of Trystan’s prototype full rangers, how he likes the sound, and where future designs could take him. I talk about a recent demo that was very well received, with favourable comparisons to some big players, which was super nice to hear. I’m trying a different tweeter in the Studio One demo...

Current affairs - Trystan’s moving house (again!) and I’m scrambling to get my demo room back together for an appointment in 2 days and the gear’s not finished! We continue our theory focus and move in to a discussion of crossovers - what do they do, and what are their component parts? Finally we get to talk about Trystan’s full range project and his impressions of the Tang Band full range drivers he’s chosen, and what else might be tried in future.

Trystan's revamped his website to great effect, and I'm waiting on parts before I can get back to building pre-amps. As we've already touched on technical matters in previous shows, this episode we go back to first principles and look in detail at the properties of loudspeaker drivers, and how their design choices impact their performance and utility in our designs.

I talk through my immediate plans for getting pre-amps back into production, starting with the enclosures. Trystan's demonstrated his speakers for a recording engineer and got some positive feedback! We discuss our marketing approaches as Trystan looks at a mini website update, and this brings us to consider our target audience and what their expectations are. I recap my experiences with my first installs, which were predictably full of surprises.

Trystan's moved house and ready to hit the ground running. I've been working producing my first order of a complete system. We talk materials, from practical and acoustic angles. We both talk through our design principles and what we're looking for in our similar but different approaches. We talk crossover topologies and sealed vs. ported enclosures.

In which we introduce ourselves, briefly discuss our respective journeys in hi fi and loudspeaker design, and hone in on what our aims are for our products and where we fit in to the industry. Apologies, we had some dropout issues due to my pathetic broadband, but Trystan’s pulled it together nicely in editing.