These days, we think it's called niche marketing. Once upon a time it was referred to as specialist products. How ever you look at it, the truth of the matter remains the same. There has always been a number of small manufacturers who exist because they can offer something the larger companies cannot provide. Redgum Audio are one of a few Australian companies that quite happily fall into the "Smaller Manufacturer" category and they do it extremely well.

Getting there
We made our way down to the Redgum factory, arriving at about 11am. We were greeted by Lindy Gerber who is the promotions and marketing person at Redgum. She was followed by James, one of the younger tech's (who just wanted to check us out a bit). Then came Ian, head designer and god of all things Redgum.

It's not a huge factory but then, they are not churning out mass produced product either. It is a clean honest, no fuss, working environment where quality audio products are hand assembled with care and attention to detail. Everybody in the company gets involved in each and every product and when the finished product goes out the door, it's more akin to saying goodbye to a family member than shipping 30,000 plastic boxes to destinations unknown.

The boxes they come in
Redgum use John Woodhead from Acoustic Concepts for all their cabinet work. He is without doubt the best cabinet maker in the industry. One of the few who truly understands the need for balance between both the acoustic and cosmetic qualities required. "Our wooden panels are a signature of the whole range" says Lindy. "It conjures up the essence of Australia". "We like to think the grandeur, complexity and variety of colour and texture of this wood is a reflection of the quality of the sound".

All the marketing hype aside, these products do look great and as a little bonus that can only come from hand crafted equipment - when you order a complete system, they make all the control panels from the one piece of solid redgum. That way the grain retains it's symmetry. A very cool look for anybody concerned with smart stylish products.

Lindy and Ian holding a Redgum power supply.

Power supplies "It makes an impressive party trick to be able to turn off a Redgum amplifier and still hear it play" says Ian. He loves a chat about all things audio and continued to say that the combination of oversized power supplies with no need for relays in the speaker line make it possible. "But is it necessary to have an excess of power available? Oversized power supplies are the norm in HiFi, but when is “too much” more than enough? A “plastic fantastic” import would offer a measure of capacitance in the order of 2-3,000uF. Redgum amplifiers offer you 10,000uF which is enough to play 2-3 transients after the system has been turned off. This is more than sufficient as the amplifiers instantaneous energy store (like sugar / glucose is to the body)".

Ian is passionate but practical with his designs and continued to say that "More is not needed to do the job it already does so well. In this area, one is to be cautioned when thinking that “more is better".

Out of there
We could have stayed a lot longer at the Redgum factory. They are nice people, the coffee is excellent and the atmosphere is non hurried and relaxed. As the French say, "They are very comfortable in their own skin". We hope to go back and visit them soon.