Separator & Friedl
Company Profile[edit]
Trenner & Friedl is a loudspeaker manufacturer from Graz in Austria.
The company was founded in 1994 by Andreas Friedl and Peter Trenner. Additionally Trenner & Friedl are responsible for audiophile music productions and distribute in Austria a number of noble high end brands like Cardas and Benz Micro.
1994 First public appearance at the HighEnd Vienna in the Vienna Plaza Hotel. Together with Friedrich Schäfer (ASR_Audio_Systeme - a manufacturer of high-end amplifiers) ASR_Audio_Systeme_Emitter_II and Trenner & Friedl Miles are presented.
1995 Noble HighEnd products are taken in distribution. Through the sale of Jeff Rowland Amplifiers, Cardas cables, [ASC Tubetraps] should bring in money to build speakers
1996 Trenner & Friedl present their "battleship" Gordon at the HighEnd in Frankfurt. The appearance becomes a success. With Germany and Taiwan the first distributors could be acquired. A test report about the Gordon in the renowned trade magazine Image Hifi is agreed.
1997 Gordon is very positively reviewed in Image Hifi and reference loudspeaker for the next few years. Further "foreign assignments" follow - Switzerland, Italy, Germany. With Enzo Nolli Trenner & Friedl could conquer Switzerland in terms of distribution.
1999 Trenner & Friedl is put on its own feet and the Andreas Friedl KEG is founded.
2000 The first professional music production is started. In a competition the musicians of Supercussion (an ensemble with musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic, Radio Synphony Orchestra, Bruckner Orchestra etc.) want to find out who they commission their CD from. Trenner & Friedl wins against ORF. Trenner & Friedl moves to their new domicile at Steinberg near Graz.
2001 Further recordings with Supercussion follow and the CD "Spartacus" is produced. For the ceremonial presentation an event is organized in the Wiener Konzerthaus, which is also recorded again. These recordings are only issued in a special edition for the Salzburger Nachrichten, not marketed, but they are legendary!
2002 More loudspeakers are developed to round out the portfolio. The loudspeaker Dizzy is reviewed very positively in several European trade magazines.
2003 Trenner & Friedl venture across the pond. With the USA Trenner & Friedl certainly gets a potent but also difficult distributor. At the same time Trenner & Friedl develop with Bernhard Lenz for Graz as cultural capital 2003 a hi-fi design furniture, which wins several design awards. Under the patronage of Bernhard Lenz the EditionSpace is created.
2004 Start of the partnership and loose cooperation with Crayon a friendly team from Styria, which produces HighEnd amplifiers and CD players. First appearance at the Blickfang, a fair for design in Vienna with EditionSpace. ART the smallest Trenner & Friedl loudspeaker is born and is within a short time the most sold loudspeaker of Trenner & Friedl. With Fritz Pauer one of the most important European jazz pianists and composers is brought into the music label Trenner & Friedl. The production "Lightsignals" is presented.
2005 Another Hifi furniture of the line EditionSpace is developed, which again wins prizes. Several foreign appearances follow, including trade fairs in Pfäffikon and the Blickfang in Zurich. Andreas Friedl meets OA Dr. Rötzer from the University Clinic Graz at an event. She needs a special headphone for disabled people. Andreas Friedl discusses various approaches with her.
2006 At a symposium, Dr. Rötzer presents Andreas Friedl's ideas and indirectly forces him to deal with the subject more intensively. The difficulties are mainly due to the fact that handicapped people do not tolerate physical contact with their ears. Conventional headphones are therefore out of the question. Thus the idea of a sound cushion was born. Together with Josef Wichmann, a specialist for model making, a scale model was designed. Furthermore, special foams were needed to prevent the patient from getting bedsores and to have the necessary sound properties. With Norbert Hessenberger a man was brought into the team, who has the necessary knowledge for it. A grant for Soundscape was submitted to the creative industry's impulse programme and won. This enabled the necessary equipment to be purchased and a first prototype to be developed.
2007 a distribution for China, Hong Kong and Macao could be found for Trenner & Friedl. The order situation explodes downright. The manufacturing process has to be completely rethought and optimized for the increasing quantities.
Picture:Ella-Fronts.jpg Picture:Art-Fronts.jpg
2008 Miles which already saw the light of day in 1994 and quasi gave the starting signal for the loudspeakers of Trenner & Friedl has been revised and comes in a new design back into the product portfolio. Miles will be presented for the first time at the CES in Las Vegas in January 2008 and can inspire there.
2009 represents a turning point in the loudspeaker production of Trenner & Friedl. They leave the beaten track and produce a main speaker, which is already conspicuous or better NOT conspicuous by its extremely restrained and simple design. Even the company logo was only placed on the back. The new speaker, named RA, is extremely efficient. This means that it is no longer a significant load for the amplifier and so even very low power outputs from 8W can elicit volumes in the disco level from the RA. "Finest birch plywood, selected veneers, sheep's wool as insulation, the paper membranes impregnated with six layers of balsamic Italian oil varnish. All proportions consistently in the golden section, up to the wiring" is how Trenner & Friedl describe the RA and hardly give any technical details in order not to let the focus slip from the music to the sound again. RA was played for the first time at the CES 2009 in Las Vegas and received extremely positive reviews (see e.g. Event Reports dagogo).
2011 Trenner & Friedl will introduce the completely redesigned DUKE at CES 2011 in Las Vegas. Together with Jeff Rowland and Cardas a system of superlatives is shown. Thus Trenner & Friedl got the interest of the international trade press and there are numerous partly almost euphoric reports. (see for example The Vynil Anachronist) or Sempre Audio.
Products[edit]
- Loudspeaker
- Subwoofer temporarily taken out of the program
Weblinks[edit]
Loudspeaker: http://www.trenner-friedl.com (german/english)
facebook fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Trenner-Friedl/72837407592 (german/english)
Electronics: http://www.hifi.at (german)