Fried History
The story of FRIED begins with the story of Irving "Bud" Fried.
As a young boy, Bud fell in love with the art and science of sound reproduction when he first heard Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra emerging from the large theater horns of his father's movie theaters.
Later, when Bud attended Harvard University, he fell under the sway of Professors Hunt and Pierce who, under a Western Electric research grant, were conducting monumental research into high fidelity phono reproduction.
Based on the advice of Victor Brociner, co-founder of Fisher Radio, Bud become the official importer of the Lowther corner horns, the creations of P.G.A.H. Voight. A year later, he expanded his offerings and began importing the revolutionary Quad electrostatic.
At the suggestion of Saul Marantz, the IMF (Irving M Fried) trademark was registered in 1961, a trademark that was eventually applied to many advanced developments in music reproduction: cartridges (IMF - London, IMF - Goldring), tone arms (SME, Gould, Audio and Design), amplifiers (Quad, Custom Series), loudspeakers (Lowther, Quad, Celestion, Bowers and Wilkins, Barker, etc.)
In 1968 a British branch of IMF was opened. This combined Anglo-American company produced the now legendary IMF Monitor, the first truly wide band loudspeaker the world had seen (examples of which are still being used today).
In 1975 the English and American divisions of IMF were split, and the trademark FRIED was thenceforth used on all of Bud's designs. The new designs were based upon the same inexorable laws of acoustics that had created the IMF Monitor in addition to new technology as it became available. FRIED benchmarks include the Model H System, the first modern satellite/subwoofer system, the Model M (1977), the first satellite transmission line subwoofer in one unit, the SUPER Monitor (which many still consider to be one of the premier speakers of our day), and the B satellite series (1976 to 1979).
Today
At Fried Audio, our mission is to preserve, protect and advance the art and science of loudspeaker design first pioneered by Bud Fried. We are committed to incorporating the latest technology to build upon Bud's legendary design concepts and philosophies in order to develop audio loudspeakers that advance the state of the art.
World-class drivers
