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Vintage Fried Speakers, Indy

Back when Fried started selling the kits from his Philadelphia location the cabinets were up to the buyer to build.
The drivers, foam stuffing and and the crossover parts with the enclosure plans were the kit.

When Fried renamed the model H to the model T subs after switching to the Dalesford 10" the crossover was around 200hz. There was a bit of a hole in the response having the the crossover at this frequency between the satellites and subs.
The O4 enclosures go a few hertz deeper than the model T using a longer 10.39 ft. T-line length being a 1/2 cu.ft larger enclosure. Crossing the satellites and subs over at 100 hz and having the satellites placed directly over the subs have a flatter response compared to the model H or T subs with the B2 or C1 satellites.
 
i own a pair of imf als40iia speakers as well as a pair of the original fried model r's,Ive owned them for yrs and have never been able to part with them.the r's i powered with hk citation 16a amp as they needed the power to open them up.the IMF 40's are doing duty in my bedroom system powered by a pair of dynaco mkiv mono tube blocks,the imf are the better speaker,but still ebjoy the R
 
I have been aware of the information contained in the letter since before I was a Fried dealer (I'm a research freak before I do anything). I encountered the letter on the web while doing a Google search on something like "IMF loudspeaker designers", not sure of the search terms I used. Letter has been circulating for years.
 
That letter is an interesting and informative read, but the level of animosity (and the numerous typos) suggest that it shouldn't be taken as gospel. There is another side in most disagreements, and to my mind, Bud Fried's success on his own after IMF suggests that knew what he was doing -- doesn't mean that he had input into IMF's designs, though it would be strange if the distributor in the the world's largest market didn't have opinion that needed to be taken into account.
It may not be possible to find out exactly what the history of IMF was, and certainly Hayes's letter is an important source of information, but it's not definitive
 
From John Marks of Stereophile in an AA thread: http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?f=critics&m=41228

Bold is my emphasis.

Hi-

Fried has his admirers and I count myself among them, but I must disagree re: "Genius." He was a blatherskite; he had a good line of Blarney. And a powerful, even overbearing personality. And enough business smarts to pretty much stay in business for almost 50 years doing what he liked doing. So good for him!

But the record is pluperfectly clear that Fried had no role in the technical design of the as-yet un-named Wright speaker he borrowed to use to demo cartridges at the NY Audio Fair. When there was lots of interest in the speaker, he named it after himself and presented his new partners with a fait accompli. That as well as other things rankled and festered, and that all ended in litigation.

Furthermore, I have been told that most of the Fried speakers were designed by outsiders who were held to non-disclosure contracts, and some resented it more than others. Also that the OEM contractors had a hand in improving the designs. I was told (but never checked it with JS himself) that John Sollecito, of JSE "Infinite Slope" loudspeakers note, manufactured the Fried Betas.

In fairness, Fried knew a lot about music and he pretty much knew what he wanted to hear, and by reports did work at dialing in the sound. But lots of guys who wanted to own their own loudspeaker company can say the same, and they are not all geniuses. Is Mr. Hansen a genius? Lots of people would say his speakers are more impressive than anything that ever bore the Fried name... .

If I had to draw up a list of speaker-designer geniuses, it would include Lowther, Hegeman, Vilchur, Walker, and then maybe Shahinian. Maybe the designer of the MBL radial speakers. That's it as far as genius goes in my book--guys who shook the chessboard, guys who changed the landscape for good. (Bose is a business genius, not in my book a loudspeaker genius.)

Garrulous hyper-opinionated hard worker does not equal genius in my book, but that's just me. Hey, that description actually FITS me, and I don't consider myself a genius.

As far as revelation goes, I accept the claim that the speakers I reviewed in the October issue were improperly assembled. That improperly assembled speakers got a negative review should make everybody sigh with relief. I listened to a new pair, and the results will be in the December issue.

As far as price goes, I do not think that companies who choose to continue manufacturing in the US and have to raise their prices accordingly are profiteering. If I won the Lottery, you can bet I'd not invest in an audio company.

Cordially,

JM"

From all my readings, and review / readings of the Fried Newsletters, the information on how the Wright designed speakers came to be, and how they were "named" here in the states by Fried is consistent. And that is from my contemporary recollection of the time as well as over the years. The comments about Fried's personality is consistent with a lot of folks of American persuasion in the 60's, 70's so no particular anomaly there.

Fried's own loudspeaker designs used vastly different crossover and loading techniques once small monitor/subwoofer systems took hold. Wright stuck with TL systems and engineered different ways to emulate that in smaller systems but never, AFAIK, built a separate subwoofer.

IMO, Wright/Hayes and their British company did all the primary engineering, design, and construction as they said. Fried happened to get, and be for a time, the US importer. The fact that the relationship was contentious almost from the get go, and ended in litigation, documented in writings of the time, and over subsequent future history, is not only consistent, but perhaps also instructive. Fried, being a Harvard trained lawyer of the 50's and having apparently some ego and convictions may have had a lot to do with his side of the story, Wright / Hayes wishing to protect their reputation and erstwhile "name" had their side.
 
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Fried sure did have his critics but came up with many advancements in his designs.

The sloped front baffle time aligned pyramid shaped enclosures in his model C satellites predate many that have copied it was first used in 1978 IIRC.
Does anyone else remember who started using a separate enclosure for T-line subwoofers commercially?

Fried often wrote and discussed how important phase, amplitude and magnitude are in a speaker design.

He was also one of the first to use polypropylene cones and double stacked magnet structures in his TOTL speakers.

Personally I prefer his last oem Dalesfrod and Gefco composite cones I listen to over any of the poly cones he used.

I never heard Bud personally put down his competitors or former business associates in the UK.
I have stated many times that those in the UK learned about 1/4 W T-line designs from A.R.Bailey.
This is what Bud told me on many occasions when I asked him about the T-line designs.

Bud also stated he learned about using series resonance crossover circuits from the engineers in Denmark.
Since he was good friends with Saul Marantz who had also used series crossovers in some of his early speaker designs I think he had received some valuable insight from him about this type of design.

From my experience knowing the man he was a true gentleman. He was a bit arrogant but most esquires are.

He learned the ropes by trial and error like his peers in the industry and many times stated that every speaker design was a work in progress. I believe he was referring to the upgrades that were available in his TOTL models.
Once a higher performing driver was developed the option of purchasing it was available with the appropriate crossover upgrade.

To ponder a thought it is also very rare to see one of his TOTL models ever for sale by the original owner?
By this I mean his various C satellite models D, T, SM and O subwoofer models.
 
I have several High Fidelity magazines from the late 50s and early 60s, some of which have articles by Bud Fried about the british audio scene (I think called Letter from London). Both through his articles and through his importing of Lowther, Quad, Goldring, and IMF he helped introduce a british approach to high fidelity to the US. If you look at magazines of that time, a good number of the ads for the sort of equipment that still sounds very good more than half a century later were by Lectronics of City Line Center, Philadelphia, which, I believe, was his store.

So regardless of how it looks now, at the time for Wright, Hayes, et al, to hook up with Fried, even at the expense of using his initials, may have been a very sound economic decision. Starting a company that sells big, expensive speakers using an unusual loading system that doesn't have the BIG BAD BASS that drives impulse purchases is a dicey proposition, and IMF did well with Fried. He sold a lot of their speakers -- its a pity that both TDL and Fried (the company) didn't make it in the long term (nor did Wright's A & D). Maybe they all should have made up and stuck together.
 
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