FISCHER & FISCHER

Fischer & Fischer builds exclusively slate loudspeakers. Because it is the best material for this purpose.

Slate is a fascinating rock. In it you can see the tremendous forces that have shaped and still shape our planet. Because slate is created when the earth's crust deforms under great heat and enormous pressure, for example during an earthquake deep in the earth. A few such tectonic events in the same area, a few hundred million years of silence, and the black, multilayered folded rock is close enough to the surface to be mined.

 Humans have been working and using slate for centuries, perhaps even thousands of years. We cover our roofs with it, and specially treated slabs have even appeared as floor tiles in noble houses. But loudspeakers from it are only available at Fischer & Fischer.

Thomas Fischer is strictly speaking a "newcomer", but since he has spent most of his life in Bad Fredeburg, he has long felt a close connection to the traditional slate town in the Sauerland. And it was here, more than 35 years ago, that the idea of building speaker cabinets from slate was born. Due to family background, Fischer was familiar with the stone and recognized its potential in loudspeaker construction. Slate is heavy and consists of many layers of a rather sandy sedimentary rock. Therefore it absorbs unwanted vibrations better than just about any other material. However, it is these properties that make it so extremely difficult to process. Above all, this requires a lot of experience and a feel for the material.

But this is exactly what the small team at Fischer & Fischer has, which is why up to 30 pairs of loudspeaker cabinets are produced in Bad Fredeburg every month. The slate factory supplies the panels in selected quality and cut to size. Everything else is handmade. The construction of the glued cases is clever and full of details that the small company had to come up with itself due to a lack of role models. The one or other trade secret has been accumulated over the last 35 years and is therefore certain that there will be no imitators so soon.

But loudspeakers from Fischer & Fischer have more to offer than a chic and unusual housing. The crossover, driver selection and other components are of the very highest quality and are assembled with a great deal of expertise. A conventionally built Fischer & Fischer made of MDF and wood would be an excellent speaker, but the slate cabinet gives it the final tonal polish. And a proper portion of luxurious elegance.

For a rock, slate radiates an unusual inner warmth and tranquility. Although it is hard as stone in the best sense of the word, it appears soft and invites you to touch it. Fortunately, this is not a problem with the cases from Fischer & Fischer, as a wafer-thin coating protects the surface from the fingerprints that are otherwise unavoidable with smooth slate. In the numerous inclusions in the almost black stone and the shapes of the rough fractured sides, one thinks one can recognize the organic sludge as our present slate once began half a billion years ago.

Fischer & Fischer now finds its customers all over the world, and most of them choose natural cases. Although the Sauerlanders offer painting in practically any color upon request. Anyone who owns a Fischer & Fischer would simply like to show what it is made of. Some buyers even express special preferences when ordering, for example for side panels with particularly pronounced grain due to trapped minerals. Or for a surface that is as uniformly black as possible. Thomas Fischer is happy to fulfill such and other special requests, because they show him that the future owner has taken a close look at his speakers. And with slate, that special, unique, magical material to which Fischer has dedicated his whole life.