Company Profile   

Osborn No Compromise Loudspeakers was founded in 1984 by the current designer, Greg Osborn. As a keen listener to live music, he realized that there was a gulf between live and reproduced music. Loudspeakers were generally constructed of lightweight materials, cheaply assembled and constructed of flimsy materials where the design criteria was economy of manufacture and transport, and this was reflected in their sound quality. Very few projected an accurate soundstage. Those that did suffered severe dynamic compression. This resulted in a sanitized, polite type of sound which may have been easy to listen to, but lacked the excitement of the original performance. Dynamic speakers were coarse and unrefined and lacked the finesse and delicacy of real instruments played in an ideal acoustic environment. Speakers were divided into what was known as the "English Sound" and the "American Sound". The English sound was considered the most accurate and best for classical and acoustic music. The American Sound was a bigger more powerful sound which was considered better for Rock and popular music. Speakers adhering to these concepts played one type of music reasonably well, but were each out of their depth with the other. English speakers were typically smaller and usually two way. They were generally fairly inefficient with a very limited dynamic range. American speakers were generally larger and more often three way or more. This was also due to market forces as much as personal taste, as English and European houses tended to be smaller and closer together than American houses. Therefore the smaller room could not accommodate large sound systems and loud dynamic music was not popular with the neighbors.

           As a audiophile, Greg Osborn carefully auditioned speakers from both camps. The purity of the better English and European speakers was appreciated, but he could not agree that these speakers were ideal for reproducing classical music, unless they were restricted to playing recordings of single instruments or string quartets. Classical music, of the orchestral type, is an emotional experience. When a listener is sitting in good seats in a good concert hall an immense soundstage opens up in front of them. Even when playing very softly, the full power and majesty of the orchestra can be sensed. One second the hall can be hushed and only the gentle tinkle of a triangle can be heard, and the next second can bring a thunderous crescendo where the sheer power and authority is thrilling, as well as sometimes quite startling. Small inefficient speakers cannot reproduce this experience.

          Turning to larger, more dynamic speakers was more exciting, but also unsatisfying because although several of them could reasonably portray the weight and authority, and even the dynamics, bass was usually bloated and lacked definition. The thump of the bass drum could be heard, but the initial strike of the skin and the decay of the note afterwards was lost. Single instruments, especially those featuring plucked strings were seldom impressive, lacking attack and sounding bloated. The true ambiance of the Hall was rarely apparent.

         After several years of experimentation the Mark 1 Epitome was born. This speaker easily eclipsed the best of the references used in their design and they captured the heart and soul of those that heard them. The same ideals are reflected in the present generation of speakers where each instrument is separated from the next and operates in its own acoustic space. They have spectacular dynamic range with no dynamic compression and awesome bass response, so that the potential power of the orchestra can be sensed by the listener even during quiet passages. Osborn Loudspeakers put back what has been missing from reproduced music: life, excitement and satisfaction.
Although the three larger models epitomize the designers goals, he at least appreciates that people live in real houses and usually have real wives who can see no reason why the living room should be dominated by something as imposing as the Monuments or the Epitomes. The Eclipse was the major attempt to bridge the two ideals. It is large enough to be able to reproduce deep bass and it is lightning fast, with a sound out of all proportions to its size.

          The F1, F2 and the Titans performance suffers only when compared to the larger models. The bass extension and transient attack are astonishing for a two driver stand mounted speaker . Very, very few speakers of their size can match their sense of scale, speed and bass extension, and are the way to go if compromises have to be made. All we can do is recommend that you audition the Osborn range and see for yourself.

           All the cabinets for Osborn Loudspeakers are constructed in a modern and up to date cabinet works. All routing and edging is done by computer controlled routers and each cabinet is absolutely identical to the other. All finishing and spraying is done by hand by skilled craftsmen who take real pride in the products they are crafting. The inductors are hand wound by Greg Osborn himself, so as to ensure that every one is exactly to his expectations. He then hand assembles the crossover and installs them himself. They are them run for usually 20 to 30 hours and carefully tested and auditioned to ensure that they are free from faults. This also covers the very initial breaking in, so that the speakers are at least partially run in by the time they reach the customer. These speakers are designed to be a piece of furniture, not only to faithfully reproduce beautiful music.

          We have now exhibeted at Shows 14 times outside Australia, the othersbeing at the C.E.S in Las Vegas. We were back there again in January 1998, 1999 at Alexis park. We demonstrated the Grand Monument for the first time. This was the first speaker to be released by any manufacturer, using the magnificent Focal Audiom TLR tweeter. We demonstrated again in Las Vegas in January 2000, and again in 2001, with the spectacular Audio Aero electronics, and at the "Son et Image" Show in Montreal, Canada in March 2000 (Photograph to left of me with Mini Tower, F4 and F2) and then again in Toronto in September, and at the Herald Sun Sound and Vision Show in Melbourne in April 1995 through to this year, where we also demonstrated at the RACV Home Show.