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Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH and Fehrenbacher GmbH start exclusive cooperation

It amounts to a bang, namely that cooperation that Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH now announces with Fehrenbacher GmbH. Together they want to develop new products and thus make the Black Forest again a leading center for analog quality products.

Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH is now launching an almost sober announcement about a new exclusive cooperation with the company Fehrenbacher GmbH.

This agreement is like a drumbeat in the industry, because it establishes a very far-reaching cooperation between the two companies, involving very prominent brands.

Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH – The parent company of Pro-Ject Audio Systems

The name Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH may not be so familiar to many people interested in hi-fi, but first of all this is the largest distributor in Austria when it comes to consumer electronics solutions.

In addition, Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH is also the parent company of such well-known brands as Pro-Ject Audio Systems, and thus simply the world market leader in the field of record players. In addition, there is the comparatively young brand TONE Factory, which also belongs to the record player sector. In addition, it should not be forgotten that the extremely renowned hi-fi company Musical Fidelity is also part of Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH, headed by Heinz Lichtenegger as founder and CEO.

Fehrenbacher GmbH – home of the Dual record players

At Fehrenbacher GmbH, the situation is a bit more complex to summarize the development of the last years in one word.

It was in the late 1980s when Alfred Fehrenbacher, whose company was responsible for the production of the original Dual record players, founded his own company to continue the production of the Dual record players. However, Alfred Fehrenbacher did not own the corresponding trademark rights, as the corresponding current release states in retrospect.

So it happened that the trademark rights holder of Dual built up a product line with solutions from the Far East, so there were two suppliers of the Dual brand. It is obvious that this caused confusion among retailers and customers alike, and that it was by no means beneficial for the renowned Dual brand.

In 2018, Andreas Laux took over the company Fehrenbacher GmbH, but was not able to solve the licensing problem around Dual.

Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH and Fehrenbacher GmbH establish exclusive cooperation

In the course of 2021, Andreas Laux made contact with Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH, whereupon an agreement on a cooperation was reached within a very short time. And this cooperation, if you look at the effects on the market, is quite something…

Pro-Ject AUTOMAT – The new product line

An essential part of the agreement is that Fehrenbacher GmbH will be responsible for a completely new product line of the Pro-Ject Audio Systems brand. As the name Pro-Ject AUTOMAT suggests, this will involve solutions that have not previously been found in the Pro-Ject Audio Systems product range, namely the fully automatic product category.

Pro-Ject Audio Systems has so far deliberately limited itself to manual turntables, but with the competence of Fehrenbacher GmbH, this is obviously about to change.

TONE Factory now manufactures in the Black Forest

The TONE Factory company presented itself for the first time in 2019 with the TONE Factory Turntable record player, which was designed as a lifestyle solution and a plug-and-play drive to address a completely new customer group.

The fact that Pro-Ject Audio Systems was the partner behind TONE Factory was quite obvious, even if it was not communicated quite so offensively.

For TONE Factory, the new exclusive partnership between Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH and Fehrenbacher GmbH also has striking effects, because in the future, the TONE Factory brand solutions will be manufactured in the Black Forest.

New product line REKKORD – With the roots of Dual

Those product lines of Fehrenbacher GmbH, which have been available under the Dual brand so far, will be available under a completely new brand name in the future, namely REKKORD.

The decision to revive classic models such as the Dual CS 505, but with improved technology and based on the latest production methods and high-quality materials, should ensure that this new brand name can be established quite quickly.

“Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH will combine its resources, technologies and ideas with the outstanding technical and craftsmanship skills of Fehrenbacher GmbH to make the Black Forest a leading center of quality analog products once again.”

Heinz LIchtenegger, CEO of Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH

The two companies agree that one can look forward to a range of new products from the new brands that will drive Analog Audio’s success in the global market.

“We are delighted to have found a perfect partner in Audio Tuning GmbH. I am convinced that together we can develop remarkable products and take hi-fi to a new level with our combined expertise.”

Andreas Laux, owner of Fehrenbacher Produktionswerke

Getting to the point

It is, as already mentioned in the introduction, a message that at first glance seems downright sober, but in the end can have massive effects on the product area of record players. After all, competencies are bundled here that serve as the basis for completely new brands and thus probably many new exciting products. It is particularly noteworthy that the focus is on building up production in Europe as a counterbalance to the rapidly growing range of products from the Far East. Developments on the market show that many manufacturers, even those with renowned names, will increasingly rely on solutions from Asia in the future. A development that was already apparent in the last few months, when more and more manufacturers presented “new” drives under their own names for the first time, which were ultimately nothing more than solutions from Asian OEM production.

More information:Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH
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Michael Holzinger

Michael Holzinger, founder and editor-in-chief of HiFi BLOG and sempre-audio.at, has been working for years as a journalist in the fields of IT, photography, telecommunications and consumer electronics.

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