Since my boyhood days I have dreamt of making the best sounding components because I could not find them on the market. With 25 years’ of expertise, I have managed to make my dreams come true. And so can you.
I live and work in Central Switzerland next to beautiful Lake Lucerne, surrounded by mountains. Empowered by my wonderful family, I work with a team of unique experts to make those audio dreams come true. I take a lot of time to develop and manufacture high efficiency coaxial speakers, tube amps and DACs. Deeply rooted in audio history, I am also fully aware of today’s manufacturing advantages and apply them whenever they will be useful. Please take your time to experience my components and I can promise you, it will only take moments before you realize that you are listening to something special, something musical: a gateway to the music. Let me introduce you to some secrets behind the making of these products.
In the hands of the maker...
We at Tobian Sound Systems believe that the beauty of our audio products lies in the hands of the makers. I may be the originator and driving force, but the products have more than one father.My amplifiers for example benefit from the unique expertise of the man who is responsible for my transformers. His 50 years’ of experience from the heydays of tube amps until today, cannot be matched elsewhere. A while ago we had the chance to integrate another veteran transformer specialist into the team. This man started with Peerless in the 1960s and his hands know exactly what to do. Thus we are fortunate to be able to blend Swiss and German knowledge and precision with American engineering. This is not written in the books, it is written in the hands and hearts of the experts, because they live this trade and keep their secrets to themselves. However, in the end all is revealed in my products and the beautiful music they produce. They say the heart of a tube amp is in the output transformer. But what kind of output transformer?
The importance of the transformer
Our wire is very slowly dragged and carefully isolated with natural resin and then baked. The next step is the alignment of the wire on the core. The core of the transformer is made of a special, grain oriented steel, that only one company in the world makes – in Switzerland. Each layer of oval-section wire is then hammered into one homogenous surface. It is along the outside of this augmented surface that the signal will travel. Each layer is then isolated with mu-metal shielding before the next layer goes on. After a transformer is finished, it is submerged in natural resin, and baked. Every step of the process, the materials, the execution, the duration of each phase, the precision that only comes from experience, turns these transformers into something you cannot just buy. You have to be dedicated to have them made like this. It’s as if they are dreamt into reality. Put your hand on one of those transformers while the amp is on – are you sure it’s really on? You cannot tell. Like driving a Bentley: only when you look at the dashboard do you realize how fast you are really going.