Bespoke speaker systems hand-crafted by Tassie duo Pitt & Giblin.
Off the coast of Hobart is the studio where Jack Pitt and Ross Giblin are changing what it means to have a speaker system installed for the best audio experience.
Unbound from convention, these two Tassie residents are crafting high performance, aesthetic speaker systems for music lovers around the world.
The two have been collaborators for almost twenty years, a partnership culminating in crafting high-quality sound systems that suit the commercial and domestic spaces across the country.
When Beat spoke with Ross Giblin, one half of the Pitt & Giblin team, he was coming from the workshop himself, having been on the tools that morning. Despite the success of the business and the growing admin demands, the founders still find the time to have their hand over each part of the process.
Pitt & Giblin
- Founders: Jack Pitt & Ross Giblin, collaborators for ~20 years
- Based: Hobart studio, hands-on since day one
- Melbourne installs: Waxflower, Brunswick, ACMI Reverb Listening Room
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
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“The space in the market we fill is a balancing act between performance and aesthetics,” Giblin said.
Pitt & Giblin integrate specific techniques and materials into their bespoke technologies that are masterfully assembled by hand before being shipped across the world.
The attention to detail falls even to the custom crates made for the products, each step overseen with meticulous care.
“There are lots of things on the market that are high performance, but they’re generally black boxes,” Giblin said.
“On the other side, there are more domestic products that aren’t necessarily appropriate for a semi-commercial space. Some of our wine bars and listening bars where there is a requirement for a high-performance sound system that also needs to look good.”
Jack, mechanical engineer and acoustician, and Ross, designer, spent their 20s as audio engineers mixing gigs and festivals.
The “proving ground” of the live performance space saw the two cut their teeth in complicated spaces and bands, pointing them toward the gap in the market where looks intersected with high performance.
What differentiates Pitt & Giblin from other AV or sound engineers is the strict requirements the company has when it comes to room acoustics, which they say has contributed to the consistency of the spaces they’ve decked out across Australia and the world.
“We provide full complimentary acoustic advice, which to a degree is mandatory, especially for troublesome spaces,” Giblin said.
“There’s absolutely no point going to the effort we do building a really nice loudspeaker system for a client if the room is going to sound like shit.”
“It’s also a very bad representation of our products because not everyone can understand the difference between a bad sounding speaker and a bad sounding space,” he said.
Their first and most prolific installation in Melbourne was Waxflower in Brunswick, a European-inspired wine bar known for its wide music offerings.
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Custom-made Pitt & Giblin speakers are put to work with the vinyl and DJ clientele that keep the patrons of Waxflower grooving. Waxflower’s sonic attention to detail is driven by the customisation of Pitt & Giblin’s “technically advanced, really sexy” speakers mounted on the walls.
“That intersection of performance and aesthetic, with performance with higher levels of output capacity. There’s a real attention to detail when it comes to finding that intersection between the two,” Giblin said.
The team are hands on with the entire installation process, flying out to capital cities across the country to do the install themselves.
“It’s kind of beyond saying; if you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself,” Giblin said.
“It’s not that there aren’t good people out there to do it. It’s just that their intentions are a little bit different to what we’re trying to achieve. We’re a less is more approach when it comes to audio.
“If we can do a big space with just two speakers, we will. And instead of just selling the product to clients, we facilitate the provision of more acoustic treatment.
“We prefer to keep the collaboration pretty tight, so it doesn’t get too watered down. We prefer to deal with the client directly, rather than going through another level of consultancy.
“We work with the design or interiors team to get the speakers in the right positions in the room,” he said.
“We care a lot about our work. We don’t just work with anyone. We don’t just want to do audio to pay the bills. It’s about creating an experience.”
Check out Pitt & Giblin’s offerings here.
This article was made in partnership with Pitt & Giblin.
