HiFi PiG Visit Fyne Audio

October 9, 2026

LIN AND STU HEAD TO GLASGOW TO VISIT SCOTTISH LOUDSPEAKER BRAND FYNE AUDIO

Ten years old, a ten-year-anniversary product we are lucky enough to be announcing as a world exclusive, and we get to be the first magazine to hear from the new Fyne Audio loudspeaker… quite the scoop!

Flying into the airport at Edinburgh, we saw a sign apologising for the weather in Scotland, and then, in the hotel, another one apologising for the weather – needless to say, the weather was glorious and the light in Glasgow is magnificent. The weather is something that FYNE don’t talk about, but I thought it was very interesting that the roof of the facility was covered in solar panels and on the day we were shown that it was producing 38KW, and selling some of it back to the national grid. A small thing, but well worth mentioning.

FYNE is now sold in 58 markets around the world. This is quite an achievement for a company that is only ten years old. I think we get so used to the fast pace of the 21st Century that we sometimes forget heritage and longevity actually mean something. We get that with watches, we get that with cars, and with the likes of Fyne, we also get this with audio companies.

Let’s dive in and take you around the factory.

FYNE HQ is to be found at Cubitt Court, Bellshill, on the outskirts of Glasgow.

FYNE AUDIO FACTORY TOUR

When we take delivery of a new bit of kit, we often forget that behind that shiny new pair of speakers or gleaming new amplifier is a group of people and each of those people plays a role in getting that product to market. There are office people, money people, designers, logistics experts, and, of course, the people on the shop floor who actually put the products together. Many of these people you will never be aware exist, and the only face you might see representing any product is the marketing people at an event or show. The unseen people are often the unsung heroes of any company, and it was great to meet the folk involved behind the scenes at FYNE AUIDO.

As you walk into the facility, you are greeted with a selection of FYNE products, all nicely displayed, along with a display cabinet that proudly shows off some of the accolades that the brand has been awarded over the last ten years. Then we have the office which leads into the boardroom that is dominated by a huge table that has an interesting and not unironic past – I sensed a PowerPoint presentation or two might be in the offiing later in the day! Through the boardroom we have a well-appointed listening room, and beyond that the factory unit itself.

Our guide for the factory was Gale (Gabriel O’ Donahue – Production Director), one of the founders of FYNE AUDIO.

Gabriel (Gale) O’Donohue – Production Director

First of all we have a storeroom with racks and racks of product ready to be shipped and other products waiting to be finished. It’s bigger than I expected, but was pleased to see that there is room for growth – something I have a good idea that FYNE are going to be needing in the not-too-distant future. John Jackson showed us around this part of the facility.

Then we are taken through another door to where we are led into the area where the assembly magic happens. I sensed a feeling that Gale and others might think that this might be a bit of a necessary chore for Lin and I to have to endure, but nothing could be further from the truth – we both absolutely love a factory tour. For me it reminds me of the print room at the newspapers I worked at, and for Linette, it reminds her of her Father and being taken around the lace factories of Nottingham where he was an industrial chemist.

On the right we met Alex Piggot, who was assembling some Isoflare drivers. Gale handed us over to him, and he did a brilliant job of explaining how it is done, how each step of the assembly process is recorded on a product passport and how he and others all get to do other jobs around the factory. I got a real sense that Alex took a real pride in his work and that this wasn’t “just a job” for him. Alex was in charge of the next station where the Ferrite rings get magnetised – I’d always assumed that magnets were things that got dug out of the ground, but in this case the ferrite ring was placed in a hole in a desk, clamped in place and then administered with a massive electrical current. Ferrite in…powerful magnet out. Fascinating stuff!

We then got handed over to Anne O’Donohue, who was crimping and soldering cables that had previously been cryogenically treated – more on this in a moment. Again, there seemed to be a real pride in working for the brand!

Gale took over and ushered us through some plastic curtains into the cryogenic room, which oddly enough was lovely and warm. The cryogenic machine sounds like it should look like something from Dr Frankenstein’s laboratory, but in reality it actually looks like a big grey freezer. Everything that Dr Paul (chief designer at FYNE) believes should be treated is put in there and this includes reels of cables, bits that make up the crossovers in FYNE speakers and more. This is not a small investment for a company, and whatever you personally might think with regards to cryogenically treating stuff, Dr Paul and the FYNE team clearly think it is important enough to make this investment.

Final assembly with Sylwester Pokarowski came next, where each speaker is placed on a stand that operates at different heights depending on which speaker it is and is lowered and raised so the folk doing the assembly don’t have to bend their backs too much. The speakers are assembled and given a polish before getting their passport stamped again and moving onto testing.

Before the testing room, we met Declan Farelly, who is FYNE’s latest recruit and is just 17 years old. He was learning the ropes of every job in the process (today he was assembling S-Trax supertweeters – I need to get a hold of a set of these) and again seemed really quite chuffed to be working for FYNE.

The test chamber came next, with Kevin Fawcett, and I genuinely found this quite fascinating. Each speaker is placed on a pedestal with a microphone pointing at the relevant driver and then test tones are fired from it, which a computer records. Each speaker has a specific software app associated with it and each frequency sweep results in either GOOD or BAD being displayed. If it’s GOOD, all is good and the speakers get signed off and go for final polishing, packaging and packing, where they await getting shipped to their new owner, wherever in the world that might be.

I was impressed that Gale knew everyone and took the time to thank them for everything they did that morning with us. And I was equally impressed that everyone involved on the shop floor seemed to be really proud to be associated with the brand. This kind of loyalty doesn’t just happen overnight; it happened through people and processes where people are shown to have real worth and real input into the products and the company they are a part of.

I liked that everyone was doing different jobs and moved around the assembly line, so there is no boredom. And I liked that FYNE AUDIO are investing in things and people.

POWER POINT

We were then treated to a spot of lunch and then a PowerPoint presentation by Anji Sosna (MD/Chairman), Dave Waters (VP Sales) and Scott Boyd (Marketing VP).

We were taken right back to thre roots of FYNE AUDIO where lots of work ten years ago went on the brand and the vision, with the initial statement being about the experience of the people and concentrating on the engineering. This led to the idea that the products FYNE produce are not just things; they are things to create emotion and joy with the end user. The tagline became EXPERIENCE FYNE AUDIO. So the experience then became the experience of the people in the brand, but also the experience FOR the end user. I really like this idea and.

But why Fyne?

Obviously, there is the Loch Fyne connection, given that it’s very well known as a very Scottish thing around the world. So, getting to where they are now wasn’t an accident; it was planned. And the important things were: partners and friends in the business and without the business – supply, media, in the business, etc. A shared vision and plan within the founders, and that team being strong. Great USP with tech and products with a story. Obviously, money at the start was hard to come by for things like their own woodworking plant (this had to fall by the way because of the money, but also the people to do that from a skills perspective). Innovation was also important from both the product perspective and the business side of things. And of course, a bit of luck!

The initial name was F-Audio, then Fountain Audio, before settling on Fyne Audio. The original company was based in a small office, with no manufacturing facility. The first product launched in Munich in 2017 was the F110.

The company then moved to facilities called Grovewood in 2018. Obviously, investment was needed, and this took around a year and a half. So whilst there was product, ideas and a business plan, the money began to run out. All funding was secured by July 2018.

THE F10 ANNIVERSARY FIRST LISTEN

The timeline culminates with the Fyne Audio F1-10 Anniversary, which we were lucky enough to get the first listen to. This isn’t a review; we don’t really do that, so see it as a bit of a “first impressions” kind of thing. You can read more of the tech details in our news story here.

For this part of the presentation, we were joined by Dr Paul Mills (Technical Director) and Christopher Mills (Electroacoustic Engineer), with Christopher taking over music choice duties and Dr Paul taking care of explaining some of the technicalities of the speakers.

The hot tech in these new speakers is the integrated Supertrax (that’s the bit that sticks out on the top), but then you have a new IsoFlare, and the HF unit is basically a glass driver. This glass driver is a 3cm driver but uses a product that is made by GAIT that is very similar to Gorilla Glass, though not precisely the same. This provides a very rigid tweeter (or rather, compression driver) and so eliminates (or rather suppresses) resonances. Dr Paul suggested that it performs much better than other exotic tweeter domes and compression drivers. The tweeter is very high power, very robust and extremely durable.

Only 30 pairs of these speakers will be made, and so this is a very exclusive and a very special product – I was actually surprised at the cost in that they could have charged more for it.

We got ot listen to a few tracks, with the first from Shelby Lynn, and the immediate impression of the speakers was an effortless kind of quality. When you listen to a lot of high-end kit, there’s a kind of relaxed and high-end sound – it’s difficult to express in words, but I’d liken it to being sat in the back of a really nice car rather than just a nice car. Details and microdetails, particularly in the vocal and snare hits, were great to hear with real speed and clarity.

LambChop were up next with a bit of classic Americana. It’s a band and track I’m not overly familiar with, but, again, there was a real sense that we were listening to a world-class loudspeaker with that ease of delivery.

After that, we got Into the Mystic by Van Morrison, which is about the only Van Morrison tune I listen to and enjoy. Detail abounds, with there being a sense that, rather than being “bright”, the detail was accurate and “in focus”. I’m writing this live and won’t embellish afterwards, but one of our hosts for the trip, Richard Stevenson of Quick Brown Fox PR, made the comment that he didn’t realise there was so much detail in the tune, and I agree!

Lin got to choose the next track, and predictably she chose Moroder by Daft Punk from the RAM album. Again, an effortless and detailed sound that was very easy to fall into.

Next, we got some Infected Mushroom, which are fast becoming a bit of a go-to band when it comes to demonstrations. The music can become confused and confusing given how much is going on, but the F10 Anniversary speakers from FYNE kind of separated everything out without it all becoming lineated – and the bass certainly kicked in the room, but in a balanced way.

The very final track we got to listen to was by guitarist Michael Hedges. A complex-sounding track that really demonstrates how good guitar can sound when played cleverly. What really stood out for me in the sound was the detail within the playing – microdetail, I guess. Small details that might get lost in the mix or amongst other sounds being played on the guitar but were perfectly audible.

We don’t do reviews in situ, and it’s very unlikely there’s going to be a pair of these still on the shelf and not snapped up for us to hear in our reference system, but they are rather lovely, and I really enjoyed them, and I’m grateful to the whole of the FYNE AUDIO team for giving us this opportunity.