Fern & Roby

Fern & Roby www.fernandroby.com
http://instagram.com/fernandroby If you have a question about one of our products, please give us a call, or send us an email.

Audio & Homewares | Made in Richmond, Va. | Authorized Dealer of DeVORE Fidelity, Black Cat, Network Acoustics, Grimm Audio, Linear Tube Audio, Technics, Weiss & more | Listening Room by appointment. Fern & Roby is an audio dealer and small manufacturing firm started by the owners of Tektonics Design Group, a contract design and manufacturing firm based in Richmond, Virginia. We have been designin

g and making things for other people and businesses for 19 years and decided to start our own product line nearly ten years ago to follow our passion for music and other products that enhance our lives. The team at Tektonics manufactures all of our own products in our 20,000 square foot facility where we do wood working, metal fabrication, and CNC machining for Fern & Roby and a lot of other companies. We have a factory showroom where we enjoy hosting guests to audition the great equipment we make and represent. We ship worldwide and enjoy helping each client improve their audio systems so they can get the most out of their music collections. We are here to help! [email protected]
804-233-5030

06/10/2026

A look inside Black Cat Cable’s workshop in Georgia.

More from our visit with Mayu Sommovigo soon.

🐈‍⬛

06/06/2026

I’ve been doing a little reshuffling of systems lately.

While Rob and the team at are in Vienna introducing the new Muon2 collection this weekend at the High End show, I’ve been making room for some of it in my downstairs reference system.

Some of you may recognize our upstairs living room system from previous posts. To make room for the new Muon2 collection downstairs, I moved some of our other Network Acoustics components upstairs. This setup is a long way from the router in the basement, and the network cabling has to pass through a lot before it ever reaches the Weiss DAC501.

In the reel, I walk through why I added the Tempus Switch, Muon Pro Filter and Muon2 Streaming Cable to this system and what role they play.

It’s not the most visible part of a system, but in my experience it’s one of those areas where small improvements can add up over time

We’ll be sharing more of the downstairs setup soon, including some of the new Muon2 components that recently arrived - they are excellent.

The new Muon2 collection is now available through Fern & Roby.

05/18/2026

Kate spent part of the morning putting together a shipment for a Technics client: packing up one of our brass record weights, including an LP tote bag, and writing a note before everything heads out the door.

Do these small details change how the table will function? No, but we enjoy doing them, because they remind us that every system eventually leaves the shop and becomes part of someone else’s listening experience.

Thank you Ted, we hope you love your SL-1200GR2!

Since I got back from Axpona last month, I've found myself thinking less about individual products and more about some o...
05/14/2026

Since I got back from Axpona last month, I've found myself thinking less about individual products and more about some of the conversations that kept happening around them.

Again and again, people wanted to talk about how systems actually behave outside of ideal conditions: in living rooms, shared spaces, older homes, apartments, and the imperfect environments where most listening really happens.

While at the show, I sat down with Ryan “Sully” Sullivan from The Sound Designer’s Guide to Hi-Fi and Ken Micallef from Stereophile Magazine for two interviews that approached many of those ideas from different directions: systems, materials, manufacturing, long-term listening, and how hi-fi fits into daily life.

After sitting with those conversations for a bit, I ended up pulling some of the broader themes together into a longer blog post:

https://www.fernandroby.com/blog/systems-for-living-with

A few people have reached out recently asking about the differences between the Raven II and Raven III, so I thought it ...
05/12/2026

A few people have reached out recently asking about the differences between the Raven II and Raven III, so I thought it would be useful to show them together.

Both speakers use custom drivers made for us in Norway by SEAS. These speakers start from the same single-driver general approach, but they tend to fit into systems a little differently depending on the room and how somebody wants to build their setup.

The Raven II is the more modular option. The sealed cabinet makes them easier to place in a wider range of spaces (I have them in the bookshelves in my living room at home), and they pair really naturally with subwoofers for people who want to build out a more distributed full-range system over time. If you don't want them on shelves, we offer custom isolation speaker stands made of steel and Richlite.

The Raven III starts from the same foundation and expands it into a compact front-ported full-range floorstanding speaker with more low-end extension and a more self-contained presentation from a single pair. Sometimes a subwoofer just isn’t practical, or somebody simply wants a more integrated solution from the start.

We use both approaches ourselves (at home and at the shop), depending on the room and the system. A lot of the decision really just comes down to how somebody likes to listen and live with their system day to day.

Spent part of yesterday setting up a Technics SL-1200GME with a Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC cartridge before it heads out int...
05/02/2026

Spent part of yesterday setting up a Technics SL-1200GME with a Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC cartridge before it heads out into a client system.

Securing the cartridge, aligning the needle, adjusting tracking force, and working through other setup details takes time, but it makes a real difference once everything comes together.

One of the things we enjoy most about this work is helping clients build reliable systems that are easy to live with and continue to make sense as their listening needs change over time.

We currently have several Technics models in stock and are happy to help with cartridge setup when needed.

“I would prefer for my systems and my products to be handed down, rather than traded in.”I said this during an interview...
04/30/2026

“I would prefer for my systems and my products to be handed down, rather than traded in.”

I said this during an interview with Sully from The Sound Designer’s Guide to Hi-Fi at Axpona, and it probably gets closer to how I think about this work than anything else.

I spend a lot of time thinking about what makes something worth keeping—not just how something sounds on day one, but how it’s made, how it ages, how it can be maintained/serviced, and whether it still feels meaningful over time.

I’ve never been very interested in building things that are meant to be replaced. At Fern & Roby, we try to make things people want to live with, repair, and pass along.

Sully and I talked about design philosophy, materials, system building, and why I think good audio should be built for the long term.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7iR_TLzZQk

We have a small number of Technics turntables in stock now.Each one includes a Fern & Roby solid brass record weight (ma...
04/15/2026

We have a small number of Technics turntables in stock now.

Each one includes a Fern & Roby solid brass record weight (machined and patinaed in-house) and one of our signature LP tote bags. Both are things we use ourselves and include as part of the overall setup.

Let us know if you’d like help choosing the right table for your system.

04/12/2026

Axpona, Day 3. I thought I’d give someone else on our team a chance to talk about this year’s system!

An industrial designer by training, Kate joined Tektonics and Fern & Roby two years ago. She is equally comfortable working with advanced design software, handling estimation and project management, and working hands-on in our machine shop and manufacturing facility. She also designs all of our beautiful print collateral and show signage. Kate works with senior Tektonics/Fern & Roby industrial designer Sarah to make our products & vision come to life. They both enjoy coming to audio shows because it’s a chance to connect with folks who are curious about what we do and want to learn more, as well as reconnect with longtime clients who they’ve come to know over the years. They are both experts on all things Fern & Roby.

When we say we’re system thinkers, that extends to how we build our team as well. A successful and coherent whole is made up of individual parts working well together. Thank you Kate and Sarah for all the work you did to make this year’s Axpona happen!

Address

702 East 4th Street
Richmond, VA
23224

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+18042335030

Website

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