Against the Hi-Fi Myth: Ross Giblin on Sound, Substance, and the Pitt & Giblin Way.

There is a particular strain of restraint that runs through the best Australian design - a sensibility shaped by distance, pragmatism, and an aversion to spectacle for its own sake. Pitt & Giblin belongs squarely in this lineage. From its Hobart workshop, the studio produces loudspeakers that feel less like hi-fi equipment and more like resolved industrial objects - weighty, intentional, and quietly assured. They are designed not to dazzle in a showroom, but to endure in real rooms, over long listening sessions, across decades rather than trends.

In an industry long dominated by European legacy brands and a retail culture built on component mystique, Pitt & Giblin’s approach is pointedly contemporary. Their speakers are active, DSP-optimised systems - closer in philosophy to professional studio monitors than traditional domestic hi-fi - yet finished with the material sensitivity of furniture and architecture. Birch ply cabinetry, hand-finished veneers, and locally cast bronze waveguides place them at the intersection of engineering precision and Australian craft, aligning them as much with makers like Jardan or Powerhouse Museum industrial commissions as with legacy audio houses.

Less mythology. More listening.

Co-founder Ross Giblin arrived here by way of live music and professional sound - an education shaped by venues, touring rigs, and the unforgiving physics of rooms full of people. It is a background that privileges repeatability, reliability, and measurable performance over folklore. In live sound, systems either work or they do not; emotion follows clarity, not the other way around. That logic underpins Pitt & Giblin’s refusal to build passive speakers or outsource system tuning to end users. The company’s insistence on complete, matched systems challenges the long-held hi-fi orthodoxy that “better” lies somewhere in the next cable, component, or upgrade.

What makes Pitt & Giblin compelling is not just what they make, but what they quietly reject. There is no nostalgia play here, no retro futurism, no fetishisation of valves or vintage scarcity. Nor is there an arms race toward software-driven obsolescence. Their speakers are resolutely physical objects, designed to age well - materially, visually, and technologically. In a market increasingly obsessed with streaming platforms and algorithmic discovery, Pitt & Giblin’s focus remains fixed on the act of listening itself.

In this interview, Ross Giblin speaks candidly about the company’s origins, the lessons learned across two decades of collaboration, the realities of manufacturing at scale in Tasmania, and the ongoing tension between acoustic idealism and emotional response. It is a conversation that resists grand claims and instead reveals a philosophy built on experience, iteration, and trust in the work. Not louder. Not faster. Just better - by design.

What inspired you to found Pitt & Giblin after years in live music and pro audio?

Ross Giblin: The Pitt & Giblin known today is built on a pragmatic design philosophy that bridges engineering and design, learned through a long research and development exercise that led to a concentration in live sound and the equipment surrounding it. We're well aware of people's emotional connection to both music and the speakers it is played on, and we were inspired by the technical side of audio, but felt it lacked expression and accessibility especially when it came to carefully made HiFi options.

Which conventions in speaker design did you feel compelled to challenge - and why?

Ross Giblin: We're very direct about the fact that we will not be designing or making passive speakers. All our loudspeakers ship with well matched and DSP optimised amplifiers that yield results that are unattainable in the passive domain. I believe the HiFi selling system is built on trust, trusting that reviewers and sales people know more, yet there is seemingly always something better. I couldn't comfortably sell a system without knowing it was as good as we could make it - purely because mixing and matching components does not yield verifiable results in acoustics, merely experience in plugging things in. We believe the experience is in the music.

How do your material choices - birch ply, wood veneers, cast bronze waveguides - shape both sound and aesthetics?

Ross Giblin: It's a question we often get asked - how does the bronze sound? Well - it's a beautiful material to use as we cast it locally, we finish it to a high level, it holds a patina, and most importantly it retains the geometry we cast into it. The shape of the waveguide is what delivers the results, in smooth and consistent tonality across the listening position and throughout the room.

Our cabinetry, which is all veneered birch plywood, allows us to accurately cut the cabinets using CNC with repeatability. Being an engineered timber product it is structurally inert compared to solid timber, which is important for making loudspeaker cabinets. As it is, we go to extremes to seal up our cabinets, as high internal pressures from bass drivers exacerbate small leaks in the joints - a very undesirable trait.

What does it mean to build every speaker by hand today - and how does that influence the listening experience?

Ross Giblin: Our small team in Hobart manufactures every cabinet and assembles every speaker. It's a complex process as there are so many variables, especially when we are striving for high levels of consistency at the same time as increasing production capacity and enhancements in the quality of the product.

Being a direct to customer model our pricing is very fair, and we believe the quality of product speaks for itself in the listening experience - especially when cross shopping against traditional HiFi for similar cost. The talent we now have in the workshop is exceptional, and every pair is QC'd by Jack or I, so nothing slips through.

How do you balance acoustic engineering with the emotional and intuitive feel of music?

Calm face. Loud ideas.

Ross Giblin: With difficulty. In terms of doing it, we target an idealised loudspeaker behaviour and optimise our systems as close as we can get to that. Then comes listening, comparing to our other products, changing scenarios, considering various use cases and placement - and quite quickly we get into the weeds.

Then comes the emotional part, which is more difficult to rationalise - yet we try because it's what we're selling. Emotion right out of the box, at least that's the idea. There are so many things we're inspired by that feel either emotionally or technically brilliant, but our product needs to be both.

How much does a room’s architecture or decor influence how you design your speakers?

Ross Giblin: We're yet to build a pair of speakers for a specific room. In terms of specifying a system for any given space, we take into account the size and use case, and any constraints that may influence the system - then it's a case of balancing the system with the room.

If we were to specify a system for a particular space as a one off - that would be very exciting.

What key lessons have shaped the progression from early models to the current collection?

Ross Giblin: I couldn't put a finger on any key lessons as there's just been so many. We've tried and failed in so many ways, and all those learnings are embedded in the product you see today.

Very early models are in the archive, probably not even on the internet anymore. We present as a five year old business, yet we started collaborating nearly twenty years ago.

How do you approach durability, responsible sourcing, and long-life design?

Ross Giblin: We build for longevity, and even though our product does carry technology with integrated circuit boards, the actual tech is in how we utilise these components rather than how cutting-edge they are.

We have actively decided not to integrate music streaming technology into the products, as this is quite obviously going to be the first thing to be superseded. In selling directly to our customers, we not only know them by name, but exactly where our work has ended up, which will make it far easier to provide support and updates into the future.

How do you manage being a small Tasmanian manufacturer with a worldwide audience?

Ross Giblin: Open and honest communication, on whatever platform we're speaking to our audience on, is part of it. Practically there are just so many alternatives out there, and a key lesson we've learned is that not everyone interested in what we sell is necessarily our customer - and that's OK. We're not trying to sell to everyone.

As long as there's harmony in our messaging, I don't think the distance plays into it much.

What is your vision for Pitt & Giblin over the next decade - creatively, technologically, or culturally?

Ross Giblin: We need to keep delivering exceptional listening experiences in everything we do. We strive for excellence in design, development, and delivery. A large part of our focus is consistency of performance in the product, and making sure it is as good as it can be.

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Words and questions by AW.

Answers courtesy of Ross Giblin.

Photos courtesy of Pitt & Giblin.