By Christine Graf
Local artist Sally Strasser has a collection of over 10,000 LP vinyl records and enjoys listening to music so much that she designed her own speakers.
“I believe my speaker design is unique on the planet,” said Strasser. “It employs the Fibonacci number sequence in the internal configuration of the cabinet. Every single musical tone on planet earth falls on the Fibonacci number sequence. Because of that, I thought it made sense to design speaker so that it favored and emphasized and perfectly reproduced all of those numbers when you translated them into the sequences of musical tones. And it works.”
The Fibonacci number sequence is a series of numbers in which each number is the sum of the two that proceed it.
When designing the speakers, Strasser, made certain that “everything inside of the cabinet is designed to fall on that sequence—the area, height, width, length. It truly makes a difference,” she said.
Strasser designs and builds all of her speaker cabinets herself. She developed a love for woodworking while in shop class at Lake George High School.
The interior of the cabinet contains a single driver that vibrates in order to generate the sound.
“The driver is a diaphragm moving in and out. When it moves out, it presses air toward us. When it moves back, it draws air away. But it also generates a back wave, and that’s what goes through the cabinet that I’ve designed with such intricacy,” said Strasser.
Her Fibhorn speakers were inspired by the 1925 Victor Orthophonic Victrola. Although the Victrola was not electric, it was designed on the same principle that Strasser uses when making her speakers.
“I bought one of those machines, and the sound of it was so incredibly real and wonderful that I decided to conjoin that early 1925 design with a modern electronic driver. That was my innovation,” she said. “To my knowledge, I’m the only person who has done that.”
When she built her first prototype and tested it out herself, she said the sound quality was so superb “I stayed up until dawn. I couldn’t turn it off. It was so realistic and so wonderful.”
In 2014, Strasser had her Fibhorn speakers evaluated by a listening panel comprised of skilled musicians. The musicians were asked to compare her speakers to a top-of-the-line speaker made by a well-known manufacturer.
“They all preferred my speaker by a huge margin,” she said.
Strasser holds a graduate degree in music history from Williams College and said that her speakers are intended for music aficionados such as herself.
“They aren’t for people who are casual listeners. They are for people who are dedicated to listening to music. I see it as my mission in life to get people to listen and really use their ears. What I consider a success—when I know that I’ve done a good job—is when I make the music so that when you close your eyes, the speakers disappear and all you hear is live musicians in front of you. It’s that good.”
Strasser’s Fibhorn speakers are sold both online and at her shop, The Listening Place, at 153 Maple St. in Glens Falls.
The shop includes a showroom as well as a wood shop where Strasser fabricates the speakers. The Listening Place is open on Saturdays from noon until 6 p.m. and during the week by appointment only.
Fibhorn speakers vary in price with top-of-the-line speakers selling for $5,000 per pair. A simplified version of the speakers sells for $400 per pair.
“The $400-per-pair speakers are a much smaller, simpler in design, but they have much of the quality of the $5,000-per-pair speakers,” said Strasser.
When she’s not building speakers, Strasser is operating her primary business, Wall Works. She specializes in painting wall murals and has developed 100 specialty finishes called faux finishes. Strasser has a degree in studio art and painting from Williams College.
She also hosts a free weekly Zoom music program called GERM (Golden Era Recorded Music) every Wednesday from 7-8 p.m. During that time, she plays LPs through her Fibhorn speakers.
“When properly played, LP records are capable of astonishing realism and musical beauty—far beyond CDs or any digital sound source,” said Strasser.
For more information or to sign up for Strasser’s weekly Zoom program, visit www.fibhornspeakers.com