More than three decades on from its market debut in 1993 with its distinctive integrated amplifier, REDGUM Audio has announced it will cease manufacturing by 2025.
On 1 January 2025, the company which has for over three decades been run by electronics engineer Ian Robinson and partner/company manager Lindy Gerber, will cease production of all REDGUM Audio products. The company will continue to support existing customers “beyond the 2025 deadline”, however, “no new units will be available for purchase from 1 January 2025, or for as long as parts remain available till then.”
Further, the company affirms, “As all our products are made-to-order, and thus in light of remaining parts' inventory, it is advisable to apply the ‘first in, best dressed’ principle for the timing of one's purchase.”
REDGUM Audio’s illustrious history began in the very early 1990s when Ian Robinson designed modified kit amplifiers under the CSC Enduro brand, a nomenclature based on the Contemporary Sound Centre (CSC) audio retail store Robinson was running at the time. By 1993, the product evolved to the highly acclaimed RGi120, an introductory integrated amplifier of Robinson’s own design and which debuted the company’s aesthetic language of steel chassis visually enhanced with a solid Red Gum front panel.
As Robinson told SoundStage! Australia, the RGi120 “made its debut at the Rotary Club of Glenferrie to provide the music for the first night ‘Advance Australia Fair’ was sung.”
Not long afterwards, company growth allowed for the production of several more amplification products while also providing an avenue for REDGUM Audio to offer products to the “industrial” and commercial spaces.
Towards the end of the 1990s, the company expanded its product portfolio to include a digital-to-analogue converter which, in typical Robinson humour, was called the “… ugly DACling due to it not having a CD drive” (a few years later, and yet another example of Robinson’s wicked sense of fun, the company released the Sonofa’GUM stereo amplifier and 5.1 channel home theatre amplifier). In 1998 at the CES show in Las Vegas, REDGUM Audio exhibited the RGCD5, a user serviceable ROM drive. That year also saw an expansion of the amplification offerings and the company’s first multi-channel amplifier which was demonstrated at that year’s Melbourne Hi-Fi Show.
Through the 2000s, REDGUM Audio continued to introduce new products and refine its amplification technologies, while also producing phono stages, including the Signature series RGPH2ENR (reviewed here), CD players, a tuner, the RGDAC8 and RGMP8 DAC and Media Player combo (reviewed here) and more. REDGUM Audio also produced a line of high quality, yet affordable loudspeakers finished in Red Gum wood veneers, of course. In 2007, REDGUM Audio launched the world’s first and still unique ‘Dual Mono Remote Control’.
Over the following years, the company further expanded its product lines to include the budget Black Series and a more complete Signature Series called ‘Amplifolia’. Throughout the REDGUM Audio timeline, the company’s products continued to receive high acclaim from both audio critics and consumers alike.
Of interest, back in July 2017, as one of SoundStage! Australia’s very first articles published, we reviewed the ‘Magnificata’, which was REDGUM Audio’s preamplifier and monoblock power amplifier flagship product combination (read here). As had been the styling element for a number of years, the preamplifier featured the unique, and rather tongue in cheek, on/off switch with a lock socket and unlock key. Our last REDGUM Audio product review came by way of the internally simple yet excellent sounding Articulata integrated amplifier (read here).
On his feelings about the company’s closure, Robinson said, “I’ve had over 60 years of direct involvement in the audio industry, and as the designer of the first REDGUM amplifiers in 1993, I think it’s high time to simply listen to music without thinking ‘Is this the next Great Demo Track?’. With minor health issues impinging, it now seems a good time to rest on one’s laurels.” Robinson went on to say, “Our sincerest thanks to all those lovely people we have met along the way who simply love to listen to music and who shared that joy with us!”.
The best way to sign off on the marked life span of REDGUM Audio is, once again, with Robinson’s quirky wit, as he asserts the excellence of the company’s products with the statement “Once heard on a REDGUM, such expectations cannot be un-heard.”
Good luck Ian Robinson and Lindy Gerber and all the best for your next life journey.
REDGUM Audio
401 Belgrave – Gembrook Road
Emerald 3782 VIC
Australia
+61 3 9001 6788
+61 44 88 33 091
www.redgumaudio.com
