The Legacy of Irving M Fried, Audio Pioneer and Classical Music Lover (1920-2005)
'Bud' Irving M. Fried died yesterday at his home in Philadelphia.
Born in 1920, Bud fell in love with the art and science of sound reproduction when he heard the sound of Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra emerging from the large theatre horns of his father's movie theaters. This was in 1928, the year movies began to talk!


Bud attended Harvard University (1938) where he benefited from the genius of professors Hunt and Pierce who, under a Western Electric research grant, were conducting their monumental research into high fidelity phono reproduction. Bud served in the South Pacific in World War II where even in Banika in the Russell Islands (ninety miles from Guadalcanal), he found music lovers listening to Mozart on the primitive playback equipment in the missionary churches of the English. Later he was transferred to the Free French Naval Air Force in Morocco.


In 1957, Victor Brociner, co-founder of Fisher Radio, was leaving the business and suggested to Bud that he become the official importer of the Lowther corner horns, the creations of P.G.A.H. Voight. In 1958, Bud became the importer of the revolutionary Quad electrostatic. At the suggestion of Saul Marantz, the IMF trademark was registered in 1961, a trademark that was in succeeding years applied to all kinds of advanced developments for music reproduction: cartridges (IMF-London, IMF-Goldring), tone arms (SME, Gould, Audio & Design), amplifiers (Quad Custom Series), loudspeakers (Lowther, Quad, Celestion, Bowers and Wilkins, Barker etc.).


In 1968, a British branch of IMF was opened. It was this combined Anglo-American company which produced the now legendary IMF Monitor, the first truly wide-band loudspeaker the world had seen, examples of which are still being used today. To enumerate a few of Bud Fried's contributions; the Model H System, the first modern satellite subwoofer system; the Model M (1977), the first satellite transmission line subwoofer in one unit; the Super Monitor (1978) which many still consider to be one of the premier speakers of our day; and the B satellite series (1976 to 1979).


Bud's philosophy and speaker design legacy continue through Fried Products Corporation, a Pennsylvania corporation that was formed by a group of audiophiles including Bud Fried. Bud is survived by his wife Jane and daughter Liz.


If you would like information concerning Fried Products, please call (610) 649-8774 or e-mail.