Ivor Tiefenbrun

Ivor Sigmund Tiefenbrun MBE (born March 1946) is the founder and Chairman of Linn Products Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland-based manufacturers of hi-fi audio equipment and home theatre equipment. He was a very influential figure in the manufacture and retail of British audio in the 1970s and 1980s, and was appointed MBE by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1992.

Biography

Tiefenbrun was born in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland, the oldest of three children, to Jan (also known as Jack) Tiefenbrun, who was born in Kraków and arrived in Glasgow as a refugee from Austria in 1939.^[1]

Tiefenbrun dropped out of a Mechanical Engineering degree from Glasgow's Strathclyde University, and developed his engineering and business skills in his late father's company, Castle Precision Engineering, now run by his younger brother Marcus.^[2]

Linn Products Limited was started by Tiefenbrun in the city's Castlemilk district near Linn Park in 1972 to manufacture a hi-fi turntable, developed from his personal interest in music reproduction, based on contemporary models. His approach was to try getting more information off the long-play gramophone record (otherwise known as the LP), and making the turntable immune to audio feedback – he successfully discovered a marketing story very different from the prevalent view in the hi-fi industry at that time.^[3] The end product was the Linn Sondek LP12, which remained an industry benchmark for at least three decades.^[4][5]

In the early years, Tiefenbrun hawked the turntable around shops in a crusade against the received wisdom that all turntables sounded the same. Tiefenbrun also battled the thinking, since Edgar Villchur, that the loudspeakers were the most important, instead asserting primacy of "the front end", saying that the quality of sound of the source was key. Once information was lost, distorted or corrupted, was gone forever and could never be corrected; that garbage in equalled garbage out.^[6] Those few dealers who wanted to listen to it did, and heard a difference. By the end of the 1970s, his views had gained significant ground, large numbers of dealers and audiophiles had by then accepted this as the norm in the United Kingdom and around the world.

Tiefenbrun had been suffering from a serious illness,^[8] and in May 2006, it was announced that Ivor Tiefenbrun had stepped aside as Linn's managing director, but would assume the role of Executive chairman.^[8] The business suffered considerably during his absence,^[9] and the bank put Linn on their "special measures" list in 2006 and a massive restructuring plan was ordered. His son Gilad was appointed managing director, and Ivor was brought back in an executive role.^[8]

Personal

Tiefenbrun married Evelyn Stella Balarsky in 1969, and has three children – Natan (born 1970), Gilad (1972) and Sara (1978).^[2] And while Gilad is Ivor's reluctant successor at Linn,^[8] Natan is commercial director of Turquoise, a multilateral trading facility.^[10] Sara moved to Australia in 2008 and runs The School of Life in Melbourne^[11]

Ivor revealed that he was suffering from Crohn's colitis, a debilitating autoimmune bowel disorder. His realisation that research into this embarrassing condition was seriously underfunded led him to found Cure Crohn's Colitis, dubbed C³.^[9][12]

He is founder member of the Entrepreneurial Exchange.^[13]

The outspoken Tiefenbrun, a long-time ardent supporter of Margaret Thatcher,^[14] was selected to contest the Glasgow Maryhill seat at the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections for the Scottish Conservative Party. He withdrew upon the uproar after it was reported in The Scotsman that he had said "you would have to be thick to accept that [Margaret Thatcher] was evil force" in Scotland.^[15]

Recognition and awards

• MBE for his services to the Electronics Industry (1992)
• Invited to serve on the Council of the Design Council (1995–1999)
• Honorary Fellowship from the Glasgow School of Art (1999)
• Scottish Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2001)
• Visiting Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Strathclyde University (2004)

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Ivor Tiefenbrun

• Luxuryscotland.co.uk
• Stereophile interview, October 1994
• Linn Products
• Strathclyde University