Hazelrigg Industries are an audio equipment shooting star company – with close ties to another studio great.
Hazelrigg Industries – everything but the next best thing
Hazelrigg's equipment portfolio is still small. But it is absolutely classy. The all-tube gear, a preamp/DI/eq, a compressor and a DI, are becoming increasingly popular all over the world because of their markedly high-end sonic characteristics and their built quality. The US-handcrafted units come with a 7 year warranty (not on the tubes themselves, of course).
It's not a seldom used English vocabulary. It's a family name. Hazelrigg is the last name of George and Geoff – brothers who started their careers as musicians and became recording engineers and producers in the fields of pop, rock, jazz and classical music before addressing themselves to the task of building fine audio equipment. They are still active engineers and musicians, for example in a jazz trio called Hazelrigg Brothers.
There is a substantial connection between D.W. Fearn XLINKX and Hazelrigg. And a funny one too, because there are beautiful coincidences. First of all, Geoff and George Hazelrigg were never really happy with how modern equipment was built and how it sounded. Geoff started teaching himself electronics and built gear from DIY kits.
In a recording studio they booked a session in they came into contact with D.W. Fearn's preamp. They were amazed to find an amp of this quality and started using Fearn in their own studio. Shortly after, a friend of Geoff Hazelrigg told him that there is a small audio business in his neighbourhood looking to hire an assembler. Coincidentally, this was D.W. Fearn! Geoff soon became Doug Fearn's top assembler. Working at D.W. Fearn might be one of the best schools in the audio industry.
George and Geoff talked to many producers, engineers and musicians loving Fearn products, but needed something more compact. So the campe up with the idea of a smaller footprint processor combining the VT-1 preamp, the Fearn-DI and a convenient, but high end equalizer based on the VT-4. The Hazelrigg brothers founded their own company and launched the Hazelrigg VLC.
Doug Fearn wanted to draw back from daily business and spend more time recording and designing new gear. George and Geoff Hazelrigg tied the two businesses even closer together and took over D.W. Fearn operations. Doug is still the chief designer for D.W. Fearn, so it's two companies under the same roof.
Hazelrigg Industries VLC is a two unit 19“ all-tube channel. It features the much-adored Fearn VT-1 preamp circuit – built under license. Added to the preamp is a high class DI circuit and a LC equalizer. This passive EQ offers both high and low bands boosts and cuts. All boosts and cuts can be shifted in frequency.
Of course, Hazelrigg uses highest quality parts. That shows: The high end channel is amazingly transparent, never gets rough or harsh and is a perfect companion for all kinds of microphones, line and DI sources. Just a detail, but utterly helpful: There are separate mic and line jacks on the back and mic and DI-inputs on the front panel!
Pulse-width modulation („PWM“) is the rarely used functional principle in the Hazelrigg VNE compressor. This single-channel compressor features an all-tube signal path with input and output trannies.
VDI is Hazelriggs tube DI-box. As you can imagine, it offers clarity and detail in an extraordinary manner.
…that the Hazelrigg brothers and Doug Fearn are airplane pilots? And there are hints!
• The Hazelrigg VNE got it's name from aviation: There are VNE-alerts warning of speeds that can lead to damages. „Velocity Not to Exceed“.
• 48V Phantom could damage ribbon microphones. The switch on the Hazelrigg VLC is secured in the same way like the landing gear switch on a (smaller) airplane.