Audio Forest©

The story of a small but beautiful company that is environmentally sound.

 What is in a name? Audio Forest© is a small spoke in a family wheel that goes back over 186 years. Willis Baxter and his brother John were the first lawful landowners in the state of Alabama. To hold this land they had to fight off the local Cherokee Tribes from time to time, in fact there was a period where during a battle they were separated and for years believed that the other one was dead.

 What does that have to do with Audio Forest? A lot really, growing up in a furniture family and one with a heavy musical background (Stamps Baxter Publishing) going back for over a century formed the musical base of the family. Robert Baxter was where the electronics part came in. In the early part of the century just after commercial radio became a reality (1920) Robert operated a radio station in the valley the family called home.

 The fact that no radio stations could be received in the valley at the time aided him in building a small but faithful group of listeners; remember that few people had radios. The fact that he never bothered to obtain a license was somewhat a benchmark of what his nephews would do later because entrepreneurs do not follow the rules.

 Robert’s mother Jessie Duncan Baxter had the boys trained in the trade of cabinetmakers. This was accomplished by the renowned “Davis Brown” who worked with what we would consider third world tools today. He was a master craftsman of the first order. The family owns a few remaining pieces of his work. One small Childs chair was used by Robert, Duncan and James his brothers, then those two nephews and now by a Great Great Great Grand Son. The Chair is over 100 years old yet still in mint condition.

 Davis brown took great care in his selection of wood and the family only sold grade mark A-1 lumber since 1820 or if it was not good enough for A-1 it was sold as pulp wood or fire wood to stoke the massive boiler that drove the lumber mill. It was in this environment that Davis Brown taught young men to make chairs, chests, beds, and anything else that anyone wanted. When asked why he never marked his products (this was late in his life) his answer was that God did not give him his talent to boast about it.

 The follow up question was what if someone brought a piece back for repair, his answer was simple “I know ever piece I ever touched, and ain’t none done come back yet”. Come back yet indeed, our family owns several of these wonderful works of art. All over 100 years old and they are in mint condition. Why? Because Davis Brown did it right.

 So if you take a tree farm add in some people who love the woods and music, and like to make cabinets, chests and chairs, (speaker cabinets did not arrive until 1960) and who understand that a tree is a very valuable, important part of the environment, you get Audio Forest. This is where “Speaker Recycling©” was invented, to save trees. why throw away a good cabinet because you want a better speaker?

 In 2005 over 1/3 of the staff retired, this left the remaining team too small to tackle the running of a large-scale retail shop. We have done it all, from the Rolling Stones to Disney World, and everything else in between. So we decided to try a new and different twist, we have moved to the DIY model where we provide kits and help for those of you that would like to be able to run your own home audio system and / or network system or build your own home theater? We can help our staff has a lot of experience and know-how.

 In a recent advertisement one of the competitors we run into from time to time made the statement that their chief engineer could fix the space shuttle with some gum and a paper clip. Having worked for NASA let me put your mind to rest you will not find gum and paper clips holding the shuttle together. We do not make wild claims and in fact it is our belief that we do not “fix” much. There is little that can be “fixed” today. Most electronics either work or not, we do however make electronics work©. We believe that is the point. To make systems work, this we can do and can help you make your system work, how (?) we find that 70% of all system errors are in the set up of the network and / or the programming.

 Phil Powell joined the firm & family in late 1991 (audiophil) who is now Vice Chairman of the Board, Chief Scientist and Engineer for all of the different spokes in this wheel. So we start 187 years ago and now we start a new phase of work direct with you the customer. It is not some line on a mission statement it is our core belief.

 Our mission statement is: “to sell products that don’t fail to repeat customers who want products and information that don’t fail” realize that the professors at the business schools would not like that but what else is there? Is that not what a company is in business for? “To make it work©? Or is it to sell something with no thought of the future. Most price only vendors in huge “Big Box” retail shops have no way to make it work©

 We work hard to protect the environment; we have always cut one tree then plant two. World-renowned economist E. F. Schumacher when asked: What strictly political advice he would have to give stemming from his economic and social insights? Replied, “I can’t speak for others, but my own suggestion would be, to plant a tree.”

 E. F. Schumacher wrote the great 1,000,000+ copied book “Small is Beautiful” sub titled ‘Economics as if people mattered’

 His answer to the entire environmental buzz was “to plant a tree”. Go and do like wise.

 Thank you for your time and considerations if we may be of any help to you on your quest for wonderful music please give us a call.

 The staff and friends of Audio Forest.