From tree to hörbert

Made from locally sourced wood from sustainable forestry, with precise workmanship and many years of experience, a hörbert is created step by step. Every single production step in serial handcraft helps ensure that the result is a long-lasting companion – made for music, stories, and many special listening moments in everyday family life.

The wood: the beginning

It all begins with the material that gives hörbert its special character: wood. It is warm, lively, durable, and makes every device a small one of a kind. After all, the grain, color tone, and structure are never exactly the same – just like a person’s fingerprint.

hörbert’s types of wood

Beech
For hörbert’s frame and handle, we use solid beech, which ensures that hörbert is robust enough even when things get a little rough.
Poplar
The front is made of somewhat softer poplar plywood, so the engravings turn out beautifully. It is one of the softwoods that grow quickly and are well suited to creating new habitats for hares, badgers, and deer.
Birch
hörbert’s back panel is made of birch plywood. It also grows quickly and has the great quality of being both light and stable. Birch is a hardwood.

Cutting and shaping

In the first step, the raw wooden parts for hörbert are sawn and planed from the thick boards that were cut from a whole tree trunk. They are cut on a precise CNC milling machine and prepared for their later function. All dimensions, openings, edges, and recesses must fit exactly so that everything can be assembled cleanly in the end.

Thoughtful construction of the housing

The construction with the interlocking wooden frame sections creates a stable structure that can withstand quite a bit of stress.

Sanding and refining the surfaces

Once the shape of the housing is complete, careful sanding begins. Surfaces are smoothed, edges are refined, and the entire housing is prepared for further processing. This turns hörbert into a hand-pleasing object.

The openings for hörbert’s controls and its logo on the front are precisely burned into the housing with a laser device. The serial number and manufacturer details are laser-engraved on the underside of the frame.

Varnishing and protecting the wood

The housing is carefully finished with a sweat-resistant, saliva-proof, and non-toxic water-based varnish. This keeps the natural character of the material visible, with the grain and color tone of the wood remaining the focus.

This finish helps protect the surface in everyday use. The best way to clean the wood is with a slightly damp cotton cloth, using only water to moisten the cloth.

Installing the electronics and assembly

Once the housing has been prepared, the electronics come into play. Inside, hörbert is gradually fitted with the components that will later make it a reliable everyday companion: the speaker, controls, and electronics – the technical heart of hörbert.

Step by step, wood, stainless steel, and modern electronics come together to create a fully functioning audio player.

Quality control

Before a hörbert leaves our premises, it is carefully inspected. Functions, workmanship, and overall impression are checked to ensure that only a device that meets our standards leaves the workshop.

The finished hörbert

The result is a product that has gone through many steps: from material selection and wood processing to the installation of the electronics and the final inspection. Raw material, precision, and experience come together to create a hörbert. Ready for songs, audio plays, favorite stories, and familiar voices. Ready for many little everyday rituals. And ready to be a faithful companion for a long time.

hörbert – your friend for life.

Discover hörbert

From the first piece of wood to the finished device, every hörbert contains a great deal of attention, experience, and care. If you would like to learn more about hörbert or discover the right model, you will find all further information here.