Denmark—a hi-fi-dense country
For a country one-fifth the size of the UK and a population just shy of six million, Denmark has an astonishing number of hi-fi companies and brands: Bang & Olufsen, Buchardt Audio, DALI, Dynaudio, Gato Audio, Gryphon Audio Designs, Lyngdorf Audio, Ortofon, Raidho Acoustics, Steinway Lyngdorf, System Audio, Vitus Audio, and others. I’d bet Denmark has the highest number of hi-fi companies per capita of any country in the world.
Landing in Denmark
Last October, SoundStage! videographers Chris Chitaroni and Jorden Guth accompanied me on a visit to Denmark to shoot some video for our YouTube channel. We covered six brands: Vitus Audio, Buchardt Audio, DALI, Lyndorf Audio, Steinway Lyngdorf, and Purifi Audio. Last month we returned to Denmark, intending to cover just two: DALI, once again, and a new company called Treble Clef Audio. As it happened, the week we were there, a new Danish brand, Radiant Acoustics, was announced, and we managed to add to our packed agenda a visit to a nearby store where we heard Radiant’s first loudspeaker and talked with its CEO.
We obtained excellent footage on this trip that made for great, informative videos (some yet to be released). But since the three companies we visited all had new speakers to show, speakers our readers need to know about, I thought a short editorial is called for as well.
DALI
DALI (Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries) began operations in 1983 as the house brand for HiFi Klubben, a home-audio retail chain that originated in Denmark but has since expanded across Europe and now has almost 100 stores. DALI and HiFI Klubben are both owned by Danish hi-fi entrepreneur Peter Lyngdorf, who also owns Lyngdorf Audio and Steinway Lyngdorf, among other brands. During the 1990s, DALI expanded far beyond its HiFi Klubben origin and is now one of the largest speaker brands in the world. DALI is still sold in HiFi Klubben, but it is now also available in other stores around the globe.
The author at DALI
DALI’s products were priced very modestly at first, but as the company’s technical capability and stature grew, it introduced higher tiers of speaker lines at progressively higher prices. Relative to other high-end speakers, though, DALI’s prices remained quite reasonable. One notable exception is the Kore loudspeaker, which DALI unveiled in 2022. The Kore was created to showcase all the technical and manufacturing know-how the company had amassed over almost 40 years. At $120,000 a pair (all prices in USD), it is still not as expensive as some other money-is-no-object-type speakers, but undeniably, it is far more expensive than what most people can afford. More expensive, I suspect, than what DALI ever imagined it would charge for a pair of speakers.
The Kore project spurred the development of new core technologies that would in time trickle down into lower-priced products. Evidence of this process is seen in the Epikore 11, which Jason Thorpe reviewed on SoundStage! Ultra in March. Jason loved this speaker, though not entirely without reservations (more on this later). Released in 2023, the Epikore 11 costs just, ahem, $60,000 per pair—half of what the Kore costs. A more recent example is the Rubikore series, which was introduced earlier this year. Rubikore models carry four-figure price tags, not five- or six-figure price tags.
The Epikore 9, 7, and 3
When the Epikore 11 came out, industry observers inferred from the model number that other, lower-specs models must be in the offing for the Epikore series. Sure enough, on October 1 of this year, DALI added three new models to the series: the Epikore 9, 7, and 3. The Epikore 9 floorstander ($40,000/pair) bears a close resemblance to the Epikore 11, but it is shorter and has only one 8″ woofer above and one below its tweeter assembly and midrange driver; the Epikore 11 has two. The Epikore 7 floorstander ($25,000/pair) has two 7″ woofers below its tweeter assembly but no dedicated midrange driver. The Epikore 3 stand-mount speaker ($15,000/pair) has a single 7″ woofer below its tweeter assembly and also lacks a midrange driver. (Matching stands are available for the Epikore 3 for $3000/pair.)
At the DALI factory, we shot footage for two videos, which are already online: one is an overview of the Epikore range, the other takes a closer look at the drivers, crossover, and other technical details (LINK COMING SOON). I recommend watching these videos to learn more about this series, but a few highlights ought to be mentioned: the Epikore models share the same design aesthetic and quality of construction; they are all built in Denmark, as are their parts, including cabinets and drivers; and they all share the same hybrid dual-driver tweeter assembly—the one found in the Kore. In this assembly, a larger-than-normal soft-dome tweeter, capable of higher power handling, is married to a magnetostatic driver, capable of wide dispersion at high frequencies. It is one of DALI’s signature technologies. It’s not trickle-down tech—it is the tech.
Listening to the Epikores
At various times during my two-day visit to DALI, I had the opportunity to listen to the different models in the series. What you get for your greater outlay as you ascend the Epikore line is increased cabinet size, greater overall output, and a better bass presentation. The Epikore 3s had surprisingly deep and punchy bass; the Epikore 7s’ bass went deeper and sounded fuller; the Epikore 9s’ was deeper still and even more powerful. Above the bass, through the midband and highs, the Epikore models were all clear. They were neither reticent in the highs nor extravagant—none was too bright.
Which of the three models should you get, then? Ultimately, it is room size that should dictate the choice. The Epikore 11, for instance, with the deepest, most powerful bass of the lot, proved problematic in Jason’s listening space, overloading it with some music selections. DALI CEO Lars Worre told me that they had read Jason’s review of the Epikore 11 at around the time they were voicing the Epikore 9. There was no doubt in their minds that that the 9 would be a better match for his listening room. I hope that we get a sample pair soon and put this to the test.
Treble Clef Audio
DALI, now entering its fifth decade of operation, is an established, well-recognized brand, but there are new kids on the block also deserving of recognition. Treble Clef Audio, founded in 2022 by Ole Siig, is one of them. It was next on our itinerary. Siig had a successful career in electrical engineering and IT, but he had been building speakers as a hobby since his teens. When he retired, he set out to build the best speaker he could for his own interest and use—a “passion project,” as he put it. As his design neared completion, people who heard it convinced him of its commercial potential, which led to the birth of Treble Clef Audio. That prototype became the TCA-M, the company’s first model. It was first shown publicly in May at NYCxDESIGN Festival 2024, in New York City.
The TCA-M loudspeaker
Priced at $103,900 a pair and built to order in Siig’s small factory, the TCM-A is a wildly ambitious active speaker with a striking appearance—a stylized physical embodiment of the treble clef musical symbol—that some will love and some will hate, incorporating some truly innovative design elements, most prominent of which is its exoskeletal open structure.
Siig maintains that conventional speaker enclosures do more harm than good, particularly in the bass. He has been uncomfortable with the idea that, inevitably, a good part of a loudspeaker’s sound can be attributed to its enclosure. You can’t have a woofer just out in the open and expect it to work well, of course, but Siig devised a clever solution, now patented, which he calls a folded dipole design. Siig’s solution was to mount two woofers in an open frame so that they face each other a few inches apart. In the case of the TCA-M, 10″ drivers are employed, made by the American company Acoustic Elegance. Each woofer is affixed to a semi-spherical hardwood shell that is filled with acoustically absorbent cement-based foam. The combined output of this two-woofer system is then radiated to the front and vented through oblong ports at the rear. According to Siig, this is a bass-friendly way to load a room, one that creates fewer standing-wave problems than traditional designs do.
The TCA-M rear bass ports
An oval metal body interposed in the space between the opposing woofers connects threaded rods that extend one from each woofer’s pole piece. Vibrations from the two woofers, being equal in magnitude but opposite in phase, are therefore annulled by this coupling. The precise amount of space this oval body occupies is an important factor in the proper operation of the bass system, Siig said. And it works remarkably well, with claimed in-room frequency response that extends down to 16Hz (−3dB) at up to 105dB when measured at 1 meter. That’s deep, loud bass!
Unlike traditional loudspeaker designs, there is no baffle around the TCA-M drivers. The semi-spherical enclosures the woofers are mounted in and the bowling-pin-like wooden enclosures of the midrange and high-frequency drivers have diameters marginally greater than those of the drivers within. As mentioned, the two small enclosures and bass section are mounted to a narrow, skeletal, clef-shaped aluminum frame.
The TCA-M is an active loudspeaker, containing amplifiers and digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry. Just as the frame gets out of the way of the drivers to avoid sonic interference, the TCA-M’s electronic components are stashed away under its solid-aluminum base to avoid aesthetic interference.
The TCA-M electronics exposed
I’ll leave the rest of the technical details for the videos, which will probably be released in early November. For now, I’ll just share with you my overall impression after a few hours in that curtained-off listening space in the small factory where Siig builds his speakers. We listened to a few dozen tracks over the two days we shot the videos—everything from light jazz to hard rock, the occasional classical piece, and plenty of vocal-centric recordings for good measure. Regardless of the music we played, the TCA-Ms sounded extremely good—stunning, at times—projecting open, clear sound consistently and effortlessly.
What I was most impressed with was the depth, power, and character of the bass. It was unlike anything I’d heard before. On my customary bass test track, “Misguided Angel,” from the Cowboy Junkies’ The Trinity Session, the sub-50Hz bass whomps were reproduced at just the right level relative to the frequencies above. Those visceral deep-bass sounds pressurized the room palpably, demonstrating how tight and well-tuned the TCA-Ms’ bass was. I played April Wine’s hard-rocking “Roller” to see how well the TCA-Ms could reproduce the throbbing bass guitar in this track—many speakers seem to lack the strict bass control to do this bass part justice, presenting it sloppily. The TCA-M controlled that bass with ease. On St. Vincent’s “Los Ageless,” from her 2017 album MassEducation, the clarity of the piano, particularly in the lower register, was truly exceptional. There was an immediacy to it that was uncanny. Siig also played some powerful classical pieces with very deep bass, which the TCA-M reproduced with aplomb, at all volume levels.
Interviewing designer Ole Siig
The TCA-Ms’ clarity and neutrality in the high range didn’t disappoint either. The cymbal strikes in Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” from their 1977 album Rumours, can sound overly splashy with some speakers. With the TCA-Ms, what splashiness did come through sounded completely authentic—it was in the recording. Stevie Nicks’s voice, which is slightly buried in the mix, was completely exposed, sounding as clear as I’ve ever heard it. On The Tragically Hip’s “Long Time Running,” from the 2021 remaster of Road Apples, everything, from the vocals to the guitars to the drums, was reproduced with incisive clarity.
We were glad to be given the opportunity to listen to the TCA-Ms at length, but this was not a formal audition; we were there to shoot videos. We heard enough, however, to know that Ole Siig and his passion project are off to an auspicious start. The TCA-M is a serious speaker that deserves proper scrutiny in a familiar setting and a full review. I hope that happens.
Radiant Acoustics
We didn’t know about Radiant Acoustics when we planned our trip, nor did anyone else, for that matter, outside of a small group of Lyngdorf-associated employees. This company launched on September 16, when we were already in Denmark, shooting footage at DALI. Radiant Acoustics is one of half a dozen brands under Nordic Hi-Fi, which Peter Lyngdorf owns.
As we were wrapping up our visit to Treble Clef Audio, I received a message from HiFi Klubben employee Frederik Berge, informing me that later that day we’d be able to see and hear Radiant’s first model, the Clarity 6.2, at a nearby HiFi Klubben store and talk to the company’s CEO, Henrik Reinholdtsen. We couldn’t pass up this opportunity.
The Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 on a non-Radiant Acoustics stand
The Clarity 6.2 is made in Denmark and employs Danish-made drivers: a 6.5″ midrange-woofer and two passive radiators of the same size, one on each side, from Purifi Audio (an OEM supplier of amplifier modules and drivers cofounded by—you guessed it—Peter Lyngdorf), and a custom-made air motion transformer (AMT) in a five-fin waveguide from sister-company DALI. The cabinet and crossover are made in-house.
We arrived about an hour before Reinholdtsen did and took the time to look around the store and to have a brief listen to a pair of Clarity 6.2s. Radiant Acoustics is about to release the Clarity stand, which was designed specifically for the 6.2. This stand features a top plate that can be tilted back up to four degrees to keep the listener on-axis. This is important because the AMT has a wide horizontal dispersion but limited vertical dispersion, and so it must be directed at the listener’s ears. The stands the Clarity 6.2 speakers were on at the store were of a different brand and had to be tilted more crudely, but to no ill-effect: the pair sounded exceedingly clean and had a wonderfully smooth midrange and a full bass.
I didn’t feel compelled to prolong my listening session at the store to get a better feel for the Clarity 6.2 because when Reinholdtsen arrived, he said they’d be happy to send out a pair for me to evaluate. By the time you read this, I should have them, and a proper review will follow.
Clarity 6.2s among the speaker crowd
Radiant Acoustics has taken a hybrid approach to selling its speakers. If you happen to live near a HiFi Klubben store, you can buy your speakers at the store. Otherwise, you can order them directly from the company’s website from pretty much anywhere in the world. The posted price includes shipping, duties, and taxes. In North America, that price is $4499 for a pair of Clarity 6.2 speakers. The stands, when available, will cost $899 a pair. (Details are on the company’s website: www.radiantacoustics.com.)
As far as I know, the consumer-direct, one-price-everywhere model, at least in the realm of hi-fi, was pioneered in Denmark by Buchardt Audio (not a Lyngdorf company) to great success. I can’t see any reason why this model shouldn’t also work for Radiant Acoustics, particularly since the Clarity 6.2 comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee and a 10-year warranty. You can hardly go wrong buying online with such assurances.
Scandinavian invasions
Denmark is chock-full of hi-fi companies making products with global appeal. To a smaller but growing extent, Norwegian hi-fi has also been reaching audiophiles worldwide, enough to justify a trip to Norway, for a hi-fi company tour, which we plan to do in November. As in years past, we intend to visit Hegel Music Systems, in Oslo, but this time we’ll also be visiting Electrocompaniet, in Tau, and Arendal Sound, in the town of Arendal. A fourth company will likely be added to the itinerary; we’ll see.
Each of these companies has its own history, consumer appeal, and business approach. Electrocompaniet was founded in 1973 and Hegel in 1988, so both have a long history. Arendal Sound launched its first product in 2015, so it’s a relatively new brand. Electrocompaniet and Hegel sell their wares in the traditional way, through dealers; Arendal uses a direct-to-consumer model, as Buchardt and Radiant do. Electrocompaniet manufactures its products in Norway; Arendal and Hegel, overseas.
The Arendal 1528 Tower 8 in the NRC lab
We expect Electrocompaniet and Hegel to have new products to show us, but we don’t know of any yet. Arendal Sound does have a new six-speaker series called 1528, which is likely to create a stir. Earlier this year, Philip Beaudette reviewed the Arendal 1723 Tower S loudspeaker and, considering its price ($3199/pair), was impressed by its performance and build quality. We now have for review the company’s flagship in this series, the Tower 8. In terms of price, size, and weight, the 1528 Tower 8 is a big step up from the 1723 Tower S: it costs $9500 a pair, it’s over 60″ tall, and it weighs almost 200 pounds. If Arendal is successful in selling a pair of such speakers online, it’s bound to cast a new light on the direct-to-consumer business model.
The Tower 8 in the NRC chamber
To be fair, Denmark and Norway aren’t the only Scandinavian countries making strides globally in the hi-fi field—Sweden is too. We have never covered any Swedish hi-fi company, but several seem intriguing enough to visit and explore, which we might do in the spring. Suffice it to say, Scandinavian hi-fi is thriving, and we are excited to follow it—with our legs and with our ears.
. . . Doug Schneider
das@soundstage.com
