Home»JV Visits Dynaudio

It is hard to picture the sheer scale of the Danish hi-fi company Dynaudio. Located south of Aarhus in Skanderborg, the campus (which comprises two gigantic, new, entirely dedicated buildings) is huge, the factories they house larger, more up-to-date, and more fully automated than any others JV has seen in his travels throughout the high-end-audio industry.

Filled with scores of the latest robotic machines designed to make the jobs of the very human (and very contented--this was among the happiest workplaces JV has visited) personnel as easy as possible, the facility is more reminiscent of a high-end automobile assembly line than of the usual high-end loudspeaker company—and yet much of the exacting construction work is still done by hand at individually ventilated, temperature-and-humidity controlled work stations. (The air in both buildings is constantly being cycled and refreshed by an air-conditioning system that wouldn’t be out of place in a clean room—huge supply and ventilation ducts crisscross the length and width of the ceilings of both buildings.)

Dynaudio can afford the latest, “greenest,” and most advanced computer/robotic technology and worker comforts because it’s not just in the high-end loudspeaker/home-entertainment business. Hi-fi is just one of the three legs that the company is built on. The other two are professional monitors for the recording industry and automotive audio. This last may be the most lucrative of the three, as Dynaudio supplies speakers and other parts to Volvo and the entire Volkswagen group.

The company is clearly incredibly successful—there can be no other explanation for the investment of hundreds of millions of euros (or Danish kroners) in its physical plant, assembly-line robotics, and extensive R&D facilities, in which every part--from cabinets to drivers--is designed, fabricated, and assembled.

All photos, however inadequate to the size of this company, taken with the Sony NEX-5N and Voightlaender 50mm Color-Skopar and processed in Lightroom 4.1.