Scan-Speak’s history links into the long and proud Danish loudspeaker development and manufacturing tradition. The history —
Before day one The foundation of Scan-Speak was laid in the 1960’s when Ragnar Lian, a Norwegian student at Århus Teknikum (Aarhus Engineering School) and Ejvind Skaaning, a local machinist and scooter dealer, joined up around a business called Quality Sound Research (QSR). QSR’s and Skaaning’s reputation led to a groundbreaking relationship with Scan-Dyna and Dynaco. This ultimately led to a large quantity of speakers being ordered that became the famous Dynaco/ Scan-Dyna A-25. Skaaning’s striving towards perfection drove him towards in-house driver development and manufacturing to be able to customize the drivers to exactly the needed specifications instead of accepting compromised solutions with off-the-shelf drivers from external manufacturers. Kick-off February 1st, 1970 Skaaning founded Scan-Speak with the purpose of manufacturing drivers for the Dynaco/Scan-Dyna loudspeakers. Ragnar Lian and the Dane, Mogens Hvass, were hired to develop and start driver manufacturing at Scan-Speak, first for the A-25 and later for other loudspeakers. The business was successful and grew fast and by 1972 already had 40 employees. Creating a product line In addition to the 1½” D3806 tweeter and the 8” woofer that had already been designed to fit the Dynaco/Scan-Dyna A-25 speaker the team of Skaaning, Lian, and Hvass develop a 4½” midrange, a 10” woofer, and the ¾” dome tweeter D2008 in the period of 1971 to 1974. Both tweeters - in slightly modified versions - continue in Scan-Speak’s current product range.
The Symmetrical Drive During 1973 Ragnar Lian invented and patented the Symmetric Drive (SD) motor, which consists of placement of copper caps on the polar part in order to minimize the currents of Foucault (eddy currents). The copper is positioned and dimensioned so that the inductance variation of the driver coil motion becomes symmetric. The Symmetrical Drive was an important discovery as it controlled the eddy currents and reduced inductance in the speaker driver, resulting in lower distortion and it allowed for easier design of good crossovers for drivers due to the flatter impedance curve. Fast expansion In the early 1970s Scan-Speak registered brand names that it used for its own line of speaker systems. Due to the sales success of its own product range and the A-25 speakers Scan-Speak grew quickly and by 1973 it employed 200 people at its facility in Hørning south of Aarhus. The rapid growth of Scan-Speak required additional funding and resulted in a change of ownership. The primary owner of Scan-Speak became David Hafler who also was a majority owner of Ortofon. The mutual ownership led Ortofon into selling Scan-Speak built speaker systems branded Ortofon in parallel with its famous pick-up cartridges. In May 1975, Scan-Speak’s shares were taken over by Fonofilm Industri A/S, the parent company of Ortofon. Although the production was running well, and with a good margin, this change seemed to draw a lot of money out of Scan-Speak and the company went into bankruptcy. The liquidation of Scan-Speak caused the end of Skaaning’s involvement in ScanSpeak who up until this point had been in charge of product development together with Ragnar Lian and Mogens Hvass.
Facts —
Moving north In early 1977 Dantax in Pandrup acquired the remains of Scan-Speak. Scan-Speak’s production equipment and inventory was moved from Hørning to Pandrup in northern Jutland. Oskar Wrønding who started at Scan-Speak in Hørning in 1973 as a Quality Engineer was hired by Dantax and put in charge of moving and re-establishing Scan-Speak at Dantax’s facility in Pandrup. After the transition Wrønding continued as Head of Product Design, Development and Production and later on he was Technical Manager. ScanSpeak’s sales and administration were integrated into the Dantax organization. The inclusion of the much bigger Scan-Speak into Dantax led to a very large expansion of Dantax’s business.
Iconic products —
During the period 1978 to 1984 several new models were developed including the now famous 18W woofer with paper cone. In 1985 a new tweeter, the D2010, was born. This was an improved version of the D2008 which now had been on the market for almost 15 years and needed a successor. The new and old versions appeal to different customers and both models continue in Scan-Speak’s current product line. The market demanded products with new technology and a different visual appearance and in 1987 Scan-Speak launched new versions of the 18W and the 21W woofers with membranes in semi-transparent Polypropylene that had a milky white appearance. These products were popular for many years and continued in production until the new millennium. Burned down to the ground – and then again After the Scan-Speak Hørning factory burned down in the mid 1970’s no one
Company name Scan-Speak A/S Head office Videbæk, Denmark Established in year 1970 Established by Ejvind Skaaning
Main audio product types Loudspeaker transducers as tweeters, midranges, woofers and subwoofers. Main markets Europe, North America, and Asia Number of employees 45
The Danish loudspeaker 100 year anniversary — 109