In a low-density industrial neighbourhood in Nørager, close to Hobro in Northern Jutland, Denmark, lies the headquarters of one on the best-known loudspeaker brands worldwide, DALI.
The history —
In the sprawling, squat buildings the design, manufacturing, and assembly of DALI speakers is carried out by a staff of 100 specialists from all trades. And they design nearly everything by themselves. Even the mounting screws for the speaker units. DALI was officially instated 30 years ago, in 1985. But the actual beginning was two years earlier, in 1983. At that time the newly-founded chain of hi-fi stores ‘Danmarks Hi-Fi Klub’ (today just ‘Hi-Fi Klubben’) was having a huge success selling stereo components from NAD and Denon at affordable prices. But which speakers should they recommend to go along with the amplifiers, turntables and cassette players? The stores were already selling lots of Cerwin-Vega loudspeakers, but they were huge, costly and mostly suited for hard-hitting music genres. Built NAD speakers in the boss’ cellar To fill the gap in the product range, Danmarks Hi-Fi Klub began designing and making NAD-branded loudspeakers. In spite of the name, it was purely a Danish product. NAD had never made loudspeakers, and the models were only made for the Danish market. Product development and partly production initially took place in the cellar of Hi-Fi Klubben’s founder Peter Lyngdorf’s house. Later manufacturing facilities were rented in various places in the small towns of Skanderborg and Ry, close to where Peter Lyngdorf lived. Speakers for pocket money After two years of selling NAD speakers to customers, the brand DALI (Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries) was founded, starting out with mostly compact two-way speakers, some of the models carried along from the NAD period. The smallest model, DALI 2, a 13-litre 6.5-inch compact, became an immediate success. If you were a young student setting up your first dwelling, you could put two of these in your bookshelf, next to an NAD 3020 amplifier, and you had high-quality sound at a hitherto unseen low price (less than a month’s ‘SU’ educational grant in 1985). In 1986 the demand had outgrown the
rented production facilities (and besides that, the water was pouring through the roof when it was raining). Instead of finding a new space for rental, the whole facility was moved 100 kilometres north, to Nørager, where a new HQ would be built. A new factory was set up for the manufacturing of DALI loudspeakers. Cerwin-Vega for all of Europe But the factory was not only built for DALI. From the onset the biggest production at the Nørager facility was of Cerwin-Vega loudspeakers. Danmarks Hi-Fi Klub had from its earliest days been selling enormous numbers of the big, hard-hitting American loudspeakers, fuelling partiers and aggravating neighbours and parents. But in the mid-Eighties the Dollar exchange rate was close to 12 Danish Kroner for a Dollar, which, along with significant import duties, made American hi-fi products prohibitively expensive in Europe. In order to cut costs on customs and freight (Cerwin-Vega loudspeakers were huge and heavy!) a Danish production was set up. And for more than 10 years DALI built the Cerwin-Vega speakers for not only the Danish market but for the rest of Europe as well on a licence basis. Germany was a particularly big market, and as strange as it may sound today, mainly due to the many American soldiers that was based in Germany during the Cold War. The production continued during the Nineties, until the Cerwin-Vega brand changed ownership. The last ‘Danish’ Cerwin-Vega was produced in 1999. “Making Cerwin-Vega loudspeakers was essential to our initial growth, as it meant that we were able to build a much bigger factory and hire more people from
Facts —
the beginning than we could have done if we had only been building our own speakers,” says Lars Worre, CEO of DALI. Like cheese to the French Denmark has a unique tradition for sound and for loudspeakers in particular,” says Lars Worre, CEO of DALI. “Not only was the dynamic loudspeaker invented here, in 1915. Electromagnetism was a Danish discovery too, by H. C. Ørsted, nearly a hundred years before that, in the 1820s.” “This is, along with the very long dark winter evenings..., probably the reason why Denmark has always had such a big number of loudspeaker manufacturers. It is an indigenous product for the region. Like wine and cheese for France.” “For the Danes, however, this is natural to us. We do loudspeakers, and we are used to see our products around the world. But if you go to a hi-fi store in China, you will see many Danish flags, advertising that the products are from Denmark. Even though many of them have never been anywhere near Denmark. They tend to use the term ‘Danish’ in the broadest possible way, as the customers associate Danish heritage with quality and quality sound.” From house brand to brand name DALI is one of very few brands that successfully have made the transition from being an in-house-series for a chain of hi-fi shops to being an independent and wellknown player on a world-wide market. DALI was originally created to accommodate the need for value-for-money speakers for the Hi-Fi Klubben chain stores. While the share majority is still owned by the original entrepreneurs, (later supplemented by management by-in), DALI
Company name DALI
Main audio product types Loudspeakers
Head office Nørager, Denmark
Main markets Scandinavia, England, Germany, India
Established in year 1985 Established by Peter Lyngdorf
Number of employees 250 (100 in Nørager and 150 in Ningbo, China)
The Danish loudspeaker 100 year anniversary — 67