Slowly the train is making headway. From Hamburg it has already taken the i-fidelity.net editors to Fredericia. But the journey’s destination is still a good two hours away. We are heading for Aalborg in northern Jutland. In a decelerated way the train is rolling through green pasture landscapes with lots of scattered lakes. This view isn’t exactly inviting for labour; dreaming works much better here. And high-end loudspeakers should be built here? This question is rather rhetorical, for Denmark has a long history in the hi-fi and high-end sector. Starting with the design icons at Bang & Olufsen to the hi-fi brands Dali, Dynaudio, Ortofon and Audiovector, just to name a few examples. Good sound and good design have a tradition in this country.

Another member in the line of mentioned companies is Dantax Radio, founded in 1969 by John Peter Jensen. Owing to his decades of experience, the affable firm’s senior partner is still on hand with help and advice until the present day. Nowadays his son Peter Bøgh Jensen is striving with the team to uphold the success story. Temporarily the chassis maker ScanSpeak was also integrated in the portfolio of Dantax Radio – which is certainly part of the explanation why the drivers for both the ScansonicHD and the Raidho loudspeakers, which have belonged to the Dantax portfolio since 2009, are all made in-house. The production of all loudspeakers takes place in Pandrup, a community of 10,000 inhabitants around 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) north of Aalborg. Considering the proximity of the North Sea and the landscape, which is reminiscent of a summer vacation, it’s hard to believe that loudspeakers for high-end music reproduction are built here.

However, what’s happening at Dantax Radio behind a bog-standard industrial front is nothing short of amazing. Assembly-line work? No way! There are a dozen workplaces where almost every fabrication step is done by hand. Since the two brands are represented in fourty countries worldwide, one can easily imagine how many speakers must be made here. Production Manager Freddy Andersen makes sure that nothing’s botched up; he has also become addicted to high-quality music listening and gives all new developments a meticulous checkup in the measuring lab and in the listening room. The fact that possible automations are waived is justified by him with the high manufacturing standard – and the insight that customers appreciate this effort.

Finally we follow Freddy Andersen to the loudspeaker production in order to get a first-hand impression.