| |
Links on Grey sidebar :
Used Gear Retailers, General Hi-Fi repairs, Hi-Fi Clubs, Equipment "tuners", Cleaning Chemicals, Hi-Fi Shows.
Audion
British manufacturer of valve amplifiers, sells them both fully built and as kits, have recently added loudspeakers and cables to their product line.
Homepage: http://www.audion.co.uk.
Distributed in France by DEA International, in Hungary by Penna Poor, in Poland by Audio System, in Turkey by Dinleti Music and in the US by OS Services.
Audio Nemesis
Italian manufacturer of high end seperates.
Homepage: http://www.audionemesis.com.
Audio Net
German CD & DVD specialist.
Homepage: http://www.audionet.de.
Distributed in Austria by Akustische Systeme, in the Czech Republic by RP Audio, in Israel by Igal Sabo High End, in Norway Audioaktøren and in Latvia by Referenz Studio.
Audionics
UK based manufacturer of equipment for the broadcast industry.
Homepage: http://www.audionics.co.uk.
Distributed in Sweden by POL Teknik.
Audionics Ltd, 31 Jessops Riverside, Sheffield S9 2RX, UK.
Tel: +44 (0)114 242 2333. Fax: +44 (0)114 243 3913. E-Mail: info at audionics.co.uk.
Audionics Lab
Small South Korean manufacturer of valve amplification.
Homepage: http://audionics.co.kr.
Audionics lab, 106-1 Sinlim2-dong, Kwanak-gu, Seoul 151-855, South Korea.
E-Mail ysum0326 at hanmail.net.
Audionord AB
Swedish company that is primarily a distributor of high end and lyfestyle audio products but do manufacture a hedge fund priced tangential tonearm under the Air Tangent brand. The business was founded in the 70's by owner Leif Häggmark and is not to be confused with Danish industry juggernaut AudioNord (below). The company handles the for all the Scandinavian countries of Audio Research, Constellation Audio, Dan D'Agostino, darTZeel, EMM Labs (except Denmark), Magico, Magnepan, Parrot, Scaena and Shunyata Research (except Norway) in addition to handling the Swedish distribution of Devialet, Sound Lab and Tivoli Audio.
Distribution: In the USA by Donald North Audio
Homepage: http://www.audionord.se .
Audionord AB, Box 8324, S-16308 Spånga, Sweden.
Tel: +46 8 362240. Fax: +46 8 365108.E-Mail: contact ?at? audionord.se
Danish company, primarily retails audio and home theatre products directly in its home country in addition to Norway, Holland and Sweden with over 70 retail locations in total, trading as Hi-Fi Klubben, but also acts as a distributor and as such has daughter companies in Norway, Sweden and Holland. Manufactures mid to high end home hi-fi and AV loudspeakers at their Nørager factory under the DALI brand, and sells budget and mid end audio products under the Argon name, much of it Asian sourced.
The company handles the distribution for the following brands in Denmark, Norway and Sweden: ARCAM, Bowers & Wilkins (B&W), Cambrigde Audio, Cerwin Vega, Classé, Denon, Goldring (headphones only), Lyngdorf, NAD and QED
Homepage: -- http://www.hifiklubben.comAudioNord International A/S, Dali Allé 1, DK-9610 Nørager, Denmark.
Tel: +45 87 43 21 34 (Distribution) or +45 70 14 05 15 (Hi-Fi Klubben DK) or +45 96 72 11 55 (Dali). Fax: +45 98 55 19 40 (Dali). E-Mail: online at hifiklubben.dk or info +at+ dali.dk or Tonny.Kaspersen -at- AudionordDistribution.com.
Hi-Fi Klubben Göteborg, Skånegatan 25, S-412 52 Göteborg, Sweden.
Tel: +46 (0)31 355 1010 (Office & sales) or +46 (0)771 80 00 90 (Service). Fax: +46 (0)31 335 10 19. E-Mail: online at hifiklubben.se (General) or kundtjanst at hifiklubben.se (Service).
HI-FI Kubben A/S,Marcus Thranes Gt 2-6 , 0473 Oslo, Norway.
Tel: +47 815 000 90. Fax: +47 23 40 77 9 . E-Mail: online at hifiklubben.no.
Dali loudspeakers: -- Dali homepage
Dali products are distributed in Hungary, Poland and Switzerland by Horn Distribution, in Iceland by Heimilistæki, in Malaysia by Wisma Audio, in Japan by Denon, in Romania by Lotus Telecom, in Taiwan by Shin Pao and in the UK by A Audio Marketing.
 |
The Dutch branch of AudioNord, distributes Argon, DALI, NAD, Scandyna and Redeye in all the Benelux countries.
AND Benelux BV, Herastraat 47, 5047 TX Tilburg, Holland.
Tel: +31 13 4550955. Fax: +31 13 4555666. E-Mail: info _at_ andbenelux.com .
AudioNord History
The company was originally founded in 1975 by Peter Lyngdorf as a local distributor of British hi-fi products, initially handling the produce of companies such as Lescon and Transcriptors Limited. The company had a promising start and by 1977 gained a fairly firm footing in the mid and high end marketplace, but got interested in expanding into the "value segment", i.e. equipment just above the budget end and just below the mid end. With that in mind the company took on the distribution of Cerwin Vega and in 1978 partook in the formation of a company called NAD Inc. in association with Acoustic Research (Teledyne) and others, that imported budget hi-fi products from the then emerging manufacturing base of Taiwan which offered a significantly lower cost wage structure than the west and an electronics industry that was heavily subsidised by the government.
However things did not go according to plan as AudioNord had difficulties getting dealers to carry their cheaper product lines primarily because the beginnings of the Asian OEM revolution in consumer electronics had reached Denmark, which meant that when it came to value products dealers were given higher margins by trading companies such as Nesco who bought their products directly from Asian OEM's and where primarily occupying the budget end of the market where retailers margins were traditionally higher than within the hi-fi sector and unlike Audionord did not have to deal with an intermediary trading company like NAD. Since the trading companies were increasingly muscling in of the lower end of the hi-fi market it made sense for independent dealers to buy from the trading entities since the larger margins allowed them on one hand to retain more of the purchase price themselves and on the other hand gave them better room to discount the products in completion with supermarkets and larger electrical retail chains.
 |
In 1982 the company opened up a distribution office in Holland known simply as AND since there already existed a company over there called Audionord and in 1983 the company opened up a loudspeaker factory under the DALI name, but that is supposedly short for "Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries", while Dali is nominally independent it has always been run from the AudioNord headquarters in Nørager and the factory is basically next door. Some of the initial offerings from DALI were more adventurous than the current line up, if our memory isn't failing, it was AudioNord that introduced the loudspeakers housed in ceramic tile baffles in the early 80's. That same year the company partook in the founding of NAD Electronics Ltd. that took over the ownership of the NAD brand.
By the mid 80's the number of retail stores that the company had become such that they were finding themselves in direct competition with "Audioscan A/S" which was Demarks largest chain of brown goods retailers, the competition became so fierce for a time that it was described by some onlookers as an "all out war", in the end AudioNord bought the Audioscan chain in 1989 and in 1996 merged the Audioscan chain into the company and rebranded the stores as "Hi-Fi Klubben", but they had rebranded the Danmarks Hi-Fi Klub stores as such just two years earlier. That rebranding came about because of the international expansion of their retail outlets, the company had opened up its first store in Norway in 1987, bought a Swedish company called "NAD Svenska" that had copied the business model of Danmarks Hi-Fi Klub down to a tee and in 1995 opened up it's first store in Finland.
In the latter half of the 80's the company was highly profitable and used that position alongside a general depression in the audio market to purchase their way into the hi-fi manufacturing business with regards to securing the supplier positions for their ever expanding sales network, in 1989 the company bought the outstanding shares of NAD Electronics Ltd., In 1990 they purchased a 50% stake in the then ailing Snell Acoustics and by 1995 had full control of the latter company, although they sold it again just a year later to Boston Acoustics.
By 1997 the company was however run at a loss and to address that situation they stopped opening up new stores and instead started to use a franchising system, in 1999 the company sold NAD to Lenbrook Industries and Gryphon back to its original founder and it was back in the black by 2000 with a profit of 24 million DKR after having a loss of 19 m. DKR in 1999 and having endured 3 years of losses in a row, but the company has basically remained profitable ever since. In 2002 they closed down their unprofitable Finnish division and in 2010 opened up 3 new stores in Holland.
Audio Note (Kondo)
A legendary Japanese manufacturer of valve amplifiers, pickups and loudspeakers. Lost the right to the use of their Audio Note trademark outside of Japan when one of their ex distributors managed to trademark it in most of the western world and is now forced to use the name of the company founder Kondo as a trademark in the west. Also owns the Yoshimura Sound Labs (YL) speaker factory. For more info on the history of the company see this page from TNT Audio.
Homepage: http://www.audionote.co.jp.
Worldwide distribution handled by Sibatech, in Germany by Black Forest Audio, in Hong Kong by Audio Evidence, in Hungary by Merlin Audio, in Mexico by Audiomex, in Singapore by Audio Note Singapore, US distribution is handled by Sounds Of Silence and in Vietnam by Dong Thanh.
Audio Note UK
With the exception of the name and some older products this company has no connection with the original Audio Note/Kondo. Make some specialised hi-fi products and kits in the UK, but also sells rebadged Korean separates and Danish speakers under their own name.
Homepage: http://www.audionote.co.uk.
Distribution: In the Benelux countries by X-Fi, in Hong Kong by Elephant Holdings, in Iran by Audioart Reference, in Mexico by Audiomex, in New Caledonia by 100% Tubes, in Norway by Upgrade Audio and in Yugoslavia by Korato.