Founded in Denmark in 1977, Dynaudio initially manufactured speakers using its own crossovers while relying on OEM drivers. According to Wilfried Ehrenholz, Dynaudio's co-founder and sole owner, the company knew from its technical background that the only way it could produce a really good loudspeaker product would be by developing its own drivers.

"If you are an OEM customer, you are always dependent upon the development level of your suppliers. But we had ideas that were a long way ahead of the products we could buy, and it was always our intention to aim for the quality end of the market. Within three years of our existence, all of our loudspeaker systems were equipped with our own drivers which were developed by our in-house R&D team."

At this point in time, Dynaudio began selling its drivers to other speaker manufacturers. Ehrenholz says: "This proved to be a very successful move because, while there are many different speaker manufacturers, there are only a few driver manufacturers - and even fewer at the quality end of the market. Within a very short period of time Dynaudio drivers became popular all over the world and were widely recognized for their quality by audiophile consumers".

Ehrenholz is steadfast in his belief that the heart of any system is the driver. "This is the key to Dynaudio's success because our drivers are of very high quality, with low distortion, extended dynamic range and high power handling. From the onset we were emphasizing quality and reinforcing the quality message because we always had advanced technology. Of course, quality doesn't come cheap, and it is up to consumers to decide whether they want to pay for top-of-the-range technology or buy something cheaper that doesn't perform as well. At Dynaudio, we have always felt that there is no room for compromise, and we will not allow the company's name to be associated with any product that does not deliver top quality results."

Although Dynaudio's fame centers around its drivers, the company's biggest business has been and continues to be its finished home audio loudspeaker systems. These products utilize proprietary drivers which are designed and developed specifically for each model, and they are not sold or made available to any OEM customers or driver distribution channels. Today the company produces over twenty different models of finished loudspeakers ranging in price from $400 to $85,000. At the present, over 55% of Dynaudio's worldwide annual sales are attributed to its Authentic Fidelity home audio loudspeaker line.

In 1994, Dynaudio introduced a line of high end car audio loudspeakers which has also proved to be successful and is still growing. Today Dynaudio's Mobile Fidelity car audio products amount for about 25% of the company's yearly sales. Dynaudio also began working on a project with Volvo three years ago to develop an audio system for the new C70 coupe which was introduced early in 1998. All of these vehicles are equipped with 10 Dynaudio drivers specially tuned for this application. The C70 has already been lauded for having the most advanced factory installed audio system available worldwide to date.

Over the past eight years, Dynaudio has established a subsidiary, DynaudioAcoustics, which is developing and distributing products for the professional audio market. Although Dynaudio is a relative newcomer to the pro audio market, top recording studios including Air Lyndhurst, Battery and The Pierce Room in London, NRG Studios in Los Angeles, Coconut Studios in Cologne, The Hit Factory in New York, as well as record producers such as Mike Hedges, Trevor Horn, Steve Lipson, and Mutt Lange and artists including the Pet Shop Boys, the Cocteau Twins, Pete Townshend, Roger Waters, Sade and Marillion - not to mention a wide range of television, radio, and post production users are working with the company's product. The professional market currently accounts for approximately 17% of Dynaudio's annual business.

While the company is best know as a producer of drive units, the smallest part of Dynaudio's overall business (about 3%), ironically, is in fact the sales to OEM users (which include some of the world's highest regarded loudspeaker manufacturers) and the DIY hobbyist market. This in part due to the fact that the company was not actively distributing its finished products in North America until 1995, when it set up its U.S. sales and distribution office outside of Chicago. Until then, the only real presence Dynaudio had was via its many OEM consumers. Ehrenholz states that "I don't believe we have a long term future as an OEM supplier, because in markets where the Dynaudio brand is strong, competitors don't like buying our OEM products. In fact, Dynaudio does not actively pursue any OEM business anyhow.

As of January 1, 2000, Dynaudio officially stopped all production and support of the hobbyist drivers and kits. The market was so small in the grand scope of the company's production, that the decision was mostly based on this fact. Dynaudio will continue to service and support past customers who have finished speakers from other companies with Dynaudio drivers, or those who have the old Dynaudio kits, in the means of offering ONLY to sell replacement drivers. Dynaudio will not offer any technical support, only sale of raw drivers, provided the customer returns the original driver and pays for the new replacement.

Ehrenholz states: "Today, the Dynaudio brand is pretty well established as a high end product in most territories worldwide. Although the company's market share is somewhat small in overall percentage terms, Dynaudio is in fact a much larger company than many of its competitors at the quality end of the market. This provides us many more opportunities to invest in product development and marketing."

Dynaudio's manufacturing facilities are based in Skanderborg, Denmark, where both production and R&D is conducted. The company's worldwide sales, marketing, and distribution offices are headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. Drivers are manufactured under laboratory conditions in a recently expanded facility dedicated to driver production, while all high quality cabinets are produced in a separate specialized carpentry facility isolated from the driver production.

At the factory, an enormous emphasis is placed on quality control. Each and every driver is scrutinized vigorously, from raw material to finished product. In order to maintain the highest levels of quality control possible, Dynaudio uses only the finest grade raw materials and very few externally supplied components. Ehrenholz says: "We believe that the only way to improve quality is by concentrating on detail. Even the layout on the back of a crossover is important to the sound of a speaker, so we do as much as we can ourselves to avoid compromise."

After Ehrenholz's remaining partner retired from Dynaudio in 1994, leaving him as the sole owner, the company has taken a much more aggressive stance in all aspects of operations. Ehrenholz states that: "When my last partner retired, I gained a much freer hand with the business and was able to explore more areas of opportunity. In the past seven years, in addition to introducing our Mobile Fidelity line and expanding our professional audio division, we have finally established distribution in the United States in 1995 for our finished consumer products. While our biggest market is currently Germany, with China and the Far East markets following closely behind, we feel that the U.S. is already on the way to be our largest and most important market."

According to Ehrenholz, an increasing worldwide demand on high quality loudspeakers fueled in part by new digital recording technologies and better educated consumers provides Dynaudio a perfect platform to increase its market share. In 1997, the company will experience approximately 40% growth over the previous year, and for 1998 it saw an annual increase of fifty percent. Since then, the average rate of growth has been an impressive 45%. Currently the company employs 350, and with each pasing year, continues to add additional personnel, while also expanding its research and development department which currently employs fifteen engineers. At present, Dynaudio invests more than 10% of its annual turnover on R&D.

Ehrenholz concludes: "In today's highly competitive market, I don't think that any company can afford to sit back and relax, even if it is making a profit. In my opinion, spending money on R&D is an investment in the future, and one that we have to make because worldwide competition is getting stronger all the time. No matter how successful you are, you have to keep moving forward, otherwise you will be out of business and left behind."

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