We got ditched for dinner. SoundStage! Ultra’s senior editor, Jason Thorpe, and I were left to our own devices by SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider the other night. “Not coming,” he’d texted us. “Dinner with this Norwegian brand.” We didn’t think much of it till we wandered into a room put together by someone we’d never heard of here at the Radisson Blu Sobieski, one of the three Audio Video Show 2024 locations. “You know these guys?” Jason asked in a text to Doug.
Well, duh, he knew them. The brand is Ø Audio, and Doug had just been invited to dinner with them. As it turns out, his instinct was right on, because both Jason and I were floored by the sound coming from the compact tower speakers in this room. The speaker in question was the Frigg 02, which retails for €13,000 per pair in Europe.
The Frigg 02 is a three-way bass-reflex-style loudspeaker that uses drivers made by SEAS to Ø Audio’s specifications. Ø Audio emphasizes that everything is made in Norway, to the maximum extent possible, so SEAS drivers were an obvious choice. The tweeter has a carbon-fiber dome and is fitted in a small waveguide, one that appears almost as just a normal tweeter faceplate. The company claims, however, that the waveguide greatly improves directivity. The midrange driver and woofer both use coated paper cones with titanium voice-coil formers, again developed in cooperation with SEAS.
If it isn’t clear already, Ø Audio is quite proud to be designed and made in Norway. Indeed, they brought an impressive array of Electrocompaniet electronics to Warsaw, claiming that they may have assembled the first-ever made-entirely-in-Norway stereo setup at a major hi-fi show. I’m not sure how true that is, but I don’t really care. The enthusiasm of these guys just rubs off onto you.
Speaking of things happening effortlessly, that brings us to the sound of these things. In short, I think this room may have been one of this year’s strongest showings. Whatever that subtle waveguide is supposed to do, it works, because from the moment I sat down, I noticed some of the most realistic soundstaging and imaging I’ve yet heard at Audio Video Show 2024. Moreover, the sound was big, clear, and powerful, like flesh and blood. No doubt the massive Electrocompaniet mono amplifiers had something to do with that, but it’s the speakers that make the sound, after all.
Perhaps just as interesting as the Frigg 02 is what I learned about the company’s future plans. A two-way standmount loudspeaker, the Frigg 01, is in development and set to come out in the first half of 2025. Now, despite the Frigg models’ traditional dome-and-cone designs, the company is best known for its horn-based loudspeaker systems. Ø Audio’s long-available Icon loudspeaker is also set to be replaced by the new Icon 12 in early 2025. The big, bad Verdande loudspeaker, another horn design but with a huge 15″ woofer, is already available.
I guess if getting ditched for dinner means hearing more from firms like Ø Audio, I’m happy to eat alone. It’s now day three of Audio Video Show 2024. Keep an eye out for more coverage.
Matt Bonaccio
Contributor, SoundStage!
