Last November, I wrote about the Estelon Aura loudspeaker on SoundStage! Hi-Fi in my “System One” column. In that article, I described how I purchased some Tönnen Sound acoustic panels from Amazon to help tame some reflections in my living room. I also created a video on our YouTube channel about the Tönnen panels and two other panel-type products—smaller hexagonal- and square-shaped felt-type absorbers—that I’d also bought from Amazon.
When I purchased those products, I considered price, performance, and appearance. I didn’t want to spend too much, but I wanted the panels to tame those reflections effectively, and I wanted them to look good. All three products ticked those boxes, but the Tönnen panels were the best of the trio. At about $200 per pair (all prices in USD), they were also the most expensive.
At the time, Tönnen had a crude-looking website that was short on information. Other than Amazon, there seemed to be no option for purchasing products. So I figured Tönnen was some Far East outfit attaching its name to products sourced from a third party and then selling them on Amazon instead of Alibaba—just like the providers of the hexagonal- and square-shaped panels I purchased were doing. In other words, I didn’t think Tönnen was a “real” company in the sense of having real people you could talk to about their products.
As a result, I wasn’t just surprised to find Tönnen exhibiting at Florida International Audio Expo 2024; I was genuinely shocked when I learned that there was someone from Tönnen I could talk to—and he was at the show. That person is Renato Dias, a Brazilian-born engineer who lived for eight years in Canada before settling in Satellite Beach, Florida, where the company is headquartered. He founded Tönnen and designed the panels I’d purchased, as well as many other acoustical products.
I cornered Dias, told him how I’d purchased his panels, and added that I was shocked to find out that Tönnen is a real company, right here in the US. He wasn’t surprised that I thought that way. Dias told me he’d started Tönnen three years ago, and since he had no distributors or dealers, Amazon was the only place he could sell his products.
Being on Amazon wasn’t a bad thing for Tönnen—that’s how I and many others discovered their products. Now Dias wants to expand beyond Amazon by getting distributors and dealers to carry his products, which is why he came to Florida Audio Expo. Tönnen now has more products, which Dias brought to the show, that are squarely aimed at audiophiles who want effective acoustic performance, but with some style. Tönnen has another absorption panel called Sublime ($188 to $368, depending on covering); three diffusor panels, including a cloud-type model that looks like small snow moguls ($188 to $550, depending on model); a wood-slat type diffusion panel that is designed to go top to bottom on a wall (price will depend on size of installation); and two types of bass traps—one called Nova ($435) and another called Elite ($1450). The bass traps intrigued me the most because I need something like that for my living room.
The Elite, which I preferred to the Nova, looks like a tall columnar-type speaker. It’s about 5′ high with a Helmholtz resonator tuned to 63Hz, which Dias believes is a typical problem frequency in many rooms. The column has an octagonal shape, which makes it quite striking to look at, and is covered in cloth. It’s propped up by a two-tiered aluminum base that provides an opening at the bottom of the column to allow the internal resonator to work properly.
If I get to try a pair of Elites, I’ll obviously be interested in how effective they are, because that’s the most important thing. But what’s so appealing to me about the Elite is the styling—it looks really good. That’s what attracted me to the Tönnen panels I bought on Amazon. Looks are critical, because if you’re going to put acoustical products into a regular living space, you want them to enhance not just the sound, but also the look of the space. That’s something few acoustical products do. Dias gets that—his brochure touts “state-of-the-art performance acoustic panels,” “luxury design,” and “unparalleled craftsmanship.” I wish him luck with his new company, because he’s on the right path with these products. You can learn more at TonnenSound.com.
Doug Schneider
Founder, SoundStage!
