15 years of know-how

And you are the senior manager for the Academy, tell me about that role – what do you do? 

I visit our partners all across the world and introduce them to our latest products. I also meet many Dynaudio customers at hi-fi shows and dealer events. One of my latest trips was to Australia, and while it’s a long way from Skanderborg, we have some very dedicated Dynaudio dealers and customers there. 

In my mind, Academy sounds too much like I am conducting a lecture at a university: 20 PowerPoint slides and I’m out. That’s not it at all. We get very practical with our tech. It’s very hands-on, very practical in nature.

You also said that you were involved in the final stages of the development process, that you were becoming a link between our customers and our development team. How? 

Because I meet with so many customers, I get a lot of feedback. Sometimes I can predict the kind of questions that will come up when a product is released. It’s my job to ask a ton of critical questions in the final stage of development.

Also, I have to have an incredibly deep understanding of both product and technology. I can’t say: “Uhm, I will have to ask an engineer” when I am introducing our latest loudspeakers to the dealers.

And because of my interaction with customers, I can offer a different perspective. I can point out something the customer would or wouldn’t want in a particular solution – and we still have the ability to make the necessary alterations, as the question was voiced at the right time.

They have never said anything, or even hinted at it, but I can’t help to think that our engineers, once or twice, have rolled their eyes and thought: “What’s with the third degree, Roland?”

Listening for hours and hours

Haha, so what happens after the ‘third degree’?

When our engineers have recovered from my questions, they send me a prototype of the loudspeaker. I just spend hours and hours going over them: setting them up and listening, changing position and listening some more, change something else and listening again. And then I do it all over again. 

And it’s time well-invested. This is where I get to know the loudspeaker, and in that process, there might come even more questions for our engineers. This is where we can make small adjustments – you just don’t have that opportunity when the speaker hits the street. 

With the Focus XD, I asked some questions about one of its features: the speaker position EQ. At first, it was called bass EQ, but that wasn’t particularly descriptive of what it actually does.

Yes, it tunes the bass response, but it is much more intelligent than so. It takes the speaker’s position into account, which is essential for this wonderful feature. We needed to make sure that was communicated clearly to the users.

In that process, of pouring over every little part of the speakers, do you take them apart?

Sometimes. With the new Contour, I had the chance to spend time with the acoustics team who built it. We walked through and dismantled drive units. They talked me through all of the new technologies and the many changes they had made. We went about it so thoroughly that I didn’t need to unmount anything. I just had to listen.

But, I have to admit that I did pull the original Xeo speakers apart. After the first demo, I just loved what our development team had managed to do with these small boxes. So, when I received the prototype I had to have a look inside. The size of that amplifier module will surprise you – it’s so small. My first thought was: “That’s it? Why does it sound so good?