History

At the age of 14, Davone founder Paul Schenkel set out to improve the sound of his clock radio. He did so by connecting it to 4 home made loudspeakers with 8" Philips wideband drivers, arranged in a quadraphonic setting. From then on Paul was hooked to audio and his loudspeakers quickly became more serious. Besides designing the occasional amplifier, Paul wrote his own MLS-based software to be able to do more accurate loudspeaker measurements. All while completing his successive studies in Aeronautics and Physics. After doing vibro-acoustic analyses at Philips, Paul started Davone in 2007, a natural extension of a already lifelong journey in high-end audio.

Rithm

Early 2005, a prototype was made of a loudspeaker that later would be called the Davone Rithm. Eager to break high-end audio traditions, the final Rithm was made from bend plywood with a timeless design and a high quality coaxial driver. The Rithm caused quite a stir both in and outside the audio industry, after its introduction at the CES in Las Vegas in 2008. Davone even got a Trekkies following due to the (coincidental) resemblance of the Rithm to the Star Trek logo. Nontheless, the Rithm laid the foundation of Davone having timeless design and the ability to satisfy the tastes of audiophiles. Several magazines, among other Stereo Japan, presented the Rithm on their cover.

the Birth of an Icon

How to follow a design as successfull as the Rithm? Many dealers were asking for a larger version of the Rithm. Which is only natural because model scaling is what all manufacturers do. But Davone is not one to follow traditions. The newly developed coaxial driver based on an 8" woofer and 1" forward positioned tweeter found an entirely new home. Tone magazine later wrote: "its single driver presents an unusually transparent view of the music. I just wish more speaker companies were coming up with such truly original designs".

Ray

Named Ray after the cool Ray-Ban sun glasses, the Ray opened the doors to more international dealers. With it's 20mm thick bend plywood cabinet, vibrations were kept to a minimum. The 20mm solid steel base provided a strong stance to deliver well controled and deep base. Later updates changed the Ray to a 3 way system, keeping the sound quality up to the latest standard and shaking many hard core audiophiles in their believes that all loudspeakers should look alike.

Small, yet Big

Next in line was a new large speaker, but development needed more time and little Mojo beat it to the punch. The Davone Mantra by now was such that each model had to be uniquely different from previous products. It had to sound good and look good. The idea for making an onmidirectional loudspeaker was suggested by one of our distributors. Small and powerful omnidirectional speakers with live-like, ambiance-rich sound did not exist at the time, so the decision was quickly made.

Mojo

Several cone designs were tested, different drivers tried out. Finally the right combination of drivers, cone characteristics and cross over, delivered 360 degrees quality sound over the entire frequency range. At the CES in 2012 people were talking in the hallway. How was it possible that such a small speaker played so well. "I was really blown away" did Stereophile write after visiting the room. the rest is history. The Mojo was to become Davone's best selling speaker to date.

A complete line

During 2012-2014 the first Davone product line was completed. Five unique models were now in production and Davone had to find a new production location to manage the rapid expansion. The new location was found in Værløse, about 30km north of Copenhagen. Davone is still there today. Sales was now global, lead by dealers in the USA, South Korea, Japan and Europe.

Grande, Riva, Tulip

After two years development, the flagship model called Grande was ready and quickly found its first owners. With the strong bend wood panels and complex inner construction, a stiff cabinet was created with rounded corners for diffraction free sound, enabling the high quality drivers to deliver a detailed and open sound. The Tulip was also loved by many with its minimalistic looks and powerful and full range 2.5 way system from a small cabinet. The Riva only lived a short life due to production problems. It turns out that bend wood requires in depth knowledge of its strenghts and limitations in order to use it successfully with each design.

Next Generation

With time comes new insight and we used this to further improve the Davone product line. The High Resolution cross over had evolved and loudspeaker membranes were chosen with a more pistonic behaviour for a cleaner sound. Where the designs before were based on simple 2 dimensional bend wood, the next generation becomes more creative and 3 dimensional, as can be clearly seen in the Solo and more subtle in the Twist and Moxie.

Solo, Twist, Studio, Moxie

The Solo leads the pack and with the well controlled sound radiation, the bass reflex tuned for accuracy, the low resonance cabinet and the cross over tuned for neutrality. The Solo sounds "coherent with a correct tonal balance and harmony" as well summerized by Hi-Fi-Class. The Twist, Studio and Moxie exhibit the same characteristics and offer good value for money. Even though not many printed magazines exist anymore, the Solo was feutured on the cover of HVT magazine.

Wireless

We noticed that powered loudspeakers had become popular. No wonder. A DSP brings huge sound quality advantages and the combination with WiFI and streaming made active loudspeakers very attractive solutions. Being no stranger to electronics, Davone set out to develop its own wireless solutions based on WiSA technology. After an intensive development process of over two years, during which we performed many functional, reliability and blind listening tetst, we found the optimal solutions for the Davone loudspeakers.

Meander, Solo, Twist, Studio

The Meander was to become the first Davone speaker with WiFi build in, celebrating the event with it's stunning yet functional design. The very good sound quality was noted by reviewers and later awarded all in one product of the year 2022 by Hifi+ UK. The Meander had become a great allround product that we are very pround of. The WiSA solutions found their place in the Solo, Twist and Studio, further improving their sound quality and functionality. And the experiences with our DSP corrected loudspeakers was to be inspirational for further developments. For active as well as passive loudspeakers.

Present day

The quest for the best sound is never ending. Exploring new ideas with a lot of determination and passion is our routine. And with our small scale and flexible production in Denmark, we always find a way to realize our usually challanging ideas in actual products. So stay tuned. Follow us in social media or just visit this website to see the latest innovations.

Reference Line

About 10 years after introducing the Grande, the new Reference One was introduced in January 2023, showcasing all we learned since the early beginnings. Awarded by HiFi+, the Reference One is followed by the Reference Two in May 2024.