Vifa

Vifa is a Danish consumer electronics company that designs and manufactures high-end audio products. It was founded in 1933 by N.C.Madsen, manufacturing driver units for many high-end brands until 2014, when it made a transition into making its own wireless speakers. It launched a line-up of Bluetooth systems in 2014 and 2016 which are named after the capital cities of Scandinavian nations.^[1]

History

Vifa was founded in 1933 in Denmark by N.C. Madsen, a car mechanic in a small town called Videbæk in Denmark. He founded his brand inspired by the name of his city, "Videbæk Højttaler-fabrik" or Vifa, which could be translated as "Videbæk's loudspeaker factory". Madsen often visited his two brothers who worked at Bang & Olufsen, and all three brothers conducted experiments to develop loudspeakers for Bang & Olufsen, which until that point was supplied by a company in Frankfurt, Germany.

In 1950, Vifa entered into a collaboration with the Norwegian distributor SEAS, to which it supplied chassis until 1980. Encouraged by this partnership, in 1980 Vifa launched its own identity and launched a complete range of loudspeakers, which made it one of the major players in the sector in Europe.

After the acquisition of Scan-Speak in 1987, Vifa moved towards the production of high-quality products. In 1994, the company launched a membrane coupling technology with non-resonant suspension and a non-resonant pentagon-shaped membrane.

In 1999, Vifa launched its star product, the Ring Radiator of the XT series, previously developed by Scan-Speak but rejected because it did not perform well. This 25mm coil tweeter was adopted by many manufacturers. Scan-Speak then resumed the development of this product to release a version under its own name, which was more sophisticated and more expensive.

In 2000, Vifa and Peerless merged to form Danish Sound Technology with the manufacturing being moved to China under Tymphany hk.^[2] Tymphany abandoned 60% of Vifa loudspeakers and sold it under the name of Peerless V-Line, subsequently reassigning Vifa to work on its own speaker system and home theatre systems, essentially placing all transducers designed and manufactured by Tymphany in their China factory under the over-arching Peerless brand, regardless of quality.

In 2014, Vifa announced its first wireless speaker, Copenhagen, which uses textiles by the Danish textile manufacturer, Kvadrat, and supports Apple Airplay.^[3] In the same year, Vifa announced a new design for its logo to go in conjunction with its newer brand identity of being simplistic and stylish.

In 2016, Vifa announced its newest addition to their wireless speaker lineup which is the Oslo, Stockholm and stylish yet feminine looking, Helsinki.^[4]

Operations

After creating a new identity for their brand in 2014, Vifa started producing their own exclusive Wireless bluetooth speakers with the first being Oslo, followed by the portable bluetooth speaker, Helsinki in 2016 and Hi-Fi bookshelf speaker, Copenhagen and Hi-Fi soundbar, Stockholm.

Vifa speakers are designed in Denmark

Products

• Helsinki
• Oslo
• Copenhagen
• Stockholm

Collaboration with other brands

Vifa has collaborated with Danish textile brand, Kvadrat, to produce its wireless Bluetooth speakers.

Throughout the century, Vifa produced several high-end speaker drivers which are used by brands like Aerial Acoustics and Apogee Electronics.

See also

• Bang & Olufsen
• Dali
• Cambridge Audio

References