1. The story of Electrocompaniet
The early days…
At an AES conference in 1973, Dr. Matti
Otala presented a paper describing a distor
-
tion that he termed Transient Intermodulation
(TIM). Attending this conference was Svein
Erik Børja, a Norwegian record and broad
-
casting producer and a great audio enthusiast.
The seminar held by Dr. Otala on TIM
provided Svein Erik with an explanation of
the audible imperfections he had experienced
from audio amplifiers. Svein Erik Børja
brought the AES papers to Electrocompaniet,
and asked if we could make an amplifier
based on Dr. Otala’s theory.
A few prototype amplifiers were made and the
sound, compared to other transistor amplifiers,
was encouraging. But Svein Erik Børja, being
the perfectionist he was, felt that this amplifier
design approach had a greater potential. At
that time we did not know too much about
high-end audio designs. This gave an element
of neutrality to our research, which we believe
contributed to the amplifier’s success. We
consider our audio designers from that time to
have been the first in what may be called the
new ‘TIM-free’ school.
The next 3 years went to further research and
design improvement. During this time we had
to develop a new ‘language’ to translate what
we were hearing, into practical design param
-
eters (distortion, frequency response etc.) A
new mathematical equation was developed
to better describe the AC (music) character
-
istics of the transistor, rather than the normal
DC characteristics. The result of this work
culminated in the launch of our first 2 x 25W
unit, “The 2 Channel Audio Power Amplifier.”
The final approval came in 1976 when the
American ‘bible’, The Audio Critic magazine,
tested the amplifier and wrote: “Audio freaks
– eat your hearts out. This is the world’s best
sounding amplifier.”
Since these early days, Electrocompaniet’s
designs have been continually improved and
our product programme has steadily grown.
Today we are represented in 36 countries
worldwide and our products are considered to
be among the very best in the audio industry.
The vision that drove us in the early days has
stayed:
If the music really matters....
Intro
