JAMO IN AUSTRALIA

So initially focused on international distribution was Jamo that it hadn’t made its speakers widely available in its home market, until representatives of Tone Electronic began distribution — and among the team was a young Dane called Michael Henriksen, who had been building his own loudspeakers and importing car stereos since the age of 17.

“I started in the industry in 1977 for a company called Tone Electronic, which was the first representative for Jamo in Denmark,” Michael recalled to

Electrical Connection magazine in 2011. “We grew 300% each year for four consecutive years. It was unbelievable.”

After visiting Australia and doing market research for Scandinavian brands, he persuaded Jamo’s export department to give him the exclusive agency for Australia, with the first shipment arriving in November 1982. He set up in Melbourne “because of the weather… It is very like Denmark so I don’t feel homesick”, and so was born Scan Audio, which gathered about 15 Danish brands to its distribution stable including Jamo, Dali, Peerless and DynAudio. “Basically everything except Bang & Olufsen,” says Henriksen, who today heads QualiFi — and still represents Jamo in Australia. He sends us the picture above of the Scan Audio staff in 1989 — “half of them are still with me 25 years later”, he notes.