There is this gentlemen who is thinking of purchasing a BM 5000 from me. He tells me that "back in the day" as he put it, Sonab used to manufacture speakers for B&O. I almost fell over in shock and reprimanded him severely for his blasphemy! He maintains that Sonab did make speakers for B&O and that Sonab were better than B&O. Is there any truth to this?? Of course he's not getting the BM 5000, don't care how much he offers me!! He must suffer the consequences!! lol!!!

He's most likely talking about the speaker elements, I'm sure B&O never made them themselves as "components". Some speaker manufacturers actually make their own speaker elements, ELAC is one example. 

I don't think Sonab ever made elements either, so I don't think there's any truth behind this. I won't bet on it though, the original drivers in Beomaster 900K for example were made in Sweden. And yes Andreas, B&O made drivers as well, already before any one of us was born

Anyway, many of Sonab's Carlsson era speakers were quite good. The 'orthoacoustic' models with multiple tweeters pointed everywhere could also be considered technically somewhat similar to Beovox cube based setups, although at a later time...

tournedos:

I don't think Sonab ever made elements either, so I don't think there's any truth behind this. I won't bet on it though, the original drivers in Beomaster 900K for example were made in Sweden. And yes Andreas, B&O made drivers as well, already before any one of us was born

Anyway, many of Sonab's Carlsson era speakers were quite good. The 'orthoacoustic' models with multiple tweeters pointed everywhere could also be considered technically somewhat similar to Beovox cube based setups, although at a later time...

Just as I thought. I've never listened to Sonab speakers and I will admit I had never heard of them before this person mentioned them but I have googled Sonab, they aren't very pretty speakers to look at! They most certainately haven't dated as well as B&O speakers of the same era....maybe I'm biased but I like myself that way!! lol!

Sonab seem to have used Peerless and Seas units as B&O did.  Given the rivalry between Sweden and Denmark I'd be amazed if this were the case.  I think he just means that Sonab used the same components as B&O - which is fair enough, but some of their speakers are ugly.  Apparently they sound quite good though.

Dave.

Ask him how he knows and which era or even speakers they made drivers for. If he is so adamant he must know more?!

Step1:

Ask him how he knows and which era or even speakers they made drivers for. If he is so adamant he must know more?!

It was the same era as these speakers below. He says that Sonab manufactured the entire speaker for B&O, says the type stickers at the back of Sonab's are the same style as B&O. Like that means anything. I'm not sure how these Sonabs sound as it seems a bit odd to have the woofers etc....postioned in such a manner.

That is quite a story... All B&O speakers, were made at a couple of speaker factories in Denmark

For an example, my MS150.2's are made in a factory at a Danish town called Skjern, later found out that my neighbour worked at that factory

Was the factory wholey B&O owned or was the work farmed out?

As far as I know, the factory was owned and run by B&O

-Søren

tournedos:

I don't think Sonab ever made elements either, so I don't think there's any truth behind this. I won't bet on it though, the original drivers in Beomaster 900K for example were made in Sweden. And yes Andreas, B&O made drivers as well, already before any one of us was born

Anyway, many of Sonab's Carlsson era speakers were quite good. The 'orthoacoustic' models with multiple tweeters pointed everywhere could also be considered technically somewhat similar to Beovox cube based setups, although at a later time...

You are right Mika!

I so seldom think of B&O the way they used to be back in the old days.

BenSA:

Step1:

Ask him how he knows and which era or even speakers they made drivers for. If he is so adamant he must know more?!

 

It was the same era as these speakers below. He says that Sonab manufactured the entire speaker for B&O, says the type stickers at the back of Sonab's are the same style as B&O. Like that means anything. I'm not sure how these Sonabs sound as it seems a bit odd to have the woofers etc....postioned in such a manner.

These looks pretty much the same as Salora Orthoperspecta's center speaker from the 70's. Maybe the same make.

Pekka

majand:

These looks pretty much the same as Salora Orthoperspecta's center speaker from the 70's. Maybe the same make.

Pekka

Terve Pekka

They are not the same, at that time Salora made its own speakers (and obviously Sonab too). The Ortoperspekta center speakers were full range and otherwise rather conventional, only the woofer was on the top. Here's a link to one test (in Finnish), including a picture without frets.

There's a real B&O connection in them, though. For anyone not familiar with the Ortoperspekta system, it was developed by Tapio M Köykkä, a renowned audio engineer that did some pioneering work discovering TIM distortion, for example. In Ortoperspekta, the center speaker plays both R+L channels, and the stereo imaging is created by two satellite speakers, playing R-L and L-R. The satellite channels can be much lower power, and the system creates great spatial imaging into a wide listening area.

Köykkä (his company Voimaradio) patented the system in the early '60s. Now, the pseudo-quadraphonic systems introduced later - like B&O's Ambio system - work pretty much exactly the same when playing back 2-channel stereo, thus working against Köykkä's patent. B&O went through every court level with this and lost them all, and ended up paying Voimaradio for using the Ambio system (as did some other manufacturers).

Here's one example of Salora's line of Ortoperspekta systems, this one sporting a Thorens TD 160 record deck: