Hansen Audio: Canadian loudspeaker manufacturer Hansen Audio, best known for "high-end luxury lifestyle speakers," has named Wes Bender senior director of US sales and marketing. Hansen Audio was founded by Lars Hansen, a lifelong electrical engineer, who founded his first loudspeaker company, Legacy (not the contemporary company Legacy Audio of Springfield, IL), in the 1970s. He also worked at Alpine Audio and was president of Dahlquist. Hansen designed his company's $60,000/pair The King flagship loudspeaker to compete with—surpass, according to Bender—the best-known high-performance loudspeakers on the market. Each King boasts two proprietary, Hansen-built 10.6" woofers; two proprietary, Hansen-built 7.16" midband drivers; and a custom-built proprietary 1" dome tweeter—all tuned to be time- and dispersion-coherent and a relatively stable load at 6 ohms and 89dB sensitivity. The speakers have begun to generate buzz from CES and other trade shows, as well as reviews in online publications. Bender has been brought aboard to create a US dealer base for the line. Lars Hansen, the company's CEO said, "We're proud to be associated with one of the premier audio professionals in the US."
"I'm not surprised when people say, 'Does the world need another dynamic speaker?'" Bender said. "I thought that too—until I saw and heard The King. Then I said, 'Yes! The world needs this dynamic loudspeaker.'" Bender can be reached at (917) 803-5488 or via email at: wesb@hansenaudio.com. 2 Channel: Acoustic Sounds, Chad Kassem's growing Salina, KS audio empire has started a new wholesale distribution company, 2 Channel Distribution, which will be headed by Chuck Kennedy. 2 Channel will be the US distributor for Thorens, Sutherland Engineering, AcousTech Electronics, The Funk Firm, and Feickert—although Kennedy insists that 2 Channel has "plans to acquire more brands." Kennedy is a hi-fi veteran, having sold audio for more than 25 years in New Orleans, but, he said, "As the mainstream got further and further away from true quality two-channel audio, I wanted to get back to something I could be passionate about." He decided to join Acoustic Sounds when AS committed to name—and focus—the new company after what Kennedy and Kassem consider to be real music: two channel.
Thorens is a familiar name to audiophiles, having manufactured mechanical music devices from the time when state-of-the-art meant the wind-up music box. These days, Thorens offers 11 turntables, ranging in price from $399 to $5799, as well as a line of electronics and accessories. Sutherland is, of course, the company founded by Ron Sutherland, co-founder of MartinLogan and designer of the AcousTech PH-1P phono stage, the Sutherland Ph.D. phono stage, and the Sutherland Direct line stage—all long-time residents of Stereophile's Recommended Components list Funk is a new name, but its founder, Arthur Khoubesserian, is well known for his Pink Triangle turntable designs. Funk employs patented technologies, such as its Achroplat aerated construction, which offers enhanced damping for superior performance.
Feickert has introduced a universal tonearm protractor that excited Acoustic Sounds. The company insists the protractor system is "the best we've found for aligning your cartridge with ultimate accuracy in tonearms with an effective length from 8.6–17.7"." Even better, AS says, operation is simple and the results are "very rewarding." Retailers can reach 2 Channel Distribution at 785-820-2931 or via email at: chuck@2channeldistribution.com.
