THX ARENDAL, Handbook

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I was born and raised in Arendal 1978, Norway. As a kid I
enjoyed many activities, such as catching fi sh for my cat
Johnas, riding my bike, playing football and video games,
and hanging out with friends. Of course not a day went by
without wrestling with my older brother Dan Benny.
My dad, Jan, founded an electronic store in the 70´s and it
quickly became the top selling store of it’s kind throughout
Norway. On a good Saturday it was not unusual to sell
40-50 color TV’s, which were hot tech at the time. Today
he spends his elder days as a fi sherman, just like my
grandfather Olav before him.
During my younger days there was rarely a weekend when
I was not (somewhat reluctantly!) dragged out of bed on
a Saturday morning to help sell my grandfather’s catch
from the night before to the neighbourhood. I was often
told “your grandfather has caught a lot of fi sh, you need
to help him sell it”. Dragging all the fi sh with me, I walked
several kilometers and knocked on many doors utilizing
some maybe desperate sales tactics to charm the older
ladies. My customers may have felt sorry for me seeing
me walk around with fi sh, but I was able to sell them and
returned home with pockets full of money. My grandfather
gave me a cut of the sales so I could buy candy and save
the rest in order to purchase more audio products. These
were some of the best memories of my childhood.
As you may have guessed, I was introduced to the audio
world at a very early age. When I turned 14 I started to
work part time at my dad’s store. When your hobby is
electronics and you work in such an environment you
get the urge to purchase and test as many products as
you can, which I did with great joy. Normally, instead of a
paycheck, I brought home new speakers or amplifi ers that
had to be tested. My very fi rst setup was a stereo system
with some huge speakers which could play very loud.
It was hugely annoying to my mother. Does that sound
familiar?
It’s one thing to have fun with audio equipment, but
another very different thing to understand it. I studied
electronics for 8 years, graduated from Grimstad with an
engineering degree and was lucky enough to get a job in
the oil industry. After working in the oil industry for a
while, I knew that it wasn’t the fi eld for me. Audio was my
passion and that’s what I wanted to work with.
With 15 years of business experience in the audio industry
and after shipping tens of thousands of audio products
throughout Europe and beyond, I wanted something else.
Something of our own which had been lingering in the air
for many years. At our 10th anniversary, what better way
to celebrate and continue the story, than with the release
of our own speaker brand?
The idea of Arendal Sound was born.
It was no coincidence. We’ve spent years researching,
listening to our customers, planning, developing,
engineering and investing in Arendal Sound. I always
wanted our team to have something to be extraordinarily
proud of and enthusiastic about. It had to be something
that was based on solid acoustic engineering principles
STORY OF ARENDAL