"I deliberately waited to get in contact, actually. I wanted your review to be online when we finally had stock in September. Since the S400 launched, we've had a hard time keeping up. It's been so successful that it's hard for me to even comprehend.
"For a small company who did pretty well with the S300 to now sell thousands of S400 worldwide is a dream come true. But going from a smaller production line of hundreds to now thousands was a pretty big leap almost overnight. Hence we've struggled with delivering to such an unexpected demand to be forced to run pre-order campaigns far longer than we would have liked.
"But, if you're ready to get a pair soon, I would be, too. I do have a pair that's broken in."
In a few short sentences, we've learnt just how mad people are about the new Mads speaker. Who needs reviews when word of mouth alone jams up that order line?
Such demand reiterates how Mads has his little finger on the pulse of what a bigger majority of listeners around the globe really want: a traditional box monitor stuffed with quality Dansk-designed drivers from SB Acoustics and sufficient bass reach and power to, for all realistic intents and purposes, act full-range, no subwoofer required.
How does a small Danish brand pull this off aside from good design?
"Our focus is purely on consistent performance and quality. For this, we outsource production to a company that knows what they're doing and can handle the large scale of production we need.
"This is the respected Danish-Chinese-owned Hansong factory in China's Nanjing. They have extensive experience in manufacturing for some of the most well-known high-end brands in the world!"
[And yes, in the following video there are no speaker cables which doesn't actually work in case you were wondering. But you do get to see the matching stands – Ed.]
"To us it is of vital importance that the production facility we use offers the best working conditions for the employees. Hansong offer special healthcare benefits to all employees along with apartments and free electric bus rides to the city. Hansong are ISO 9001 certified and have facilities in China, Denmark and USA. Our assembled products are shipped to our Danish warehouse where we do a last QC check before shipping to our customers. By being a half Danish factory, it's not a cheap place to manufacture but their quality is fantastic. Visiting there and seeing what brands they manufacture for was an absolute shock. It's sad to see so many people still believe that made in China = cheap crap and bad working conditions. It was true 20 years ago and possibly still is at some factories. The labor cost there is about 40-50% lower than in Denmark but their workers are only charged 4% income tax, not our Danish 40%. So it's not poor exploited people like many think. All workers I saw had iPhone X. For customers who really want their speakers to be made in Denmark, we do offer our Signature editions with a few other upgrades and differences. Fun fact, these are actually made by me and my brother so the labor cost is Danish again."
Here are some shots from a Mads visit to the factory.
Clearly the recipe of offshore production + direct sales is the only way to globally compete at this level.
The end result is the S400 speaker which easily slips into a normal home. The moral of this story? Many people with nice homes care about an attractive decor. They can't stand placing two sarcophagi aka hifi refrigerators into their living rooms. If this Buchardt can do the job, why would anyone sane pursue something bigger, heavier and costlier? That's a far better question to put to suicidal old Hamlet.
