Each double cardboard box housed a speaker inside a cloth bag between two foam cradles which also locked a magnetized grill in place. The upper deck stored a box with four footers and eight bolts. The process of attaching these to the enclosure was quick and straightforward. All in, the packaging was the industry's simple yet secure standard. I have my ways of single-handedly managing such shipments so extracting today's speakers from their coffins wasn't too difficult though clearly is usually a job for two. To get basics ticked off, Frigg 02 weighs 30kg and measures 98.5 x 21 x 37cm HxWxD with the stock footers. The maker declares 90dB sensitivity, 29Hz – 30kHz response and 8Ω nominal impedance never below 3.8Ω. This paints the picture of a regularly sized if heavy speaker that promises very low reach and easy loading. Then again, generous bass extension from a compact cabinet predicted otherwise.

Verdande and Icon 12 are horn-loaded two-ways, Frigg 02 is a three-way whose bass, midrange and treble bands are covered by transducers customized by fellow Norwegians SEAS. Starting at the bottom, a 220mm woofer rocks a 52mm titanium voice coil former to lower inductance behind a hand-coated paper cone. The midrange features an inverted surround and phase plug while its titanium former and membrane carry over from the woofer simply shrunk down to 26/180mm respectively. The tweeter is a 'metamodal spread-tow carbon-fibre' dome developed to combat breakup modes while its patented DXT waveguide optimized for directivity control broadens dispersion to undermine beaming. It's worth noting that SEAS drivers aren't exactly affordable and tailoring them to a singular project isn't immaterial either. So props to Jonathan and Sveinung for their effort.

We don't learn much about Frigg 02's crossover other than it being a hybrid low-order network of Jantzen's fancy Z-Cap and Cross-Cap capacitors, Superes resistors and coils from Jantzen's Iron Core Coil range all connected point to point. The enclosure is a bottom-ported veneered or painted MDF build with multiple braces and damping materials to minimize internal modes. This makes Frigg 02 a racy trapezoidal looker tilted towards the rear and gently narrower near the top which contains a large rear-aiming opening for the midrange to generate dipole dispersion. The view in the flesh is very nice, overall execution and attention to detail high. That's where the devil lives after all and Jonathan and Sveinung seem to know the fella well. The aluminium nameplate on the back rocks classy and robust binding posts I've not seen before while four steel legs elevate the already sporty aesthetics. I found these touches meaningful. Although a matter of taste, I also think that today's Scandinavian minimalists will fit many living rooms. As for its name, Norse mythology portrays goddess Frigg as Odin's wife associated with marriage, prophecy, clairvoyance and motherhood. It turns out that this good wife can also sing when disguised as a speaker.

My setup comprised an Innuos Statement server/streamer, LampizatOr Horizon360 DAC and Trilogy 915R/995R pre/power combo. My FirstWatt F7 and Enleum AMP-23R were out for reasons coming up. At the local AVS show this speaker was driven by twin Electrocompaniet AW800M stereo amps. When strapped to mono, these hulks do 300/600wpc into 8/4Ω and boast a damping factor of 1'000. That's very high, times two. I mention this because Ø Audio's newcomer doesn't read like a hairy load. In practice, its makers' decision to use monstrous amplification was far from gratuitous. They knew their load. To produce bass this big, generously extended and clean, a mid-sized woofer inside a compact ported enclosure demands control. Knowing this, I had a firm notion that in my room Frigg 02 wouldn't strut with the same sass and swagger. No matter. The prospect of having lots of fun with this unusual speaker was still on the table.