Sigberg Audio is a relatively young Norwegian company that, in its short existence, has developed some remarkable speaker systems. Remarkable in appearance, construction and with a remarkably realistic music experience. Not surprisingly, their active modular systems are attracting more and more enthusiasts. How did it all come about? This is the story of Thorbjørn Sigberg, founder and owner of Sigberg Audio. | Voor Nederlands, klik hier

Sigberg Audio

Thorbjørn Sigberg has been most passionate about music and hi-fi for many years. He does, however, not come from the music industry, but has a background in IT and product development. This has contributed to his ability to develop high quality and commercially attractive products in a short amount of time. His attitude of "I've never done this before, so I think I can do it" and "What you can do, I can probably do better" are appropriate criteria for starting his own business. That these were indeed good criteria is perhaps best underscored by the nickname "Wizard of Ås" that was given to him by his early fans.

Sigberg Audio's active adventure officially begins in 2020 with the solution to a problem faced by many music lovers. The desire to experience full range music with deep and powerful bass at home. However, not every music lover is in a position to equip their living room with bulky subwoofers. This was the beginning of a bold journey for Thorbjørn to develop a subwoofer with a compact design that would be easier to place in a living environment and still deliver sublime performance. After the successful launch of the INKOGNITO subwoofer in 2020, the company, based in the university town of Ås south of Oslo, has taken off.

Since then, the company has been passionate about developing an active speaker system that provides the best spatial music experience in the living room without placing speakers in an impossible position in the room. A no-nonsense speaker system built with modern science and honest materials. The company uses high quality internal components, high quality manufacturing partners and knowledgeable consultants. In 2021 this results in the launch of the Sigberg SBS.1 3.5-way active loudspeakers, especially designed for combined use with a subwoofer. This system delivers a sublime sound experience with considerable dynamic reserves. At the same time, the company releases the Sigberg Audio 10D 10-inch subwoofer. At the time one of the most compact and powerful active subwoofers available on the market. 

In 2022, the young family business moves to larger premises with a warehouse, workshop and showroom/listening room. In 2023, the company celebrates the birth of the now highly acclaimed Sigberg Audio Manta cardioid loudspeaker system. According to Sigberg, it is the best and most dynamic cardioid loudspeaker system available today. We recently published a full review of these Sigberg Audio Manta loudspeakers. After four years of good reviews and especially positive feedback from users, Sigberg celebrates its fourth anniversary by introducing the second generation of the acclaimed INKOGNITO subwoofer.

Norwegian craftmanship

Every Sigberg Audio loudspeaker system is designed, tested, tuned and assembled in Norway. While many manufacturers carry out this process down to the smallest detail in-house, Sigberg Audio takes a different approach. The manufacturer prefers to use specialized suppliers. The applied drivers are retrieved from OEM suppliers such as Scan Speak, Sica and Wavecor. Finally, the amplification of the active loudspeakers comes from the Netherlands and is purchased by Hypex. The production of loudspeaker cabinets is outsourced to manufacturing partners in the EU. To meet the growing demand for loudspeaker systems, the production of enclosures has recently been moved from the UK to a higher quality production facility in Estonia. 

In the design phase of any loudspeaker system, Sigberg focuses on the reproduction of a wide, three-dimensional soundstage. The music should sound lush and spacious throughout the room and not be tied to the speakers themselves. In order to achieve optimal dispersion in the important mid-range, Sigberg Audio uses coaxial mid-high drivers that provide a point source effect with optimal timing and phase response. This results in a wide and extremely precise stereo image. Not just the dispersion characteristics of the loudspeakers are important, the room also has a major influence on the overall music experience.

When conventional loudspeakers are placed too close to the walls, room reflections obscure the sound image and especially have a detrimental effect on the bass reproduction. Sigberg has found an effective solution to tackle this problem. By limiting the speakers to around 100 Hertz in the low frequency range, they can be positioned in such a way that the imaging properties are maximized and the midrange remains undisturbed. Why is this a clever move? In the frequency range between 100 and 500 Hertz the vast majority of the male and female vocal range is reproduced. Moreover, in this important frequency range percussion dominates and adds to drive, attack and punch in the music. Finally, it puts less strain on the bass drivers, allowing them to reproduce the midrange with much more control and nuance.

To add deep bass, simply place additional subwoofers where they sound best and are out of sight. With the latest Manta loudspeakers, Sigberg Audio offers a modular 4-way loudspeaker system in which each driver is driven by its own Hypex nCore amplifier, making it a quad-amp configuration. The manufacturer uses digital crossovers to achieve a smooth transition with better response, higher sensitivity and a significantly wider dynamic range than most passive systems. The ideal sonic balance is then determined with the so-called "voicing" of the speakers, one of the most important parts in the loudspeaker design.

According to the manufacturer, this "voicing" process cannot be achieved by measuring or listening alone. Both disciplines and the ability to make quick adjustments are important, and sometimes a good idea does not work in practice, resulting in a final product that differs significantly from the initial starting point. After all, the speakers should always reproduce the music with the best possible sound quality, not only with audiophile albums, but especially with "regular" music albums and regardless of the music taste. Thanks to the slightly warmer and fuller sound balance of the Sigberg loudspeaker models, even older and less produced albums sound very musical. It is not that Sigberg's designs polish-up poorly produced music albums unrealistically. Inferior quality remains inferior quality after all, but this does not mean that it has to sound unpleasant to the ears. If the sound balance is still not optimal at home, every Sigberg Audio speaker or subwoofer allows you to adjust it manually with a built-in equalizer.

Wizardry from Ås

In the relatively short time that the company has been in operation, several fine products have gone from the development stage to the final product. The first product, as already mentioned, is the slim INKOGNITO subwoofer, which weighs 22 kilograms and can be mounted to the wall, but due to its shallow depth, it can also be placed on its side and hidden under furniture. Despite its limited size of 54 x 65 x 17 centimeters (without feet), this subwoofer delivers a frequency range of approximately 18 to 250 Hertz (+/- 3dB) and a sound pressure level of 113 decibels, thanks to the use of a 12-inch bass driver.

Sigberg Audio recommends using one subwoofer per channel for the best possible music experience. Due to the compact design, these subwoofers won’t be roadblocks. The 27-kilogram 10D subwoofer has a more conventional look, and its small size of 36 x 37 x 41 centimeters (without feet) allows it to be easily slid behind the sofa. The subwoofer's twin 10-inch drivers deliver a frequency range of approximately 16 to 250 Hertz (- 3dB). The modest looking 10D also produces a sound pressure level of a whopping 117 decibels. This makes it one of the most compact subwoofers offering such a wide dynamic range. 

The versatility of Sigberg Audio's subwoofers does not end there. They can be driven by XLR, RCA or a high speaker signal. This means that the subwoofers do not have to be driven solely by the signal pass-through of the SBS.1 or Manta systems, but can be perfectly combined with a high-end AV processor from Marantz, Primare, Storm Audio or Trinnov.

SBS.1

The Sigberg Audio SBS.1 active 2.5-way loudspeaker is the first commercially available monitor loudspeaker from the manufacturer. Not only for hi-fi enthusiasts or pro audio engineers, but also for movie fans to create a great sounding home theater environment. Whether you use an analog preamplifier, a streamer with a variable line output, or a surround processor with RCA or XLR outputs, the SBS.1 can handle it all. In addition, the SBS.1 is equipped with a digital AES EBU, optical or coaxial S/PDIF connection, which makes it easier than ever to control them in your specific setup. The Sigberg SBS.1 also offers the possibility to send the analog and digital signal directly to the subwoofer making it most easy to setup in your living room.

Measuring 19 by 41 by 23 centimeters, the 9.5-kilogram SBS.1 speakers feature two 5.5-inch woofers and a 1-inch soft-dome tweeter. The tweeter is coaxially mounted in the center of the upper mid-bass driver for optimum dispersion. The drivers are powered by a 3-channel nCore amplifier, with each driver having its own amplifier for a total of 350 watts of power. These 2.5-way active loudspeakers offer a frequency response of 100 to 20,000 Hertz with an accuracy of 1-decibel and are shipped in matched pairs. Add a subwoofer to create a 3.5-way full-range speaker system that can reproduce low frequencies down to 18 hertz (-3 dB). The SBS.1 also features a 9-band equalizer that allows you to manually tune the speakers to your room characteristics when not using automatic room correction. Read more about the development of the Sigberg Audio SBS.1 loudspeaker here. 

The active Sigberg Audio Manta loudspeakers have been developed with the same modular concept in mind, but with a different thought than the SBS.1 loudspeaker models. In fact, the latter look a bit conservative and safe. Maybe even boring to some. The slots milled into the cabinet make this modular 4-way Manta look much more progressive and anything but boring. However, these slots are not for looks, but to create a cardioid dispersion pattern. An increasingly common technique that makes it easier to place the loudspeaker in the room, as this technique makes these loudspeakers less obtrusive. Many manufacturers use electronics, Sigberg Audio uses an acoustic method that sounds much more natural to my ears. 

You can find our review of the Sigberg Manta here

Measuring 36 by 60 by 35 centimeters, the 3-way Manta features a 12-inch woofer, a 5.5-inch midrange driver and a 1-inch silk dome tweeter. The midrange drivers have a coaxial construction and each driver is equipped with its own nCore power amplification, allowing the speakers to deliver up to 600 watts of power per channel. The twenty-five kilogram speakers deliver a frequency range of 100 to 20,000 Hertz with +/- 1 decibel accuracy and are supplied as matched pairs. Combined with a Sigberg subwoofer, the modular Manta becomes a 4-way system and delivers a frequency range that now starts at 18 Hertz (-3 dB). As with the SBS.1, the analog and digital audio signals are simply routed to the optional subwoofer with just one additional cable. More information about the Sigberg Audio Manta loudspeakers can be found here. 

New for 2025 is the Sigberg Audio Saranna active floorstanding loudspeaker. There is not much information available yet, except for the announcement on the manufacturer's website. If its performance is even close to that of the SBS.1 or the Manta, this new loudspeaker could cause quite a stir. If you are interested in learning more about this new Sigberg Audio Saranna, click here. 

Verdict

Sigberg Audio is a new kid on the block and born in the land of hardened Viking warriors who conquered continents, chilled the hearts of the populace with fear and left an indelible impression on nations history. This was remarkably done without huge marketing budgets, but with persuasion and above all, sublime engineering and cutting-edge technology. Now, a few thousand years later, Norway is conquering the world again, but this time with a more gentle approach to the battle for eardrums in the hi-fi industry, and you can bet Sigberg Audio is breaking hearts in the process. Founder and spiritual father Thorbjørn Sigberg is a music lover with thunderous ears, and this "Bear of Thor" will stop at nothing to conquer the world with his active loudspeaker creations.

Their success is not the result of black magic or forged with Viking blood by the northern lights in any way, but rather a unique blend of art and pure science. Sigberg's systems sound extremely spacious due to their unique and distinctive design, and sound right directly out of the box. I experienced this myself while reviewing a pair of cardioid Manta loudspeakers. Despite the fact that the manufacturer delivers the speakers directly to the end user, the EU pricing is rather steep at first glance and is partly due to import duties. But as soon as you hear the first notes of a music album, you will forget about the price tag completely. The music experience that a set of active Sigberg Audio loudspeakers brings into your life is unparalleled in this price range.

For whom are Sigberg Audio speaker systems an interesting choice? If you have a home studio and have been struggling with the sound quality in your room for years, then this is a brand name to remember. If you are a music lover who is not afraid to go off the beaten track in search of the best possible sound reproduction, then you will also be most happy with a set of speakers from Sigberg Audio. If the design meets your personal taste. With the announcement of the new Saranna full range floorstanding loudspeakers, the manufacturer offers a brand-new speaker in its product portfolio that look the part and will probably answer to the same philosophy. If so, I am looking forward to listening to them myself. Unfortunately, I cannot (yet) go to a local distributor or agent to plan a listening session anytime soon. Maybe this is the perfect moment for me to plan a trip to Norway for the first time in my life to listen to the new Sarannas in the land of Ås. Followed by a trip on two or four wheels along the fjords and immerse myself in Norwegian culture in one of the beautiful medieval towns. Regardless the way I plan my trip to Sigberg Audio, goose bumps will be guaranteed. | website: sigbergaudio.no