Sometime before 2020, Lars Kristensen—a longtime representative of the Nordost brand—and Michal Børresen, who had earned his stripes as an inventive designer (among other things for Raidho, despite also having designed airport baggage trolleys and other unconventional projects), agreed to collaborate, and thus Audio Group Denmark was born. The group encompasses Ansuz (a manufacturer of cables and accessories), Aavik (which produces electronics), Børresen (loudspeaker systems), and Axxess (a complete offering aimed at relative affordability).
At the beginning of 2025, we had the opportunity to spend four days in Aalborg, Denmark (two of which were filled with listening sessions and production demonstrations), supposedly mainly to understand how the four mentioned brands, with their philosophy and approach, differ from what is typically seen in the industry.
The chance to sit down and chat over lunch with Mr. Børresen and Mr. Rasmussen (whom you know as the owner of Gryphon Audio), with Kristensen himself—whose unbridled energy guided us for most of the time—was not only interesting but also truly beneficial, as their approach is in many ways completely outside the usual standards of the audio world.
The factory building, with a floor area of 2,500 m² (plus an additional 2,000 m² of external warehouse at the other end of Aalborg), is located in an industrial area roughly in the center of the city. At first glance, it doesn’t look particularly impressive and nothing suggests that a truly extensive portfolio is being produced here. Yet the vast majority of the offerings are indeed manufactured on-site – except for the cabinets, which come from China (because it’s the only country with sufficiently advanced CNC machines and other technologies), and the Axxess accessories, which are too inexpensive for production in Denmark.
What is Ansuz?
The Ansuz brand’s product range is primarily focused on cables of every kind—from affordable options to extraordinarily expensive active models—but it also emphasizes power regulation and resonance control. This is because these factors are considered extremely crucial at AGD. They claim that the suppression (or rather, “control rather than elimination”) of both mechanical and electrical interference is essential for achieving clean sound and should be the very first step.
What is Aavik?
Under the name Aavik, you’ll find nearly twenty components ranging from integrated amplifiers to split systems and digital signal sources—and now you can also purchase genuine phono preamplifiers. Their electronics are built on an unconventional approach to power supplies, unsurprisingly based on extensive filtration—not using the traditional large transformers and capacitors, but rather a variety of small coils in quantities ranging from tens to hundreds.
What is Børresen?
Børresen is a brand that focuses exclusively on passive loudspeaker systems. All of their products share a more or less consistent basic design, yet across five product lines you can find solutions ranging from a compact bookshelf model priced at around 400,000 CZK to massive floor-standing speakers in the multi-million category (for example, the M6 model costs approximately 13,000,000 CZK per pair, and an even roughly twice as expensive M8 is in the works). It is clearly aimed at the high-end market.
What is Axxess?
Axxess—the name itself being a wordplay on the English term for “affordability”—clearly reveals its focus. It combines electronics, loudspeaker systems, and cables, all derived from the portfolios of the aforementioned brands but in a noticeably simplified form. The result is a smaller selection and simpler solutions, yet with the same signature style.
DAY 1
The first morning unfolded in the spirit of an informal “pouring session” on the theme of “what’s what” – exploring which technologies truly distinguish AGD, why it takes such distinctly different approaches, and what the seemingly peripheral accessories like Sparkz, Darkz, or Sortz are all about.
After lunch in the factory canteen (imagine the breakfast area of a truly beautiful, Nordic-clean hotel—not the typical corporate canteen in the Czech sense of the word), the listening session began.
It started with the complete Axxess portfolio, followed—after a coffee break—by an exploration of Ansuz’s cabling and power filtration systems, and then the first tasting of the Aavik I-588 (integrated amplifier) + P-588 (power amplifier) + SD-880 (streaming DAC) models on Børresen C3 speakers from the middle row of columns.
The highlight of the day was the Irish Bar—a small facility in the heart of the factory where Gin & Tonic is served, chilled using the same technology that performs cryogenic treatment on the company’s cables and other components
DAY 2
The next day was just as packed. The morning program began with the rest of Aavik's electronics – specifically the Unity models, which are integrated amplifiers equipped with a complete digital feature set, if you will. The differences between the U-188, U-288, and U-588 are astonishing, even though they essentially differ only in the scaling of the internal filtration (well, also in some of the materials used in the chassis). The concept is otherwise identical…
This was followed by Lars Kristensen's "monitor show," where the entire range of two-way speakers was showcased – from the Axxess L1 priced in the mid tens of thousands up to the Børresen M1, which costs millions of crowns – and then by a technical discussion over lunch with Flemming Rasmussen (ex-Gryphon) and Michael Børresen. The slightly informal atmosphere worked wonders, and you learned a great deal.
The afternoon was focused on the company's top-of-the-line models: the 880 series (integrated I-880 and phono R-880), the D-TC3 Gold Signature cabling (active cables made with extreme materials), and the T and M series loudspeaker systems along with subwoofers. These are models that the company doesn’t even have on its website yet…
And what is Audio Group Denmark based on?
After four days of both formal work and “after-work” sessions, we’d say it’s built on “open minds.” In other words, both the leading figures and the everyday staff are committed to using the materials and methods that, in their view, deliver the best performance. There’s no dogma here…
That’s why they decided that the new generation of products would contain no aluminum (or only the absolutely necessary minimum), because, according to them, it simply doesn’t perform well. How did they come to that conclusion? They claim that if you can feel a material, you’ll know how it will behave. Hence, the abundant use of copper and titanium.
Or, for example, consider the fact that the cables essentially use the same coaxial conductors—in the basic models, they’re simply copper, while in the top-tier versions they’re additionally silver- and gold-plated, etc. The braiding geometry is so complex that Michael Børresen built a custom machine for it in his garage—and that machine has remained there, the only one of its kind in the world. It’s run by Mr. Børresen Sr. as a part-time endeavor in his retirement.
Incidentally, the machine used for Tesla coils is also unique—a small, unassuming one… yet practically irreplaceable.
Another fascinating aspect is their relentless drive to “accelerate” everything—from the signal flow through the cables to the energy throughput in converters, and so on. The magnetic system in their speakers, which goes so far as to meticulously avoid any iron components, is designed to minimize inductance (just like the cables), and they claim it achieves only 8–15% of the inductance typically found in products from companies such as Scan-Speak, SEAS, SB Acoustics, and others. And while we’re on the subject of converters, for the M series they even manufacture their own organic driver baskets using 3D-printed titanium.
When it comes to materials, they eagerly rely on ultra-premium options—titanium, zirconium, ceramics, tungsten… and even Bakelite, in the new generation of cables and various accessories.
What’s truly fascinating is that they don’t pretend to know it all. Through careful listening and curiosity (they claim to follow in the footsteps of Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla), they discovered, for example, that the primary supply cable performs better when it’s 4 m long rather than the usual 2 m. Or that in the new generation of Sparkz accessories they use resonant coils tuned to Schumann frequencies—especially 432 and 528 Hz. They believe in the power of the numbers 3, 6, and 9, which they say define harmony. And they simply state that rather than endlessly investigating why an Ethernet cable or a supply cable behaves a certain way—or why a single tiny bead placed on the corner of a component can change the sound—they just adjust things accordingly. They’re happy to demonstrate this to anyone who comes by—as they did for us, when on the I-880, which features an impressively robust chassis construction, Kristensen placed a layer of select MDF with a special surface treatment. The sound changed… Then he added (without permanently fixing it) a layer of woven carbon fiber…and once again, the sound shifted. Finally, he switched to Darkz. Change? Yes… Voodoo? Certainly. Functional? Absolutely!
The acoustic findings were equally startling. They claim that conventional solutions—such as bass traps—actually “kill” the sound. To show us that this is indeed the case, Kristensen placed a stand for bookshelf speakers in the bare corner of an approximately 70 m² room. And the sound decidedly worsened… Not drastically, but noticeably. That’s why, at AGD, those seemingly untreated spaces are equipped with only a few diffusers placed at the specific heights where they say acoustic elements have one sole purpose.
And ideas like these flowed from Kristensen and Børresen day after day…
Just as an aside—we also touched upon the recording industry and the apparent lack of respect that many of the gentlemen have for sound technicians. Part of the listening sessions included a demonstration of the phase inversion function on recordings. On more than one occasion, it turned out that dozens (!) of well-known tracks were recorded with the phase set incorrectly. When you correct it, suddenly the bass becomes incredibly tight, the midrange crystal clear, and the overall sound fantastic. And with the wrong phase? It sounds “old.
How was it at Audio Group Denmark?
The visit to the chilly North was definitely an interesting experience. In Aalborg, the company is developing dynamically—a company that isn’t huge (although 60 employees isn’t exactly a small number either)—yet it offers a portfolio of hundreds of products, not a single one of which appears pointless. We were extremely impressed by how their solutions are designed as a complete whole—not that the individual components wouldn’t work on their own, but the synergy you experience when they operate together is undeniable.
Moreover, the company’s enormous financial backing allows them to continuously attract fresh talent (AGD is constantly luring in experts with years of experience—and thus know-how—from companies like Nordost, IsoTek, Gryphon, CH Precision, Dali, Burmester, and others), which further reflects in their flourishing product range.
In any case, if you haven’t yet had the opportunity to experience the products from this consortium, we highly recommend you do so… It’s just as enjoyable an experience as the factory tour in Aalborg.
