| The RESPONS LOUDSPEAKERS's founder Reidar Persson developed his passion for music when he started visiting Gothenburg Concert hall regularly in the 70's while he studied Chemistry In Gothenburg. This became such a frequent pleasure that he visited Gothenburg Concert hall up to two times a week and had a private seat there until 1980. He also enjoyed concerts frequently at: Snape Maltings Concert Hall - Aldeburgh, Royal Albert Hall-London, St. John's Smith Square-London, Berwaldhallen-Stockholm, to name a few. During this period he also made recordings with an extremely modified Revox A77 tape recorder using different microphones. It was at this point that Reidar created a reference for true, natural sound and his knowledge of room acoustics .
As many other loudspeaker manufacturers he wasn't satisfied with the sound from his current loudspeakers, so he started to modify and experiment on his loudspeakers at home. In 1975 Reidar took this interest a lot more seriously and together with a relative of his, he started to experiment with some new loudspeaker design ideas and learned the art of building loudspeakers. Five years later, in 1980, they had mastered this skill and presented their first commercially available loudspeaker: The RENÄSSANS.
The RENÄSSANS loudspeaker was an immediate success and quickly got a reputation for its excellent performance.
Then in1983 Reidar realized some new construction ideas and produced his first own loudspeaker design and the first generation RESPONS LOUDSPEAKER was born.
RESPONS GRAND was immediately recognized as something special, not only for the excellent sound quality but also for having a pyramid shape and two separate cabinets; one large cabinet housing the woofers and a smaller cabinet for the mid and tweeter. This type of construction has later been used by brands such as Wilson Audio and B&W among others. RESPONS also used a new woofer design for its two 12" woofers, called compound (Linn called this design Isobarik). The reputation for the RESPONS brand grew and Reidar started exporting his loudspeakers around the world.
Reidar found his kindred spirits in the US distributors Carl Smith, Karen Sumner and her husband Jack Sumner. They, as well as Reidar, were in the audio business because of their love for music and they began distributing RESPONS LOUDSPEAKERS together with the brands they already carried (MIT cables and Well Tempered record players).
The RESPONS GRANDE was shown for the first time in the US at the 1985 Las Vegas Hi-Fi Show. Stereophile wrote that it was the best sound at the show and that the RESPONS GRANDE was the best loudspeaker to enter the US market in 10 years..
The following year, in 1986 at the Chicago Hi-Fi Show, the BABY GRANDE was introduced. BABY GRANDE was the first, stand-mounted loudspeaker from RESPONS. Though the BABY GRANDE was a stand-mounted loudspeaker, it was a three-way, full-range construction. The pyramid shaped BABY GRANDE gave a hint of future designs from RESPONS LOUDSPEAKERS. Rockport Technologies manufactured one RESPONS model for the US market at this time. They, as well as other Hi-fi equipment manufacturers, used RESPONS as their reference loudspeaker.
Then in 1987 the second generation RESPONS GRANDE hit the market. It was a three-way, full range, floor standing design. The pyramid design hasn't changed much since then, and is now a hallmark for RESPONS LOUDSPEAKERS.
The next major RESPONS GRANDE change came in 1989, when the 12" Dynaudio woofer was replaced with a 13" Skaaning woofer. This was also the year the first non-pyramid shaped RESPONS loudspeaker was introduced. This three-way creation was called RESPONS -S. Its design was pretty unusual for the time and that's why Gothenburg's Technological Museum bought a pair to display.
Then in 1990, the US importers Carl Smith, Karen and Jack Sumner, decided to concentrate on their cable business and started to form their new cable company, the nowadays well-known Transparent Cable. After a hectic 1980's Reidar slowed down a bit, to be able to concentrate on developing new loudspeaker models and expanding on the Scandinavian market, but his business relationship with the Sumner's and Karl Smith didn't end. Reidar became the importer of Transparent Cables, Rockport and Well Tempered Lab Turntables on the Scandinavian market.
The first RESPONS ARTIST model was introduced in 1992. It was the second stand-mounted loudspeaker model from RESPONS, and it was also a three-way, full-range construction like its predecessor the RESPONS BABY GRANDE. The largest visual difference between them was that the RESPONS ARTIST was a bass-reflex construction, and the BABY GRANDE was a Variovent construction.
In 1993 the RESPONS GRANDE model went back to use a 10" woofer. Reidar also started to get involved in the pro market and began selling RESPONS loudspeakers to studios, film mixing studios, mastering facilities as well as a custom made system to the Swedish National Radio. He also developed an outstanding, no-compromise PA system for a new cinema complex in Norway. This PA system was also sold as a PA for nightclubs with very high demands in sound quality and as a live gig PA system. This PA system is regarded as the best sounding PA rig by the musicians who have used it playing live.
Then, in 1995 RESPONS GRAND changed a lot using a new 8" Scan Speak woofer, a Vifa 5" mid and the new Scan Speak soft dome instead of Dynaudio's Esotec tweeter. New 7", 10" and 15" woofers from Scan Speak and Skaaning made new designs possible, such as using passive sub woofers. In 1997 a new GRAND model was created together with 10", 12" and 15" passive subwoofers to further explore the deepest bass. Scan Speaks 7" woofers also made it possible to design a 2-way speaker the MINI GRAND This was Respons's first 2-way floor standing loudspeaker design, with a 1" tweeter and 7" mid/woofer.
1999 a new construction with two 8" Scan Speak woofers were made. This construction was so different that Reidar decided to give this loudspeaker a new name: RESPONS ART. This model became such a good sounding loudspeaker that The Norwegian Hi-Fi Magazine "Lyd og Bilde" sold their reference Wilson Witt and replaced them with the RESPONS ART.
At the start of the new millennium Respons released a passive subwoofer that enhanced the RESPONS ART's bass and overall performance further.
In 2000 the new RESPONS GRAND model was developed using a Scan Speak 10" as woofer and the highly acclaimed Revelator 5" mid and tweeter from the same company.
In 2003 two new designs were created: the ARTIST 3 which was a more traditional looking three-way design. And the second model launched this year was the new Grand model who got a new nickname, the Grand LE for Grand Limited Edition. The Grand LE took the Grand concept to new sonic heights with its new extreme crossover design, custom wiring, Scanspeak Ringradiator tweeter along with a custom 5" Revelator mid and 10" woofer.
2004 The Respons Artist 2 replaced the Artist 3 model and the New Grand Artist based on the filter technology from the Grand LE, replaced the old Grand Artist from 2001.
In 2005 the Baby Grand concept was back in the form of a compact 2-way design using the Ringradiator tweeter and a custom 7" Revelator mid/woofer from Scanspeak.
In 2006 Respons replaced the Grand Artist with the new Grand Artist Dimension.
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