Audiophile pleasure from Hamburg - Part 2

Continued (click here for part one).

Thomas Carstensen swapped his career for his passion: he gave up his well-paid job in the financial sector and devoted himself to creating the perfect sound by manufacturing high-quality Inklang loudspeakers. But the journey from his initial idea to the finished product was a long one.

Speakers for inner peace

It wasn’t just the financial aspect that preoccupied the company founder; the Hamburg resident also had to reorganise his weekly schedule and prove he had staying power. As a rule, the self-employed entrepreneur works seven days a week; alongside the loudspeaker manufacturing, he handles sales at Hamburg’s Stilwerk – where Inklang has run a showroom since 2016 – as well as trade fairs, listening sessions with customers and organisational tasks. All the better that his wife Nicole had already pledged her support before the daring project began: “She’s not always thrilled, of course, but she can see that things are moving forward.” His first holiday in four years took place in the winter of 2018 on the Canary Island of La Gomera; in his daily life, he unwinds at least once a week with fitness boxing.

After all, there is plenty to do: as Inklang does not offer off-the-shelf products, the production process is only triggered once an individual order has been placed. Once the configuration is complete – either online or during a sales consultation – the suppliers automatically receive a message and get to work; the current eight models thus offer over 400 variants. The individual parts are then transported to the Veddel district, where final assembly and quality control take place.

“Many buyers want to rediscover their passion for music at a high level once their children have moved out,” says Thomas, describing a large customer group. “They’ve had enough of that racket from cheap speakers, so-called boom boxes. They’ve had all that before; it was fine at a different stage of life. But now it’s about sitting back, opening a bottle of wine, listening to a record and immersing oneself in the music. It has a lot to do with emotions.” These become apparent during the listening session with the customer before the equipment is handed over: “The way they get into it is just amazing.”

From the living room to the stage

The buyers also include professional musicians; with Echo Jazz winners Nils Wülker and Arne Jansen, there are prominent names in the scene among Inklang’s supporters. No wonder, after all, the sophisticated omnidirectional sound dispersion ensures that the sound spreads out in a circle around the speakers and combines. This means, for example, that the positions of band members on stage can be recreated with pinpoint accuracy. To achieve this sound experience, customers need not make any further adjustments to the Inklang speakers: “I want to take the fear out of hi-fi for people. With us, they don’t need to worry about the technology or the details; we’ve already sorted it all out.”

Word of this quality has spread beyond national borders thanks to positive reviews and ratings. In addition to the German market, the company currently supplies Austria, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. A new feature is the ‘Trial Weekender’ option, which allows interested parties to put the products through their paces over a weekend. The range and customisation options are set to be expanded gradually. One thing’s for sure: things are never going to be quiet for Thomas Carstensen.