Tandberg

Origins of Tandberg

Tandberg, the audio equipment manufacturer, originated in 1933 when Vebjørn Tandberg founded Tandbergs Radiofabrikk in Oslo, Norway. The company started by producing radios, with the first model named “Tommeliten” (Tom Thumb), which used only earphones. This was followed by the “Corona” model, which included a loudspeaker.

Tandberg expanded its product line over the years, becoming well-known for its reel-to-reel tape recorders, cassette decks, and televisions. The company’s involvement in audio technology continued with the development of advanced recording techniques, such as cross-field recording, which allowed their recorders to handle higher frequencies than competing models.

In 1978, the original Tandberg company faced bankruptcy due to a financial downturn. However, it reformed the following year, and its data division was split off as Tandberg Data. The company then shifted its focus to teleconferencing systems and became a leader in that field. Eventually, Tandberg was acquired by Cisco Systems on April 19, 2010.

Regarding turntables, Tandberg manufactured the Tandberg/Thorens TD166, a manual turntable made by Thorens in Switzerland for Tandberg. This turntable was often sold alongside other Tandberg audio equipment, such as the TR-1040, TCD-310, and TL-3520.