[Viewpoint] Dynaudio Ends Its North American Operations and Shuts Down Its U.S. Subsidiary

July 2026 Editorial

Dynaudio Shuts Down Its U.S. Subsidiary and Withdraws from the American Market

Author: Lucio Cadeddu - TNT-Audio Italy
Published: July, 2026

Like a bolt from the blue, just days after its appearance at the Axpona 2026 show, Dynaudio has announced that it will withdraw from the U.S. market this autumn and shut down its American subsidiary. The press release contains several curious elements. First, the company claims that sales in the U.S. had been growing - though it's unclear which period they're referring to. Then it states that the goal is to strengthen its presence in other markets (Europe and Asia). Finally, it reassures North American customers that they won't be left stranded, yet offers no hint as to whether a new third-party distributor will step in.

The reasoning offered is the usual press-release boilerplate: “everything was going well, but we're shutting down anyway.” It's a bit like firing a CEO while thanking him for his outstanding work. If the poor fellow - so to speak - had truly performed outstandingly, why show him the door? Any resemblance to the recent dismissal of B&O's CEO is, of course, entirely non-coincidental 😉

The internet immediately erupted with speculation. One theory claimed that, since Greenland belongs to Denmark and Dynaudio is Danish, the company wanted to send a strong message to Trump, who once expressed interest in acquiring the island. Whether Trump cares in the slightest about Dynaudio's presence in the U.S. is anyone's guess. Perhaps he has lined the Oval Office with Dynaudio speakers - who knows.

Others suggested it was a political gesture in response to Trump's aggressive foreign policy. Again, the absurdity of that theory hardly needs elaboration. Still others blamed the new import tariffs. If that were the case, far smaller European companies would have already been forced to abandon their U.S. operations.

Finally, some argue that the cost of maintaining a U.S. subsidiary may simply have become unsustainable. Yet one wonders what sense it made, then, to exhibit at Axpona 2026. Or perhaps Dynaudio's American operations were less healthy than the company had let on?

As usual, audiophiles display a grasp of market dynamics and business logic comparable to that of a fifth-grader. After all, if they truly understood real-world value and financial mechanisms, they wouldn't be so easily fleeced by manufacturers - paying absurd prices for components that, if they were worth even a tenth of the asking price, would already be generous.

What one should do, in cases like this, is follow the cash flow. Who's really calling the shots? Who has the authority to decide that a company with solid sales must scale back in a wealthy, strategically important market like the United States? The actual owners of Dynaudio, of course! In 2014, Goertek Inc. acquired 83% of Dynaudio for 50 million dollars. Since then, Dynaudio's majority shareholder - the true master of puppets - has been a Chinese giant (surprise, surprise!) with more than 110,000 employees worldwide. In Europe, Dynaudio employs just 150 people.

What does Goertek actually do? A great deal - in audio and far beyond.

It designs and assembles advanced wireless earphones equipped with smart features such as active noise cancellation (ANC), spatial audio, voice controls and biometric health sensors.
Ultra-thin, high-performance micro-speakers (SPK Platforms) engineered for millimetric spaces. Among its proprietary technologies are the Sandwich and Rhythm platforms, optimized for high output and water resistance.
MEMS sensors and semiconductor-based micro-microphones offering extremely high fidelity, used for crystal-clear voice capture and environmental noise cancellation (ENC).
Audio solutions for Smart Glasses and VR. These include open-speaker systems integrated into the temples of smart glasses (such as the LBS platform), projecting sound directly toward the user's ear while minimizing audio leakage for privacy.
Smart speakers and automotive modules. Audio systems for home automation (intelligent home speakers) and acoustic components for in-car infotainment.

It becomes clear, then, that Dynaudio represents only a tiny fraction of Goertek's audio-related core business. And indeed, Goertek does far more than that. The company is widely regarded as the undisputed global leader in the assembly and supply of XR headsets. It manufactures complete headsets and optical modules for giants such as Meta (the Meta Quest line and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses) and Sony (PlayStation VR). It also produces optical wave-guides - ultra-thin, high-tech lenses that project holograms and information directly into the user's eyes. Not only that: it designs and builds tunable liquid-crystal lenses, miniaturized and electronically adjustable in dioptre strength (from -3.00 to +3.00), eliminating the need for corrective eye-wear inside headsets. And then there are its products for automotive, smart-home systems and robotics.

This is not the end of the story. The Chinese giant has also found itself at the centre of several controversies. In August 2025, it faced allegations of military ties to the Chinese government, drawing the attention of national-security authorities in the United Kingdom. The company had issued a £75 million loan to finance the acquisition of Plessey, one of the last British manufacturers of advanced semiconductors. A report by ASPI (the Australian Strategic Policy Institute) accused Goertek of maintaining close cooperative links with Chinese military research institutes and with the Chinese Communist Party. The deal raised serious concerns about national security and the transfer of critical intellectual property to China.

In August 2025, Taiwan's authorities opened a formal investigation involving 16 Chinese companies, Goertek among them. The charge, issued by the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice, is the illegal poaching of high-level engineering and technical talent. According to Taiwan, such practices are intended to siphon off industrial secrets and key expertise across the semiconductor and advanced-hardware development chain.

In short, it's easy to see that within Goertek's vast, complex, multibillion-dollar technological universe, Dynaudio occupies an entirely marginal position. The company has faced economic challenges - including a loss of roughly 81 million Danish kroner in 2022 (that's 12 million dollars) due to luxury-goods inflation and China's lockdowns - but for a multinational with 13 billion dollars in annual revenue, such figures don't move the financial needle even slightly.

In 2020, Goertek even reorganized the subsidiary by transferring its shares directly to a group holding company (Goertek Group Company) for about 260 million RMB. That same year, to shield the listed company's balance sheet from the volatility of niche retail markets, Goertek Inc. sold Dynaudio's shares directly to its parent, the Goertek Group Company Holding. The strategic shift allowed Dynaudio to be restructured with private holding capital while remaining fully available to the group's technological ecosystem.

Despite the holding's 100% Chinese ownership, Goertek has opted for a smart management of Dynaudio's identity: the headquarters, advanced acoustic laboratories (including the famed Jupiter robotic measurement room) and production of top-tier Hi-Fi loudspeakers remain firmly in Skanderborg, Denmark. Manufacturing moves to China only for more consumer-oriented products.

For Goertek Group, the key objective no longer seems to be selling individual loudspeakers in retail stores, but rather leveraging the prestigious Dynaudio brand as a Trojan horse to enter the lucrative automotive market. By combining Dynaudio's Danish acoustic engineers with Goertek's microelectronics capabilities, the group has become a first-tier supplier of in-car audio systems for luxury vehicles and next-generation electric cars - historically working with brands like Volkswagen and, more recently, with emerging Chinese EV manufacturers.

Goertek integrates Dynaudio's acoustic-processing software into the digital-dashboard chips it supplies to automakers, merging Chinese hardware with European sound tuning into a single commercial package.

It's too early to jump to conclusions, and further statements from Dynaudio are worth waiting for. But perhaps there is a real possibility that Goertek Group's interests are shifting toward other strategic areas, far removed from domestic audio. Greenland, needless to say, has very little to do with this far more complex scenario.

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