Libratone

Why it is renowned

Libratone's first speaker, dressed in wool, won the European Plus X Award, and its Zipp speakers later won a Red Dot Design Award.¹ Its noise-cancelling headphones took a German Design Award in gold.¹ It was the first audio brand to receive Apple's certification for AirPlay 2, and its speakers went on sale in nearly 500 Apple stores around the world.¹ What Hi-Fi?, TechRadar and WIRED are among the publications that have reviewed its products.²

The story

Tommy Andersen, Jes Mosgaard and Søren Louis Pedersen founded Libratone in Copenhagen in 2009.² It began with speakers that stream over Wi-Fi, among them the portable Zipp, and in the 2010s added noise-cancelling headphones and true wireless earbuds.²¹ In 2014 a Hong Kong investor group took a majority stake alongside the management to fund growth in Europe, Asia and North America.² Libratone A/S went bankrupt in May 2020, and the Danish investment company Little Bird ApS took over the brand later that year.³² Some of its speakers are in the collection of Denmark's national design museum.¹ The UP, launched in 2024, is an open-ear headphone for sport.⁴⁵

What to know it by

• ZippPortable wireless speaker
• TRACK Air+2019True wireless noise-cancelling earbuds
• AIR+ 32023True wireless earbuds
• UP2024Open-ear sports headphones