In 1981, in the German city of Köln, two experienced professionals crossed paths over a shared frustration with the state of live sound.

Erik Voss was a respected acoustic engineer with decades of experience designing and calibrating speaker systems for studios and public venues. He had grown tired of chasing technical perfection that often failed to connect emotionally with listeners.

Julian Albrecht was a performing musician and recording artist known in jazz and folk circles. He had spent years on the road, constantly dissatisfied with the inconsistency of sound systems—even at high-end venues. His vocals rarely felt present, and the nuance of his live sets was often lost.

Their first conversation wasn’t about business—it was about what was missing in sound. Not just volume or clarity, but character.Later that year, they began prototyping speaker systems in a converted workspace. The goal was simple: build speakers that accurately conveyed the full emotional range of a performance—without artificial tuning or over-processing. They combined Voss’s technical precision with Albrecht’s real-world stage feedback to shape a new kind of audio design.

By 1983, the first VAL system was quietly being used in small local venues. It wasn’t marketed loudly, but word spread quickly through musicians and sound engineers. The sound was described as “natural,” “open,” and “true to source.”

A dream was fulfilled and a company was founded—VAL Audio—was built around one principle : “Don’t just reproduce sound. Reproduce what it feels like to be actually there.”