Music is the food of love at top chef’s Stockholm restaurant
Långbro Värdshus is a top restaurant located just outside of Stockholm. Situated in an architectural and historically significant villa, it is run by the renowned Swedish TV chef and author Fredrik Eriksson, and rightly praised for its excellent regional cuisine. In line with its quest for excellence, the restaurant recently upgraded its audio system and Inexo, a local custom installer, chose Genelec’s 4000 Series loudspeakers for their clarity of sound and ease of installation for the new system.
The Villa has an interesting history, and has, in its time been a mental health facility and played host to one of the notorious figures in 20thcentury history! The building has a traditional interior which has now been completely renovated. Fredrik has been running Långbro Värdshus since 2005 and is an award-winning chef and restaurateur, he is an important ambassador both for Sweden and Swedish food and is primarily known for being a celebrity TV chef and the author of several books.
The new interior design features a quiet and understated aesthetic that focuses on natural materials and traditional craftsmanship. Modern technology also has its place in the restaurant and as part of the refurbishment it was decided that the outdated, big and bulky, audio system separates would be replaced with something sleek and contemporary. Magnus Koff, the owner of Inexo has designed a system that has streamlined the audio hardware and improved the sound quality and functionality immeasurably.
“The restaurant interior is understated and stylish and the old audio system just didn’t fit in with that look,” says Magnus. “The old amplifiers and mixers sat on the bar counter, and not only big and awkward looking they didn’t sound great either. Our first job was to get rid of those and the new system, which features the Genelec 4000 Series loudspeakers, is immeasurably better sounding and integrates beautifully into the refined interior of the restaurant.
The new audio system in the restaurant inside Långbro has four separate audio zones which are individually controlled by a Dbx ZonePro. The ZonePro comes complete with both wired volume adjustment and SourceSelect panels behind the bar. The music content is sourced and through an iPad which makes selecting and changing the various playlists for different meal services, simple and easy for the staff. The Genelec 4000 Series was chosen for its the excellent performance that is achievable from a monitor with such a compact size. The speakers are also fitted with a set of dip switches that Inexo were able to use to compensate for room environment effects on audio quality.
“With the dip switch calibration options we were able to align, the room, speaker and listener in perfect harmony, adds Magnus. “Each zone is different in the restaurant but we were able to minimise any coloration effects from the restaurant environment. The end result sounds superb and Fredrik and his staff are more than delighted with the results.
The 4000 speakers also help to boost the restaurant’s green energy credentials with the integrated Intelligent Signal Sensing™ (ISS™) Autostart function. This feature places the amplifier in standby mode if an input signal has not been detected for approximately one hour. The power consumption is thereby reduced to typically less than 0.5 watts, and playback will automatically resume once an input signal is detected from the source.
Furthermore, with the 4000 Series there are a range of speaker mounting accessories which were extremely useful during the installation process. With both swivel and tilt options the mounts allow the audio output to be pointed in the desired direction for best results. Furthermore, as the 4000 Series are active speakers with integrated amplifier, no additional external amplifier is needed which reduces bulk, which is essential in environments where space is at a premium.