ThivanLabs – 20 years of research and development

Today, we are one of the few audio brands and manufacturers worldwide with a diverse product ecosystem for a complete home audio system. Our journey into the world of audio began with research and experimenting in the early 2000s, continuing until now, over 20 years later. In this journey, we have built a dialectical sound philosophy through various experiences from culture, music, and art, contributing to the distinctive sound characteristics of ThivanLabs products today. In addition, we regularly research music experiences and audio trends to develop new products that bring the best musical experience to our listeners. Below is the story of our 20-year R&D journey and how the founders built ThivanLabs and the associated audio ecosystem.

• The beginning of ThivanLabs in the audio field in the early 2000s and the founders

In the early 2000s, after graduating with honors from the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Thi began his passion for audio equipment. Loudspeakers were the first field he researched. Many types of loudspeakers were researched and DIYed in these years by Mr. Thi, including closed and vented loudspeakers, reflex loudspeakers, transmission line loudspeakers, TQWT loudspeakers, and horn loudspeakers. This research period laid the foundation for forming the most successful and professional audio brand in Vietnam today, ThivanLabs. Mr. Thi is the Co-founder, Chief Engineer, Production, and Technical – Technological R&D director of ThivanLabs. He plays the most important role in the whole technological, research and development, and production processes at ThivanLabs.

Since marrying in 2004, he has been greatly supported by his wife, Mrs. Joe Nguyen, in product design and business development in the audio equipment industry. When they were students, Mr. Thi and Mrs. Joe received honorary certificates from the Ministry of Education and Training for scientific research projects in their fields, and this was when they met. Mrs. Joe Nguyen graduated with honors from the Faculty of Industrial Design, Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts. After that, she went on to complete two master’s degrees, one in Vietnam and one in the UK. Her first master’s degree was in fine arts and art history theory at Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts, and the second one was in Management and Entrepreneurship at Northumbria University in the UK. She became a researcher and lecturer in the field of industrial design at Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture in 2004, a post she retains to this day.

Although he had a passion for making loudspeakers in the early 2000s, Mr. Thi started his new hobby of researching and making vacuum tube audio equipment in 2005, and he participated in many DIY tube amplifier competitions in Vietnam. During the years 2008–2010, his vacuum tube amplifiers won the best specification awards at the Vietnam Sumo vacuum tube amplifier contests.

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• AirPower – the early stage of development 2008 – 2009

After success in many contests, Mr. Thi started his first business in the audio field with the first brand named AirPower in 2008. In 2009, Mrs. Joe decided to extend the business and approach new customers by moving the head office and a part of the workshop to the center of Ho Chi Minh City. Between 2008 and 2009, the company focused on researching and developing vacuum tube amplifiers, preamplifiers, and phono preamplifiers. To define a style for the company’s products, Mrs. Joe supported him with various designs this time. Additionally, to strengthen the technical R&D, Mr. Thi invited Mr. Nguyen Anh Van, his close friend at the university, to join in on several of his projects. While studying at university, Mr. Thi, Mr. Van, and another close friend founded a team to research and create robots, for which they won a National Championship in robotics.

After graduating, Mr. Van became an aviation engineer for the Vietnam National Airline. He was trained in aircraft engineering in the US before returning to Vietnam and working for Vietnam Airlines until 2020. During this time, Mr. Van engaged in many of Mr. Thi’s projects, including making tube amplifiers and output transformers. They successfully researched and developed a bespoke Output Transformer technology for the vacuum tube audio equipment. Today, all of the Output Transformers used for our products are made in-house to strictly control the technical quality and criteria. The research, development, and improvement of output transformer technology are now completely implemented by the in-house R&D team.

• The establishment of new Thivan brand and an aspiration to develop international business 2010-2012

In 2010, Mrs. Joe Nguyen was awarded a government scholarship to study for her second master’s degree in Management and Entrepreneurship in the UK. During her two years of living and studying in London, she formed an aspiration to bring the brand and its products to the world, and the first target market was Europe. Initially, she created a new brand name for their products and a stronger brand identity. Inspired by the names of Mr. Thi and Mr. Van and their beautiful friendship, Mrs. Joe designed the Thivan logo in London in 2010. Meanwhile, she also developed some online communication and interactive channels for the brand.

The new brand name and logo, however, are not simply a combination of the names. There is a deeper, more exquisite meaning she wants to convey through its design (its image => ?). The Thivan logo features the ‘Thivan’ phrase and the image of a beautiful woman in the middle. The words ‘thi’ and ‘van’ in Vietnamese mean ‘poetry’ and ‘literature’. Poetry and Literature are close arts to each other, and this relationship is similar to the beautiful friendship of the two men, Mr. Thi and Mr. Van. A strong bond is what she wants to convey from their friendship. It represents development based on the solidarity and synergy of many dedicated people to be able to build a strong organization. Poetry (Thi) and Literature (Van) are forms of art. These words also carried the meanings of emotion, artistry, a harmonious and optimal combination of components, sophistication, and high standards. These meanings represent the highest product standards she wants ThivanLabs’ audio equipment to achieve. The image of a beautiful woman dancing while holding her arms up high in the center of the logo represents beauty and the desire to reach the most emotional and fullest beauty of sound and music. It’s also the sound standard she wants their audio equipment to achieve. Moreover, this image represents her aspiration to build up Thivan as a subject with a distinct identity and personality.

While living in London, to implement the idea of introducing Thivan’s products to the world and especially to the EU and to define a philosophy of sound to orient the product development for the brand, Mrs. Joe took advantage of researching the international market and traveling to many European countries to experience music and culture. She also experienced acoustics and sound reproduction when visiting and listening to music at churches, cathedrals, and theaters in both the UK and Europe. So far, while Mr. Thi is the one to decide on the technical issues of the products, Mrs. Joe is the one to decide on the sound quality and the design of new product models. Both Mr. Thi and Mrs. Joe decide on R&D at Thivan.

At the end of 2010, Thivan became the official brand name, and it was used for the products to meet Mrs. Joe’s international business development goals. After two years of studying for her master’s degree in London, she returned to Vietnam in 2012 and has been the company’s CEO since then. She has played an extremely important role in building and developing the brand and company, establishing new brands, and building an ecosystem of brands in Vietnam. She also has an important role in deciding the R&D orientation and product design in Thivan.

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• ThivanLabs – an outstanding international business development since 2012

After completing her master’s course in the UK, Mrs. Joe Nguyen returned to Vietnam in 2012 and decided to continue extending the business and improve product quality and design. The Thivan logo was enhanced with the word ‘Labs’ in 2013 as an affirmation that ThivanLabs has a well-organized research and development process. In this R&D process, ThivanLabs completely controls all the key technical and technological developments that define the distinctive sound characteristics of ThivanLabs audio products. Today, thanks to the focus on engineering research, Thivanlabs products consistently achieve the highest sound quality and stability. Mr. Thi and the ThivanLabs engineering team have always made great efforts in researching and perfecting the technique and technology to affirm that each product is the best result of an elaborate process of research and testing.

The second change in the brand name also came from her desire and plan to introduce audio equipment researched, engineered, and handcrafted in Vietnam to the international market. Since 2013, along with developing international online marketing, Mrs. Joe has visited international audio shows to research the audio market and introduce ThivanLabs’ products to international distributors and dealers. In addition, her cultural and artistic experiences in different European countries and forming partnerships have also contributed to helping her better understand future European customers.

ThivanLabs is now a brand in an ecosystem of brands being developed by Mrs. Joe Nguyen and Chau Nam Khue Group. The ecosystem of these brands covers many fields of audio equipment and includes manufacturing and commercial services in audio, recording, décor, art and music events, media, and others.

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Since 2012, throughout the years of developing the brand, ThivanLab’s sound philosophy has been continuously constructed and achieved through diverse musical experiences, from attending classical concerts to practical sound reproduction experiences when visiting churches and cathedrals in the UK and around the EU. Through this practical experience, Mrs. Joe has found that the best-reproduced sound should be as realistic and accurate as the original sound because it brings real emotions like those felt directly by the listener at a concert. As a music lover, after attending many concerts, she also feels and understands the original emotions that live music and sound bring to the listeners as well as the sound stage and musical atmosphere.

ThivanLabs’s sound philosophy is defined by two slogans: ‘Master of Performance’ and later, ‘Like Live Music’. ‘Master of Performance’ is a criterion of sound standards, while “Like LIVE Music” is a criterion of realistic emotions that a recording, audio equipment, or sound system needs to reproduce for listeners. This is the goal of the products that the ThivanLabs team aims for during the research, development, and manufacturing process. To develop audio products that meet the criteria of the philosophy and slogans, Mrs. Joe and Mr. Thi always focused on attending classical concerts on every European trip to experience live music to hone their musical sensibility and have the best comparison between real and reproduced sound.

From Mrs. Joe’s perspective, classical music, especially symphony, is one of the best genres for a sound-reproducing equipment manufacturer to experience listening to live music, as it is performed almost entirely live, so the sound is original. Among the different genres of music, symphonies are the most difficult to perform. In particular, symphonic concerts are often performed by a large number of musicians with a variety of musical instruments. To organize the best symphonic concerts, several important elements are required, including the skillful techniques of musicians, the smooth and harmonic coordination between musicians and among groups of musicians, and the conductor’s talent for orchestration. In addition, it is crucial to perform classical concerts in standard halls to get the best and most accurate acoustic quality. It is wonderful to experience many things at the same time.

Mr. Thi and Mrs. Joe always prioritize experiencing the concerts of top symphony orchestras and artists such as violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the best-rated auditoriums and cathedrals in Europe, such as the Vienna Musikverein, the Berliner Philharmonie concert hall, the Konzerthaus Berlin, and the Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom). In addition to these centers of classical music, they attend various musical performances, including classical music with unique instruments and street musicians. All of these experiences are invaluable to those who make sound reproduction equipment.

According to Mrs. Joe, music is an art, and like other art forms, it brings emotions to listeners and viewers. Therefore, those who research, develop, and produce music reproduction equipment need to experience culture, art, and music to cultivate artistic feelings, thereby being able to create ‘an emotional sound’ for the products. While researching the European market in 2010, Mrs. Joe also visited many European cities to learn, feel, and experience culture and art. This helped her understand how people listen to music and perceive art, which is essential for an audio equipment manufacturer.

Perhaps there are not many manufacturers have such a mindset. After visiting audio shows in Europe and researching the audio market, she found that most brands focus on high technique, technology, engineering, and finishing. Although these are important elements for a good audio product, they are not the final destination of ThivanLabs’s R&D journey. Instead, technical and technological solutions are applied to bring emotions and feelings to listeners, not give them ‘specifications’. This is ThivanLab’s further goal in R&D! The essence of music is to bring emotions and feelings to the listeners, and what listeners need from music are emotions and feelings. This is a two-way relationship. Whether the audiences listen at a concert or from an audio system, what they hear is the music, not the equipment and specs. Therefore, what the best audio system brings to the listeners is ‘emotions’ and these should be as real as how they were to the listeners at the concert. It is not simple to reach this destination; however, Mr. Thi and Mrs. Joe have always pursued this goal and dedicated much time to researching and learning through culture, art, and music. This philosophy is vital to expanding ThivanLabs to new markets and has been maintained throughout the development of the brand.

In addition, live vocal and musical instrument performances are important to compare between reality and reproduction. At present, to understand more about vocal songs and vocal recording, real sound, recording method, and sound reproduction, Mrs. Joe is learning to sing to test recording practices, and Mr. Thi is researching both live and studio recordings with different singers. For musical instrument recording and sound reproduction, they have recently begun experimenting with recording live musical instrument performances. Both vocals and instrument recordings are performed on ThivanLabs audio equipment to test sound reproduction against live sound. Some music videos have been posted on the ThivanLabs YouTube channel to introduce this research and experimentation process, and the results have improved day by day. These research and testing methods consistently demonstrate ThivanLabs’ goal: delivering the best, most realistic sound reproduction to listeners. With the desire to bring truly authentic music experiences to listeners, they plan to develop audio equipment used for live performances, live recordings, and recording studios in the future.

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Read more about “OUR MINDSET OF SOUND AND REPRODUCING SOUND THROUGH MUSICAL EXPERIENCE”

After 20 years of research and development, today ThivanLabs proactively controls all of the R&D processes of new products, including their quality, finish, and sound characteristics, based on the ThivanLabs philosophy of sound and design. During this long R&D journey, 160 commercial models have been officially made, and many products have been made to order, including various valve audio equipment and loudspeakers. The latest models utilize the technical and technological achievements of 20 years of R&D.

In the R&D process, based on ThivanLabs’ sound philosophy and signature design style, technical research and development are always closely coordinated with product design to ensure that each model achieves both optimal sound quality and the highest aesthetic efficiency. Until now, while Mr. Thi is the one who decides the technical and technological issues, Mrs. Joe has played an important role in orienting the development of the product ecosystem, including the design of a new model. Mr. Thi and Mrs. Joe both determine the R&D at ThivanLabs. Thanks to the knowledge and experience they have gained in their areas of expertise and music, they and their engineering team have fabricated a wide range of valve audio equipment and loudspeakers. ThivanLabs’ sound philosophy is always used as a foundation when creating a new model for the product ecosystem. These principles give direction to the research of technical issues, and the product design team will then create an aesthetic appearance for the product based on these technical requirements. In this process, the technical and product designers always closely work together to bring the best solutions in terms of technique and appearance to the product.

Over its 20-year development process, ThivanLabs’s product ecosystem has grown into two main periods. The first period, from the early 2000s to 2014, was the foundation of technical and technological improvement and development. In this period, ThivanLabs mainly focused on developing a wide range of commercial vacuum tube audio equipment and loudspeakers made to order. The second period was from 2015 to 2020, with the development of various commercial loudspeaker models. The greatest success in this period was the strong expansion of the system of product distribution in Europe, with more and more new distributors. 2021 is considered the beginning of the third period of development when ThivanLabs’s founders have decided to extend the product ecosystem into new audio equipment fields and develop new product segments.

Today, the product range of ThivanLabs vacuum tube audio equipment has various types, including integrated amps, power amps, headphone amps, preamplifiers, phono preamps, microphone preamps, and DACs. Vacuum tube amplifier is ThivanLabs’s strength with various designs using different kinds of vacuum tubes, including 845 SE/PP, 811A SE/PP, 572 SE, 300B SE/PP, 4D32, 3D21WB, GK-71, GU-81, KT88 (KT90, KT120, KT150), 2A3 SE/PP, 6C33-C OTL/PP/SE, 6336 OTL/PP/SE, 6H13C (6AS7,6080,5998) OTL/PP/SE, 6C19P OTL/PP/SE, GM-70, 6550, KT77, KT66, 6L6 (6P3C-E), EL34 (6CA7), EL84 (6BQ5), and the latest tubes from 2018 until present with 833 (GU-48) SE, 211 (VT-4C) SE/PSE, 805/805A SE, 813A SE.

Thanks to the rich experience of researching and manufacturing different kinds of loudspeakers that Mr. Thi earned between 2000 and 2015, he researched and developed the first commercial loudspeaker model in 2015, the Fullrange 10, with 100 pairs ordered in Vietnam as soon as it was launched. After this loudspeaker model, many others continued to be born, including Open Baffle Loudspeakers, Half/Full Open Baffle loudspeaker systems, Horn loudspeakers, Bookshelf loudspeakers, Center loudspeakers, Subwoofer loudspeakers, 21-inch super subwoofer loudspeakers, and Soundbases. As of 2021, several new models are in the works and are planned to be launched in 2022.

With a keen eye for aesthetics and a rich experience in industrial product design, Mrs. Joe Nguyen has played an extremely important role in orienting R&D and almost every product design concept. Since starting the audio business in 2008, she has tried many different styles to define an identity for the brand’s products. Many of these designs were just concepts and 3D sketches that had never been produced. The aesthetic designs are always balanced with technical requirements to both bring beauty to the product and ensure that all technical points and sound quality are the best for the product. Therefore, all of the design concepts are always considered, and decisions on technical requirements are made by both Mrs. Joe and Mr. Thi.

ThivanLabs products today have a very distinctive, elegant style and a high identity. For vacuum tube amps, the designs were initially a combination of modern styling and a little East Asian taste with colors and details. While the initial designs were harmonious yet full of improvisation in terms of layout, the later designs gradually transitioned to Bauhaus minimalism and enhanced functionality. Bauhaus has become the main style for ThivanLabs’s products after Mrs. Joe’s culture, art, and music tours in the UK and Europe, especially after the distribution establishment in Germany. For example, almost all ThivanLabs’ loudspeakers have been greatly influenced by the Bauhaus art style. The designs are all about functionality and elegance: simple, basic shapes with high-quality finishing. Thanks to this, the products are easily matched with diverse interior and decor styles.

Since 2018, Mrs. Joe has researched new design concepts to create a new look for ThivanLabs’s loudspeakers. From this research, her latest loudspeaker concept, the GrandHorn, was born with a more artistic shape. This model was demonstrated at the Vietnam Audio Visual Show in 2019 in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam. The GrandHorn has been demonstrated in many showrooms around the EU and has been tested and reviewed by popular audio magazines in Germany and Poland. The Bauhaus style is still the main identification for ThivanLabs vacuum tube amplifiers and loudspeaker designs today.

The highest product quality standards have always been our goal in manufacturing. Technical design is always researched and optimized for efficient production and assembly processes, avoiding technical problems as much as possible, thereby ensuring the durability and long-term stability of the product. Our human resources are carefully selected and trained before and continuously during the working process to meet our increasingly higher and stricter product finishing quality standards.

One of the elements we are always proud of about ThivanLabs electronic products is the careful and aesthetic ”point-to-point” manual assembly technique. The point-to-point assembly process of our electronic products is not only extremely demanding in terms of technique but also very demanding in terms of aesthetics. Accordingly, the products will not only be an optimization of quality but also show the sophistication and feats of the product, which is one of the standards that we have worked very hard and spent many years on to build, improve, and train our technician team.

ThivanLabs is currently one of the members of the brand ecosystem of the Chau Nam Khue Group. Over the past 20 years, since the 2000s, the founders have developed ThivanLabs into an international brand known to many audiophiles all over the world.

Not only working in the field of manufacturing audio equipment, ThivanLabs has also joined in various activities of the Chau Nam Khue Group in several other business fields. Since 2019, at the same time as ThivanLabs attended the Audio-Visual shows in Vietnam, Mrs. Joe Nguyen has pursued the idea of connecting brands and business partners in different fields related to audio, such as home decoration, furniture, art, and music, bringing a full experience to audiophiles. In addition, in continuation of Mrs. Joe’s humanistic philosophy, she has been sponsoring educational, music, and art events to encourage and introduce young talents in design, music, and art to the world.