THE STORY BEHIND

2019
your PIEGA Team

HARD WORK 

Our perfect PIEGA concept arose over 30 years ago – in a garage. Kurt Scheuch and Leo Greiner, who were later to become company founders, were far ahead of their time. They combined their visions of loudspeakers that not only produce an excellent sound but also look stunning at the same time, and presented the first PIEGA Arlecchino, Capriccio, Arabella and Elektra loudspeakers. In 1986, the two men joined forces with Christian Schmid, a lawyer and audiophile, to start PIEGA SA.

The start was rudimentary and involved a lot of manual work for the two men. During the day, the individual parts were made into loudspeaker boxes in Leo’s garage and in the evening taken in Kurt’s station wagon to the warehouse. The price of the first loudspeakers equipped with a ribbon tweeter at the start was between 2,000 and 8,000 Swiss francs a pair and were initially sold by Leo and Kurt directly to specialist dealers. The aim here was for the dealers to get to know and appreciate the two founders – and this is what they successfully achieved. Kurt later went out on the road alone for over 15 years and built the foundation of the PIEGA sales network. During this time, Leo took care of the constantly growing business, which moved in 1991 to the present production site in Horgen.

Product sales in the first PIEGA showroom

PIEGA ribbon tweeters have been part of our history since the company was founded. The tweeter received very broad and positive coverage in the audio world and has been continually further developed to perfection over the past three decades. Thanks to its attention to detail and efficiency, the ribbon clearly outclasses conventional dome tweeters in terms of performance. These excellent sound properties are made possible by a membrane made from a 26 x 42 mm ultra-thin aluminium foil. Its moving mass is only seven milligrams in weight and is therefore 30 times lighter than the lightest commonly available dome tweeters. The membrane contains two flat coils that are mounted in a very elaborate spray etching process. This is driven by a highly compressed neodymium magnet, as well as bar magnets integrated in the front plate which act like magnetic lenses. These focus the magnetic field lines, thus enabling the tweeter to achieve an efficiency of more than 100 dB. The audible result: a particularly clear and extremely detailed soundscape.

Our first ribbon – 1986.

When Leo and Kurt started producing PIEGA loudspeaker cabinets from aluminium in 1997, they were initially ridiculed by high-end audio freaks, who dismissively branded these elegant loudspeakers as “designer speakers”. It took some time before the high end scene could be convinced that aluminium is a highly suitable material for loudspeaker cabinets. The extruded aluminium ensures the required stability and rigidity. The elaborate stiffeners and the use of special composite materials which are used in relation to the cabinet wall thickness are important design factors for producing the acoustically perfect cabinet.

Our loudspeakers are assembled by a well trained and highly specialized team who ensure that operation is completed correctly. Quality is rigorously controlled at each production step so that not much is usually required in the final control stage.

PIEGA loudspeakers are conceived with the latest in audio technology and an excellent design to guarantee optimum sound quality. Their sleek, elegant and timeless styling created by the renowned and award-winning Swiss designers Hannes Wettstein and Stephan Hürlemann is the foundation of the loudspeakers’ consistent functionality.

We are proud of being a second generation family-owned company. At the beginning of 2018, the young team around Alexander and Manuel Greiner took over the helm and have been guiding PIEGA to new shores with passion and entrepreneurial spirit. The corporate philosophy of building loudspeakers with the best possible product and sound quality while ensuring an attractive design and look has not changed. Our co-workers are our most important asset here. Many of them have been with us over decades and make us what we are today: the leading loudspeaker manufacturers in Switzerland.

Alexander Greiner & Manuel Greiner (from left to right)