Peter L. Jensen (1886-1962) was one of the great pioneers of high fidelity equipment. He invented the first loudspeaker, the first multiple speaker system and produced the speakers that were used in the production of the most popular amplifiers from 1946 up until the 1960s.

Peter L. Jensen was born on the Danish island of Falster. As a young man, he became an apprentice of the great inventor Valdemar Poulsen.

In 1909, Jensen travelled to the United States of America to install equipment that Poulsen had sold to an American telephone company. Jensen then decided to stay in America, which he did for most of his life. He befriended the electrical engineer Edwin Pridham. Together they started a company called The Commercial Wireless and Development Company and worked on fulfilling their dream of making the first loudspeakers in the world.

On Christmas Eve 1915, Jensen and Pridham’s invention, the loudspeaker Magnavox (in latin meaning big voice) was premiered in front of 75.000 people on the San Francisco city square. Four years later, the speaker was used by US President Woodrow Wilson at a public event making Magnavox well-known all across the United States.

It could be claimed that Jensen was the world’s first DJ when he played music records through his speakers for the inhabitants of Sacramento.

In the 1920’s, Jensen designed a speaker for a broader market and founded his own company, the Radio Manufacturing Co. Throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s, Jensen developed the first multiple speaker system and remained one of the greatest pioneers of high fidelity equipment. The largest producers of guitar- and bass amplifiers, e.g. Fender, Gibson and Ampeg, all used Jensen’s speakers in their products in the 1940’s and 1950’s.