After a rather quiet, almost four-hour drive from Hamburg airport to the north, Werner Obst, who has been selling the Bergmann Audio products in Germany since 2010, and I finally reached the industrial area of ​​Hobro. Here the turntable manufacturer uses very spacious low-rise premises with two large halls—one serving as a warehouse for the raw materials and a few of the finished products, the other hosting the metalworking section. Attached to that we found another large space, from which the finished parts warehouse and the offices of Eva Seiberg and Johnnie Bergmann had been divided. On the remaining—and considerably larger—area, several working tables served for the assembly of tonearms, turntables and compressors. Even though there was a kitchen space with plenty of seating in the lower-ceiled side wing of the building, we nevertheless took a seat at one of the assembly tables after a brief welcome coffee with the Bergmann Audio staff—in person, Eva Seiberg and Johnnie Bergmann.

During our quite informal chat about the company, I wondered—as already mentioned above—that the company will be celebrating only its tenth anniversary this year. All the more astonished—or should I say: horrified?—I was, as one of our two hosts almost coincidentally mentioned that the Sleipner is currently no longer made. There are still one or two of them available. Soon the model will become history. Even though I had not tested any other Bergmann Audio turntable except this particular model, I am firmly convinced that this one offers the best value for money in terms of sound quality—or should I say, "offered"? Sonically, it easily performed on par with twice as expensive representatives of the air bearing species. But, also Werner Obst would have liked to see the best-selling model in Germany being continued in production. But Johnnie B. is intensively taking care of a new model at the other end of the price scope. However, in addition Eva Seiberg stated that their distributors had been asking for an affordable entry-level model, a fact that also Werner Obst openly confirmed.