OUR STORY

It started at a lake.

The summer of 2005. A lake in Nieuwkoop, a small Dutch village. Thomas Spaans wanted great music outdoors — but nothing portable sounded good or looked good. So he built his own.

“I had a background in pirate radio and high-end car audio. I knew what good sound felt like. I just needed it to be portable.”

— Thomas Spaans, founder

When he took the first iBox to the lake, his friends wanted one. Then the village did. Then the boats on the lake. It started that way — by hand, one at a time.

iBox Oak on a summer afternoon

Twenty-one years of firsts.

Every milestone earned, none bought.

  1. 2005First iBox. Built at the lake.
  2. 2007First portable Bluetooth speaker in the world. Featured in Playboy and Retrothing.
  3. 2010First Ammo Can speaker. Featured in Wired magazine.
  4. 2011Rolling Stone gift guide.
  5. 2016Unbox Therapy: “The new Bluetooth champion.” Sales through the roof. New workshop opens.
  6. 2016–2025Continuous upgrades, every year, every month. Full story in News →
  7. 20255th generation A-BOX. 11 upgrades. The biggest leap yet.
  8. 2026iBox Mini 3D. Audiophile power in a 3D-printed body.
  9. Coming sooniBox XC 3D. Later this year.

Beautiful, iconic, handmade audio systems — built from the best materials, producing the cleanest sound. Like the artist intended it.

That’s been our mission since 2005. It hasn’t changed.

See who plays one → Shop all speakers →

The Story

It was the Summer of 2005 in a rural Dutch village called Nieuwkoop at the shores of a beautiful lake.

Thomas Spaans need a portable speaker for his iPod to have great quality music he could share with friends outdoors. With a background in pirate radio stations and high end car audio, he had the experience and skills needed to put a system together.

When the first iBox was completed and he took it to the lake a few times with his friends, the reactions were overwhelming, "great sound!", "amazing design!" and people wanted their own iBox.

Soon many people in the village were the proud owners of an iBox and many boats cruising on the lake have music on board because of Thodio. Thomas also started selling iBoxes on the Dutch Ebay.

In 2007 things started to pick up when I was featured on a Canadian gadget website Retrothing and Playboy magazine, the iBox was also the first portable speaker in the world featuring Bluetooth. In early 2010 the first Ammo Can speaker was a fact and Wired magazine did a feature on it. Rolling Stone magazine added the iBox to their gift guide at the end of 2011, Unbox Therapy did a review in 2016 calling the A-BOX the new Bluetooth champion, boosting sales through the roof helping us set up our new workshop in Kudelstaart.

Over the years the products have been perfected, 4 generations of iBoxes and 3 generations of our best selling Ammo Can speaker.

We are still updating al products almost every month to the latest tech and highest quality components and materials. We now have a production facility 20 minutes south of Amsterdam where all Thodio products are hand made with care and attention to detail and shipped to the customer worldwide for free, the number one country we currently ship to is the US. 

Our mission is to provide the world with beautiful iconic hand made audio systems crafted from the best materials and producing the cleanest purest sound, like the artist intended it. This means all our systems can process high resolution audio and audiophile components are used.

We also aim high for durability, our products are built to last for generations. These generations need to have a future and this is why we build our products from sustainable and recyclable materials.

The Bamboo we use is very ecofriendly because no trees have to be cut, bamboo just grows back after cutting it with a speed of up to 3 feet per day!

The iBox XC is mainly for in and around the house, its perfect for gracing a living room, bedroom, kitchen, garden, pool, bbq, you can connect multiple speakers to the wifi network and have them play the same or different songs in each room.  

The iBox Mini and A-BOX can also fill up a house and garden with your tunes and is much lighter and more compact, ready to be taken to the beach, park, holiday,festival,camping trip etc.