Peter Laurits Jensen described as the Danish Edison, and founder of Jensen Car Audio, came to the United States from Denmark in 1902. In 1903 Jensen went to Copenhagen as an apprentice in the laboratory of radio pioneer Valdemar Poulsen. Poulsen had just developed an improved transmitter for generating continuous radio waves. As his assistant, Jensen was involved in Poulsen's efforts to broadcast the human voice rather than telegraphic impulses. In 1906 Jensen made a breakthrough by linking a microphone and a transmitter circuit as a sending apparatus and connecting a crystal detector to a grounded telegraph ticker as a receiver. Jensen also experimented with broadcasting recorded music to ships at sea.

In 1909 Poulsen sold his American patent rights to the Poulsen Wireless Telephone and Telegraph Company, which reorganized as the Federal Telegraph Company. Jensen went to California to install the Poulsen equipment and met Edwin Pridham, an electrical engineer who taught him English. The reorganization left Jensen and Pridham jobless. They obtained financial backing and established their own firm, the Commercial Wireless and Development Company.

Jensen discovered the remarkable high fidelity characteristics of the moving coil when it was applied to the reproduction of sound. Although patented by 1913, it was two years later when Jensen discovered a revolutionary application for his ideas. While he was working to develop a telephone receiver, Jensen connected the telephone ear tubes to a 22' Edison Horn that he named the Magnavox -- "Great Voice." He applied his principle at a Christmas celebration surprising townspeople that heard the spoken voice amplified throughout the city. Additional capital was obtained leading to the establishment of the Magnavox Company in 1917.

During World War I, Jensen and Pridham developed an "antinoise microphone" that made the human voice audible over the roar of an airplane engine. Magnavox also won acclaim for a public address system for battleships that Jensen and Pridham invented. But the company achieved its greatest recognition in 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson addressed a crowd of 50,000 people and was heard distinctly with the aid of two Magnavox loudspeakers.

During the 1920's Magnavox moved into the production of phonographs and home radio sets. Jensen disagreed with Magnavox executives and resigned in 1925. In 1927 he founded the Jensen Radio Manufacturing Company. Jensen worked to eliminate distortion and improve fidelity in sound reproduction. In 1943 disputes with financial backers led once more to his resignation from a firm of his own creation; he then founded Jensen Industries to manufacture phonograph needles.

Jensen Car Audio milestones during Jensen's lifetime included the first commercial moving coil radiator loudspeaker in 1926. In 1930 the first permanent magnet dynamic loudspeaker, the first commercial compression-driven horn tweeter and the first molded hi-fi speaker diaphragm were unveiled. The speaker system for the first car radio produced by Paul Galvin debuted in 1931. In 1936 the bass reflex enclosed speaker was introduced. 1942 saw the first commercial coaxial two-way loudspeaker. In 1950 the first Triaxialä three-way unitary loudspeaker hit the market, and in 1952 the first horn-type super tweeter was launched. The last development under Jensen's reign was in 1960 when the first flat piston woofer was introduced. In 1956, the King of Denmark knighted Jensen. The American Institute of Radio Engineers and the Audio Engineering Society also honored him.