American Made Speakers (1 Viewer)

[PatrickS]

How about the drivers?

 

[David Bikeman]

This is from the Salk website. He dosen't specify the origin of the drivers but you'll recognize some pretty high end Euro stuff in the images.


"The second area of superiority is the quality of our drivers (the actual speakers themselves).
There are a fixed number of driver manufacturers who supply the industry. These manufacturers produce drivers that vary widely in performance and price.
Most offer high-volume, mid-fi drivers for mass market speaker manufacturers. But many also "show their stuff" with cutting-edge drivers that, due to cost, have limited market potential. We choose from among these high-performance drivers. Some are even hand-made.
Naturally, they carry higher price tags--too high for use in most speakers designed for retail sale. But you can't produce a world-class speaker with mid-fi, mass-market drivers. So we won't consider them."


David

 

[Lee-c]

Shane Martin: The empty RM30 cabinets are made overseas (which I said was an exception in my first post),
then shipped back to the U.S. for use in the speakers. Some of the special wood veneers are also,
but the standard cabinets are still made here as far as I know.

And our RM2 speaker cabinets I know for a fact were made right here in the U.S. So we have the
95% Made in the U.S.A. version.

 

[Chris Quinn]

Salk uses Seas Excels for his mid-range drivers.

 

[Philip Hamm]

I've got some 10 year old SONY speakers that say "Made in USA" on them.

 

[Eric:F]

Jim Salk's drivers are from all over the world.
my HTS-MTMs have Vifa midbass drivers (Europe) and AC pure ribbon tweeters (Asia, i think).
does anyone custom make drivers?
it would seem impractical for any except the very largest manufacturers.
best,
eric

 

[PatrickS]

Eric,

Phase Technology makes their own drivers. Not a big company at all. Though their parent company, United Speaker Systems, is one of the biggest in the world. However, the drivers made by Phase Tech. (not United Speakers Systems) I believe are only produced for Phase Tech. Speakers (at least their PC line). They hand make everything in Florida. Of course they don't make the wire in which they wind their own voice coils with, or make the resistors, etc. they put in their crossovers (though maybe United Speaker Systems does). But the drivers, you betcha, cabinets too (though it goes without saying they don't "mill" their own wood! )! For those who don't know (maybe it's been mentioned already), the founder, Bill Hecht invented the soft dome tweeter!

FWIW, As the owner of my local Hi-end Audio store put it:
"Because Mr. Hecht and Phase Tech. has all those royalties coming in with all their patents and supplying other speaker companies with parts, he can afford to custom make Phase Tech. speakers with all their special designs and still offer them at a reasonable price."
They are mostly sold through custom installers, yet are very well priced without mass producing them. Very Cool.... if you ask me!

Best Regards,
Patrick

 

[Lee-c]

Yeah, Phase Technology makes drivers right here, down in Florida.

 

[AlanZ]

I'll throw out another vote for Magnepan!!!! (I know we're not really voting....but humor me )

Also, DeVORE FIDELITY!!!! I think the DeVore drivers are from europe, but the speakers are designed and assembled right in Brooklyn, NY.

Two great american speaker companies!

 

[hammondgp]

There are actually a couple of companies who advertise on this website who make American Made speakers, such as Orb Audio. www.orbaudio.com
Not to be confused with the vitner, another American company making round speakers is Anthony Gallo www.roundsound.com
Two companies make speakers in Portland Ore, www.aperionaudio.com and www.triadspeakers.com.
I like the solid wood cabinets made by AME, American Made Electronics, who also makes amps www.amechicago.com
I'm not sure if www.av123.com makes speakers in the US or Canada.
In Bellport, NY, www.a-w-h.com makes flat panel speakers.
In NC, www.nsmaudio.com although I'm not sure... couldn't find info on their site.
I'm sure there are others... support America companies making great products for competetive prices....
Now, what about the components?
George

 

[billybob_jcv]

I would be willing to bet the steel used to make the round enclosures for Orb and/or Gallo doesn't come from the USA!

Mark of AV123 often talks about needing to travel all over the world to source components, and the forum often talks of "shipments" of new products arriving in L.A. - I don't think the speakers are coming from Burbank...

Country of origin is a useless concept in today's economy. Raw materials come from all over the world. Heck, even the cardboard boxes might be made from Amazon rain forest trees...

 

[Terry St]

AV123 speakers are all manufactured in China unless I am grossly mistaken. "Made in China" definitely does not mean "Junk" the way it used to however.

 

[hammondgp]

I wanted to update my previous post.
Orb Audio. www.orbaudio.com are 100% US-made, including the steel and their sub-woofers are mostly made in the US and will soon also be 100% US made.
Anthony Gallo speakers, www.roundsound.com, are mandufactured in Asia.
Two companies make speakers in Portland Ore, www.aperionaudio.com and www.triadspeakers.com.
I like the solid wood cabinets made by AME, American Made Electronics, who also makes amps www.amechicago.com
www.av123.com are highg-quality speakers made in the China.
In Bellport, NY, www.a-w-h.com makes flat panel speakers.
In NC, www.nsmaudio.com although I'm not sure... couldn't find info on their site.
Anyone know about American made phono cartridge or phono preamps or other components?
George

 

[ChrisWiggles]

There are also all the Canadian brands: paradigm, polk, psb etc etc etc.

 

[LanceJ]

Yep, today's wonderful global economy, forced onto us by......never mind.

Anyway...........

Here's a guy who makes his own drivers and complete systems right here in America:

Human Speakers

These were originally made as replacements for EPI and Genesis loudspeakers (R.I.P.) but then he started improving on them himself. Genesis started using a 2-way design that required a tweeter with a very low crossover point, so these tweeters are rather special. Back in 1985 I got to hear the Model 210 in an audio shop using a Harmon/Kardon integrated amp and IIRC matching CD player. Depsite their clunky looks IMO they sounded very good, very smooth but detailed too. This was the age of wide enclosures, something to do with creating a proper hemispherical wavefront to improve imaging, though I'm sure the WAF was a major reason these finally disappeared (Boston Acoustics with their classic A100 & other brands also participated). They're not exactly fashionable but I still think they look cool for nerdy "hi-tech" reasons.

And on a (nearly) completely off-topic subject: on Wednesday I was at Wherehouse Music and spotted a big endcap display of Beatles stuff (in anticipation for the release of the "LOVE" mashup CD+dvd-audio surround album) and saw a bunch of Beatles coffee mugs too. And printed on the bottom was a phrase I hardly ever see anymore: "MFG. in U.S.A."

 

[LanceJ]

This might get deleted but I couldn't help it........

You can now listen to the entire LOVE album now:

http://www.thebeatles.com/hearlove/index.php

The surround mix on the dvd-audio disc is supposed to be quite immersive and very discrete. The hi-res surround mix uses the 96kHz/24bit format (no word on the stereo mix's resolution but it is PCM) and there are also DTS and Dolby tracks. This is the first time the Beatles have been available in hi-res form - the remasters of the regular albums are coming out next year & hopefully they will also come out in dvd-audio form.

 

[JeremyErwin]

Grado Labs makes phono cartridges. I've never used them, but their headphones are very nice.

 

[Chris Quinn]

Interesting to see this thread get bumped up. Some of those statements from 2 years ago are no longer true.

 

[CurtisSC]

The Aperion speakers are manufactured in China, but Aperion's headquarters are in Portland.

 

[BradJudy]

Yeah, Meadlowlark doesn't even exist anymore.

Curtis, do you have details on Aperion manufacturing? Their old press releases said their factory was in Mexico, but then they stopped saying where it was.