American Made Speakers (1 Viewer)

[CurtisSC]

I read it somewhere. I'll see if I can find it.

 

[Lee-c]

billybob_jcv: It matters because we want the profits to go to U.S. companies and the jobs to go to U.S. workers as much as possible.

 

[JohnRice]

My main experience is with Thiel, which is what I own. Their cabinets are all American made in Kentucky, though I doubt all the veneers are sourced here. The drivers used to be made in (I think) Sweden, then they were a combination of US/Sweden because it is illegal to use epoxy in Sweden. Through all this they were US designed. Now I understand they manufacture the speakers and drivers entirely themselves. in the US.

 

[MaxL]

"People make love for so many crazy reasons-- why shouldn't money be one of them?" - The Gospel According To Saint Jack
so follows, people buy specific speakers for so many crazy reasons, why shouldn't country of origin be one of them.
it's a fair criterium to be on one's list. i'm all for supporting adjectives like small, independent, local, community. but beyond my community, it's pretty hard to know where my money's going. as of 2006 the US gov had about $5trillion in publicly held debt. of that, japan had almost $6.5 billion and china almost $3.5 billion or over 1/5 between the two. it's even harder to follow corporate funds around and through the world markets. and in some ways, that's a very good thing. it means we are interdependent and we can use consumer pressure to change the world on fronts like the environment and labor laws. the alternatives are using military force, isolation, and letting the world go to hell. we are living very much in a global economy. if the foreign owners of our debt dump it, it's the end of the world as we know it and only the ultra rich will be feeling anything remotely close to fine.

as for the smaller american speaker producers, i say keep up the good work, and thanks. but i don't want to penalize a hard working, american entrepreneur for using foreign parts, materials or even labor if it is done so legally and makes his/her business viable and my potential product affordable to me.
the point is, by all means let made in the usa be a factor in your process, but don't kid yourself that a) we can go it alone in the world or b) that the phrase made in the usa necessarily means all or even most of the dollars stay in the hands of american families.

now how about a religious discussion...of right, not here....oops

 

[LanceJ]

I'm pretty sure that if asked, the American public would never have allowed this obsession with free trade and the much-heralded global market (spoken about like it's some kind unstoppable force we have to succumb to )to continue to the level it has attained now.

The only people truly benefitting from it are the ultra-rich and the corporations, not the American public at large. And all those countries that were suppsoedly "desparate" to pull themselves out of poverty and become more civilized? Sorry, not every culture believes having a McDonalds on every corner or driving a fat SUV is the epitome of happiness.

All this freetrade propaganda we hear all the time, spoken with a nearly-religious fervor, is mostly just a way for certain American corporations to get their slimy hooks into another market to fatten their bottom line and despite all their flowery & emotionally-charged marketing junk they spew, has nothing to do with improving the living standards of the World.

Meanwhile OUR economy continues its downward slide, jobs are more difficult to find, IMO our government borrows more and more to keep up the APPEARANCE of a healthy economy but in reality is just mortaging America's future and provides a huge communist country with an effective "weapon" in the form of loans that as mentioned already could seriously cripple our economy if they are called in.

 

[Chu Gai]

Lance, if you borrow money from me and I expect not only the money but the interest to be repaid, it's in my very best interest that you do well financially.

 

[LanceJ]

Well if it was just about any other governmental system besides communism, I would tend to agree with you Chu.

Besides, just the *idea* of borrowing enormous amounts of money - no matter who it is from - to keep ourselves afloat to artificially prop up what's IMO a needlessly exhorbitant & overindulgent way of life is wrong to my way of thinking, and I'm not even a Republican. But then again, the people pushing the concept of borrowing-at-any-cost are basically the same people who stand to gain the most from such an irresponsible attitude (for example, check out the enormous profits of the banking/credit card sector).

 

[Lee-c]

LanceJ: Thanks for the link to Human Speakers, they have some nice speakers there. I don't think I had heard of them before, it's cool to see another brand of speakers made here.

 

[Brian Serene]

Speaker companies used to brag about the fact that their drivers used neodymium magnets. They have certain advantages.

Just the other day I saw a program on TV that said that China is the only place on earth that can supply neodymium magnets.

I had heard a generalization to the effect that there are certain parts that simply cannot be sourced in the USA anymore. This is one example.

Have you ever heard of a monopoly? A very old tradition...

 

[Lee-c]

It's great to see that VMPS speaker cabinets are once again being made in the U.S., as they always had been before! http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=78402.0

So if you buy VMPS speakers, not only are you getting some of the best speakers you'll ever hear (at very reasonable prices), but they'll be made right here in the U.S.A.

I wonder how many other stereo equipment companies are doing similar things, and making more stuff in the U.S.?