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Why?
I'm surprised that no American audio company has picked up the gauntlet.
With all that's been going on, I'm shocked that virtually no hi-end drivers are built in the USA.
Misco is a big disappointment on this front and Eminence has bit the dust.
With the ridiculous prices out of Europe, one would think that competing with them should be a piece of cake.
So, what's going on?
Comments
With the current changes going on we may hopefully see things like that start up within the next 10 years.
10 years!
Why not a Canadian company?
Where's Rival when we need them?
Be careful with this conversation, all I'm going to say.
Uh-oh!
Simple economics/no politics
Profit maximizing companies are not manufacturing in the US because it is not the solution to the profit optimization problem. If it appears to be a "piece of cake" but profit maximizing companies are not doing it, then you are probably missing valuable information related to the production decision that they have and you don't.
The seeds are planted. Gotta give em time to sprout and grow before reaching full strength. Anything worth waiting for takes time.. but I did say "within".. so technically tomorrow falls into that too
Yup that is why I'm keeping things more general. If it tries to heat up I'll disengage.
The Misco Bold North woofers are decent. Too bad they are 8 ohm drivers. 4 ohm would make them more sensitive.
Eminence has not bit the dust. Their Textreme compression driver is excellent. The Tour Grade woofers are top notch too.
InDIYana Event Website
My mistake. I thought I read somewhere that Eminence packed up.
That's good news.
Eminence was bought-out by B&C if my memory serves me but most of the existing product line will be continued.
Yup - https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/EMINENCE-ENTERPRISE-LIMIT-23746646/news/B-C-Speakers-acquires-100-percent-of-U-S-based-Eminence-Holdings-44805314/
I think there are a good number of drivers made in the USA but they are all built and used in house.
Maggies: White Bear Lake, Minnesota
Eminence has not bit the dust. They don't make HiFi drivers, but do make some of the best PA and instrument ones.
Are you asking why it makes little to no sense to manufacture in US even with tariffs applied to the imports?
I'm just curious. Looking at European prices, surely the USA should be able to match or beat those. Don't you think?
Visaton and Monacor are made in Germany. Ciare and FaitalPRO in Italy. Beyma in Spain. They aren't going to move to the US. Monacor doesn't even sell in the US.
But the USA does beat all those companies in price - by Dayton Audio. How? By having their speakers made in low-cost countries like China and Taiwan (and I believe at some point India).
And we can buy direct from AliExpress . . .
Matching the price is not the issue. USA is at the late stage of the capitalism development than it is more of financial banking economy and not a manufacturing one. It's not a republican/democrat issue btw and I am not trying to start a fight.
So, having said that, making audio transducers for high end market is a fairly small market. Profit is not very high even tho individual components are expensive.
To start manufacturing, aside from the knowledgeable people you need equipment, employees and facility to produce your (exotic name here) newest and the best woofers or tweeters. AKA, money, funds, investments.
Considering direct business loan from the bank is not likely to happen unless you are using your house as a collateral, where do you get $ for start up? And remember, in modern economy, you can have the best product out there but if it's not marketed properly, it's dead in the water. By the same token you could have a crappy product that's marketed well with enough monetary backing behind it and it's doing fine. "Money Bags" are rarely interested in start-up like this. Why would they if real estate or money markets are better investments? Taxation system does not stimulate manufacturing either.
And as a manufacturer (and I have been a manufacturer of high end furnishings for close to 30 years now) I can't start a business with a small investment any longer. 30 years ago, I had a Milwaukee drill gun, $1500 saved from working 2 jobs and I was able to rent cheap space and slowly roll out, upgrade, hire 1 helper. It was in NYC. Believe it or not, there were furniture shops and studios in Manhattan back then. There's no more cheap space. Tooling went up the price. There's no rent control for commercial real estate. Every step of the way, it sux.
And the last but not the list, USA is not known to manufacture high quality products any longer. The reputation is lost.
I do have a Delta drill press, manufactured in 1946. With a precision chuck, the run out is 0.004"
Building speakers is a bit different. Speakers are fancy pieces of furniture that make sound. They have presence and design element in the home environment. But that's a different market than speaker components.
Yes, me-too product companies competing on price (be it speaker drivers or start-up EV businesses) without a unique edge are not a great business model to garner investment $s.
Now, come up with say a new driver technology / design that solves the problems of narrow band width and wide lateral wave propagation (and get IP protection), create a good capital raise pitch presentation, and bingo.
Misco only assembles over here. They still source all their parts from China. I believe Eminence is the mostly the same but might make a few of the parts here. Frames and stuff come from their Chinese factory. Tariffs are even more expensive on the parts than they were on the finished drivers. We were paying 7.5% on drivers and I believe the parts (frames, cones, etc.) were around 20-20%.
If only there were a speaker company bassed in the hometown of the industrial revolution...
Eminence stamps their own motors' steel parts. Not sure on the rest.
InDIYana Event Website
For certain product lines that is true.
The small 3-5" wideband line array drivers they sell are manufactured in China. Those are outliers for sure.
InDIYana Event Website