I think all ID companies (including Ascend) use "off the shelf" drivers, more or less.
Beyond that, they may have the driver manufacturers build to their "specification". Harman (Revel, JBL, Infinity) build their own drivers. So do KEF and TAD. RBH build their own midrange drivers and woofers, but they use Scan-Speak tweeters. But none of these ID speaker companies build their own drivers in-house.
OTOH, it doesn't mean the drivers are not as good if they are "off the shelf"; and it doesn't mean the drivers are better if they are built in-house.
It means you can cut cost if you can mass produce in-house parts. For example, if you were to buy aftermarket diamond tweeters, it might cost you $2K for one Accuton Diamond tweeter. But it may cost B&W only $500 each. It doesn't mean one is better sounding. It just means the in-house parts are more cost effective for the company.
Actually,
If the definition of off-the-shelf means that component can be purchased by others or from a retailer, no - we (Ascend) do not use a single of-the-shelf transducer.
In fact, many of our transucers were developed by us in cooperation with the OEM. And others were developed exclusively by us.
For example, the woofers in our 340’s and 170’s were actually designed by me 100%. Everything from developing the cone material, to the former and windings, suspension system and basket frame. We can take this woofer design and approach other OEM’s to build it for us (if they can) and we have. Ascend owns all the toolings. We could, technically, build these here at our factory, but that would be extremely inefficient and expensive.
Another example is the tweeter used in our 170SE and 200SE’s, and our NrT dome. We approached SEAS and developed both of these in conjuction with their engineers and expertise. These units did not exist before and many (not all) of the parts required to build them required their own toolings to be created. Some of the parts used already existed. These tweeters are 100% exclusive to us, and will remain so.
Another example is the tweeter used in our 340. We took an existing SEAS design and made significant changes to both the motor assembly and dome.
With the Sierra-1, this was a new tweeter that was already in development by SEAS and after they wanted my feedback on the design, we made changes that better fit our needs.
With the Sierra-2 tweeter, as Dennis mentioned, this was a joint effort between Ascend and RAAL. It is fully custom and development costs were quite high so in order to better absorb RAAL’s costs, an agreement was made that an OEM version of this tweeter would be made available. It is not the same as the version we use (and the differences extend to well beyond just transformer windings) but I did not want to commit to the volume required to keep full exclusivity on such a new product and the fact is, our version and the OEM version are simply wonderful tweeters and keeping such a tweeter exclusive to us just isn’t right. We have actually exceeded the volume requirements for exclusivity but doing so wouldn’t be beneficial to RAAL’s bottom line and I consider them good friends. There is much more to this industry than making a few bucks, our relationship with RAAL (like our relationship with SEAS) is far more valuable than a few extra $$$ that may or may not be earned by full exclusivity.
Our approach is quite a bit more expensive than using existing drivers. I am not saying custom drivers (no matter how custom or proprietary they are) are better than off-the-shelf parts, but – we design a finished product with a very specific performance target, and getting there almost always requires development of something new. It may or may not be the best approach to loudspeaker design. For example, we must purchase in very large quantities and lead times are often long as our components are not part of the normal production batches. There have been times when I have deeply regretted NOT being able to simply order a batch of components from Madisound or Parts Express. But – I am an engineer at heart and this does not mean I am a smart or savvy business owner and truth be told, I rarely even look at our bottom line. We do manage to somehow get the bills paid and our customers are happy, so I am happy.
Some designers work forwards, take the components they like and design around them to achieve the best performance they can with those components. I design backwards, I come up with a very specific performance target and then do what we need to do to get “there”. As Curtis mentioned, sometimes this means throwing away a lot of hard work if it is simply not going to work, which was the case with the first few iterations of the S2 ribbon tweeter.
I am certainly not saying one approach is better than another. Great loudspeakers exist using fully off-the-shelf components and great loudspeakers exist using custom and/or proprietary components.
Hope this makes sense!
