Where are speakers made these days?

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Someone recently asked me that.

The Paradigm S8 speakers are assembled in Canada, but the cabinets are made and finished in China.

The Audio Beat - Paradigm Reference Signature S8 v3 Loudspeakers

But the Paradigm drivers are made in Canada?

PSB are made in China.

DefTech are made in China.

KEF Reference, blade, Muon are made in England, but R900 & below are all made in China.

Philharmonic 1 & 2 cabinets are made in China, but assembled in USA. Philharmonic 3 are made in USA.

Linkwitz Orion are made in USA.

NHT are made in China.

On the back of my Revel Salon2, it says "Designed and engineered" by Revel in USA.

Notice it does not say "Made in" USA.

 

[GranteedEV]

If it's not made in china, it's still assembled with parts that were made in china

Even the Seas drivers in the Orions are probably made with chinese parts.

 

[Docks]

Everything paradigm is made in Canada except the cabinets. You can find tours of their assembly plant online here too.

I'm somewhat sure PSB would follow this format as well

 

[dkane360]

This should help

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/loudspeakers/69232-speakers-made-where.html

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

This should help

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/loudspeakers/69232-speakers-made-where.html

The Paradigm web link that stated the S's cabinet is made in China, and assembled in Canada was easy for me to find on Google.

However when I Google Revel, B&W, PSB, I could not find an easy answer.

According to a KEF rep, the KEF Reference is 100% made and assembled in England - all drivers and cabinets.

 

[TLS Guy]

Any decent speaker will not have drivers made in the Far East, China or the USA. The latter is unfortunate but true.

All decent drivers are pretty much made in Europe and a few in Canada.

I will post soon about my visit to ATC in the Cotswolds, way out in beautiful countryside, wide of Stroud Gloucestershire.

 

[Rickster71]

The Paradigm web link that stated the S's cabinet is made in China, and assembled in Canada was easy for me to find on Google.

However when I Google Revel, B&W, PSB, I could not find an easy answer.

According to a KEF rep, the KEF Reference is 100% made and assembled in England - all drivers and cabinets.

I brought the power into the KEF building in Marlboro, NJ several years back.
There was some manufacturing going there, which was the reason for the added power.

 

[Irvrobinson]

On the back of my Revel Salon2, it says "Designed and engineered" by Revel in USA.

Notice it does not say "Made in" USA.

Yeah, the CEO of Harman (Dinesh Paliwal) who replaced Sidney is not my kind of guy. My Salon2s made in 1Q2010 say Made in USA. That meant at least 70% of the product content was of US origin. Final assembly was moved to Mexico sometime after.

You're missed, Sidney, you were a man of vision.

[Edit - I just looked up the federal statute, to get a Made in USA label "all or virtually all" of the content must be of USA origin. I was mistaken about the 70% figure.]

 

[PENG]

Although China can launch satellites into space/orbit very well but their general work force probably won't have the skill and appreciation of the level of precision and quality that audiophile/Audioholics may expect. I suspect this is a case of being not yet, but it is a matter of time when they do. Look at some of their craft work since ancient times, there is no lack of skills and talents there, just that they are not that into AV products, again, just not yet.

That being said, as long as those manufacturing facilities are highly automated, designed, built, managed and supervised by the companies that own and operate them (e.g. PSB, Paradigm, KEF) I think they should be fine. I prefer the way Paradigm does it because by having assembling done in Canada they have total control of the final inspection and testing process. Eventually there will be high end speakers of their own when their standard of living rises to a level comparable to that of western countries.

For those who want the best perceived quality assurance, I believe there are still plenty of speakers made in Europe and USA.

 

[Irvrobinson]

Linkwitz Orion are made in USA.

You know, it just occurred to me, I'm surprised Wood Artistry can say that the Orions are, legally, made in the USA, because the drivers are imported. Orions couldn't possibly meet the "virtually all" content standard. Just a wild guess, but I think they're probably only "assembled in the USA". You guys may have read that New Balance got into trouble over this with their running shoes. Now several models say "Assembled in the USA".

My newly-acquired Velodyne DD18+ said Made in the USA on the carton. That surprised me a bit.

 

[cpp]

With the cost of labor here in the US being out of control Audio manufacturers be it amps, speakers receivers are going to find cheaper labor and parts to construct their product. Some keep the final assembly in house using parts made in other countries including China, some have the whole product built overseas to keep cost down. So it's really hard to tell by looking at a speaker if all the parts within the speaker are made in the US , China, Russia, Germany, France, Mexico, Japan or somewhere else unless you look at each component and back track the component part to its place of origin. Even recent equipment offerings that note built in the USA or built in the UK most do not contain 100% parts manufactured in the US like GM and Ford. Audio components are no different. You might have a US company noting built in the US but in reality they use parts built by someone else in another country and assemble the device in the US.

http://www.made-in-china.com/manufacturers-exporters/c5q0nolimit/Speaker_Cabinet-1.html

http://www.iaswww.com/apr/Business/Consumer_Goods_and_Services/Electronics/Audio/Speakers/Dynamic/Asia/

http://cn.countrysearch.tradekey.com/speaker-parts.htm

http://audiotools.com/drivers.html

 

[Rickster71]

China makes, and the world takes.

IMHO: If China appears to have a quality control problem. (I'm sure in some instances they do)
I'm willing to venture a guess that if the shear volume of what they are producing was considered, their failure rate isn't that high, percentage wise.

A Graph of World Cement Production The Oil Drum | A Pretty Stunning Graph of World Cement Production (and China is Certainly Using It) (and China is Using It)
The above link is an old from 2004 thru 2007 and it's unbelievable.
I remember drywall shortages and copper wire prices going through the roof, and it was all due to it being shipped to China.

 

[MinusTheBear]

Speakers are made and by my definition of "made" - components and assembly are certainly not "made" here in North America. The overwhelming amount come from overseas particularly the far East. There are quality parts manufacturers source from Europe I believe. Actually I don't know of any speaker that has at least some Chinese component to it. If a speaker says made in Canada or Made In USA that usually means its just assembled there, but you can count that they are probably supplying at some, if not all of their components from a place like China.

 

[3db]

PSB, Paradigm have their cabinets made in China, the drivers are Europe I believe, and the final assembly done in Canada. Totem I think are totally built in Canada.

 

[Hocky]

My speakers used to be from the great American speaker company. lol

 

[billy p]

The bigger question for me is really how much money is actually placed or put into constructing a speaker and it's components. For instance if a said speaker retails for ~$1500.00 how much of that cost is parts related and how much of that is profit related?

Curious that's all...Bill...

 

[GranteedEV]

PSB, Paradigm have their cabinets made in China, the drivers are Europe I believe, and the final assembly done in Canada. Totem I think are totally built in Canada.

Totem uses off-the-shelf scandinavian drivers.

 

[GranteedEV]

Any decent speaker will not have drivers made in the Far East, China or the USA. The latter is unfortunate but true.

TAD/Pioneer use Far East Drivers and I think they're pretty good speakers.
JBLPro/Revel/Infinity drivers are made in China AFAIK
The Salk Pharos uses JBLPro woofers
The Salk Soundscape uses the Acoustic Elegance TD12H woofer
The AudioKinesis Planetarium uses the Acoustic Elegance TD12M midwoofer
The Seaton Catalysts use a pair of Acoustic Elegance TD12S woofers
The Vaporsound Arcus uses the Acoustic Elegance TD10M midwoofer
BG drivers are made in the USA to my knowledge. The Neo 8 is used in The philharmonic speakers, the Neo 3 and 10 in the BG Radia speakers.

 

[cpp]

All roads lead to China in some form or another for about everything we use today.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

You know, it just occurred to me, I'm surprised Wood Artistry can say that the Orions are, legally, made in the USA, because the drivers are imported. Orions couldn't possibly meet the "virtually all" content standard. Just a wild guess, but I think they're probably only "assembled in the USA". You guys may have read that New Balance got into trouble over this with their running shoes. Now several models say "Assembled in the USA".

My newly-acquired Velodyne DD18+ said Made in the USA on the carton. That surprised me a bit.

You are right. I should have said that the Orion is assembled in USA.