@stereo5 + 2
American Made Audio Products
I just came upon this and wondered if anyone else has seen this website. I try to support the home team when I can so this is interesting, at least as a resource, and not a sales tool. I apologize in advance if I’m late to the game on this but interesting to hear anyones thoughts, knowledge, etc. Thanks. https://americanmadeaudio.com/
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@ditusa + 1 |
Nice graphs. What are they of? I have no idea. Who cares? I can draw some graphs of Bose 901's that look wonderful--their ads have young, serious-looking men in long white lab coats and Buddy Holly glasses standing around with clipboards attesting to their "accuracy." I am still laughing, 50 years later... What I DO KNOW is that any box, horn, electrostat, ANYTHING other than Maggies changes what you put into it. YOU may find that pleasing--in my shop, I sold you whatever you liked since we ran a business. BUT, when the doors closed and we put the BEST STUFF into every speaker we had, only one reproduced what we put into it exactly. Deal with it. |
Bruce Thigpen invented his Eminent Technology LFT driver in response to the original, single-ended Magnepan planar-magnetic drivers, still found in most Magnepan models. I own a pair of Magnepan’s Tympani T-IVa, which features single-ended bass and midrange planar-magnetic drivers, with a push-pull true ribbon tweeter. Single ended means magnets on only one side of the Mylar diaphram; as the conductive wire glued onto the Mylar moves away from the magnet, control of the movement of the Mylar decreases with distance. For that reason the more expensive Magnepans (for example the MG20) contain push-pull drivers, with magnets on both sides of the Mylar diaphram. In a push-pull design, the conductive element of the driver remains within the magnetic field at all excursion distances. ALL Eminent Technology LFT drivers are push-pull, for lowest distortion magnetic-planar performance. The push-pull LFT-8b retails for $2499/pr, only slightly more than the single-ended Magnepan MG1.7i. I’ve compared the two; have you? In his Absolute Sound review of the LFT-8b, Robert Greene remarked on the very evident low distortion nature of the sound the 8b creates. A ridiculously-overlooked hi-fi bargain. All parts made in house, in Florida U.S.A.
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@stereo5 +1 |
I picked up a new Rogue pre-amp from Northern Audio in Pitt. Beautiful shop, and Mark was awesome to deal with. Of course I just can't go into a shop for 15min. I was there for an hour and a half. He had a pair of the Deville's and I was in love!! I am saving up for a pair of my own. Everything about them, just beautiful! They are a perfect example of what the US can produce in the market, by craftsmen and artisans who care deeply about their product. They were really something to behold. |
Oswalds Mills: https://oswaldsmillaudio.com/story Our slate, from which our turntables, plinths, equipment racks and even some amplifiers are fashioned, comes from the last two functioning quarries in Pennsylvania. It is cut on a state of the art five axis water jet machine owned and operated by a Mennonite family, surrounded by Mennonite farms. Once cut, the slate is honed by hand using water and diamond tooling and abrasives. The hardwoods we use to make our speakers, amplifiers and audio furniture grow in the surrounding forests of Pennsylvania and are sustainably harvested. Our woods typically require years of careful air and then kiln drying, and we also use cutting edge new processes like torrefaction that literally cook the wood to improve its tonality and increase its stability. We have our own 15,000 square foot wood shop with both state of the art CNC machines and also antique woodworking machines and equipment which allow us to build things no one else makes today. Today Oswald's Mill functions as the lab and reference collection informing the acoustical design and engineering of all OMA products. Our large collection of vintage professional tube amplifiers, speakers and turntables stretching back to the 1930’s allows us a proper standard by which to judge and inspires what we create, using the best ideas and practices from the past. In 2019 we started Fleetwood Sound Company, a new division of OMA. We created FSC to produce a new line of smaller, more affordable audio components while retaining the ultra high build quality and design as our OMA line. Loudspeakers with the same solid hardwoods, hand rubbed natural finishes (oil and wax), conical horns and innovative audio engineering driven design made within reach. Built under the same roof as OMA in Pennsylvania, next to the factory that made the Fleetwood motor car synonymous with "world’s finest". |
@doyle3433 Excellent story. When I’m looking to purchase, I always want to know where the gear is made. I ask salesman that specific question, because they ought to know off the cuff and not have to look it up. If it’s a toss up between two items, all things being equal, I usually pick the US company. |
I felt the need to elaborate somewhat. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of high quality gear out there made all over the world. There are components that a particular country just seems to have a knack for and I will buy them. However it do try to be aware when I spend. Careful to promote through my dollars, companies and or countries that pay workers livable wages. |
Several moons ago working while in college I landed a dream job, working in the only high end shop in town, The Speaker Shop in NE Ohio. All the awesome perks of the job made it great. Fun customers, study while working, listen to music all day and all the Irish coffee you can drink. All while surrounded by great domestic and UK gear. Our area is solidly union leaning. GM one of the bigger employers in the area. One day a customer comes in he is looking to begin getting into hifi. I put together a couple of nice systems and he listens. Impressed he picks out a really nice pair of speakers, TDL reference monitors, he’s fine with the fact that they are from the UK. But then we get stumped for power. He does not believe that Cary Audio is truly a US company, it’s not in a book he has from his trade union. Frustrated he leaves the shop without the gear he liked. Next day he returns, he’s made some calls and is now satisfied the Cary is made here in the US. He happily apologized and picks up his new system. It mattered to him as a customer and us as a store, the US makes some of the best designed and built hifi in the world. There are also countless companies from other countries that do as well no doubt about it. But when I buy, my first checkbox is does it sound great, my second is where was it built.. |
Added AGD Productions, Millennia Media, and updated Benchmark's listing categories. https://americanmadeaudio.com/the-list/ |
"@stereo5, Why drop in? So, what is your problem? If you are asking why I am here, it is obvious, same reason as everyone else. This discussion was posted before and the list was as well, hence my "meh". If you are bothered by that, then by all means, block my posts. My feelings won't be hurt in the least. I noticed you have been hostile towards me before and I never spoke up about it so I am speaking about it now. |
@hilde45 Some things like tube amps, turntables, or anything that doesn't really need a board, can easily be made of 100% American content, and often are. Speakers are harder but a few companies make their own drivers here. Most do not. Most manufacturers are not only willing, but proud, to tell you about their supply chain, and I encourage folks to ask if it's important to them, otherwise, to your point, it's hard to know. |
@dinov Understood. Some folks make a point of buying American especially when they want to deprive other countries (with questionable politics/ethics) of profits. So, it becomes a kind of ludicrous thing to try, sometimes, given how many countries make internal parts for so-called American products. The question then becomes, why bother making the ethical point in such an ineffective way. |
@dinov Nice resource to have and I saved the site for future reference. 👍🏻 |
@hilde45 thanks, as for your question I wasn’t really thinking about that because it’s almost a given that a large majority the the internal parts, ie transistors capacitors etc. are not made in the US, as is the same for many of the other non-us based companies. Perhaps, irrelevant in todays age. |
@dinov No worries at all. My question was: do all the internal parts need to be made in the U.S.A. to meet the standards in your OP? |
Full disclosure - Speaker designer-manufacturer I like to believe that most manufactures try to be honest with their Made in USA claims. There are government guidelines in some cases. In some cases US made parts at competitive prices don't exist and often don't exist at all. For example, I once needed to source a fractional, direct drive oil-less air compressor for systems that had to be DOD complaint which requires them to be Made in USA for the most part. There are exceptions and guidelines. The exceptions and guidelines are so complicated and vary from one jurisdiction to the next that we decided to source US made units. There are hundreds of choices of non-US made units. After months of research I found only two US manufactures that built what we needed. We paid 50% more for them. Their quality, engineering and technical support were top notch. The world has been moving to a global economy for a while. It's challenging to unravel the origin of every part. We design and build our own AMT drivers in the USA. That said, we source steel from a US company and buy it per spec not origin. Blanks are cut in the US on machines of unknown origin (to us) then blanks are fully machined to spec in the US. The custom Neodymium magnets are made to our specs in the US but we don't spec the origin the raw materials. Probably from China. The pleated diaphragms are made in the US. Some of the adhesives are from the US and some are not. The BoPET substrate is likely not from the US. This example is only for the AMT drivers. I won't go into the rest of the speaker. We take pride in building as much of our product as we can in the US for a variety of reasons. We try to support local business and our economy as much as we can. Personally, I enjoy developing good working relationships with our vendors and having a person to directly speak with when needed. I have been using the same machine shop for about 20 years now. Started dealing with Sr. and now working with the son. We are not at all apposed to using non-US parts if we have too. We use Italian made drivers and German caps for our Atlas. If there are equal parts, one made in the US and the other not, I will likely buy the US made part. Being a small company allows us to be more selective that way. Big "bottom line" companies have a different business model. So, are our speakers "Made in the USA"? We think they are. Or should we say "Made on Earth"?
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@mglik Border Patrol is in Maryland. If there's a UK-based "Boarder Patrol" I don't list them. AGD is new to me. I’ve sent him a message as he makes no specific claims about his production on the site, though it seems likely that they're bench-made in LA.
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@mglik I'm under the impression that their amps are made or assembled in the USA, while they import other gear, like Innuos. From their site: "In addition to building and supplying the BorderPatrol Amplifiers and DAC’s equipment we sell the excellent Innuos Music Servers and import and sell the widely acclaimed Living Voice Avatar series of loudspeakers." I've just sent an email to confirm.
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@mglik As for adding companies, either have the company contact me https://americanmadeaudio.com/about-us/ or provide the URL, the categories of products they sell, the location of the factory, and any relevant details.
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@darkj thank you for getting in on the conversation about you 😀 and your website! I hope the group might have some questions for you. As I said I stumbled upon it, and you’ve now answered my question. I think it’s a great resource and I’m impressed to see how many companies are American. I did not think there were this many. I thank you again. |
John Dark here - I'm the publisher of the site, and welcome any questions. The short history is that I started the site when I noticed that almost all of my system was made locally, and I became curious about the state of American high-end audio manufacturing. There are great components made all over the world, but I live in the US and wanted to know more about the companies doing business near me. I was surprised to find so many manufacturers here. I'm sure I've missed a few companies (there are over 200 listed and categorized), and sure to be more. |
@stereo5 , Why drop in?
Thanks OP. I'm definitely trying a bit harder to buy American made goods. Just bought my first American made car in over 25 years!
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@hilde45 I missed who was saying what, so I’m sorry if I directed something at you that should have been to someone else. Lots of side tracks. |
Thanks @thyce. |
@audioguy85 , oh. I love British audio too, no disrespect. My headphones are Quad, and I love them although they were probably assembled elsewhere. Support your home team!
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@hilde45 no grumps here, I’m just trying to see if anyone knows more about the website. As for American made, I try to support American companies when I can. No agenda. Just a question and something I thought I’d share with the group |
