Suggest your most desired MSRP $1,500-$3,000 Stand Mount for a Shootout.

I just can't shut up about my Closer Acoustics OGY. 

If I were nearby I would sneak them into the demo. You gotta hear them! 

I'm on another continent sadly. 

@dayglow Even budget speakers from big box stores don't sound alike. The Klipsch RP600M sound very different to the Q Acoustics 3030. 

For over 1000€, I expect my bookshelf speakers to be made in France or somewhere in Europe. The OGY are built in Poland for example. 

@dayglow My experience with exclusivity is different than yours. Surely brands like Focal, B&W and Sonus Faber are built in China. Boutique brands like Tekton assemble in the US but use off-the-shelf drivers from China (probably). 

In France there are several driver manufacturers like EMS, Audax, Supravox and Davis Acoustics. However, it's murky whether the drivers or finished speakers are built in France or not. The lower end stuff is 100% likely to be made in China. 

This is why I blindly bought the OGY:

- The drivers are EMS LB5 (fullrange). EMS is a tiny driver manufacturer. An old couple runs the company. Everything is assembled by hand and the price reflects that. The EMS LB5 driver sells for 300€/unit. 

- The enclosure is a wavy transmission line built from glued layers of laser-cut plywood. No other speakers will have the same construction. The outter box is corian. Most other manufacturers just use MDF and cover it with glossy paint/vinyl/veneer. The backside of the speakers has an embossed logo in the corian which is a nice touch. It's clear that the speakers were difficult to assemble.

- It is clear that the builder did everything he could to maximize the potential of the EMS LB5 driver. That takes some guts. Conventional wisdom says that fullrange drivers suck. 

So maybe I get your point in a sense that:

- Just spend $30 on a tweeter/woofer combo shipped from China. Design a crossover and a ported box around that and you'll get something good. Every manufacturer is doing that with speakers from $600 to $3000. Every speaker model performs similarly across all brands with minor differences in the tuning and cabinets. 

- Maybe there's just one way to design and build a bookshelf speaker (and other inferior ways). We figured that out over 50 years ago. There's little room for innovation. Speakers are about as exclusive as electric kettles. 

The trial and error part of the discussion is interesting. A live show wouldn't demonstrate trial and error because the environment is unlikely (stage) and the experience with the products is limited in time. Perhaps this is an invitation to purchase/sell/swap/lend/borrow equipment with other audiophiles? The idea here is to experience many gear in your own space without spending mountains of cash. 

@dayglow @juanmanuelfangioii Focal, like Davis Acoustics and Triangle only build their high-end speakers in France. The low end speakers are built in China. I don't have specific sources, but I watched a bunch of interviews with Davis Acoustics. Davis is definetely one of the most transparent companies. They basically implied that entry-level speakers are built to a price and have to be outsourced to China. I'm fairly certain that the Davis Acoustics Courbet 3 is built in France. Focal is much less transparent. 

Moreover, French companies are known to lie about the "Made in France" label. American companies as well and so on...

It's evident that China has some of the highest standards for manufacturing, even higher than the USA for specific things like electronics and tools. But Chinese workers have worse working conditions (I would argue that American workers have pretty abysmal working conditions as demonstrated by the Frito-Lay strike but American salaries are higher so all is justified). 

I know that I’m probably advertising the OGY speakers unintentionally. I won’t mention them in this thread anymore.

The reason I’m not a fan about Focal is because they are a huge international brand like B&W. So you don’t get that exclusivity you typically see from smaller boutique manufacturers. Moreover, the branding of Focal products is also reflected in the price. I have no doubt that medium/high end Focal models are built in France. There are factory tours on the web. I’m just hesitant about lower-end Focal models. To further my point, high-end Focal speakers seem to be using unique flax composite drivers. Low-end Focal speakers seem to be using paper cones. I’m just speculating that the paper cones are built overseas. I could be wrong. But I digress.

Moreover, France is a Hi-Fi paradise. Hundreds of tiny manufacturers are building innovative and unique products which get no attention from the English-speaking world. It’s just silly that brands like Tekton and OJAS are more well-known than Apertura and Davis Acoustics. America is the centre of the universe, so it’s understandable. Anyways, Focal doesn’t feel as exotic or French to me because of its big brand status. Even luxury cars are equipped with Focal. Call me a hipster, I don’t care.

At the same time people want to see popular products in shootouts, for comparison sake. So Focal, Buchardt, Sonus Faber, KEF, B&W are your usual suspects.

In retrospect, including an obscure boutique brand which sells a few dozen speakers every year in a shootout is futile.