I remember not so long ago when audio equipment was mainly a home grown product with the exception of Japan here in the U.S. Today it’s a global market with competition from every corner of the world. I use to think here in the U.S was were the best equipment was being built, but now I’m not sure. Built quality and performance seems to be lacking a little here in the states with few exceptions compared to what’s being produced over seas and up to the north. So what country is the best equipment coming from? Maybe it’s still the U.S, but if pure aesthetics says anything I would say not. As for Sonics tough to call, maybe still here in the U.S?
Maybe they should have an audio Olympics (event) at one of the next shows. Each country could enter system that made up of only equipment from their respective countries. Now wouldn't that be interesting.
@boxer12 sums it best....a well rounded system is nothing but United Nations of stereo equipments. The concept of ‘best’ is quite subjective in our pursuit of audio nirvana.
IMHO, one of the best DAC’s in the world comes from Canada.
Funny question deserves a funny answer. England, followed by Great Britain, and then London. Germany was really good but got bombed out of existence in the marketplace some time ago.
On a serious note, it's not the country but the gifted individuals in the company that overcome hurdles, cash flow issues, red tape, parts shortages and moody geniuses to give birth to their creations in spite of it all.
Well, let's see... Best wire- Synergistic Research, made in California. Best amps- Raven Audio, made in Texas. Best speakers- Tekton, made in Utah. Best cartridges- Soundsmith, made in New York. Best acoustic tweaks- Synergistic Research, CA. Best electric tweaks- Krissy, made in NH. Top contenders for turntables, tone arms- Graham, VPI. Best digital- Ha! Fooled ya! No such thing!
The USA has been the best for quite some time now. A situation only bound to become ever more obvious over time as the weakness of reliance on global supply chains worsens.
Seriously though no-one seems to know what 'best' is when it comes to audio as there are too many variables. I really do think our stuff is the best, but that comes with a caveat- our amps are best on speakers on which they are comfortable. Other amps can drive a wider range of speakers, especially those of lower impedance and to some people that is far more important and I will argue that on such speakers those amps will work better than ours.
Now I also like balanced operation because its the best. But there is a standard to balanced operation and many high end manufacturers don't observe the standard. So there is a lot of variability to balanced operation; some manufacturers will tell you single-ended sounds better, and I really do think they think they aren't lying about that.
The bottom line here could be boiled down to 'there is no best' but that leaves out a lot of detail; the story is far richer than that!
in my own system the dominant source countries are Switzerland (Studer, darTZeel, Table Stable active anti-resonance), USA (Evolution Acoustics, Wave Kinetics tt, Saskia tt, Durand tonearm, King-Cello, Tripoint grounding), Japan (CS Port, Etsuro Gold cartridge, Miyajima Labs cartridge), Germany (Clearaudio cartridge).
passionate, music loving smart people are everywhere.
if we were to look at the per capita output of fine audio gear and the culture to support it.......Switzerland likely would score the highest. they are obviously really craftsman with their culture of the watch industry, have a high tech culture, lots of academic support, and their government really supports small businesses of the type to build audio gear. there are also lots of technical and metallurgy infrastructure that small electronics companies require to output product.
Best transistor equipment is in most cases European. Best tube equipment is made in quite a few countries, same with speakers. Turntables. I prefer British within reasonable price range, above that can be almost anywhere.
I’m a huge fan of MBL from the Germans but love Accuphase from our Japanese friends as well. I have a pair of Soltanus Acoustics Virtuoso ESL’s from Serbia and they are amazing! I think most countries have certain components that would be best in many systems.
What country is free from corona?......we all all humans. Are countries even real? Have you ever stood on a border? It is just a piece of earth. We don't own any of this. In our oneness there is just us.....just Love.
Excellence and craftsmanship and beauty is where you find it....it can be from anywhere. It is all inside us all.....we are all beautiful....spread the joy and love everywhere.....needed these days especially.....but ALL WAYS needed.
Not sure it matters much. As long as robust manufacturing is involved, the end result really comes down to the engineer or engineering team. In my system I have a power amp from Italy (Aloia), preamp from Scotland (Linn), phono preamp from the UK (Whest), conditioners from Japan (Acoustic Revive), transformer from USA (ExactPower), Sub from Canada (REL), speakers from USA (Wilson), DAC from USA (Audio Alchemy), transport from USA (Woo Audio), turntable from my basement (USA), power cables & interconnects from the Netherlands (Siltech), Japan (Acoustic Revive), USA (Jena Labs, JPS Labs, Cardas). It’s like the United Nations of stereo equipment, except they get along well with each other.
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