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Will we see the American Speakers industries getting vibrant again... (1 Viewer)

YANG

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...with Trump slowly weakening American firms investment in China in coming days?
I miss the kind of American made speakers quality that long lost a certain time ago...
 

theJman

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Like most people, I'm no fan of Trump. However, the manufacturing war was lost long before he came into power. There are certainly a number of talented US designers/engineers in the speaker and subwoofer industry, but I honestly don't envision a scenario where the manufacturing of that equipment comes back on-shore. Hopefully I'm wrong though.
 

RobertR

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Manufacturing is not a "war". My response is, all I care about is the availability of products that people like and want at a price they're willing to pay, not the place of manufacture.
 

JohnRice

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I’m curious what American made speakers the OP has owned.
 

RobertR

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Even "American made" products have a lot of foreign made parts. The world economy is very different from the way it was in the 50s.
 

revgen

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I don't know about speakers, but Grado Labs still makes headphones and phono cartridges in Brooklyn, NY.

I suspect a big problem with manufacturing speakers is their weight. A small American boutique speaker company can't afford the shipping costs that a larger multi-national company can. Small items like phono cartridges and headphones aren't as difficult to ship worldwide.
 

JohnRice

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I'm just curious. Over the last 40 years, all but one of my main speakers were manufactured in the US (yeah, generally with at least some foreign parts) and the one exception were British, but I wonder exactly what the OP is missing. Of course, the conclusion that was made in the first post is not realistic, anyway.
 

YANG

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Even "American made" products have a lot of foreign made parts. The world economy is very different from the way it was in the 50s.
I understand that... I've seen the repair of vintage Cerwin Vega speakers with drivers made in the Philippines...
I don't mind parts and components made elsewhere. But workmanship and consistent quality controls is very very important.
I have much confidence with American workmanship, because my Polk S6 still rocks today... after close 20yrs of aquisition!
 

YANG

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...I suspect a big problem with manufacturing speakers is their weight. A small American boutique speaker company can't afford the shipping costs that a larger multi-national company can. Small items like phono cartridges and headphones aren't as difficult to ship worldwide.
on the subject of shipping... yeah... anything that ships out of America are often accompanied with high shipping costs. I work with a japanese company that have offices all around the world. Sometime when a certain machinery component in warehouse goes low on inventory stockhold, and the japanese factory can't churn out in time, we have to transfer stocks from America to the oriental office. Those customers who can't wait will have to bite the American "Shipping Bullet", some backed off and prefer to wait till shipments from japan arrives... with cheaper shipping costs as well...

Sometime i wonder... while in the trade war that's going on, American car makers can still ship their American assembled/built cars to Asia, why can't other produce?
 

Tom Vodhanel

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I miss the kind of American made speakers quality that long lost a certain time ago...

The big variable is really what value the end consumer attaches to a USA made product. For the large majority, we simply "sort by price, low to high".

Tom V.
Power Sound Audio
 

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