There may be 500 speaker “companies” out there trying to do biz. How can you possibly navigate through the forest to find the right tree?
We can help. By understanding how products are built, it’s not as complicated as it might seem on the surface- to find truly exceptional performance for your investment.
Vendored Speakers
For openers, I’m not interested in vendored speakers. Anyone can buy parts from a vendor, screw them into a box and call it Model One, Model Two etc.
These parts are generic from warehouses like Parts Express and Madisound. Regardless of the name on the box, if it’s a conglomeration of parts out of a bin, no thanks. Even if some of these sound good, they’re all similar. Very little distinguishes A from B once you understand what is behind the grill cloth. Once you’ve studied the prime manufacturers of drive elements, you’ll see the SAME ones used in a plethora of brands.
Chinese Imports
At lower price points we have almost no choice but to offer imports from the far east. We are careful to offer best of breed. There are some nice performers for the money in this category under $2k. Wharfedale’s Linton and affordable Klipsch Ref Premier 2’s are among these.
But by and large, far east imports are comprised of cheap drivers, cabinets and crossovers- that sound boxy and inconsistent- in sonic performance or reliability. You can do better for not a lot more.
We’ve just eliminated 99% of the market. Even some of the most prestigious names out there- do exactly this- slap vendored drivers into a box. They buy parts from a warehouse, screw them into a pretty box of their own build- and call it cutting edge science. Some even manage to create a cult of followers- even though when Stereophile tests their speakers, they don’t come close to claimed specs. Bold claims, even when wildly inaccurate, can sometimes sell.
North America & Europe
I want my speakers made in North America or Europe due to the TLC that is typical, expected and readily available from these manufacturers. These companies are capable of building products, in quantity, to a REFERENCE STANDARD.
Reference Standard
Top tier companies like Bryston, Amphion and Magnepan make sure the speakers they ship out the door perform precisely as their Reference Standard prototypes do. It is only possible to do this with demanding manufacturing techniques and QC procedures. It takes time, discipline and attention to detail- none of which are in the wheel house of monster production houses or a guy assembling parts in an industrial park.
Bryston
Let’s start with Bryston of Canada. James Tanner, Bryston’s CEO, is Bryston’s lead speaker designer. He has created a broad line of speakers that are derivatives of his Model T.
Bryston’s drive elements are made in house, in Canada, by Bryston. They are built to a precision standard. Every driver that comes through production is graphed to be sure it performs within a very tight window established by Bryston’s Reference Standard. This window of variability is so tiny that variations within this window are imperceptible.
Most companies buy hundreds of drivers from companies like SB Acoustics, Vifa, Seas, Eminence, Scan-speak or whomever. The range of performance is widely varied due to mass production. Companies that care will actually graph all these tweeters (for ex) and make sure MATCHED tweeters go into paired speakers. While that’s thoughtful, if you ever need a new tweeter, you’d better plan on buying a MATCHED PAIR, because just getting one off the shelf- will leave you with a right and left speaker that produce different “colors.” Further, the crossover created for said speaker, is designed for a certain standard of drivers. If the individual drivers that land in your pair of speakers aren’t just like the prototypes, your crossover can be flat out wrong for what landed in your boxes.
Let’s consider this reality even further. Suppose a speaker has multiple tweeters, mids or woofers. There is precious little chance that all of the drivers within this prospective speaker will be in sync. If you have 3 tweeters and they’re not built virtually identically, when you play a piano key, you’re guaranteed to get spiky peaks or a sound that has unmusical artifacts, which is distortion. With Bryston you’ll have no such worries. Even if you do need a new tweeter 20+ years down the road, IT will also perform within a gnat’s fanny of the Reference Standard.
Amphion
Amphion builds its speakers in its own new factory in Finland. There are some fun videos online of Amphion’s owner, lead designer and manufacturing team- working with great pride. As I’ve described with Bryston, you’re guaranteed to get what you’ve paid for with Amphion.
Magnepan
Magnepans are made in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Magnepan is a patented technology. There is nothing else quite like it. They are made by skilled craftsmen, one at a time in a work shop. There is no mass production going on at Magnepan. When you order Magnepans in a finish we don’t have in stock, it gets put on the schedule. You’ll have to wait 4-12 weeks. But it will be worth the wait!