Are there any subwoofer drivers made in the USA anymore?

[Mark Holmes]

I am not trying to stir up any political controversy. But was curious if any high excursion subwoofer drivers are actually manufactured in the US. I know the TC Sounds has a build house in California. But I was wondering if anyone else was producing drivers here?

[ccdoggy]

Fi car audio is.

[toecheese]

Many of them are done in North America (Canada and Mexico). I'd say that relatively few are overseas.

[Blaser]

Isn't SoundSplinter manufactured in the US as well?

[bobgpsr]

A lot of the Dayton Loudspeaker subwoofers (sold by Parts Express) are. The Quatro models for instance. I remember reading that at one time Eminence (Kentucky) was a Dayton build house. Of course Eminence makes pro audio drivers under their own brand.

[brent_s]

Off the top of my head...

US Assembled = TC Sounds (Soundsplinter, Audiopulse, Torrent Audio, Rythmik), Fi, Ascendant Audio, Acoustic Elegance, Elemental Designs (some models?), SVS (12.3,NDS, 13U), JL Audio?

Made in USA (FTC labeled) = Dayton DVC series (not shielded DVC), Titanics series, Quattro series, Series II. The DVCs are Eminence OEM'd, likely Quattro and Series II as well. Titanic is OEM by a build house called NSD or something like that.

The Dayton Reference series are made in Taiwan, at least my RS315-HF and RS315-HO were.

TC has also gone overseas for help to increase mfg capacity back when they had large OEM contracts.

Somewhere, I saw Kevin Haskins of diycable say the Shiva-X and Tempest-X used the same baskets as Titanic...unknown if that means the baskets are imported by the Titanic's OEM or the Shiva-X/Tempest-X are possibly being built/assembled in the US.

-Brent

[Mark Holmes]

Brent,

Thanks for the answer again. I'll query Mr. Haskins about his latest drivers.

I was hoping that Acoustic Elegance was coming out with new drivers, but all I have seen are IB compatible.

I am still trying to find something for my empty 3 cubic foot box.

[brent_s]

Mark, if you check AE's forums, John has been blowing out a few 12s and 15s that supposedly resemble his old AV12/AV15.

-Brent

[Twinbugles]

JBL is still making drivers in Northridge, Na.

[Mark Holmes]

Right now I am looking at something from John J. at AE and will see what JBL might have.

[Brian Bunge]

Hey Mark! Long time no see! I was also going to point you to John at AE. He has some interesting things coming up the last time he and I talked.

Oh, and if I understand things correctly, most of the parts (magnet assembly, cones, etc.) used in speaker design are pretty much all from overseas, regardless of where the drivers are actually assembled.

[Mark Holmes]

Hey Brian,

Hope all is well in Florida.

I am just trying to buy stuff that is US made whenever I can. I realize many components are made in China. But trying to buy stuff now that has a least some sort of domestic hands on it.

[toecheese]

I'm the same way; if it can't be USA, then at least democracies.

[Brian Bunge]

Parts Express is based out of Ohio. How more "USA" can you get?

[Mark Holmes]

I just got a couple of drivers from Acoustic Elegance. Even if they are from north of the Mason-Dixon line.

I have not had a chance to compare them to the Tumult, but will try and get around to it this weekend. I will be interested to run some frequency sweeps comparing the two.

[Fi Audio]

We straddle the line of "assembled" and "made" depending on what the driver or OEM customer needs. Simply cant compete with China anymore and a good portion of parts have to come from there (or other countries) as you just cant get them in the US anymore. I cant seem to find a true manufacturer of speaker sized ceramic magnets... last company that I used went out of business 8 or so years ago (still a couple for NdFeB, Alnico, and SmCo). Basically most of the hard parts associated with speakers come from overseas.
While we do machine lots of parts for some lower production OEM, and all of our cooled motors, it is simply MUCH cheaper to get a finished part for some applications than the raw materials cost in the US. Soft parts are as much US as possible. That is something that can still be made hear and you do have a couple of choice with... although in the past 5 years those choices have been cut in half or more... or they now source things elsewhere for some lines too...

Im happy to keep as many jobs in the US as possible, but parts and bits are within reason. We simply cant use all US parts or we would price ourselves right out of the market. The one notable exception is Eminence. They still use foreign parts (magnets and baskets, terminals, leadwire, spiders, and some other bits on certain things...) but they do the vast majority of their steel in the US via sintering for poles or stamping for top and back plates. With the volumes they do, and given some of the ages of the parts and toolings, it simply makes sense for them.

Thanks,
Scott

[Mark Holmes]

Joshua,

I started off this thread with the statement:

I am not trying to stir up any political controversy.

So please, if you want to take this further, start another thread. Or if you take umbrage with anything I have said, feel free to PM me. I really am not trying to stir up anything.

Thanks,

[Josuah]

Didn't have any problem with what you were saying. Sorry about it. Thought I was clear about just saying something about international trade in general, but guess not.

Anyway, I do wish TC Sounds hadn't stopped selling direct; I didn't write down the specs of their TC-2000 drivers and now I'm not sure what they are anymore. Oh well.

[looneybomber]

brent_s wrote:

Off the top of my head...

US Assembled = Elemental Designs (some models?)

I've seen some of their drivers assembled in their blog video's. Which one's I don't know, but I believe the 19Ov.2 I owned had a "made in china" on the box. The basket also looked much different (think generic) than their others.

[Mark Holmes]

I did run a couple of quick sweeps comparing the Tumult and the 15.1. I am very impressed so far.

The 15.1s are much lighter than the Tumults, were packaged well and the transaction was very smooth. The hole pattern was even the same for either driver.

[Avus_M3]

I remember in the good 'ol days Soundstream was right down the road...until they went bankrupt/bought out.