What makes an audio product Made in America

[Hugh]

I am kind of ignorant when it comes to this subject so I'd like to entice your opinions/comments pertaining to this.

Is there anything at all, be it speakers and/or electronics that can be claimed/verified as 100% made in The USA?

Thanks all,

[mep]

I am kind of ignorant when it comes to this subject so I'd like to entice your opinions/comments pertaining to this.

Is there anything at all, be it speakers and/or electronics that can be claimed/verified as 100% made in The USA?

Thanks all,

You need to define what you mean when you say 100% made in the USA. Do you mean every single component that goes inside a piece of electronics like a preamp or power amp? If so, the answer is probably zilch. If you mean designed and manufactured in the USA with some component parts sourced from other countries such as caps and resistors, there will be some companies that qualify.

Many if not most speaker companies based in the USA and who manufacture their own cabinets in the USA are sourcing woofers, midranges, and tweeters from foreign companies although they all say they are custom made to their specs.

[Hugh]

You need to define what you mean when you say 100% made in the USA. Do you mean every single component that goes inside a piece of electronics like a preamp or power amp? If so, the answer is probably zilch. If you mean designed and manufactured in the USA with some component parts sourced from other countries such as caps and resistors, there will be some companies that qualify.

Many if not most speaker companies based in the USA and who manufacture their own cabinets in the USA are sourcing woofers, midranges, and tweeters from foreign companies although they all say they are custom made to their specs.

Thanks for your input.

Per FTC guidelines, to be able to claim Made in The USA then a product have to have “all or virtually all” components made in The US.
Based on this then almost most, if not all, speaker manufacturers may or may not claim their products are made in America.

Am I off based or...? :-)

[cpp]

Nice little write up from the people that make one comply. https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/busi...e-usa-standard

[mep]

Thanks for your input.

Per FTC guidelines, to be able to claim Made in The USA then a product have to have “all or virtually all” components made in The US.
Based on this then almost most, if not all, speaker manufacturers may or may not claim their products are made in America.

Am I off based or...? :-)

I don't know what point you are trying to make. Vandersteen may make all of his own drivers or they might be sourced from the USA. I'm pretty sure all of YG speakers and cabinets are made by them in the USA. I think some of Magico's drivers are sent from the USA to Germany and Israel before they make it back to the USA, but Myles will have more info on that.

[MylesBAstor]

Depends on the driver but Magicos are made in different countries. IIRC the graphene is applied by a company in Japan. Surround may be made somewhere else and then another company assembles the final product. It's just more efficient that way since that's what the other company is built to do.

[Hugh]

I don't know what point you are trying to make. Vandersteen may make all of his own drivers or they might be sourced from the USA. I'm pretty sure all of YG speakers and cabinets are made by them in the USA. I think some of Magico's drivers are sent from the USA to Germany and Israel before they make it back to the USA, but Myles will have more info on that.

Actually, I started the thread to see what people think/feel just to add to the knowledge base here.

Thanks,

[mep]

I'm not sure if even the high end speaker companies that do make their own drivers and cabinets in the USA aren't sourcing at least some of the crossover components from other companies like Mundorf in Germany. This would violate your rule unless we went with the "virtually all" components were made in the USA. I think many consumers who are looking to purchase products 'made' in the USA are quite satisfied if the products are designed and built in the USA even if they use some components that were sourced from other countries.

[Hugh]

I'm not sure if even the high end speaker companies that do make their own drivers and cabinets in the USA aren't sourcing at least some of the crossover components from other companies like Mundorf in Germany. This would violate your rule unless we went with the "virtually all" components were made in the USA. I think many consumers who are looking to purchase products 'made' in the USA are quite satisfied if the products are designed and built in the USA even if they use some components that were sourced from other countries.

i actually agree with you wholeheartedly. 👍

[JackD201]

These days Made in _______ typically means that _________ was the place of design, final assembly and packing. It's gray in between. Take for example a Mercedes Benz GL. It is mostly designed in Germany (they have design houses around the world) but assembled in Alabama, USA. It's still a German car but not Made in Germany. That applies to some audio companies like Vincent or Hegel. Speaker wise that can apply to lower models from B&W where only the 800 series is UK made.

[Rob]

Thanks for your input.

Per FTC guidelines, to be able to claim Made in The USA then a product have to have “all or virtually all” components made in The US.
Based on this then almost most, if not all, speaker manufacturers may or may not claim their products are made in America.

Am I off based or...? :-)

the FTC and others recognize the concept of 'value added' like design/engineering and essential processes necessary to assemble, test and QC products in the US that arguably could constitute more than 50% of a products value, even if >70% of the parts are sourced from foreign supplies.

[Garth]

100% made in America means some one in China is doubled over laughing at how wrong you are

[Rob]

the only person doubled over laughing is the factory owner, then they have anchor babies here and resettle in the San Gabriel valley

[MylesBAstor]

I guess it's hope deep do you want to delve. Most (all?) CD players use a Japanese drive.

Tube amp will use tubes from overseas. Electronics might use capacitors, sometimes resistors from overseas.

Speakers use parts from all over though usually, not always, cabinets are built in the US.

Off the top of my head, I'd say that the closest you might get to an all American product is turntables. I'd say something like a Grado cartridge but not sure where the wire or stylus might come from.

AFAIK, the only thing that VPI used from overseas was the arm lift lever (Japan), though I think Mat mentioned the arm lift is now made in the US. The old Rockport table since Andy made everything? Pretty sure motor was sourced in the US.

It is after all, a global economy.

[Hugh]

Agreed with you on this Myles.

My personal take on this particular issue is whatever it takes to make a product such as our Trinity or Seraphim as good and affordable as we can to satisfy our ACA customers then we have somehow achieved our goal and objectives.

At the end of the day, it is the end users who can decide for themselves how they wish to spend their hard-earned money for a particular product,
Some people delved on the fact it got be Made in The USA or else while others don't really care.

Just my $0.02. 😀

[MylesBAstor]

I think people would be surprised how many products, parts, drivers, etc in high-end audio components are now sourced from China.

Those VAS tube amps from China sounded very nice on the KEF Blade 1s.

[atmasphere]

We get our sockets made here, our wire made here, our resistors made here, chassis, transformers, switches, meters, most of our hardware. Some of our filter caps are made overseas (by a US company) and all of our tubes are made either in China or Russia.

Since the amps are considered such by the gummint whether they have tubes or not, we easily qualify as 'made in the USA'.