I feel bad for speaker manufacturers


Think about it. If you were going to start a company that manufactures audio components, which would you pick? Arguably the worst business to get into would be the speaker business. Right? First, it’s painstakingly hard to market a new speaker that can break through in today’s ultra-competitive environment. Second, the development costs are relatively high because you have to invest in expensive cabinetry (at least on the high end) , electronic components, and drivers. And except for bookshelves, you have to absorb or charge so much more to get your product to your customers because of the relatively large size and heavy weight of the product. Third, and again especially if you have any floor standing speakers of any size, which, let’s be honest, any speaker company that wants to make money will have to have, you have to pay to hump these things to shows around the country and likely internationally as well.

Now let’s compare the life of a cable manufacturer. Let me state up front that I am a big believer that cables, interconnects, digital cables, and power cords can make a big difference in the ultimate sound of an overall system. Tires on a car, right? And yes, they also have several variables to deal with: silver, copper, tinned, dielectric, shielding, connectors, cryogenic, etc. But they’re all small, light, and relatively cheap. You can ship your product for next to nothing with almost no risk of damage, and you can travel to audio shows carrying all of your wares pretty much in a medium-sized backpack. Oh, and then there’s this. While speaker manufacturers are lucky if they can retail their products for four to six times their cost of production, cable manufacturers get to retail their wares for ten, twenty, or even fifty times or more of their manufacturing cost. There’s the well-worn tale of speaker manufacturers coming to shows in a rented minivan while cable manufacturers show up in Ferraris. It’s sad but funny because there’s some truth to it. I credit @erik_squires with generating this thread because in his recent thread he made me think about how hard it is to successfully create and market a truly successful speaker today. Anyway, it almost seems unfair, especially since speakers contribute so much to the ultimate sound of our systems while cables, while crucial, contribute RELATIVELY much less. What say you?
soix

Showing 4 responses by mijostyn

I could not agree with Prof more. I have never heard an ultra expensive speaker worth the price. Building Loudspeakers is way easier than building electronics especially if you use someone else's drivers. Anyone know how expensive a surface mount PCB unit goes for? Way more than CNC saws and routers. Now some companies like Magico go out of their way to make things as complicated as possible. I did hear a pair of S3s that sounded very nice. Most companies have a sweet spot in their line where price and performance meet. 
pcc67 is right. A lot of us build our own speakers and there are some fabulous drivers out there that you can use. I build my own subwoofers because no one makes one that meets my specification. I do not like plate amplifiers is the reason and I already have room control in my processor. I just want drivers in stiff heavy boxes. 
Hey kosst when humans do not know what's going on they mythologize and with the placebo effect they can talk themselves into believing their myths. Those of us with 1/2 a brain rely on well developed concepts to determine the likelihood of anything working and when we run into a concept that does not make sense we are correct in believing it won't work and it usually does not.

Music is a fundamental instinctive fondness in humans. Speaker manufacturing is not rocket science and when you see the prices of today's equipment it is easy to believe you can make a living at it and there are those rare manufactures like Polk and JBL that do especially well when they sell out to Harmon Kardboard. I had an idea once, making ribbon speakers using titanium foil which has a much higher resistance and tensile strength than aluminum. I made a lab version of the driver with neodymium magnets. It failed miserably. Not that it didn't work, it worked great except the Ti worked like a heating element and as it got hot the metal expanded. The waving expanded ribbon looked like a ghostly aberration. 100 hours and several hundred dollars worth of work down the tubes. I guess I'm not destined to be rich, in money anyway. 

Kosst,
I could not agree with you more. This activity is not just confined to Audio.
Unfortunately, it seems to be an almost universal human activity. I think it is called swindling. The art of selling mythology. What are your favorite audio forums?
Titanium does make great bicycles, lousy ribbons. I have an original Merlin. The welds are a work of art.