"American Sound" Speakers

i.d guess klipsch, old ar's, jbl, advent, boston, polk and the bane of audiogon,,,,bose. ha. with all the speaker designers and companies out there i guess i had better include martin logan and magnepan. gosh who did i leave out? i am sure there will be a few beat downs coming my way for ommissions. but these are american speakers by american designers that started my obsession in the 60s.70s. good question thanks

I don't know about "American Sound" or rather, what that might be, but I can think of a few really great American speaker designers. P.W. Klipsch was already mentioned. Jim Thiel. Richard Vandersteen. A few comparatively young bucks: Lou Hinkley (Daedalus), John Wolf (Classic Audio Reproductions), Duke Lejeune (AudioKinesis). I'm not sure if you can distill a particular approach or sound from that group, but they come to mind when I think of great speakers made in the U.S.A.

Is there a characteristic frequency response curve associated with 'American' designs, as there is for 'British' designs?

... fan of Avalon and Harbeth, it's safe to say that this is my preferred sound ...

What makes you think Avalon (Acoustics) is British?

It is made right here in the USA (Colorado to be specific).

I think, if there is an American sound, that the stereotypical, (no pun intended!), American speaker is a full range speaker. And so the Avalon speakers, are a perfect example of said sound. (Americans tend to have larger houses, which are more spread out, and hence the ability to have bigger, louder and more bass heavy speakers. This is a generalization of course, but since we are using stereotypes, it makes since to generalize.)

My two cents worth anyway.

There used to be a difference in East coast type sound as represented by AR and west coast as represented by JBL. These distinctions are not as meaningful in the current enviroment.
But essentially JBL and Klipsch both used horns to greater or lesser degrees. They had/have are highly sensitive with a more forward, agressive, defined sound compared with the less sensitive British sterotypical sound wich is typically more polite, laid back, and sweeter. Many will fall back on the analytical versus musical peaker debate. My own experience having taken a liking to a very analytical speaker which is French (Focal) and hearing other French speakers which are more the musical type (Triangle) that I safely conclude there is no specific National sound!