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What country builds the best audio equipment?

I remember not so long ago when audio equipment was mainly a home grown product with the exception of Japan here in the U.S. Today it’s a global market with competition from every corner of the world. I use to think here in the U.S was were the best equipment was being built, but now I’m not sure.
Built quality and performance seems to be lacking a little here in the states with few exceptions compared to what’s being produced over seas and up to the north. So what country is the best equipment coming from? Maybe it’s still the U.S, but if pure aesthetics says anything I would say not.
As for Sonics tough to call, maybe still here in the U.S? 
hiendmmoe
jetter
2,978 posts
 
If it ain't wooded, it ain't country.
mikelavigne
2,175 posts
 
random products and sources.

reel to reel tape decks---Swiss---Studer, Ampex--USA
turntables----Rockport--USA, Garrard---UK, Thorens----Germany, Micro Seiki----Japan......everywhere.
Electronics----darTZeel, CH Precision, Soulution--Swiss, Lamm---USA, Kondo---Japan, Ypsilon---Greece----everywhere
speakers-----Wilson, Magico---USA, Quad-----UK, Focal-----France, MBL-----Germany-----everywhere.
digital-----MSB---USA, dCS----UK, Lampi---Poland, Totaldac----France........everywhere.

in my own system the dominant source countries are Switzerland (Studer, darTZeel, Table Stable active anti-resonance), USA (Evolution Acoustics, Wave Kinetics tt, Saskia tt, Durand tonearm, King-Cello, Tripoint grounding), Japan (CS Port, Etsuro Gold cartridge, Miyajima Labs cartridge), Germany (Clearaudio cartridge).

passionate, music loving smart people are everywhere.

if we were to look at the per capita output of fine audio gear and the culture to support it.......Switzerland likely would score the highest. they are obviously really craftsman with their culture of the watch industry, have a high tech culture, lots of academic support, and their government really supports small businesses of the type to build audio gear. there are also lots of technical and metallurgy infrastructure that small electronics companies require to output product.
alexberger
870 posts
 
Germany - EMT turntables (models 927, 930, 950, 948). Klangfilm - speakers and amplifiers
USA - Altec, JBL, Klipsch speakers. Marantz, McIntosh amplifiers, pre-amplifiers.
UK - Quad, Tannoy, Lowther, Herbath, Spendors speakers. Quad, Leak - amplifiers.
Japan - Kondo, Shindo
big_greg
6,570 posts
 
Transylvania.  Be careful though, their stuff is so good it'll suck the life out of you.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,662 posts
 
Well our stuff is the best, so the USA :)

Seriously though no-one seems to know what 'best' is when it comes to audio as there are too many variables. I really do think our stuff is the best, but that comes with a caveat- our amps are best on speakers on which they are comfortable. Other amps can drive a wider range of speakers, especially those of lower impedance and to some people that is far more important and I will argue that on such speakers those amps will work better than ours.


Now I also like balanced operation because its the best. But there is a standard to balanced operation and many high end manufacturers don't observe the standard. So there is a lot of variability to balanced operation; some manufacturers will tell you single-ended sounds better, and I really do think they think they aren't lying about that.


The bottom line here could be boiled down to 'there is no best' but that leaves out a lot of detail; the story is far richer than that!
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