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Why are there so many speaker companies?

dshreter

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It surprises me that there are SO MANY OPTIONS in the market for speakers. Even in just the premium speaker segment it feels like there are hundreds of manufacturers out there. Each with several models, some spanning active and passive, subwoofers, bookshelves to towers.

This seems counter to what I understood that hifi is declining in popularity as a hobby, and that most industries globally have benefited from scale and vertical integration. Within my circle of friends very few have more than a passing interest in a music system.

It’s not a complaint, I’m just curious to learn more about what is driving this industry and how there are sufficient profit pools to keep it all going.
 

Head_Unit

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It is easy to start a speaker company. Easier than starting a restaurant. You can even find many factories who will sell you finished designs you just slap your name on: "JuicyButt Audio" or "SatanSpawn Speakers" or whatever you like. "The Big Bottom Subwoofer Company" endorsed by Nigel Tufnel himself, response down to 11 Hz. More seriously you'll find a lot of those companies are not big at all, and many sell expensive stuff. If they can just sell a few, they can survive. Hence instead of Fisher dominating the entire market* you have a super fragmentation into lots of little players.

*I once visited the factory outside L.A. where in the 70s and early 80s they manufactured Fisher speakers, and shipped them out in HUGE quantities. They had their own rail siding...which went INSIDE the factory!!
 

anmpr1

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1) It is easy to start a speaker company. More seriously you'll find a lot of those companies are not big at all, and many sell expensive stuff. If they can just sell a few, they can survive. Hence instead of Fisher dominating the entire market* you have a super fragmentation into lots of little players.

2) *I once visited the factory outside L.A. where in the 70s and early 80s they manufactured Fisher speakers, and shipped them out in HUGE quantities. They had their own rail siding...which went INSIDE the factory!!

1) I was once part owner of a medium sized warehouse (about 80,000 sq ft). We had several tenants. One outfit was a 'cable' distributer (large scale electrical supply); another sculpted Styrofoam things, and then sprayed the finished product with some kind of lacquer. They could make anything that looked like anything else, mostly for use in large displays that could be moved around easily. Even faux columns (Doric, Ionic etc), sometimes used for 'upscale' entrance ways.

One outfit made loudspeakers--consisting of the owner and a few employees. This was the early '80s. His product (I don't want to give the name because of reasons) was visually first rate. Had his own woodworking shop, and made colorful lacquered cabinets to order. His designs were 'bookshelf' type. He bought drivers from wherever, stuffed the boxes, and shipped them out to wherever he could. The idea was to offer 'boutique' and upscale product, sold through salon's (back then there was no Internet direct sales). I didn't think he'd be able to get away with it, but he actually lasted about seven or eight years. Paid the rent on time, so everyone was happy. I think he was doing it because he had money from other sources, and it was a place he could 'get away' from his wife for long stretches. Funny thing is, I never heard his product (although he offered to give me a set. He did, however, make me a new set of grills after the foam on my L100 disintegrated).

With product robotically CNC stamped out in Indonesia, Malaysia, and China, I don't see how anyone would attempt anything like that in the US, today. A few outfits like Klipsch still make 'em the old way, by hand. I don't think you can easily stamp out a folded horn-- albeit using flimsy superthin veneers. The expense of hand made furniture (which is what they are) makes sales limited and costly.

2) Dick Pierce (who comes across as something of a curmudgeon--but is always worth paying attention to), wrote the following (sourced from one of the old Usenet forums):

I was fortunate (?) to visit the JBL facilities in and around Los Angeles, and there gave witness to some of the most incredible things I have ever seen.

First, who is the largest producer of electric fog-horns for use in marine navigation, such as lighthouses? Why, JBL, of course. They took over that title when the Wurlitzer Organ company gave up the ghost.

I was given the 50 cent tour of the factory. First, to the cabinetry department. Here is a model of reasonably efficient, good-quality high volume cabinetmaking. Panels are cut to size and routed using appropriate jigs. Glue is then spread on the joints and the cabinet is assembled and held together using gigantic rubber bands. The whole affair is popped into the woodworking equivalent of a microwave oven (actually, an MHF RF heater) and the glue is "cooked" for about 5 minutes, after which, the cabinet is ready for finishing.

So far, so good. The cabinets are inspected for any damage, and bad units rejected. So far, about $25 has been invested in a cabinet for something like a JBL L-100. Now the fun begins. The rejected cabinets, rather than being tossed away, are shuttled over to a room occupied by a bevy of middle-European craftsmen, who take the cabinets, sand off the veneer, and glue on a whole new veneer skin. This takes several hours per cabinet, and, as I later calculated, costs about $100 per repaired cabinet. Now, given a reject rate of about 20%, this means that it costs nearly $40 per cabinet when you spread the cost of repairs over the entire production run! Now you know why JBL products can be so expensive!


Now, the scandalous thing (to my mind) is that the latest and greatest L100 Classic is made in Malaysia (or thereabouts), using super modern manufacturing and super cheap labor, but sells for the about the same 'adjusted for inflation' price of the LA produced L100s from the '70s. LOL
 

Cote Dazur

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It surprises me that there are SO MANY OPTIONS in the market for speakers
Great question, same for me and not just for speakers. Talking with people of different ages, they change TV set more often than anything audio and when they speak of audio, 90% of the time it is about a BT thingy. Yet so many company are producing new gizmo as if audio was evolving at light speed, when in fact any old receiver and speaker still hold it’s own again any new offering today. I am not getting it!
 

LouB

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Crutchfield ships out thousands of boxes every month so does Safe & Sound & that's just 2 online retailers. Maybe the decline you mention isn't as much as think.
 

tomtoo

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Hehe, couse some decades ago every littel boy or girl that was interested in science and technology(today called nerds) dreamed to build the best speakers in the world. It looked like a not to complicated science project, that even could bring fun to the party people. Ok,the science is much more complicated than it looked. But the fun is still there. Hope you can enjoy this answer. ;)
 

yodog

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I personally think the whole Covid thing really made home electronics, home theater, home working out, and home audio related products shoot way up as far as demand goes.

I mean just look at the price of an av receiver these days. The prices went up even more so than the new/used car market.

I think it was on the decline prior to 2020. But now, I feel it’s on the incline due to the focus of home theater. Not every home theater guru will branch off into 2 channel/dedicated listening room hifi home audio, but definitely some will. Regardless speaker manufacturers as a whole will greatly benefit from this monumental global pivot towards bringing the theatrical experience to the home.

On the other side of the pendulum, the movie industry, particularly the commercial movie theater industry has and will continue to take a hit on profits and on business viability. Similar tune regarding certain public spaces like the less than ideal/popular shopping malls across the country. Man how times change in less than half a decade….
 

teashea

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Most speake companies are based on marketing, rather than the quality of their speakers. This is possible because most people who purchase speakers do not know or care much about the sound quality. They do not do research regarding the speakers they are purchasing or the alternatives.

As a result, this enables manufacturers to sell enough speakers to stay in business - at least for a while.

What percentage of speaker manufacturers are producing competitively good speakers? A pretty small percentage I think.
 
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