Hi-End Floor Standing Speaker Production Process / 落地揚聲器製作過程 (音響製造) - Taiwan Speaker Factory

[Looneybomber]

I saw that video a few days ago. I was shocked at some of the gaps between the braces and the cabinets. Sloppy!

3:40, The person hammering down the one brace didn’t hammer it down all the way. The curved portion doesn’t touch the enclosure.
4:25, The top/bottom plate fitting inside the enclosure has huge gaps.
7:15, The braces on the side of the enclosure, parallel with the baffle, which they glue the baffle to are not flush with the perpendicular ones. How do they even get a good bond if they can’t get the boards pressed tight against the baffle?

Those are the gaps I’d expect to see in a DIY thread from a person with minimal tools and experience. Not a $14k speaker.

Usher Audio ML-802 | AudioThesis

Magnesium Aluminum drivers paired with two 8955A bass woofers and is offered in two finishes: Walnut and Macassar. The base model is offered in a satin finish while an upgrade to a high gloss piano is available. Specifications: 3-way system : 1.25" MA tweeter, 5" MA midrange, 8" woofer...

www.audiothesis.com

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

I saw that video a few days ago. I was shocked at some of the gaps between the braces and the cabinets. Sloppy!

3:40, The person hammering down the one brace didn’t hammer it down all the way. The curved portion doesn’t touch the enclosure.
4:25, The top/bottom plate fitting inside the enclosure has huge gaps.
7:15, The braces on the side of the enclosure, parallel with the baffle, which they glue the baffle to are not flush with the perpendicular ones. How do they even get a good bond if they can’t get the boards pressed tight against the baffle?

Those are the gaps I’d expect to see in a DIY thread from a person with minimal tools and experience. Not a $14k speaker.

Usher Audio ML-802 | AudioThesis

Magnesium Aluminum drivers paired with two 8955A bass woofers and is offered in two finishes: Walnut and Macassar. The base model is offered in a satin finish while an upgrade to a high gloss piano is available. Specifications: 3-way system : 1.25" MA tweeter, 5" MA midrange, 8" woofer...

www.audiothesis.com

Come one, the video is informative for showing what the do, is not a complete assemble process in any way. Dont be that hard with the video, it's youtube... for entertaiment.

 

[Hiten]

at 11.50...
Surround, Cone, Spider Voice coil fixing at one go. Good Technique ? I was under impression that voice coil and magnet gap should be as little as possible and practical and should be aligned as 'center' as possible. Shouldn't spider with voice coil be fixed first ? There seems to be some alignment jig though.
regds.

 

[Sal1950]

Surround, Cone, Spider Voice coil fixing at one go. Good Technique ?

I was surprised that the magnet structure was simply glued together but what do I know?
Nothing for sure.
The woofer cone material with the rough ridged surface is something I don't remember seeing before either?
I'm not saying its good or bad, again I have no knowledge here.

 

[delta76]

maybe it's because of the way they filmed it, but it does not scream high end to me. Focal factory tour for example, demonstrate a much better modern, organized manufacturing process.

 

[TonyJZX]

labor even in Taiwan is probably cheaper than a $100k plus robot

 

[delta76]

labor even in Taiwan is probably cheaper than a $100k plus robot

not only robot, but the how the manufacturer is organized, how the workers are equipped etc. as I said, it could be (at least contributed by) the way it was filmed.
Everything else equal I would definitely buy from a manufacturer which has better working conditions for their employees. just saying

 

[TonyJZX]

i used to consult at two different factories

one slang product in glass and you had to have palletisers depalletisers as you cannot get people to move large quantities of glass as its a safety issue

one slang product in cardboard cartons and plastic bottles and you just used people

factory one you had no choice but to spend hundreds of thousands on machines made by SIG and ABB and Allen Bradley and the like and parts and maintenance was amazingly expensive... who knew taking care of swiss made machines was so costly

factory two just paid two guys minimum wage

if you have to spend you have to but if you dont, you dont

 

[delta76]

i used to consult at two different factories

one slang product in glass and you had to have palletisers depalletisers as you cannot get people to move large quantities of glass as its a safety issue

one slang product in cardboard cartons and plastic bottles and you just used people

factory one you had no choice but to spend hundreds of thousands on machines made by SIG and ABB and Allen Bradley and the like and parts and maintenance was amazingly expensive... who knew taking care of swiss made machines was so costly

factory two just paid two guys minimum wage

if you have to spend you have to but if you dont, you dont

well you seem to have missed my point. sure the corporates will do whatever which is cheapest for them. but look at two videos, which one has tidy floor? employees with better equipment and protective gears? Let's agree that France has one of the best labor laws in the world, and that's good - workers can work in safe environment and are paid livable wages.

 

[TonyJZX]

i would put it like this... i'm not here to cast aspersions on how the chinese run their factories... they have their place in the world of manufacture and they do quite well

in the end what do i own that is made in france... not friggin' much

i bet the factories at Crewe making the Rolls Royce motor car is probably quite modern...

a part of me thinks.... i dont care how sausages are made but i do quite enjoy the occasional american hot dog

i myself have taken part in some factory processes that i found questionable but... the end product seemed to have worked out quite well and the customer seems to be happy so..

 

[Roland68]

I saw that video a few days ago. I was shocked at some of the gaps between the braces and the cabinets. Sloppy!

3:40, The person hammering down the one brace didn’t hammer it down all the way. The curved portion doesn’t touch the enclosure.
4:25, The top/bottom plate fitting inside the enclosure has huge gaps.
7:15, The braces on the side of the enclosure, parallel with the baffle, which they glue the baffle to are not flush with the perpendicular ones. How do they even get a good bond if they can’t get the boards pressed tight against the baffle?

Those are the gaps I’d expect to see in a DIY thread from a person with minimal tools and experience. Not a $14k speaker.

Usher Audio ML-802 | AudioThesis

Magnesium Aluminum drivers paired with two 8955A bass woofers and is offered in two finishes: Walnut and Macassar. The base model is offered in a satin finish while an upgrade to a high gloss piano is available. Specifications: 3-way system : 1.25" MA tweeter, 5" MA midrange, 8" woofer...

www.audiothesis.com

Pressing the housing into a film made of many layers (nothing other than plywood) is a good idea, but the pressing force is far too low in such a form, but cheap.
This type of stamp press comes from furniture construction, but is unsuitable for such large surface pressure, where the highest possible surface pressure is important for bonding.

The housings will be sufficiently stable and will hold, but are far from optimal.
However, another press is many times more expensive and complex, and the housing would also be much more expensive.

 

[Apesbrain]

Entertaining video, but I would not have guessed these speakers to cost over $14k. That's in the territory of the Bowers & Wilkins 804 D4 which is a substantially better made speaker:

 

[Hiten]

Pardon me. i was not talking about working conditions. Just speaker voice coil placement. It needs to be perfect center and longitudenally also as required by the designer. Focal has same method of having surround-cone-spider-coil one unit assembly. And both uses jig to place them. But focal uses robots. Another point is all delicate work at focal plant is done by ladies. Just like old Garrardd and Valve radios assembly line of yesteryears as seen in youtube.

 

[Roland68]

Entertaining video, but I would not have guessed these speakers to cost over $14k. That's in the territory of the Bowers & Wilkins 804 D4 which is a substantially better made speaker:

In the video you can see what the right press for such housings looks like.
A stamp presses down, then the mold is folded on the right and left and then the outer two stamps come with tens of tons of contact pressure.

 

[Looneybomber]

Come one, the video is informative for showing what the do, is not a complete assemble process in any way. Dont be that hard with the video, it's youtube... for entertaiment.

I would agree it’s for entertainment because it was not for generating sales. It was informative and illustrated how their assembly process could be improved compared to other manufacturers of products in a similar price range…and I am only talking about build quality.

 

[valerianf]

The B&W factory is impressive using a lot of specifically designed machines.
What is missing in all these videos is the quality controls needed to verify that the sound is properly generated.
From other videos I know that Focal and Whaferdale are doing these controls on individual drivers and speakers that are high end products.

 

[Dogsled21]

I saw that video a few days ago. I was shocked at some of the gaps between the braces and the cabinets. Sloppy!

3:40, The person hammering down the one brace didn’t hammer it down all the way. The curved portion doesn’t touch the enclosure.
4:25, The top/bottom plate fitting inside the enclosure has huge gaps.
7:15, The braces on the side of the enclosure, parallel with the baffle, which they glue the baffle to are not flush with the perpendicular ones. How do they even get a good bond if they can’t get the boards pressed tight against the baffle?

Those are the gaps I’d expect to see in a DIY thread from a person with minimal tools and experience. Not a $14k speaker.

Usher Audio ML-802 | AudioThesis

Magnesium Aluminum drivers paired with two 8955A bass woofers and is offered in two finishes: Walnut and Macassar. The base model is offered in a satin finish while an upgrade to a high gloss piano is available. Specifications: 3-way system : 1.25" MA tweeter, 5" MA midrange, 8" woofer...

www.audiothesis.com

Also no measurement that I saw utilized to place the braces.

 

[Spkrdctr]

maybe it's because of the way they filmed it, but it does not scream high end to me. Focal factory tour for example, demonstrate a much better modern, organized manufacturing process.

Focal pays more than two bowls of rice.

 

[delta76]

Focal pays more than two bowls of rice.

Which is good of them.
Note that the video is in Taiwan, not in China. GDP per capita in Taiwan is actually quite high, and if you consider PPP it is even higher than in France. But they also "import" workers from poorer countries to work in factories like this. In the end, as I said above, everything else equal, I will be happier buying from a manufacturer which treats their employees properly.

 

[Sal1950]

one slang product in glass

WTF is slang ?