Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Who makes axiom drivers

No. While China is not a free economy, they are not so strictly controlled any more. Private ownership of all kinds of things, including factories, is now allowed. This is something that was started 20 years ago in the south of China in 'Economic Free Zones' and has gradually expanded.

As I posted on another forum, if you wind back the clock 200 years or so, this is exactly what the Brits were saying about the Yanks, cheap knock offs rip offs and all.

Time moves on. Things change...

I'm guessing Axiom's operation in China is either a Sino-Foreign Equity Joint Venture (EJV) or a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE).

http://www.chinaorbit.com/china-economy/china-business.html

Time to update your info, LT61.

Each to their own but I would be willing to pay more for Axioms knowing they were made solely in North America.

I'd prefer that too, Rick, I wonder what the $$ difference would be?

It is also worth noting that, although the US was to Europe as China now is to the US, Europe did not implode. There is still manufacturing in Europe and many European countries enjoy a very high standard of living.

The US is widely regarded as the most innovative/entrepreneurial in the world. Things will turn out fine, but different.

Historically, protectionism (buy Canadian/American is a very mild form of protectionism) has been rather bad for the economies involved. It tends to support inefficiencies in an economy or sector and what ends up happening is that those inefficiencies are magnified over time.

Countries seem to go through periods of trade liberalization and protectionism and protectionist periods always end up in contraction.

::perfesser Fred leaves the podium and slinks away::

Hello Socketman,

To add a bit more detail to the information already supplied by pmbuko and others in this thread, the dual voice-coil woofers for Axiom's DSP subwoofers--the EP400, 500, 600 and 800--are hand-built at Axiom's Canadian plant in Dwight, Ontario.

The rest of our drivers (all designed in the Ontario plant) are built at Axiom China, our wholly owned plant in Shanghai. Production there is overseen by an Axiom colleagure or by Ian Colquhoun himself, who spends a significant chunk of time in Shanghai.

Regards,
Alan

And there you have it, straight from Axiom.

I've known for a while that Axiom drivers are made in China, so that's not news to me. Are there any speaker manufacturers left that use "western" factories? I doubt it. It's just economics. If I force myself to take a 'national/continental-istic' view of things, Axiom's are at least screwed together in Canada. An Axiom employee in Canada got a paycheck for doing that, so yay for North America. Economically, maybe that's a bit "better" than speakers wholly-assembled offshore. Maybe. At least it would keep currency circulating "locally", I suppose.

It is news to me though that Axiom does make at least some speaker drivers in Canada. That's interesting. Count me in as another one who would be interested in knowing what, say, an M80 would cost if its drivers were made in Canada.

For Alan, any thoughts ever of releasing a "Premium" line of Mxx's that feature hand-wound-in-Canada drivers? Just out of curiosity, I wonder how much that would add to the cost? 5%? 50%? 100%? I just have no idea. And would people pay for that if there was technically no sonic difference? I suspect that many people actually would. Who knows though....

It would be an interesting experiment for a company like Axiom to try. I hear/read so often that, "why can't X be made in North America" anymore. The answer is always cost. To which the reply is often that, "But I'd pay more if it were made in North America, rather than China". Seems like Axiom might be in a unique position to actually see if there's a market there.

Magnepan is made here in the U.S. I must note that when I talked to the them the guy told me one capacitor in the 1.6s was made it France.

Magnepans are one of a kind, that's for sure.