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.
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