Mon Mar 08, 2010 10:15 pm
I spent a fair amount of time emailing and calling amplifier and speaker companies to see if they actually manufactured speakers or amplifiers in the US. It turns out that yes, there are US made speakers and amplifiers. The bad news is that most of these run from just plain expensive to stratospheric! Brands like McIntosh, Snell, M&K, Klipsch and others do actually build speakers in the US, but the least expensive of any of these I could find was over $1,000 each all the way up into five figures. Clearly, these are audiophile speakers not really intended for a multi-channel organ application, unless the budget is quite large. Brands like M&K and Klipsch also offer speakers built overseas at lower prices. Boston Acoustics, SVS, Definitive Technology, among others, design their speakers in the US but build them overseas. Def Tech and SVS are built overseas, according to the information I was able to obtain from them; neither indicated any of their speakers were built in the US.
Amplifiers was an even more challenging task. Again, the high-end audiophile gear is made in the US and prices compete with that of many cars. Crown was the only one I could find that builds a line in the US that was modestly expensive (their CTS series, for example). The CTS-600 retails for over $1,200 for 2-channels, but I also found it on the web for $609. It is 300W/channel into 8 ohms, so that's about $300 per channel. Crown indicated that all of their amplifiers, except XLS, XS and CCA product, are US made. The CTS was the lowest priced US made Crown gear I found, though I can't guarantee there is not another lower price line. Interestingly, I found a line made overseas that seems to offer quite a bit for the money. That is the Emotiva XPA-5, a 5-channel amp with 200 watts per channel that goes for $799, or about $160 per channel. It also got some very fine reviews.
My conclusion: if money is no object, you can build an organ with US made amplifiers and speakers. Otherwise, we need to buy amps and speakers built overseas. That does not mean they are not good products; it just means that my goal to "buy American" in this case is thwarted by price.
Jason