Seems like many in the audio media are starting to pound that speakers that use custom drivers as superior. Just read an account of a Magico site visit where the audio "journalist" in his write up of the visit was parroting Alon wolf about how Magico delivers extra value because they make their drivers in house. I believe Doug Fritz has always talked about this in his praise of Magico, and one of the members here, who owns a Magico Q1, wants to break apart some Wilson speakers to determine the cost of their parts...
But Magico aside, several high end companies make their own drivers. MBL has been making their own drivers in Germany since Alon Wolf was a teenager and those "audio journalists" were very young men. YG currently also makes them inside their factory. Focal has been making them for a very long time also, I believe. Kef seems to have a new unique driver.
My take on things is that it's all about taste. What else is new in this hobby? If you love a speaker, you buy into their engineering philosophy, and you use every argument and any detail to justify why it's the "best"- custom drivers, computer modeling, dispersion pattern, enclosure material, flexibility of setup, etc...(If you are an engineer, it's the reverse: you buy into the engineering philosophy, then fall in love with the speaker ).....Psychology studies clearly show that once we make up our mind and take a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that stand we took...
So does someone have a complete list of companies that make their own drivers?
And more importantly do the customers find value in the custom drivers? Will bringing attention to this generate sales for the companies making custom drivers? Will every manufacturer eventually switch to custom drivers to be considered selling a "high end" product? Will others, who don't switch, be weeded out?
But Magico aside, several high end companies make their own drivers. MBL has been making their own drivers in Germany since Alon Wolf was a teenager and those "audio journalists" were very young men. YG currently also makes them inside their factory. Focal has been making them for a very long time also, I believe. Kef seems to have a new unique driver.
My take on things is that it's all about taste. What else is new in this hobby? If you love a speaker, you buy into their engineering philosophy, and you use every argument and any detail to justify why it's the "best"- custom drivers, computer modeling, dispersion pattern, enclosure material, flexibility of setup, etc...(If you are an engineer, it's the reverse: you buy into the engineering philosophy, then fall in love with the speaker ).....Psychology studies clearly show that once we make up our mind and take a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that stand we took...
So does someone have a complete list of companies that make their own drivers?
And more importantly do the customers find value in the custom drivers? Will bringing attention to this generate sales for the companies making custom drivers? Will every manufacturer eventually switch to custom drivers to be considered selling a "high end" product? Will others, who don't switch, be weeded out?