British made Hi Fi equipment manufacturers
- Thread starter voxx
- Start date
Electronics are a international product -it's part of the reason supply chain issues keep ricocheting around our economy. What has worked well for the PRC in the past -mask and short term isolation -has fallen apart under assault from Covid. My guess would be -just as in the USA- entire classes of some component types (capacitors for example??) are no longer manufactured in the UK ?
sjs
Trade: SJS Electroacoustics
LCR, ICW, ClarityCap, Charcroft, MFD and API capacitors are all design and manufactured in the UK
sonddek
Trade: SUPATRAC
The list is incomplete.
I have tried to source all components in the UK, for example carbon fibre tube, but the firms who suggest they are offering British goods often aren't, and there is no true British source. Then there's aluminium, steel, fixings, plastic, paint, tools and the rest.
We thought we had found a UK engineering manufacturer but it became clear they were ordering from anywhere. I used to turn all turned parts on a lathe, but compared with overseas suppliers I would be getting less than a pound an hour. It's exhausting and it slows down progress in all the other areas of growing a new business and working towards breaking even. Can I hire a lathe operator in London for a pound an hour? No.
The people who make parts for audio equipment generally get paid. They feed their families. They might not otherwise have a living. Trading with them is mostly ethical even if they don't like their jobs. That's work. It's a nasty business but if you need to eat...
Please put me on the list of UK-manufactured audio - I do a lot more than assemble imported parts.
I have tried to source all components in the UK, for example carbon fibre tube, but the firms who suggest they are offering British goods often aren't, and there is no true British source. Then there's aluminium, steel, fixings, plastic, paint, tools and the rest.
We thought we had found a UK engineering manufacturer but it became clear they were ordering from anywhere. I used to turn all turned parts on a lathe, but compared with overseas suppliers I would be getting less than a pound an hour. It's exhausting and it slows down progress in all the other areas of growing a new business and working towards breaking even. Can I hire a lathe operator in London for a pound an hour? No.
The people who make parts for audio equipment generally get paid. They feed their families. They might not otherwise have a living. Trading with them is mostly ethical even if they don't like their jobs. That's work. It's a nasty business but if you need to eat...
Please put me on the list of UK-manufactured audio - I do a lot more than assemble imported parts.
Big John
pfm Member
Audio Detail valve & nuvista phono,pre and power amps etc designed & hand made in Malvern by Mark Manwaring White, contrary to the usual trend The well known Ming Da factory in Asia is also now building phono stages and preamps based on Mark's new designs.
I must add Mark after years of using his services for my Ming da MC7R pre & British & American valve gear has become a friend who can genuinely trace his British ancestry back to 1066.
I must add Mark after years of using his services for my Ming da MC7R pre & British & American valve gear has become a friend who can genuinely trace his British ancestry back to 1066.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
I guess it depends how fundamentalist you want to be. Was it British oil refined into the plastic used on the speaker terminals? Were the knobs made from aluminium mined in the UK? etc etc
So long as it's bloke screwing and soldering a bunch of bits together somewhere in Britain I'm happy to call it British.
wow&flutter
pfm Member
Is Dennis Morecroft still building amplifiers under the DNM banner? Last time I was in a dealer I was told he had been consulting for some other manufacturers.
By your definition, I would call that "assembled in UK". But your argument illustrates my point though - that it's futile to figure out whether some gear is UK made or not. Certainly not without some finer definition.
The Swiss watch industry is a lot clearer. As I remember (things may have changed since), a watch may be labeled as made in Switzerland if at least 50% of the watch (by value) is actually made in Switzerland. Typically, the Swiss would make the most expensive part (usually the movement or part of it), with the rest coming from elsewhere, usually from China.
The Swiss watch industry is a lot clearer. As I remember (things may have changed since), a watch may be labeled as made in Switzerland if at least 50% of the watch (by value) is actually made in Switzerland. Typically, the Swiss would make the most expensive part (usually the movement or part of it), with the rest coming from elsewhere, usually from China.
I don't know about any of their other boards (input button/front panel boards as well as the main audio boards) but the DR modules are definitely a pre-assembled and tested module from China, that's the limit of my knowledge.
per-Sony-fied
Me in another jacket
Longdog audio
Origin Live
Origin Live