Japanese Speakers

llanger

Well-Known Member
The Japanese have been remarkably successful in the design and manufacture of audio components, receivers, amplifiers, cd players, tape decks, etc. They have been less so in the speaker realm. I know some Yamaha speakers are quite popular in this forum and I remember in the early 1990's Stereophile had very favorable reviews of a Sony speaker. But, American, Canadian and English speakers are far more desired here (USA) than Japanese transducers. Is there a reason as to why?
 
The Japanese have been remarkably successful in the design and manufacture of audio components, receivers, amplifiers, cd players, tape decks, etc. They have been less so in the speaker realm. I know some Yamaha speakers are quite popular in this forum and I remember in the early 1990's Stereophile had very favorable reviews of a Sony speaker. But, American, Canadian and English speakers are far more desired here (USA) than Japanese transducers. Is there a reason as to why?

Something I have wondered myself. However, don't leave certain vintage Pioneer speakers off your list of well-regarded Japanese speakers. There are a few others.
 
There have been some very good Japanese speakers. Unfortunately most of them have never been officially sold in the US.

Sony SS series speakers are one of the exceptions.
 
There have been some very good Japanese speakers. Unfortunately most of them have never been officially sold in the US.

Sony SS series speakers are one of the exceptions.

That's it in a nutshell. There are any number of high quality Japanese speakers. Unfortunately they were designed for the Japanese market and rarely gain exposure in the U.S.

cubdog
 
The Pioneer-TAD horn drivers have always been well regarded here, although they're kind of a pain to get.
 
I might have an answer to the reason why.

Sansui and Yamaha are Japanese. They designed and build great speakers. Rarely bothered to sell them here. But while we are at it, the Pioneer HPM series is Japanese. How much more popular can you get?
 
Japan has very limited forest resources, meaning they don't have access to cheap wood!, If one ever noticed, hardly anything coming from Japan has much wood incorporated in it. What forest Japan has they don't cut, and to ship large amounts of lumber to Japan to then make into speaker cabinets and then have to ship out gives countries that do have access to wood a major economic advantage. Now I have no facts to collaborate my theory but I think that might one of the factors that come into play.
 
Sansui and Yamaha are Japanese. They designed and build great speakers. Rarely bothered to sell them here. But while we are at it, the Pioneer HPM series is Japanese. How much more popular can you get?

IIRC the Pioneer HPM series were actually designed and built in the US. The Yamaha NS series are quite popular. I've never heard any Sansui's I thought much of.
 
This begs te question, are there any other quality speakers made on other countries? Russia is known for watch making, and Ural bikes. What about speakers?

Swedish speakers?

Italian speakers?

Spanish ones?
 
The price of the wood has a very small, almost non-existent bearing on the price of a loudspeaker.

It is expensive when you have to ship it in as it is quite heavy. When I was a teen I use to work at a Honda Dealer which sold motorcycles, all the bikes made in Japan were shipped in crates made with steel. The big Goldwings, they were put together in the US from parts made in Japan, they were in wood crates.

And nobody likes Sansui speakers, yet I like my pair.
 
The price of the wood has a very small, almost non-existent bearing on the price of a loudspeaker.
For one thing, the price of moving the cabinet materials and then the cabinet itself around the world is huge, which is kind of the same thing. For another (overlapping) thing, says who? Boxes/shelves/etc. that are comparable to speakers in materials and construction are not much cheaper than speakers, if at all.
 
For one thing, the price of moving the cabinet materials and then the cabinet itself around the world is huge, which is kind of the same thing. For another (overlapping) thing, says who? Boxes/shelves/etc. that are comparable to speakers in materials and construction are not much cheaper than speakers, if at all.

That is why I made the suggestion that it was the lack of wood in Japan that made speaker building less profitable and therefore less likely.
 
I never cared for most of sansui's offerings with the exception of their AS-100,200,300 series from the late 60's. An Acoustic suspension design which compete well with all of the Kloss offerings.
 
This begs te question, are there any other quality speakers made on other countries? Russia is known for watch making, and Ural bikes. What about speakers?

Swedish speakers?

Italian speakers?

Spanish ones?

Swedish speakers; you don't' know about Stig Carlsson? :)

http://www.carlssonplanet.com/

And I think one of the current/recent audiophile darling speakers is/was Italian, no?
 
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