Fine with that, at least a portion of local labor is applied to the final product. For instance I own the DSD, P15 and soon a PST. Parts are sourced from various areas with final assembly and testing in Boulder. My preference, clearly aligns more closely with my values.
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Precisely, with the appropriate mark-up to reflect dedication and commitment to a local workforce. The issue is not quality, quality control models, or politicizing the hifi market. I do think James’ comment is telling. My take on it is with all the planning not much thought went into local production, or it was discounted in the early planning phases. Small production runs providing completed products from China, and a lack of local resources to get the job done locally.
As a consumer it is all about choice. PS Audio will do as they wish and the market will respond accordingly.
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Which as I have stated is a fine compromise.
Would not have mentioned it if some one did not climb up a pedestal and claim pride in locally assembled products, and that is why I brought it up.
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I missed that point. Thanks for helping with my reading comprehension. 
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What then if, due to the success of the FR30, Paul was able to move production to the U.S.? Would that promote a sweeping wave of purchases of the product and silence blanket expectations? Or, had he kept manufacturing in the U.S., increased the price by 30-50%, but cut production to 1/4 or 1/3? Then what? Beyond all else, there has to be sustainability. Of all of the other domestic speaker manufacturers, how many of them also offer such notable amps, DACs and other components (on the same scale) that are made here in the States? What might seem insignificant to us, probably means the world to a PS Audio employee. And if building speakers in China means they increase brand recognition and sell X-more other components made here, it may not be the worst decision.
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A simple question:
Who here thinks Paul doesn’t want to slap a “Made in Boulder CO” sticker on every speaker?
If nothing else, it’s highly effective advertising for PSA.
So if they’re not doing it, there must be some pretty hefty barriers.
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I seem to remember that GoldenEar did this at a lower end of the market. I had a pair of the Triton One.R for a while. They were remarkable for the price and the fit and finish was very good.
There is a factory in England somewhere that makes cabinets for several companies.
Alan Shaw has come up with an unusual flag, because he still thinks he’s European. He has trademarked his new logo.
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Paul and company have been extremely smart and forthcoming so my level or trust is quite high. I think the speaker is going to be fantastic. One of the few products that could temp me from my TAD’S which were also made in China but under the direct supervision of TAD’S engineers, but then they moved manufacturing back to Japan. The TAD model ones often fell apart and sometimes were replaced with newer models due to I the stacked plywood design that I think Magico then adopted for their famous design that launched them.
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Paul explained meanwhile in his answer to edorr.
It may not be that more expensive to manufacture/assemble in the US at a later time, but it is for the start of getting into the speaker business.
That’s also what I meant with seeing things from the entrepreneur point of view. It’s all a business decision which otherwise, if not taking place, would have created no jobs at all. Now it first generates and ensures some new jobs at PSA, later maybe it will support jobs in the US for manufacturing tasks. A start under less advantageous but more honorable preconditions might have jeopardized the whole thing and all directly connected US jobs. Demanding the most ethical solution in the wrong phase, without knowing the business situation, can put the whole project at risk.
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Fundamentally it’s about personal values. Someday they may have a speaker assembled here, or maybe not. For today they have no speaker I am interested in. Business model or not. Some will follow, some will choose not to.
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Yes, i have pre-ordered the FR-30s. Hoping for big things upgrading from my current Goldenear Triton Reference. Unfortunately I won’t know for many months… I assume everyone on this forum is taking part via their computer, laptop, or cell phone.
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Exciting!
Living in Oregon we are fortunate to being very tied to farm to table. In cities it’s beginning to look like that needs to be translated to close-in vertical farming to be able to grow right were the demand exists.
There is, on the one hand, wanting things to be ideal from a customer perspective, and then there is the reality of building something from scratch from a maker’s perspective.
There are likely legions of unsung heroes of say, winemaking who never compromised in the startup process, sunk everything they had or could borrow into their vision, and were never heard from again.
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Pretty much what she is doing in the city, just not high density vertical. Consumption is within a 2 mile radius. We get non as we are well outside that radius, inside track or not. They can not come close to meeting demand.
With a rural footprint we are pretty much farm to table, relying on our neighborly farmers to provide for our needs. We are privileged in that regard.
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@badbeef, while what you say is true, the consumer has a choice as does the entrepreneur, which is my point. What’s implied as they went into it with a low production run model and outsourced the product to minimize financial risk. Being new at the game it makes sense. From a consumer perspective it’s a risk for an untested product sourced externally. PSA gets final say on a pass through test, inspect and release model for quality purposes. Still I would prefer outsourced sub assemblies and components with PSA assembly and QC at each step. My preference, I understand this is not their present model. It may be their future as global market influences further tighten their grip on our production capabilities.
There are those who agree and those who do not. Luckily in the HiFi world there are alternative products that are locally manufactured for those who value that very much.
Sadly in the pharmaceutical industry it has gone from worse to really bad:
We all love low health insurance premiums. Health insurances need ultra maximum profit to keep their shareholder happy. But pharmaceutical plants in the Netherlands a confronted with very expensive strict environmental protection requirements that we all take for granted in our so called civilized countries.
The consequences of all our greed in an economy with smart entrepreneurs are that the last existing pharmaceutical plant in The Netherlands was sold of to a company that will move the production to countries where people need to work for extremely low salary, no social benefits and where environmental rules that we take for granted here, seem not to apply over there.
On something as vital to our healthcare system as medicine we have become 100 % dependent, ie. there is no alternative anymore, from the world economy.
For that reason alone support of companies that value local production is high on the agenda of people who care.
I guess that the term “ethics” is very subjective ie. very much depending on individual personal views.
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Why would they want to? That is not their core business. Those that do (eg, Mc) tend to suck at speaker competency (my opinion).
My next speaker will probably be Wilson Sasha DAW (because I’ve listened to it extensively and many of its competitors and it is where I feel I’d need to jump to comfortably exceed what i have today). If Wilson started making amps or dacs that would not be cool, but that’s my opinion. I want them focusing on what they do best (again, my opinion). I already know where to go to find world class amps and dacs
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