JBL Sells Out!

[Andy Le Blanc]

sad thing, wont be buying any chinese jbl if there's a choice.

The money is going to were the money is, economic demographics change.

It's more the market model that we allow, mono culture is very efficient.
works great, till it goes poo, we are the most dependent culture in human histrory.
screaming about Mc Freedom, Mc Economics, and Mc Politics.
Your futures not on the dollar menu, sorry....

You should be scraping up the cash to purchase the tooling from the defunct
manufacture and get after it proper, what a great opportunity.

Who still manufactures speakers in N. America?

[FYL]

Who still manufactures speakers in N. America?

There are still numerous US speaker manufacturers, from Eminence to Weber VST, even if most use outsourced parts and components.

Plus Canada and Mexico (which is part of North America, for those of us who failed Geography 101 because they had more important things to do; like building their first amp). OTOH, I don't think there are speaker manufacturers in Bermuda and Greenland, which are also part of North America.

[Bob S]

Sad times I have a 4 x 12 with JBL's & when it's done - it's done. Getting too expensive to find 123's that are good. The best has gone IMHO.

[6G6]

Well, we can all bitch about the unions, corporate greed, big govenment, etc.
They all deserve a share.
Ultamately, the blame falls on everyone who wanted to save a few bux, instead of insisting on the real deal.
It's not just JBL or Crown it's happening to everyone.

For me, I will keep on rebuilding my 4 D series Crowns, my 56 Ford, etc.

[Andy Le Blanc]

I have a NICE jbl e-120 8, make me an offer, start at a million and work your way down.

[kec]

Wow! This is sad news. As a former Altec employee ('78-'82) I always thought JBL would remain a true "Made in the USA" company.

[skyboltone]

Sad times I have a 4 x 12 with JBL's & when it's done - it's done. Getting too expensive to find 123's that are good. The best has gone IMHO.

Hey Bob S, why 123's? They're funny looking things aren't they. I always thought that the D-120 was the hot deal. I think the 123 even has the ribbed cone, indicating (to me) a marked emphasis on lows.

The reason I ask is that I'm acquireing a few JBL's for posterity right now.

Dan

[skyboltone]

sad thing, wont be buying any chinese jbl if there's a choice.

The parent company of JBL, Crown, et al has a large more or less non-technical manufacturing facility in Mexico. Insiders at JBL at the decision making level are currently favoring basing some US technical advisors at the Mexico plant and bringing it up to speed with US manufacturing.

I repeat; this is very possibly a good thing compared to all other foreseeable alternatives. With regard to the question of who makes speakers in N. America, the question is more correctly phrased; who else makes PULP CONES in N. America or anywhere for that matter.

Possible issues for JBL are, importing pulp into Mexico and some stupid bureaucratic snafu resulting. This is a very specialized market. We don't mean chit in sales volume because musicians are for a variety of good reasons cheap. Our search for grail tone unfortunately doesn't translate into higher gig payments. $50 each for a nights work eh? Been that way for ever.

As I said in the beginning and Andy re-iterated, the salvific balm will hopefully come from some rich hobbyist or perhaps a performer (Carlos, Billy, or many others) with lots of dough and an unusual sense of decency and disenchantment with millions for it's own sake, (the emotional polar opposit of Bill Gates for instance) to fund purchase of the tooling by a qualified group. Or at least that's my take on the corporate soteriology involved.

I probably have better access to the right pulp, through a variety of contacts in the paper business, than most anyone around.

Feeling pissy and out of sorts this AM. I awoke to falling snow. Not sticking. Hoooray for that anyway.

[dr. who]

Does the USA make anything anymore?

Hmmm. Lemme check. Yes, there's a toothpick manufacturer left in Boise, Idaho.

They probably don't make the toothpicks there but rather place chinese toothpicks into boxes so that they qualify for the Assembled in USA label.