Sourcing Policy

Electric Audio Engineering sources high quality components and building materials from around the world. I try to strategically size sub-component buys to maximize value to the end consumer. I use recycled materials when possible.

 

All enclosures are either designed and fabricated in-house or sourced from Massachusetts, Maine, Colorado, Romania, and China. I work with other small businesses run by other enthusiasts around the world. I'm always hunting for a deal.

 

Most of my designs pair a HiVi tweeter pod with a HiVi magnesium/aluminum alloy cone woofer. The uniformity of deposition and stiffness of this alloy provides higher performance than all but the bleeding edge of last-gen speaker technologies while the favorable diffraction and point sourcing characteristics of the tweeter pods provide for favorable physics. They offer an excellent value for the price. I also like these because they're a little bit more family friendly and are resistant to bumps and wandering baby fingers. While not childproof, there is no brightly colored dust cone to press and the tweeters are caged for protection. 

 

 

 

For full range, single driver designs I typically use a graphite filled polycarbonate Diatone manufactured in Japan or occasionally Auratone (China) or Peerless (China).

 

Mid woofers seem to be supply limited lately. Recent commissions have used Scan Speak (doped paper/Denmark), Dayton Audio (aluminum/China and filled polycarbonate/China) and Peerless (doped paper/China) with subtle differences and general success. I'm currently qualifying a full range Auratone (aluminum alloy/China) limited to mid duty in 3-way designs with good sonic success and part availability. 

 

For tweeters I use aluminum dome HiVi (China) of various type and mounts, Fostex ribbons (Japan), and mylar Dynalab (China?) in production. The Dynalabs are particularly interesting as they were used in a well known "white van scam" speaker. I find the tweeters to be an excellent value, so perhaps the speakers were actually decent (I've never heard them personally, so no animus).

 

Crossovers come from a variety of sources and some models come pre-assembled, while others are built to order by me. I've used MCM, Infinity, Dayton Audio, SEAS, and Solen Electronique electronics products and components.

 

Lately I've been stuffing my enclosures with recycled, unused PU foam egg crate mattress. This is a fill with a relatively uniform composition, but in irregularly sized chunks from the shredder. I like to think a speaker is broken in when the foam stops coming out of the port. Some settling is needed.