Loudspeaker designs by country 

There was something to this way back in the day, but much less so today. Back in the '70s here was a "British Sound", a "German Sound" an "East Coast Sound", a "West Coast Sound" etc. But most of that has disappeared, and speakers sound much closer to each other than in the past. The ability to do precise measurements and to use computer simulation for all aspects of speaker design has reduced performance differences to much smaller levels. The development of things like the Harman preference curves have also established more of an objective standard on how a loudspeaker should perform. There's still a lot of "off the wall" designs out there, but no particular country stands out as having an exclusive on those.

This might indeed be a good one for the comments section as the answer is; Absolutely this is a thing. The reason why you might not know is that the closer to high end you get, the less consistent this becomes. But if you look at mid-fi or affordable hi-fi there's a clear pattern. Especially with older speakers. German speakers have an emphasis on the mids and super tight lows (think magnat all-ribbon or 90's Canton). British speakers are extremely slow and laid back (think KEF 104AB, IMF TLS, Wharfedale Dovedale). French speakers are usually very bright and brittle sounding with not a lot of emphasis on low end (think 70's cabasse) and American speakers generally want to sound big and impressive (think old JBL, AR). The Dutch are somewhat in between with bright speakers that don't resolve very well, and a relatively dry low-end but not as dry as their German brothers. And then there's the Japanese, that's the most interesting one; Japanese speakers we buy here are different sounding than the same speaker there. The Japanese like ALL of the detail, which in their minds means all of the highs. In Japan speakers tend to sound extremely bright, almost like they designed them and took 3dB of the midrange and 6dB off the lows. And it's not just speakers. Compare an old QUAD amp to an old Yamaha, compare an old Crown to an old Creek to an old Grundig to an old Pioneer. Even with reel to reels it's clear. Put a ReVox next to an Akai for instance. Or heck, tapes! Compare BASF with Maxell. There's a very clear line that dissolves above a certain level. For instance, once you get to Luxman and Accuphase the Japanese brothers start to sound a lot more 'rounded'. And once you get to very upmarket Canton speakers, they become really great value for money. Even the Dutch made some great speakers once you move away from Philips (Translator, Driade, Hepta...). Much of that WILL have to do with the way houses are built (laid back sounding British speakers will get their energy from the rattly houses there) and that will also explain why it's something that is becoming a smaller difference. It's a fun thing to look into, may want to buy some affordable audio to try this out with (although that's easier here on mainland europe than it is in the US where everything is Jap and US focused).

a few years ago i read an article here in Germany, that american speakers sometimes have a diffrent bass tuning beacaus they were built for drywall homes. It said, the bass absorption is different to massive Walls.

It’s not just not wanting to annoy neighbours that prevents UK/Europe from embracing huge subs/bass drivers. Having smaller rooms it much easier to get room reinforcement of the lower ranges, too big speakers just don’t work at their best in smaller rooms. UK (in particular) was largely influenced by Linn and Naim in the 70s -90s who were particularly good at the PRat element and marketed as such. These were influential as the widespread attainable high end, other manufacturers simply had to compete and those that provided a similar presentation (Rega, Nad etc) seemed to do particularly well.

In The Netherlands there were a lot of loudspeaker manufacturers. They were good speakers and popular here but never sold that much internationally. Great neutral sound with good components in the midrange price range. Driade, Audiolab,BNS, Final, Translator, Impulse, Philips and more.

People up and down the product supply chain used to speak of the west coast sound vs the east coast sound but this was by far pre internet. Now I suspect we are fully in sync in our geographical tastes in sound.

Well... I have an idea and a hypothesis, I might be wrong though. One can make an educated guess as to why some people appreciate certain sounds in their music based on their culture and music. I'm cuban and we don't have big houses in the island, however, Cubans love "bottom end" (both kind - musical and in human anatomy 🙂) because of its prevalence in our music and population 🙂

So pleased that such differences between speakers exist as matching a speaker to room and equipment can be very challenging but incredibly rewarding when you can get the sound you enjoy, keep up the good work, everyone!

a very insightful take on how our systems in UK and Asia are smaller and so have less low end. Makes a lot of sense.

Ex-Brit here. I think that Paul’s on the right track, but maybe not for the right reason. I think Brits tend to favour small speakers not because of their reduced bass output (although that is undeniably a side effect of their size), but because of practical considerations. Smaller rooms dictate smaller speakers. That said, PRAT (pace, rhythm, and timing) are hallmarks of the Linn/Naim mindset, so that probably plays into it too.

Neville Thiele, who along with Richard Small gave us the foundation of designing loudspeakers 50-60 years ago, was born "down under" in Australia :)

I have vague memories from the 1970's, where certain speakers were heralded as having 'The California Sound'.

Wouldn't Australian speakers be 180 degrees out of phase with speakers made in the Northern hemisphere?

The 'British Sound' is basically swapped channels! :)

I can only speak as I find. Draw my conclusions from my own experience. But as a previous and proud owner of a premium British integrated amplifier from 1990 until 2019 I can confirm that the ‘PRAT factor’ Pace Rhythm and Timing normally attributed to British manufacturers manifested itself more prominently in my Rega Elicit than it does in my current non British preamp monoblocks combo!

What an intriguing question. Best of 2024 sofar.

I believe that it's common in Australia to account for wombats as room treatment. Their freq absorbing profile is unexplored elsewhere. Possibly the writer should reconsider. 🙃

I think there’s a difference in the way that mainstream audio amplifiers and speakers are built depending on the country since the popular music changes a lot around the world. Brazilian people for example loves loud music, so there’s a lot o very powerful equipments produced here and also different kind of speakers. But regarding hi-fi equipment, they are quite same. Our hifi equipments manufactured here follows the same principles of imported ones, specially Japaneses.

Even within the U.S., we had design philosophies known as the east coast and west coast sound. I own both JBL and AR speakers and select the ones that fit my mood and genre of music.

Italian speakers have soul.

Back in the 70's and 80's even in the good old USA the debate was over West coast vs. East coast sound exemplified by JBL or Boston Acoutics. That sort of has died down. I have never been a fan of the sound of British speakers. Can't explain it they just don't tickle my audiophile ear.

Designing a speaker you have to take under consideration the interaction it will have with the room, so I would guess that you would have in mind the average room of the country most of your sales will be.

Back in the late '60's, 70's Japan internally had a limit on how much power an amp could produce to keep power consumption in their very high density population centers. That is why all early Japanese amps were low powered, 30W max in most cases. And their speakers were designed for high efficiency with the Pioneer CS66, CS99 being perfect examples. Many Vets bought them overseas and brought them home to a market where they did not exist. So yes Japan did have a sound. The LS3/5 series, was conceived and developed by the BBC Engineering Department in the early 1970s to provide a repeatable reference standard sound. Many UK speakers today still follow that spec. Goodman was one of the primary supplier of raw drivers for the BBC series and development. I was a Goodman rep at the time and still have a pair of samples. So yes the UK has a sound.

Have to agree. The main difference is European speakers with larger woofers were still made but more rare to find than in the USA. The main issue being space in the home. Particularly the cost of square footage.

I've noticed from following Devon Turnbull that many Japanese fans of the big-ass Altec horn systems are putting them in listening rooms we'd consider way too small but they're quite content to put massive speakers in 12 by 12 rooms. I don't imagine they turn them up too far.

In the background, those tall stacks of components (preamps, power amps?) must add up to some serious weight. "PLEASE DON'T CRUSH US ON THE BOTTOM PAUL!!!" 😵😵‍💫

Hi. I'm sure I remember in the mid 70s reading in Hi Hf mags about Japanese speaker manufactures getting British and European designers to 'voice' their speakers for the European market.

Australian " production " I fell off my chair in tears and hysterical fits. There ain't any . They did a long, long time ago . Can't even buy koala burgers and fries anymore.

I think in the 70s/80s, British hifi manufacturers like Linn, Naim, Rega and others prioritised pace rhythm and timing, PRaT, as very important in their designs. NAD (based in Canada) had amps that were good at PRaT too. Over the last couple of decades I haven't auditioned much hifi apart from a few DACs, so I don't really know the current state of things.

Small world. Today I was at the HIFI show T.H.E. in Costa Mesa Hilton hotel and randomly ran into Andrew Jones at the Starbucks in the hotel. I indeed like he share my view on active speakers giving more design headroom for reaching optimum performance.

As i live sound company owner in belgium working with international bands i notice a lot of difference in mixing live sound with american and europian style of mixing, american is more compressed with less bass vs. Europian.... so assuming thats what the band and engineer want you could argue they would a system with less headroom and subs

Subwoofers for lots of bass seem to be popular trend in Australia.

I've always assumed Europeans have far more sophisticated taste than North Americans. As evidence, I cite their propensity to sip tea with their pinky finger extended. Meanwhile, I put my beer in an empty bag of chips so law enforcement think I'm sipping onion ripple while I cruise at 40+ over the limit in the left lane.

Historically British stuff I found tends to sound like a BBC radio sound. When I visited Germany I heard a tizzy trebles and banging bass sound that I hadn't heard in UK.

Interesting question. I've traveled to many countries for my company back in the 1990's and saw many building style differences from our typical stick-built drywall single family and multi-family houses in the US that effect sound in general. For many single family homes, European countries generally had brick, stone, concrete and stucco construction that I assume resonate a lot differently. Japanese traditional houses have post and beam construction with wood and stucco exterior walls and thin interior walls. They also have adopted 2x4/drywall construction in some areas to reduce costs and speed up construction. As you stated, speaker demand and construction would differ in size and cost depending upon the country. Locally built components were sometimes cheaper and easier to get than imports that would be heavily taxed to protect their economy. Things have changed till now with China, Malaysia, India and a few other countries supplying labor and components for big well-known branded manufacturers doing consumer business all over the world. I wonder how the sub-woofer business in these various countries is?

In my ears alot of the true british speakers stand out with more PRAT.. except for B&W that have gone a different way.. American speakers are also somewhat easy to pinpoint.. So yeah, there are some differences from country to country.. :)

First thing I thought of was right here in the US- west coast sound vs east coast sound. Think JBL vs AR or KLH. And I know this is a comment rooted in the distant past.

When Q Acoustics designs speakers in England and manufactures in China, are they still British? My mid-fi components are all USA made. They have the pleasant sonic character of not breaking down.

Jacques Mahul of Focal had a theory that a country's loudspeaker 'sound' was the polar opposite of the dynamics of their spoken language. For example, the English speak with considerable inflexion and articulation, but their speakers tend to be balanced. The German language is low in frequency level but they prefer highly dynamic sounds. Likewise, Americans speak English within a smaller dynamic range than the British, but their speakers are similar to German ones, strong at both frequency extremities. There might be something there...

Hi Paul what do you think about Danish speakers ?

I think people cherry pick certain brands and apply the to the whole. A great example of a brand like that is Harbeth. I do agree with Paul. Areas with less average square footage favor monitors, integrated amps, etc. Smaller speakers & less components.

In Europe we have the tendentie to like a neutral sound with the midrange upfront, like a BBC speaker. The rest of the world likes a lively sound for example a klipch.

Some parts of the world are very noisy. You go outdoors and hear machinery and industry everywhere, crowds of people shouting at each other. Being surrounded by all that noise would compromise their hearing and they might prefer speakers that emphasize the high end to compensate.

i've noticed here in Germany that a lot of audiophiles (whatever that is) place more emphasis on aesthetics than other countries . that may be an over generalization but ?

What about the famous "British sound" when it comes to all their equipment?

If you learn an asian language or study traditional music, you find out that there is a huge difference in articulation. I believe that accounts for huge differences in preferences.

I might put one of those boxes under my shirt

There is a huge difference between speakers coming from different continents. Americans like to loud (Klipsch,Serving Vega) European yes have smaller apartments so bookshelf speakers fit better and the midrange is important. Asia likes boom. Bass. All this is different now because the market is more one than many. Paul. You need to change underwear after failing to know this.

While there are always exceptions....it feels to me like the European highend speakers manufacturers (danish specifically) generally prefer soft dome tweeters (again i can think of exceptions, but as a general theme)...where as US speaker manufacturers seem to have more of a preference for ribbons. Would that be accurate? If so why do you think that is 😊

Music instruments in different cultures Flute and veena is important in india other asian countries

Australia doesn’t have a thriving hifi industry (I live there). In the UK on the other hand there are many hifi companies and so there is a deeper talent pool of folks who can collaborate and do the work that goes into good hifi.

Europeans tend to prefer quality over quantity. They like efficient full range drivers and horns, with low wattage tube amplifiers. Americans tend to prefer quantity over quality. We want tons of solid state power and as Paul says, we want lots of bass. Pacing and rhythm are determined by the recording artists, not by the playback equipment.

Interesting as I find UK brads a bit to harsh, forward, and bright for the brands I've listened to (over 50)!

Sound is subjective. I have listened to lots of different gear. I can say more British like Monitor Audio are more on the technical side when I owned those speakers. Sonus Faber is more on the romantic side with music. How the speaker is constructed, the materials it's made of, the parts inside, what is driving it all contribute to the enjoyment of the final product. It's like flavors of ice cream. Some combinations unexpectedly might be great and others taste horrible. Everyone has different taste buds like sound with ears. There are general agreements on what constitutes great sound but many different ways to go about it and nuances to tweak the sound. Technical purists might want flattest response possible but I have heard that and it sounds horrible. Our ears naturally have some background noise in them and audible distortion. Distortion on some levels is pleasing to the ears for listening.

Yes the USA speakers are more lively and the UK speakers are more mid range focused while the EU is usually neutral.

Back in the 80's, (long before the internet), there was a lot of "generalization" going on, regarding views on HiFi and especially speaker sounds. One of those was that, in general, speakers from Germany and Japan were more analytical and "cold" sounding, speakers from the UK were generally "warmer" sounding, and US speakers were "boom boom", and barely suited for a party..🤣🤣🤣 Of course neither of this reflects the truth, but that was the belief back in the days.

Apartment living . Small speakers in small spaces .

What's going to happen with these Mk I DirectStream DACs? Trade-in "victims" ;) I assume

I heard while listening to French speakers it's harder to understand recordings sang in English.

They mostly make speakers using the cheapest possible components, then give them a particular cosmetic look that appeals to a section of the market who would pay well above production cost for ordinary to low quality sound performance. After all there are always plenty of undiscerning suckers wandering about with more money than sense.

Are these all your returns haha the amount of ps audio I get that's faulty is mad

The main reason that you in US sell so much more large expensive high end gear has little to do with the size of the home. People in US are so much more richer than people in all other countries that you easily can buy gear that cost 100 000 dollars while we in EU (where I come from) maybe could buy gear that cost 20 000 dollars.

Certain countries are big and brash whilst others are more refined and sophisticated in their speaker design.

Most British loudspeakers sound mellow on the upper midrange and to higher frequencies. OTOH, most German speakers sound too bright and too harsh, to the point that I can't listen for long. American made Loudspeakers tend to be in between. .

All music lovers want one thing.MUSIC.The rest is money.

The trend towards bass is this few year's trend. Often it's too much and takes away from the music especially when boomy. When speakers couldn't / didn't deliver powerful bass, music had to be tighter, melodic with like cooking not too salty, sweet or spicy. The taste of music has to have the correct flavours.

Thin cabinet, thick cabinet, shallow cabinet ...

Hi paul!

I have heard this idea from one of my conservative, self proclaimed racist, family member recently. Must be going around on the conservative talk shows.

Speaking as somebody that works in marketing and advertising that sounds like a sales guy trying to steer you towards what they want to sell by using FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt). He’s selling hogwash by telling you your hog is dirty.

very fanny...talking about the differences of Loudspeaker designs by country is like talking about the differences of physics laws in different countries

This was not a very good question.

Hands down, aluminium woofer cones have the most hauntingly emotional sound, and PS Audio speakers have AI (atomic number 13) woofers.

Timing and rhythm is off... I would love to hear the (physics) explanation behind that... What I will note is that typical furniture/carpets/curtains between countries, and I suspect that could have an impact on their design preferences.