Voice Coil Focus-Audio Manufacturing Sourcing: The Philippines

Loudspeaker manufacturers need to multiply their efforts to make their supply chains more resilient, and it becomes important to know alternative suppliers in multiple regions of the world. Among the established alternatives in the Pacific region, The Philippines has been a long recognized location for reliable companies, including some of the world's leading OEM/ODM suppliers. The article, originally published in Voice Coil, August 2022, includes a small directory of audio factories in the Philippines.

For this Test Bench, Vance Dickason characterized the LT2 Ribbon Transducer and corresponding waveguide from Radian Audio Engineering. This is effectively a smaller version of the LT6 ribbon transducer reviewed in the July 2020 issue of Voice Coil, but offering much more diverse possibilities, as Vance Dickason discovers. And as the compact LT2 shows, this was designed to be more of a hi-fi or home theater substitute for any high frequency driver. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, August 2020.

Do you remember the Electro-Voice T35 Super Tweeter? This was a high-performance horn tweeter that even today has state-of-the-art wideband response, high sensitivity, and a history that spans over six decades! This trip down memory lane relates the story of the T35, with a look at not just the tweeters, but also the people behind these developments. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2010.

For the January 2019 edition of Voice Coil magazine, Mike Klasco and Nora Wong have compiled a special Focus article on New Materials for Earphones and Headphones. For those looking to differentiate their new products, the two Menlo Scientific consultants provide a unique and valuable perspective on multiple possibilities and designs for drivers, materials for assemblies and enclosures, choices for headbands and ear cushions, signal processing, and even cables.

What are my two cents on criteria for sustainable product design? Bioplastics, sustainable, biodegradable, or end of life recyclable attributes are all aspects of a truly green product. I think that a conscionable green design philosophy focuses on the total integration of “good citizen” eco-friendly materials and processes and long, useful life.