https://www.emarketstorage.it/sites/default/files/comunicati/2023-09/20230908_136565.pdf
The press release says:
"In the year 2022, Eminence Speaker LLC recorded revenue of $11,900 thousand and EBITDA of
$481 thousand; also in the year 2022, Eminence Dongguang Enterprise Co.Ltd recorded revenue
of $6,526 thousand and EBITDA of $1,119 thousand."
That would be $11.9 million in recorded revenue and $4.81 million in EBITDA for Eminence Speaker LLC, plus
Eminence Dongguang Enterprise Co.Ltd recorded revenue of $6.526 million and EBITDA of $1.119 million.
At any rate, the EBITDA for the USA Eminence looks like a lot better ratio than the China Eminence..
The press release says:
"In the year 2022, Eminence Speaker LLC recorded revenue of $11,900 thousand and EBITDA of
$481 thousand; also in the year 2022, Eminence Dongguang Enterprise Co.Ltd recorded revenue
of $6,526 thousand and EBITDA of $1,119 thousand."
That would be $11.9 million in recorded revenue and $4.81 million in EBITDA for Eminence Speaker LLC, plus
Eminence Dongguang Enterprise Co.Ltd recorded revenue of $6.526 million and EBITDA of $1.119 million.
At any rate, the EBITDA for the USA Eminence looks like a lot better ratio than the China Eminence..
Not really a high margin business is it? ... $500k is not a lot of profit on 12M in sales.
I was at Adire Audio (as a guest not an employee) the week they found out their outsourcing project in Chile was a disaster
That was quite a bummer
Here is a video of the production processes at the Eminence speaker factory in the US. Looks like an interesting place to work.
Oops, my mistake, 10 dB off.
Mattstat and Hifijim are right, $500k is not a lot of profit on 12M in sales.
-it’s desperately in need of automation (the production line); 2 engineers should be enough for prototyping w/ quite a bit more (active - “forward reaching“ potential clients) marketing support (though they need good technical knowledge, particularly with development software).
I hope they let Eminence still produce most of their drivers. They certainly make alot of guitar amp drivers and do so very well. They do alot of OEM stuff for pro sound companies. Yamaha's club series speakers use Eminence drivers for decades and are some of the best passive 2 way cabs for the cost, especially for being an American made product. Their NEO driver line is very good, specifically the KL series. I like the kappalite drivers alot ie. KL3012LF, KL3012CX, KL3012HO, KL3015HO, KL3015LF, etc. It will be sad if they stop making those drivers.
B&C is a great company and I love their drivers. I just hope they don't screw over the Eminence people too badly. I can guarantee you any costs saved in driver production wont be passed onto us, the customers. Fully automated production can be a good thing for quality and save alot of money over manual assembly by people, but there's an art to building a decent speaker. People can identify problems with drivers better than machines and computers can when it come to figuring out things which require senses like touch, sight and hearing.
B&C is a great company and I love their drivers. I just hope they don't screw over the Eminence people too badly. I can guarantee you any costs saved in driver production wont be passed onto us, the customers. Fully automated production can be a good thing for quality and save alot of money over manual assembly by people, but there's an art to building a decent speaker. People can identify problems with drivers better than machines and computers can when it come to figuring out things which require senses like touch, sight and hearing.
Eminence had some QC problems in the past with drivers using the double layer 2.5" kapton / alu winding VC. Thats what made the first gen deltalite and delta pro drivers drop like flies, but they fixed all that with better engineering.
The Delta Pro 12 A is an overall very musical sounding driver and can hang with much more expensive drivers THD performance wise. That one will be missed for sure, as would the delta 8A and the other cheaper 12" models with 2" VCs.
The new hemp cone bass gtr drivers are amazing too.
Celestion has unfortunately swung back in the market with their Chinese made lines, which are very good quality wise. You could easily claim they're made somewhere else, looking at the quality. I'm not certain for sure, but the 2050 axiperiodic driver is also made in their Aisin factory. When eminence started doing stuff in China, they were on course to competing with Celestion, putting out very consistent stuff that measured within 1 - 2% of each other in TSPs.
Made in China doesn't have to be a bad thing anymore. Its just sad they're giving the jobs away to foreigners. But hey, thats what happens if you want to compete with Celestion, Peerless and the other big speaker manufacturers. Its just frustrating they are all moving away from DIY customers like us and taking away the once large selection of drivers we had from Europe. When Dynaudio and Focal pulled out of the DIY market, it ruined a few smaller guys building monitors. I know mid domes are mostly gone from the DIY market with a few small exceptions, but Dynaudio had the great D76 and D52 mids. At least Morel still sells smaller mid domes and ScanSpeak has the oddball D7608-9210 which I still love.
The Delta Pro 12 A is an overall very musical sounding driver and can hang with much more expensive drivers THD performance wise. That one will be missed for sure, as would the delta 8A and the other cheaper 12" models with 2" VCs.
The new hemp cone bass gtr drivers are amazing too.
Celestion has unfortunately swung back in the market with their Chinese made lines, which are very good quality wise. You could easily claim they're made somewhere else, looking at the quality. I'm not certain for sure, but the 2050 axiperiodic driver is also made in their Aisin factory. When eminence started doing stuff in China, they were on course to competing with Celestion, putting out very consistent stuff that measured within 1 - 2% of each other in TSPs.
Made in China doesn't have to be a bad thing anymore. Its just sad they're giving the jobs away to foreigners. But hey, thats what happens if you want to compete with Celestion, Peerless and the other big speaker manufacturers. Its just frustrating they are all moving away from DIY customers like us and taking away the once large selection of drivers we had from Europe. When Dynaudio and Focal pulled out of the DIY market, it ruined a few smaller guys building monitors. I know mid domes are mostly gone from the DIY market with a few small exceptions, but Dynaudio had the great D76 and D52 mids. At least Morel still sells smaller mid domes and ScanSpeak has the oddball D7608-9210 which I still love.
From a European point of view. The prices in dollars and euro are wildly different. For example Emininece Delta Pro 12 A €189 @ Thomann.de price in the USA @ Partsexpress $159.99 (€149,89) a 26% difference. SB Audience, LaVoce, Faital Pro, Sica or Oberton offer better price / quality. Note SB and LaVoce are both China made. So shipping is not the problem.
Pretty sure SB is made in Indonesia at Sinar Baja, not in China.
You could change your post to "Asian" countries and it would be accurate again.
You could change your post to "Asian" countries and it would be accurate again.
From the video it looks like Eminence needs a lot of investment. Automation is the way to go with speaker manufacturing, even simple things like glue dispensers that dispense a set amount of adhesive will speed up and improve the quality of the product, with a more automated production line there is less incentive to produce speakers where wages are lower (China is no longer a very attractive location for low wages and has significant 'other' risks). SB is a bit cheaper than the italian manufacturers but also a bit lower performance (for pro sound), for me the majority of the cost is not the driver even using high end drivers so it makes sense to go with the almost top end drivers. By which I mean 'super' drivers like the B&C IPAL or Eminence 21" are not worth the gain in output and instead we are using drivers like the B&C 21SW152.
I think Eminence's current product line is excellent. I am currently listening to a pair of GA-SC64 with ASD1001 HF drivers and have some bookshelf speakers with the 820H drivers that are very nice sounding also. I have some Cannabis Rex 12" drivers for a upcoming build with Altec horns.
I like that they make their drivers the old fashioned way and don't mind paying for it. Hopefully, it stays that way...
I like that they make their drivers the old fashioned way and don't mind paying for it. Hopefully, it stays that way...
Note that the video has been uploaded 10 years ago and might be even older. I hope they have done some automation in the meantime.
I would rank Celestion as one of Eminence's largest competitors. They're both in the guitar amp speaker business and have big following, considering both their history of setting certain trends in the guitar scene. They have different approaches to the way they design their guitar drivers. Everyone knows a Vintage 30 or Greenback speaker along with the other common models they sell. Most people will seek out a certain Celestion driver already in production based on an established following their drivers have, but Eminence does alot of R&D in customization for their OEM clients and a ton of options, including custom cone formulations, spider and VC former materials. They're easy to work with if you're just a small guy wanting a few hundred pieces. Celestion, on the other hand, won't talk to you unless you're looking for large production quantities, plus they're picky in who they'll associate their name with. Eminence has no issues with anyone as long as they pay for the product.