Canadian speaker makers - the list

[Feanor]

I posted this earlier under another thread, but it perhaps rates its own, so here goes.

Angstrom Loudspeakers
http://www.angstromloudspeakers.com/

Athena Technologies
http://www.athenaspeakers.com/

Axiom Audio
http://www.axiomaudio.com/

Coincident Speaker Technology
http://www.coincidentspeaker.com/

Dahlquist
http://www.dahlquistcorporation.com/

Energy Loudspeakers
http://www.energy-speakers.com/

Ethera
http://www.ethera.com/

Fidelity Acoustics
http://www.fidelityacoustics.com/

Focus Audio
http://www.focusaudio.ca/

Gershman Acoustics
http://www.gershmanacoustics.com/

Hemp Acoustics
http://www.hempacoustics.com/

Lightning Sound
http://www.lightningsound.net/

Mirage Loudspeakers
http://www.miragespeakers.com/

New Form Research
http://www.newformresearch.com/

Paradigm
http://www.paradigm.ca/

Pro-Linear Electronics
http://www.pro-linear.com/

PSB Speakers
http://www.psbspeakers.com/

Quest
http://www.questhifi.com/

Reference 3A Loudspeakers
http://www.reference3a.com/

Sinclair Audio
http://www.sinclairaudio.com/

StudioLAB
http://www.speakerdirect.com/

Tetraspeakers
http://www.tetraspeakers.com/

Totem Acoustic
http://www.totemacoustic.com/

Verity Audio
http://www.verityaudio.com/

Note: I don't guarantee the list is complete -- sorry if I missed anyone. Let me know if so. All links are up to date to my knowledge, again, e&oe. Many thanks to those who contributed makers I missed.<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

[Feanor]

The list is now updated for a couple that were overlooked.

Angstrom Loudspeakers
http://www.angstromloudspeakers.com/
Athena Technologies
http://www.athenaspeakers.com/
Axiom Audio
http://www.axiomaudio.com/
Coincident Speaker Technology
http://www.coincidentspeaker.com/
Dahlquist
http://www.dahlquistcorporation.com/
Energy Loudspeakers
http://www.energy-speakers.com/
Ethera
http://www.ethera.com/
Fidelity Acoustics
http://www.fidelityacoustics.com/
Focus Audio
http://www.focusaudio.ca/
Gershman Acoustics
http://www.gershmanacoustics.com/
Hansen Audio
http://www.hansenaudio.com/
Hemp Acoustics
http://www.hempacoustics.com/
Lightning Sound
http://www.lightningsound.net/
Mirage Loudspeakers
http://www.miragespeakers.com/
New Form Research
http://www.newformresearch.com/
Paradigm
http://www.paradigm.ca/
Pro-Linear Electronics
http://www.pro-linear.com/
PSB Speakers
http://www.psbspeakers.com/
RL Acoustique
http://www.rlacoustique.com/
Quest
http://www.questhifi.com/
Reference 3A Loudspeakers
http://www.reference3a.com/
Sinclair Audio
http://www.sinclairaudio.com/
StudioLAB
http://www.speakerdirect.com/
Tetraspeakers
http://www.tetraspeakers.com/
Totem Acoustic
http://www.totemacoustic.com/
Unity Speakers
http://www.ozenterprises.net/_unity/index.html
Verity Audio
http://www.verityaudio.com/

[kexodusc]

Hemp Acoustics?

Man, I've got to try a pressed-hemp woofer...

Man, I've seen it all now...

[GMichael]

Hemp Acoustics?

Man, I've got to try a pressed-hemp woofer...

Man, I've seen it all now...

Ditto! Who's idea was it to try this to begin with?

(in my best Cheech and Chong voices)
Dude, Ive got a great idea man. Let's make speakers out of this stuff. psssst...puff puff.
Cool man, let's do it. If they ever blow out we could just pfffffffffffffft. ahhhhhhhhh..

[noddin0ff]

great highs. not harsh.

[nightflier]

While many of these manufacturers also sell through B&M stores, I must say there is a vast difference in the quality of their websites. For my money, it's important to find out that a company stands behind their image as well as their products. And in some cases, higher-end prices don't always translate to a better website. I want to know that I can get specs, see photos, and find an email address to contact, before I buy. With so many choices out there for the customer, you'd think they would have better websites.

Just my 2 cents.

[Feanor]

While many of these manufacturers also sell through B&M stores, I must say there is a vast difference in the quality of their websites. For my money, it's important to find out that a company stands behind their image as well as their products. And in some cases, higher-end prices don't always translate to a better website. I want to know that I can get specs, see photos, and find an email address to contact, before I buy. With so many choices out there for the customer, you'd think they would have better websites.

Just my 2 cents.
Quite a few are pathetic. Some of the biggies are not so great either. I've never been too impressed with the Paragon site for example, though it improved when they brought the Signiture series online.

[kexodusc]

On a serious note, Focus Audio make some damn impressive speakers. I'd say the FS-888 and FS-688 sit among my favorite speakers at any price.

If you ever stumble across them, give them a listen.

[nightflier]

On a serious note, Focus Audio make some damn impressive speakers. I'd say the FS-888 and FS-688 sit among my favorite speakers at any price.

If you ever stumble across them, give them a listen.

I agree that they have beautiful speakers, esthetically speaking, but the prices are rather steep too. For a company that isn't in the mainstream (correct me if I'm wrong), they sure charge a pretty penny.

[kexodusc]

welcome to hi-end audio...I don't like the pricetags either, except that I like these speakers better than a lot of $5 - $7K speakers I've heard.

[Mr_Audio_man19]

don't forget nuance... lol :P
www.nuanceaudio.com

other than that theres a new canadian speaker manufacturer that should be added to the list. They are part of JAM industries (harman kardon, infinity, and jbl are all distributed by these same guys) but this company has been around for about a year and a half now and they make some pretty sweet speakers. Ikon audio... anyone ever hear about them? www.ikon-audio.com

[Greekguy]

don't forget nuance... lol :P
www.nuanceaudio.com

other than that theres a new canadian speaker manufacturer that should be added to the list. They are part of JAM industries (harman kardon, infinity, and jbl are all distributed by these same guys) but this company has been around for about a year and a half now and they make some pretty sweet speakers. Ikon audio... anyone ever hear about them? www.ikon-audio.com
Steer clear of Nuance... anyone who thinks they're so good don't know much obviously, they're made of dirt cheap materials and just sound like plain ol' crap when weighed against REAL brand name speakers. During the demonstration, the guy was also showing me how you could punch the speaker cones and not hurt them... what idiot punches a speaker anyway? :P The biggest source of speaker damage is distorted signal and clipping, and the quality of Nuance's parts is such that they'd be friend in such occurrences. And have you checked out Nuance's website? No product info, no independant reviews, nothing.... why? Because there's obviously something about their stuff they don't want you to know.

Sorry about that little rant, it's just that companies like Nuance diminish the glory of otherwise reputable Canadian speaker makers. On that note, I have a pair of Sinclair Audio Brighton SBT-3600s, and they're fantastic, especially for their price point. Anyone interested in a great pair of Canadian designed and researched speakers should give them a look, you can't go wrong at their price point.

[Feanor]

don't forget nuance... lol :P
www.nuanceaudio.com (http://www.nuanceaudio.com/)

other than that theres a new canadian speaker manufacturer that should be added to the list. They are part of JAM industries (harman kardon, infinity, and jbl are all distributed by these same guys) but this company has been around for about a year and a half now and they make some pretty sweet speakers. Ikon audio... anyone ever hear about them? www.ikon-audio.com (http://www.ikon-audio.com)
It doesn't seem that JAM manufactures or designs speakers in Canada, though one of their subs is a Canadian distributor of non-Canadian brands. If I got this wrong, let me know.

[Feanor]

don't forget nuance... lol :P
www.nuanceaudio.com (http://www.nuanceaudio.com/)

other than that theres a new canadian speaker manufacturer that should be added to the list. They are part of JAM industries (harman kardon, infinity, and jbl are all distributed by these same guys) but this company has been around for about a year and a half now and they make some pretty sweet speakers. Ikon audio... anyone ever hear about them? www.ikon-audio.com (http://www.ikon-audio.com)
Their site isn't entirely clear but implies that their speakers are at least designed in Canadian. Any further info would be welcome.

[Feanor]

Steer clear of Nuance... anyone who thinks they're so good don't know much obviously, they're made of dirt cheap materials and just sound like plain ol' crap when weighed against REAL brand name speakers.
...
Sorry about that little rant, it's just that companies like Nuance diminish the glory of otherwise reputable Canadian speaker makers. On that note, I have a pair of Sinclair Audio Brighton SBT-3600s, and they're fantastic, especially for their price point. Anyone interested in a great pair of Canadian designed and researched speakers should give them a look, you can't go wrong at their price point.
Plain ol' crap they might well be but apparently they do make the speakers in Canada, so onto the list they go.

[Mr_Audio_man19]

Lol Back in the day i was a nuance sales rep. That being said i have some of there products, but I paid a resonable price for them and iv'e got a good bang for my buck. nuance used to be a very respectable speaker company with some pretty awesome stuff. It was mid to late 90s they really took there plunge downhill. The New lines are AWFUL! the tweeters are garbage now, and it seems like all they do is throw a bunch of subwoofers into a big box with the same tweeters and midrange that you would find in there lower models. apperently there latest model is called the "Grand Universe Extreme" and uses 6 10" powered subwoofers in each tower. Yet the main speaker section uses the same crap drivers as there lower entry level models. My advice is to avoid the modern Day nuance speakers. The older stuff was really sweet though.

THe new stuff is good for one thing only... a sh*tload of bass, and its sloppy , muddy bass.

[Mr_Audio_man19]

Steer clear of Nuance... anyone who thinks they're so good don't know much obviously, they're made of dirt cheap materials and just sound like plain ol' crap when weighed against REAL brand name speakers. During the demonstration, the guy was also showing me how you could punch the speaker cones and not hurt them... what idiot punches a speaker anyway? :P The biggest source of speaker damage is distorted signal and clipping, and the quality of Nuance's parts is such that they'd be friend in such occurrences. And have you checked out Nuance's website? No product info, no independant reviews, nothing.... why? Because there's obviously something about their stuff they don't want you to know.

Sorry about that little rant, it's just that companies like Nuance diminish the glory of otherwise reputable Canadian speaker makers. On that note, I have a pair of Sinclair Audio Brighton SBT-3600s, and they're fantastic, especially for their price point. Anyone interested in a great pair of Canadian designed and researched speakers should give them a look, you can't go wrong at their price point.

You know i checked out sinclair the other day at a local stereo shop, it looks like some pretty good stuff. As a matter of fact the guy told me that iKon and Sinclair are actually designed and built by the same guys, kinda like how energy mirage and athena are produced by API. Check out the Sinclair website and the iKon website... THE LAYOUTS ARE IDENTICAL! Also if you look at the photo with the brighton series and the photo with the iKon setups they look very similiar in the way there set-up.

[Greekguy]

You know i checked out sinclair the other day at a local stereo shop, it looks like some pretty good stuff. As a matter of fact the guy told me that iKon and Sinclair are actually designed and built by the same guys, kinda like how energy mirage and athena are produced by API. Check out the Sinclair website and the iKon website... THE LAYOUTS ARE IDENTICAL! Also if you look at the photo with the brighton series and the photo with the iKon setups they look very similiar in the way there set-up.
Interesting, I would never have thought that iKon and Sinclair are so similar... that said, yeah, for the money, I think the Sinclairs are great, and if you get them at a good price, it's all that much better. I've heard a lot of speakers, both at the budget and cost-no-object audiophile end, and I'd say I have pretty subjective taste... and when I heard the Brightons, I was sold. You'll be hard pressed to find such good speakers from other makers at their price point. Definitely great speakers for those on a budget.

[Mr_Audio_man19]

If you can find an Ikon dealer you should check these things out. Im dumping my nuance speakers for them. Ikon is similiar to nuance because they do make some big ass speakers, but the ikon subs provide much tighter bass response, the speakers have superior midrange to the nuance line, and not to mention they are half the price of the nuance speakers. That being said, there is one dealer who used to carry nuance that now carries iKon, and they push iKon the same way they pushed nuance, so to be safe i checked out 3 other dealers in ontario and found that they were "less nuanceish" and were more honest then the former nuance guys. The price tags were clearly placed on the ikons at the other places and they were not giving Roger Waters demos. I have a feeling that iKon might get a bad reputation because of the way this one store presents them and it will be a shame if this happens because they happen to be very good speakers.

[Mr_Audio_man19]

Have you ever heard any of the oldschool nuance speakers? they were very good at one time. The new stuff is all about exagerated highs, muddy bass and no midrange

[Mr_Audio_man19]

heres an interesting piece of information... Nuance (only component corporation) now produces Dahlquist speakers. check out this link... http://www.onlycc.com/Services.htm

[Greekguy]

Old school Nuance stuff was okay to a point, but the new stuff is too overbuilt, seems it's built to take punishment more than produce good sound. And during the sales pitch, when the guy told me what they were retailing for, I laughed right in his face, there's no way anybody is going to pay retail on the damn things, nor are they even close to worth what they were asking.

I knew that Nuance bought the rights to Dahlquist in some way, probably just to add some credibility to their lacklustre name. Dumping your Nuance speakers wouldn't be a bad idea though, hell I'd even suggest a pair of Sinclairs over your Nuances, as they sound way better and also have much higher power handling.

[Mr_Audio_man19]

Yeah, my new stuff is comming in monday. Cambridge Speakers used to build all the woofers and tweeters for the nuance line and they went under last year, i was at a surplus store in cambridge today (cambridge surplus) and the nuance 8" woofers were selling for $6.95. I would imagine that the price nuance paid for these drivers was about half that, and nuance sells 3 way tower configurations with 2 of these drivers in each tower for $2000. Too bad they didnt have the tweeters there, I could have started building nuance speakers in my basement and make a killing lol.

The system I have coming to me consists of Ikon CM6800 fronts, CM6500 rears, and a CM616 centre speaker.

[afishneedsabike]

Ahh, finally someone who knows the Nuance of old!

Now here I am going out on a limb and risk getting flamed for it, but they are good speakers. However judging by the vehemence people have about the Nuance name these days, they sure are not indicative of what Nuance has become.

I have had a pair or Nuance 220's since 1992. They were bought at one of the best specialty stores in Vancouver NOT from a white van, from one of the least high-pressure sales guys I have ever known. In fact I have bought several pieces of gear from this fellow.

The speakers are not overblown in bass, size or other characteristics to artificially enhance "value". Actually I recall that at the time they did not do any advertising but relied simply on high end shops such as The Sound Room where I got mine. At the time they were just under $1000, which was at the top of my budget range. They sound great as I said, and go well with my NAD, Technics, Harmon Kardon and Rega Planar/Grace setup.

Judging from what people say now about Nuance I would not want to buy from them now. Does anyone else remember the old days of Nuance?

[Florian]

Maybe its a different company now. Many white van bastards and the likes use names or similar names from good manufacurers to trick new customers.

[jmtjoy]

I would like to comment on "old school" Nuance speakers. I have owned a pair since new (Model 440). I also had the Model 50 monitors which are the babies of the 440 (same midwoofer). I purchased these speakers in 1990. I had the pleasure of meeting one of the designers of this first generation line, Winslow Burhoe around the same time. Little did I know or appreciate who he was at the time. Any competent search engine user will find out that this man had a hand in some of the finest speakers ever made. Some were even used as reference speakers in Canada by CBC and even the excellent UHF magazine team had a pair as reference for a time (The Energy 22). This man knows how to design a great speaker. I now own Von Schweikert VR1's (from another great speaker designer) but I will not sell my 440's. In fact I am looking for a set of 50's (good luck-people don't want to sell them!!) I remember the 110 and 220's at the same time as well. They had a family sound but I felt the 50 and 440 had a slightly better midrange with the smaller 5.25" drivers. These speakers will not handle gobs of power but they do have a smooth refined sound with excellent bandwith performance using few drivers. This is an important trait that many speakers get wrong (coloured sound with peaky responses, too many drivers that cannnot work together as one voice). I do agree that Nuance speakers changed after this line and I was not drawn to them in the same way, although the 330 was a pretty nice speaker for slightly less money than the 440. It was at this time that the waveguides around the tweeters were used. This produced a very spacious sound that many people like. In some ways its a shame that the sales strategies were the only thing people could talk about for some time. But hey, people should just use common sense. If you think a pair of speakers are worth 2,3, or 4 thousand dollars, that's your choice. The original Nuance line sold for between $700 and $1500.00 CDN. It wasn't any exceptional materials or drivers you were buying at this price. They were solidly built products but had the touch of Winslow Burhoe's experience with their crossovers. In the end that is what separates just merely good speakers from special ones. Anyone can buy some fancy high end drivers etc and throw them into a cabinet with a simple crossover and get sound out of them. The best designers know how to take good parts to produce a speaker that makes more than just sound but music.

[audio_dude]

welcome to AR man, but please, don't start off your first few posts by digging up old threads... (although, i'm kinda glad you did, i like this thread...)

oh well, nice post there!

[nightflier]

One other strike against Nuance is their pathetic site. Maybe their sales are so bad that they can't afford a digital camera?

[BinaryWhisper]

hmmm, well this is my first post and 'm glad this old thread did get revived. If you are interested in a truly high grade Canadian product have a look at Tetraspeakers
http://www.tetraspeakers.com.

I have sat in the designers basement for listening sessions, literally 12 hours straight, on a couple of occasions some years back and this is a company that is driven by nothing but pure passion for audio perfection. Adrian has a phenomenal set of ears and Wayne is a master craftsman and together they produce astounding speakers.

I listened mostly to the diminutive little floor mounted pyramids, the least impressive visually in their line up, and they are the best speaker I have ever heard at up to 5 times their price. It is really hard to wrap your mind around the fact that such a small package produces such a huge, and precisely focused soundstage. There is a reason that people like Herbie Hancock recommends them as his speaker of choice.

Everyone has there own preference in sound but if you are in the market you really should make an effort to audition a pair of Tetras. Hit their website and read the reviews and referrals or google them for reviews and you will have no choice except to be very curious about this great company.

Incidentally, Adrian and his wife barely knew us, and I do mean barely, and yet they opened their house to us and put us up for a weekend. We were there for the Ottawa blues festival and had pre-paid our hotel room. I liked his company and speakers so much that we walked away from the hotel and I missed all of the festival just to spend the time with this amazing man and his passion. I've never seen or talked to him since but the memory has not faded in the slightest over the years.

[JacksonS54]

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