Cuttin-Edge, On-the-Spot Reporting

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Octave Audio manufactures all of its products in-house, with parts sourced mostly from local vendors in Germany. The only major parts not sourced from Germany are the tubes, which come from Russia.

Parts and Pre-Production 1

Unique to Octave Audio are proprietary output transformers, which it manufactures mostly within its factory. Marybel, who has been with the company for four years, is shown winding a balanced output transformer.

Parts and Pre-Production 2

Marybel applies a special paper to the winding that acts as insulation.

Parts and Pre-Production 3

Circuit boards are made for Octave Audio by a local vendor; however, even though the vendor has worked for Octave Audio for years, each board is still carefully inspected when it arrives. Martin, who has been with the company 14 years, is shown inspecting the boards made for the company's new HP 700 preamplifier, which will debut this month in Munich at High End 2014.

Parts and Pre-Production 4

Martin conducts electrical tests on each board prior to them being forwarded to production.

Parts and Pre-Production 5

A portion of Octave Audio's parts warehouse.

Parts and Pre-Production 6

More parts in the warehouse.

Parts and Pre-Production 7

Metal parts are sourced from local vendors. Like the circuit boards, every part is thoroughly inspected upon arrival and only the flawless ones are used.

Parts and Pre-Production 8

A box full of inspected metal parts that have been repackaged and are ready to be sent for anodizing. The anodizing is done locally.

Parts and Pre-Production 9

Powder-coated covers for Octave's power amplifiers. Powder coating is also done locally.

Parts and Pre-Production 10

Founder Andreas Hoffman holds a front-panel part for the top-of-the-line Jubilee mono amplifier.

Parts and Pre-Production 11

A close-up of the anodized front-panel part.

Doug Schneider
Publisher, The SoundStage! Network