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Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Octave Audio, May 12, 2014; Created: 12 May 2014

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.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Audio Research, March 13, 2014; Created: 13 March 2014

The final department that a product moves to before it's packaged and shipped is what Audio Research calls paneling. In paneling, the top, bottom, and front panels are attached, as well as the knobs and handles. Other small jobs to complete the product also occur here. It's when paneling is complete that an Audio Research product really looks like an Audio Research product, since it's where all the distinctive cosmetic elements are added.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Audio Research, March 13, 2014; Created: 13 March 2014

Audio Research's quality assurance department is responsible for not only the testing of assembled products but also the parts for products to be assembled. Its numerous, rigorous tests help to ensure that each Audio Research product performs exactly as specified.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Audio Research, March 13, 2014; Created: 13 March 2014

After the circuit boards are completed, they make their way to an adjacent area in the factory called chassis assembly, which is where the products begin to take shape. It's in this area that the boards are installed, connectors are attached, wiring is completed, and various parts are installed to create a fully functioning product ready for testing.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Audio Research, March 13, 2014; Created: 13 March 2014

Insofar as high-end hi-fi companies go, Audio Research is a fairly big one -- it has a large factory, plenty of products, and numerous skilled employees. The reason they're skilled is that all the products are effectively handmade -- there's no robotic assembly or similar kind of automation to be seen on the factory floor. Even circuit boards are populated and soldered by hand in what's called the board assembly area, which was the first place I visited when I toured the factory.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Audio Research, March 13, 2014; Created: 13 March 2014

Audio Research Corporation is legendary for producing some of the best tube-based and solid-state electronics in the hi-fi business. The company currently makes preamplifiers, amplifiers, phono amplifiers, disc players, and digital-to-analog converters. All of its products are designed and built in-house.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Audio Research, March 13, 2014; Created: 13 March 2014

Trivia: Did you know that William Z. Johnson, Audio Research Corporation's founder, trademarked the words "high definition" back in the '70s? In many ways, he was a man ahead of his time, even if what he was pushing when he started Audio Research in 1970 seemed behind the times, even back then -- vacuum tubes. The company made all of its audio products using them because Johnson felt they simply sounded better -- and it stayed that way for a long, long time, which is likely why Audio Research is now the preeminent tube-based hi-fi manufacturer in the United States, if not in the world.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Magico, March 11, 2014; Created: 11 March 2014

According to Magico's Alon Wolf, "There's no company in North America with a listening room as elaborate as ours." Frankly, he might be right -- we've visited many North American companies, and fewer than a handful have had a purpose-built listening room that's as big as Magico's (it measures 33'L x 22'W x 13'H) or as well constructed.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Magico, March 11, 2014; Created: 11 March 2014

One of the things we're very aware of at the SoundStage! Network is quality control (we're also very critical when we see that it's lacking). Great quality-control measures are vital because they ensure that the consumer gets the product he or she paid for, and nothing less. I was personally pleased to see that Magico employs topflight quality-control procedures not just at one stage of production, but at several stages.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Magico, March 11, 2014; Created: 11 March 2014

Magico's sales and manufacturing capabilities have increased markedly in the last few years, so it's no surprise that the assembly area for all the models they have now has expanded greatly as well. Currently, every . . .

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Magico, March 11, 2014; Created: 11 March 2014

With Magico's increased manufacturing capabilities, maintaining an adequate parts inventory is of paramount importance to meet consumer demand in a timely fashion. As a result, a large portion of the factory space is dedicated to inventory and inspection to ensure that defect-free parts are on hand when they're needed.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Magico, March 11, 2014; Created: 11 March 2014

Magico made its previous generation of loudspeaker cabinets using combinations of metal and wood, whereas Magico's current-generation models are all made of metal. Not surprisingly . . .

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Magico, March 11, 2014; Created: 11 March 2014

The last time the SoundStage! Network visited Magico was when Jeff Fritz and Pete Roth visited in March, 2011. Back then Magico was located in a 5000 sq. ft. Berkeley, California, facility, which was mainly used for design and assembly, since the company sourced most of its loudspeaker parts from vendors.

Details: Written by: Garrett Hongo; Category: KR Audio, July 2 & 9, 2013; Created: 07 December 2013

Invented in 1999 by Riccardo Kron, the KR T1610 is the largest audio tube currently produced. When I asked KR chief engineer Marek Gencev why he thought KR founder Riccardo Kron had decided to create it, he shot back with a matter-of-fact "Why not?"

Details: Written by: Garrett Hongo; Category: KR Audio, July 2 & 9, 2013; Created: 07 December 2013

In the KR Audio glass room, I saw two different steps of glasswork -- the shaping and cutting of the envelope, then the connection of the glass stem to the inner electrode and sealing the tube, making it ready for the vacuum room. I met Ladislav Krouzel, the glassman, a man of around 70 or so, I guessed, and about my height (five feet eight), wearing a dark blue polo, denim trousers, boots, and no work apron.

Details: Written by: Garrett Hongo; Category: KR Audio, July 2 & 9, 2013; Created: 06 December 2013

Before he toured me through the KR Audio factory's tube-manufacturing facility, chief engineer Marek Gencev provided a brief lesson on the history of the audio tube and an explanation of how KR creates its own tubes.

Details: Written by: Garrett Hongo; Category: KR Audio, July 2 & 9, 2013; Created: 05 December 2013

According to Eunice Kron, KR Audio started one day in 1991 when she and her husband, Riccardo, a collector of old radios, were browsing through a flea market in Scandiano, Italy. The Berlin Wall had just fallen, and there was excitement in the air "like a new age was dawning," Eunice said. Behind a wooden table covered with old tubes was Alessa Vaic, a "scarecrow of a man" as described by Eunice, and an inventor and tinkerer who'd come up with his own working version of the original Marconi radio tube. It sat there among an array of new old stock radio tubes. Riccardo Kron immediately recognized Vaic's accomplishment. "He got a sensation," Eunice told me. "This man would be the turning point in my life," Kron said.

Details: Written by: Garrett Hongo; Category: KR Audio, July 2 & 9, 2013; Created: 05 December 2013

Recently this summer, while on a two-week teaching stint at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, I made a visit to KR Audio, one of only three tube manufacturers outside of Russia and China (Emission Labs, also in the Czech Republic, and JJ Electronic of Slovakia are the two others). KR produces more than 15 different triode output tubes, including the classic 300b and the famed "Kronzilla" T1610 (50W-60W, $5180 USD/pair), the largest and most powerful audio tube currently in production.

Details: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Category: Arcam, September 18-19, 2013; Created: 09 October 2013

I wasn't sure what to expect when I landed in London for my brief stay with Arcam. It's a company that, frankly, I always pictured as offering kind of just "decent" stuff. This wasn't predicated on personal experience with their products, or even what I'd read about them. It was largely based on their relative affordability and their sedate appearance. Superficial of me, to be sure, but I can't be alone in having thought that. Yet these qualities very much embody what the brand, and its founder, John Dawson, is all about.

Details: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Category: Arcam, September 18-19, 2013; Created: 08 October 2013

Fun fact: about two thirds of Arcam's business is in the audio/video (home theater) arena. I had no idea. I also had no appreciation for the sheer complexity that is a properly executed audio/video receiver (AVR). I suppose it's because wandering into any big-box electronics store, you'll see a multitude of them from a variety of manufacturers, and none of them cost very much.