How to Make a $300,000 Speaker

My name is Jonathan Weiss, I am the founder and CEO of
Oswalds Mill Audio
As known as OMA
and we're in our Dumbo, Brooklyn showroom
surrounded by all of our products
We're really an outlier in the high end audio world
we make everything from the signal source
in terms of analog, that's record players
which we make out of solid slate
We make our own line of tube amplifiers
and we're the only company in the world that makes conical horn loaded loud speakers
for high end home use
We make everything so that we have total control over the sound
One of the first phases to our products is
quarrying the slate
and this is very special slate
because it's actually very soft
which from an acoustic standpoint is really desirable
it dissipates vibrations and resonances extremely well
much better than harder slate
so when they are quarrying the slate
then they'll literally use hand tools to cleave off sheets
which break off
and then are placed on a truck of taken with a gondola
into the main fabrication part of the quarry
where a huge diamond saw with water is used to cut these cleaved off irregular pieces of slate
the last stage is honing and putting a very fine edge
Bevel
so that it doesn't chip
we use cast metal in a lot of different products
All foundries, they have a furnace.
The metal is put in solid form into this vat and it becomes molten
like just out of the movie terminator
then it's poured into this sand mold
It goes in, hardens, the sand is busted away and you have a rough casting
which then goes to the various finishing processes
The it has to be welded
edge treatment
after that, thats acomplished
then it goes to be powder coated
where it literally is baked and cured like into this super hard durable finish
much better than paint
All of our loud speakers have steel stands or infrastructure
and all of those elements are powder coated
Yeah the mill is essentially our laboratory
it's our reference listening space
it's where we can put elements, new and old, together
listen to them, evaluate them
and decide what direction we want to take
with new products and new technologies
There are things that were never surpassed in terms of sound quality
the industry has moved in ways that are not about the ultimate sound quality
but about size, convenience, and cost
and none of this stuff is convenient, small, or cheap
but it does represent the best sound that's really ever been made
All of our loud speakers are made out of Pennsylvania hard woods
and these are all woods which, Martin guitar, which is the world's best acoustic guitar company,
they're right across the valley, they use the same woods that we do
so I know that they're tonally great woods
at that point it comes into our wood working shop
where it's cut down further into boards of varying thickness and width
which will be joined together
to create loud speaker enclosures
amplifier enclosures, horns, all using meticulous hand done joinery
that allows the wood to expand and contract in your home
It's like a living thing
this is a very difficult, time consuming, expensive process
we're the only company in the world that does this
nobody else makes loud speakers using solid wood joinery construction
not today.... not that I know ever
At a certain point the parts come from the wood shop, metal working shop, powder coat
they come to our central facility, where we do the final assembly
most of our equipment is very big, and it's very big because it has to be
sound waves can't be miniaturized
it's physics
It's very old school, it's not mass production
and the components that we use, are simply the highest grade possible
aerospace level stuff
The last phase is really
our installation of the equipment
in our client's homes of wherever they are going
if you have an amazing system, and you put Elvis on, it's frightening
It's like, he's right there
what the system is doing is, it's taking the energy that came out of elvis
Literally
sound waves are energy
so it's taking that energy
and it's reproducing it so perfectly
that you have this uncanny feeling that somebody's there that's been dead a long time
that's what amazing sound quality is

How to Make a $300,000 Speaker

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