The 2025 edition of the Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook (LIS), the renowned annual industry supply chain reference publication, is now available. In this issue, once again there’s an updated State of the Speaker Industry report, and valuable insights from industry experts and key companies in the sector. As always, the 2025 edition offers a series of must-read Industry Features, celebrates industry milestones, and includes our traditional questions and answers with a select audio industry panel.
LIS 2025 includes another valuable overview of the State of the Speaker Industry, written by J. Martins, audioXpress Editor-in-Chief, providing great perspectives in these times of uncertainty. As noted in the report, the loudspeaker industry was thriving until the end of the third quarter of 2024, and the mood couldn’t have been more optimistic in general, at least until the first months of 2025. Then the global economy was shaken by the announcement of the US imposing tariffs on all its global partners, throwing an instability that caused companies to enter into a dangerous wait-and-see mode. As the speaker industry is already hedging its bets, it’s important to understand the trends in every application segment described in this updated report.
In a great opinion feature, Dan Digre (CEO, MISCO Speakers) provides a great perspective on his article “Building Resilient Audio Supply Chains – A U.S. Loudspeaker Manufacturer’s Perspective”. An experienced loudspeaker industry professional with more than four decades at the helm of MISCO Speakers, Dan Digre describes the exact challenges that the industry faces and what a US-based manufacturer can expect. Having also a global clientele and operations in Asia, the thoughts that are shared in this article are extremely important. A must-read in this year’s edition of LIS.
Next up, Gary Gottlieb, the current AES President, writes about “The Origins of the Audio Engineering Society, and Why the Industry Needs It Today”. The Audio Engineering Society continues to evolve as an association for engineers, scientists, and other individuals with an interest or involvement in the audio industry. This article explores the association’s rich history and details its important contributions that include some of the industry’s most important standards that we depend upon daily.
Another Industry Feature in this edition of LIS is a contribution from Tony Ostrom (WiSA Association) addressing “Key Drivers for the Future of Home Entertainment” and the importance of great content, intelligent components, and wireless audio. As the WiSA Association is now involved in an important technology transition to the latest WiSA E solutions, this article provides a perspective on the most important trends in the consumer electronics industry and how WiSA is responding.
And this year’s issue of LIS celebrates once again some of company milestones, starting with the One Hundred Years of Shure, revisited by Michael Pettersen (Shure Corporate Historian), MISCO’s 75 Years of Audio Innovation and Excellence revisited by Cobi Stein (MISCO), and Peavey’s 60 Years Celebration. Another more personal milestone in this 2025 edition of LIS is signaled by Mike Klasco, the founder of Menlo Scientific, the audio industry consultancy company now celebrating 40 years in business. Steve Temme also writes an interesting personal story about the 30 Years of Listen, Inc., the Boston-based audio measurement company. Another 40 years of activity are revisited by Sensaphonics founder and president, Dr. Michael Santucci, explaining how his company delivered on its mission to prevent music-induced hearing disorders.
Another important milestone but of a different kind is highlighted by Jeff Candy and Claus Futtrup, the two experienced speaker engineers and authors of the Speakerbench, the web-based application for loudspeaker design with an emphasis on an advanced transducer model, which has been officially available since March 2020. Originally intended to support the loudspeaker DIY community, Speakerbench celebrated its fifth anniversary with a significant update that introduced new valuable features, plus comprehensive documentation, increasing its value for global speaker designers at all levels.
Finally, this issue of LIS 2025 includes a section with the traditional Questions & Answers interviews, from a select audio industry panel that this year includes Andy Chiu (Dongguan Yuonyunn Membrane), Joe Pinkerton (Brane Audio), Ralph Heinz (Renkus-Heinz), Siamäk Naghian (Genelec Oy), Lorenzo De Poi (K-Array), Matt Czyzewski (AtlasIED), Tuyen Pham (THX), and Rick Skillman (Eminence Speakers).
The Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook (LIS) has been published every year for the past 29 years, and more industry professionals are now familiar with LIS and its online directory format (www.loudspeakerindustrysourcebook.com). For everyone working in R&D, manufacturing, sourcing, product management, technical support, marketing, and sales in the loudspeaker and related industries, LIS is a permanent reference tool, as we learn to better appreciate our partnerships and suppliers, and understand how interconnected we are.
The listings submitted online are compiled annually to generate the printed edition, but the LIS publication and website also contain must-read articles, interviews with audio professionals on trending industry topics, and an annual report about the state of the industry. And new articles are published every year with each issue of LIS.
Your annual subscription to Voice Coil or audioXpress or your status as a Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook vendor includes a complimentary copy of the 2025 Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook. Print copies should be arriving soon.
Our annual Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook (LIS) 2025 directory also corresponds to our interactive website, available at: www.loudspeakerindustrysourcebook.com
Click Here to access the digital edition PDF.
We hope you enjoy the 2025 edition of the Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook. For the searchable vendor database and the most up-to-date vendor information, visit www.loudspeakerindustrysourcebook.com
About the Cover Sponsor
Founded in 1924, Celestion has been building transducers for commercial applications for 100 years and has grown to become one of the leading manufacturers of professional audio loudspeakers for fixed installation and touring sound reinforcement. The LIS 2025 cover celebrates Celestion’s latest Ten2 (Ten Squared) Series, born out of a specialist development program at Celestion’s UK-based R&D facility. These cast-aluminum frame, neodymium magnet low-frequency pro audio drivers are designed to deliver consistently superior levels of performance in the most demanding professional sound reinforcement applications, even after hundreds of hours of use. Ten Squared speakers are just a small part of Celestion’s comprehensive range of low-frequency, full-range, and coaxial loudspeakers, and high-frequency compression drivers for professional audio sound reinforcement applications.
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