Blumenstein Audio History

+ 2003-2006

Clark Blumenstein's interest in speaker design and manufacturing first took root as a fascination with the physics and cultural relevance of the variety of loudspeakers produced throughout history. This fascination germinated alongside the pursuit of a music history degree at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA. Summer jobs and side work were an apprenticeship for three years at the world-famous high-end speaker company Cain & Cain Audio as well as working behind the scenes in the symphony hall on campus. At Cain & Cain Audio, Clark studied under master cabinet maker and prolific single driver speaker designer Terry Cain. After Terry's untimely passing from Lou Gehrig’s disease, he studied under Terry's apprentice. After they chose to leave the business, he studied under Terry's widow, landscape artist Leslie Williams Cain. (Clark still services certain Cain & Cain Audio products by custom request (maintenance, upgrades, and repairs)).

+ 2006

Blumenstein Ultra Fi initially started out of a small home-based workshop as Clark's top secret experimental laboratory for new Cain & Cain designs with a primary focus on the research and development of small high-fidelity single driver speakers. The initial results were good. With Terry's approval, Clark began shipping his own creations to a small, but growing number of enthusiastic clients around the globe.

+ 2009

After building the business for a few years in Walla Walla, WA, Clark took a summer-long apprenticeship with Feastrex in Nirasaki, Japan. He studied under and ultimately assisted master driver makers Teramoto-san and Akiyama-san. Clark absorbed the intricate hand-making processes of fullrange drivers using handmade washi paper, Alnico, Field Coil, and Permendur Field Coil magnetic circuits.

+ 2010

Clark resettled in Walla Walla making speaker cabinets for Fostex, Feastrex, and Pioneer Full Range drivers and subwoofers. He first focused on iteratively refining compact wide-band full range single drivers supported by either a subwoofer or a super tweeter. In short, he built many, many experimental and short run custom and commercial boxes! His quest eventually became to miniaturize the extreme performance possible with larger and more expensive designs from Cain & Cain Audio and Feastrex into more affordable, accessible realms in terms of overall product design and value engineering, even though the speakers would still be entirely handmade. Of the many speaker models made during this time, the Orca became the favorite of the Blumenstein community of clientele. Making the ideal passive subwoofer system to support the Orca fullrange speakers was the main challenge overcome in research and development during this time. Additionally, the design requirements of minimizing enclosure size and maximizing durability, non-toxicity, and sustainability came into full focus during this period.

+ 2011-2020

Clark then migrated to Seattle where, taking inspiration from the capacious waters of Puget Sound, he expanded production capacity and gradually expended the lineup of offerings.

+2020-Present Day

Clark moved production to a rural live / work factory in Tennessee, where taking inspiration from all four seasons of the timeless Appalachian mountain range, refines all aspects of design and production quality daily. Abby II released, Quartz DMS technology, Infrasonic and Barnacle series of car audio inspired subwoofers released.

Early Works

Historic/Discontinued Speaker Models

Orca Deluxe (in chocolate finish offering) 

While it is a great looking shade of bamboo, the higher temperatures it takes to "cook" a sheet of natural bamboo all the way to the chocolate color makes the fibers within the sheets too brittle for my extremely tear-out-sensitive joinery method, which made orders take longer to fill because I was having to make too many attempts to get perfect joinery for just the chocolate bamboo orders. 

The currently still active material offerings of Natural, Caramelized, or Two-Tone Bamboo Ply, or Birch Plywood Orcas (now, just called "Orcas") are made in tuned thickness materials. I use top quality USA made saw blades and premium architectural grade bamboo and birch plywoods.  

Orca "Classic" 3" Fullrange

The Orca "Classic", made of 1/2" bamboo and birch, were the most established design with over eight years of refinement, and are the original groundbreaking music makers that put my company on the map. 

In early 2015, I decided that the designs needed to move forward and that I would replace the 1/2" Orca Classics permanently with the 3/4" Caramelized, Natural, or Birch Orcas. If you already own 1/2" Orca Classics and wish to trade up to 3/4" Orca cabinets, then just get in touch with  me.

Mako/Mola 5" Fullrange and Mako 5" Floorstander

Designed as semi-compact loudspeakers for medium to extreme power handling from a 5" single driver, the Makos were the ultimate offering until the Douglas Fir cabinet bracing technology I invented for the Orca Mini (now Marlin) design was put into the Orca and eventually Triton enclosures. The sound improvements were disproportionally slanted to the Triton, Orca, and Marlin models and the Mako/Mola models were barely improved. Additionally, I realized that the large, heavy cabinets were too unwieldy for us to make by hand with my joinery method.

The newer, smaller, modular sound system and cabinet design platform (Nov. 2015), has now superseded the sound quality of all the previous Mako offerings. The new, smaller cabinets can more effectively be mechanically isolated from neighboring components and each other with the new vibration absorbing cabinet feet.   

If you currently own Mako speakers and wish to accessorize your system, then please refer to the current offerings for subwoofers, and cables.  The new Seamount Speaker stands and Plinths can be custom sized for the larger mako Fullrange or Floorstander cabinets. If you are interested, just get in touch!

Historic Subwoofers

I’ve built many subwoofers and I will be happy to advise about any of them - here are a small selection of some of the most popular ones:

DUNGENESS - active

The Dungeness Classic, Deluxe, and Max were a series of active subwoofers with 25 watt amplifiers that I produced between 2013 and 2015. My customers have enjoyed these amazing, compact high efficiency subwoofers, but over time I was asked to make an "ultimate" sound quality, even more compact, more powerful option, which is where the Benthic Bass Unit design has come in. Everything I have learned from the Dungeness filtered into the new Benthic Bass Unit subwoofer design.

Orca Sub - passive

The Orca Sub was a passive subwoofer unit shaped to slip comfortably amongst furniture and sound great. I liked many things about the Orca Sub, but ultimately, I moved on to the more compact shape of the Dungeness. The passive Orca sub too, has fed into the design of the new, passive Benthic Bass Unit, which far surpasses the performance of either the earlier passive Orca Sub or active Dungeness Models. 

**Please note that I provide excellent upgrades and support for any of historic subwoofer models in regards to upgraded subwoofer amplifiers and also the Depth of Field Kit for historic Blumenstein active or passive subwoofers. With the complete suite of Depth of Field upgrades installed to convert your subwoofer to a passive subwoofer, hooked up with all new Waterline Cables (speaker cable and anchor chain or RCA) and of course, paired with one of the new external Outboard subwoofer amplifiers, any older model Blumenstein subwoofer can be upgraded to a new level of perfromance.

**If you own any piece of historic Blumenstein gear, please give me a call or email to get a personal consultation about the upgrade options I now have available for you.**

The Audio Bazaar

As a designer, it is necessary for me to keep a small library of older and newer used gear of my own make and of other makers.  I periodically move along some piece or another to make room for newer components.  I don't always have time to formally list this stuff online, so just get in touch with me and let me know what your needs are and there is a chance I might have something I could part with!  I am also generally open to gear trades as well - especially if they are items that were already on my wish list!   Info@blumensteinaudio.com

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