Manufacturing Guides for Hi-Fi Brands
Written for the person who designed the product and now has to get it made without it coming back looking wrong.
This is every guide in date order. To read by subject, start from the four sections in the library.
- Design for Manufacture
Sep 25, 2026EMI Shielding an Audio Enclosure: What Actually Works
Seams, gaps and gaskets decide whether a metal box shields anything. Anodize is an insulator, aperture length beats area, and what to put on a drawing.
- Design for Manufacture
Sep 24, 2026Tube Amplifier Chassis Manufacturing and Layout Guide
Valve amps run hot, weigh a lot and put mains voltage on an exposed top plate. Material, thickness, socket cutouts, ventilation and the safety points.
- Design for Manufacture
Sep 23, 2026Panel Cutout Dimensions for Audio Connectors: A Reference
A working reference for connector panel cutouts on an audio chassis, plus the panel thickness limits and positioning rules that decide whether parts fit.
- Design for Manufacture
Sep 22, 2026Mounting a Transformer in an Audio Chassis Correctly
A mains transformer is the heaviest thing in the box and the loudest source of hum. Bolt patterns, plate thickness, the shorted turn problem and callouts.
- Design for Manufacture
Sep 21, 2026Chassis Resonance and Damping in Audio Enclosures Explained
Thin panels ring, flat faces radiate and a transformer excites both. Ribs, mass, constrained layer damping, and which of them a machine shop can deliver.
- Finishing
Sep 20, 2026Anodizing for Hi-Fi Parts: Getting Colour to Repeat
Why the faceplate and the knob come back different shades of black, what controls anodize colour, and how to write a spec a finisher can repeat next year.
- Design for Manufacture
Sep 19, 2026Sheet Metal Covers for Audio: Design for Manufacture
Bend radius, bend allowance, minimum flange length and why a folded box is never square. What a press brake can hold and how to draw around its limits.
- Cost
Sep 18, 2026Amplifier Chassis Manufacturing Cost, Line by Line
What you actually pay for in an audio chassis: billet versus extrusion, the finish line, engraving, and why 30 units cost so much more per piece than 300.
- Design for Manufacture
Sep 17, 2026Speaker Terminals and Binding Posts: Machining Guide
Binding post spacing, anti-rotation, plate thickness and the plating choices that decide whether a terminal still turns cleanly after five years of use.
- Finishing
Sep 16, 2026Surface Roughness on Cosmetic Audio Faces: Ra and Rz
Surface roughness numbers are useful on a sealing face and misleading on a cosmetic one. What Ra measures, what it misses and what to specify instead.
- Cost
Sep 15, 2026MOQ and Lead Time for Machined Audio Parts Explained
Why finishing sets the minimum order rather than machining, where the weeks actually go in a twelve week quote, and how a small brand plans around both.
- Cost
Sep 14, 2026CNC Volume Knob Manufacturing: Cost and Grip Options
Billet aluminum or brass, knurl or flute, set screw or collet: what each choice does to the cost of a machined volume knob and to how it feels in the hand.
- Design for Manufacture
Sep 13, 2026Tolerance Stacks on an Audio Product, Explained Simply
Worst case against statistical stacking, why chained dimensions cost money, and how to choose datums so the features a customer sees stay under control.
- For Shops
Sep 12, 2026Quoting Cosmetic Machining Work Without Losing Money
Cosmetic work looks like ordinary machining and prices nothing like it. The lines a general job shop leaves out, and how to put a number on appearance risk.
- For Shops
Sep 11, 2026Anodizing In House or Outsourced: A Shop Decision Guide
The case for and against an in house line, what a managed finisher relationship needs instead, and the volume at which the arithmetic actually changes.
- Design for Manufacture
Sep 10, 2026Turntable Platter Machining: Flatness and Balancing
Flatness, runout, dynamic balance and material choice on a machined platter, plus the drawing callouts that separate a usable quote from an expensive guess.
- For Shops
Sep 9, 2026Which Audio RFQs Are Worth Quoting, and Which Are Not
Hi-fi work has good customers and expensive ones, and the drawing usually tells you which. The signals that separate a repeat account from a rejected batch.
- For Shops
Sep 8, 2026How a Machine Shop Sells Cosmetic Finishing Capability
Every shop website says precision and quality. What buyers of cosmetic parts actually look for, and the specific proof that separates you from the machine list.
- Choosing a Supplier
Sep 6, 2026How to Choose the Right Machine Shop for Audio Parts
The questions that separate a shop that can make your faceplate from one that can make it twice. What to ask, what to send and what to check on arrival.
- Finishing
Sep 2, 2026Choosing an Aluminum Alloy for Anodized Audio Parts
6061, 6063, 6060 and 5052 all anodize differently. What each one does to colour, clarity and machining, and why mixing two alloys in one product causes trouble.
- Finishing
Aug 28, 2026Brushed Aluminum Panels: Grain, Grit and Direction
Grit number, grain direction, dry versus wet brushing and why the grain has to continue across two parts. The callouts that make a brushed panel repeatable.
- Finishing
Aug 24, 2026Bead Blasting Audio Enclosures: Media, Grit and Control
Glass bead, aluminum oxide and grit size all change how an enclosure looks after anodize. How to specify a blast finish so batch two matches batch one.
- Finishing
Aug 20, 2026Engraving, Laser or Silkscreen on an Audio Front Panel
Five ways to put a logo and channel labels on a front panel, what each costs, how each survives ten years of use and when in the process each one happens.
- Finishing
Aug 16, 2026Brass and Copper Audio Parts: Finish and Tarnishing
Brass knobs, copper trim and bronze feet look superb and tarnish fast. Alloys, lacquers, plating and the drawing notes that stop a batch ageing on the shelf.
- Cost
Aug 12, 2026Low Volume Anodizing: Minimums and How to Work With Them
Anodizers price by rack and by tank time, not by piece. What that means for a boutique audio run and six practical ways to keep a small batch affordable.
- Cost
Aug 8, 2026Billet, Extrusion or Sheet: Building an Audio Chassis
The three ways to make an audio enclosure, what each one really costs at 30 units and at 300, and how to mix them without the finish giving the joint away.
- Design for Manufacture
Aug 4, 2026Specifying Heatsink Extrusions for Amplifier Chassis
Fin geometry, thermal resistance ratings, extrusion tolerances and the secondary machining that turns a length of raw profile into a chassis side panel.
- Design for Manufacture
Jul 30, 202619 Inch Rack Panel Dimensions for Audio Gear Makers
EIA-310 panel widths, 1U to 6U heights, mounting hole positions and the clearances that stop a beautifully machined panel from fouling the rack rails.
- Design for Manufacture
Jul 26, 2026Headphone Cup and Yoke Manufacturing: Matched Pairs
Mirrored parts, acoustic chamber tolerances, gimbal fits and why a pair of headphone cups is one part number with two halves, and not two part numbers.
- Design for Manufacture
Jul 22, 2026How to Specify Cosmetic Faces on a Machining Drawing
A cosmetic face is a specification, not an assumption. The notation, the zones and the criteria that make appearance something a shop can quote and measure.
- Design for Manufacture
Jul 18, 2026Panel Gaps on an Audio Enclosure: Tolerance Stacks
Gap is a system property, not a part property. How tolerance stacks up across a chassis, and the design choices that make a gap look deliberate, not accidental.
- Design for Manufacture
Jul 14, 2026Machining Isolation Feet, Cones and Spikes for Hi-Fi
Feet are the cheapest part of a hi-fi product to get wrong. Thread choice, levelling range, tip design, damping inserts and how to stop them marking furniture.
- Choosing a Supplier
Jul 10, 2026First Article Inspection for Cosmetic Audio Components
A standard FAI measures dimensions. On an audio part that is half the job. What to ask for, how to judge it and what to write down so batch two matches.
- Choosing a Supplier
Jul 6, 2026Packing Finished Audio Parts So They Arrive Perfect
Most cosmetic rejects are created after the part was made. Protective film, interleaving, tray design and the packing clauses worth putting in the order.