Loudspeakers

Look around the rear of the Windsor Duke's cabinet and you'll see the 'Made in Britain' certification stamp. In the past, such logos have not necessarily distinguished between design, manufacturing or just plain 'assembly' in the UK so, for clarity, IAG has signed up to the not-for-profit business initiative at https://www.madeinbritain.org. An 'official' UK-centric campaign since 2013, the Made in Britain trade body also counts Monitor Audio [for its flagship Hyphn – HFN Jun '23] and Cyrus among its 2000 or so members. Eligibility requires that 'One hundred per cent of labour/human resource that makes the finished product carrying the mark is in Great Britain or Northern Ireland'.

For Castle's Chinese-owned parent group, IAG (International Audio Group), this has been expedited by the recent expansion of its premises in Huntingdon. With a new 9000ft2 production facility now on stream, specially selected Mission, Wharfedale and Castle loudspeakers can be built on site. So while the Windsor Duke's drivers are made in IAG's Far East factory to designer Karl-Heinz Fink's exacting specifications, everything else, including cabinets, grilles, crossovers and even the packaging is sourced from the UK. All parts are assembled in-house and the final products undergo thorough QC testing before shipping. As IAG itself states, 'The Huntingdon site is not a high-volume manufacturing facility and none of the speakers lovingly made there will be produced in great numbers, which adds to their allure'.