Noel Warr, Saddlemaker

It’s a little difficult for most of us to conceive: before the industrial age, pretty much verything was custom made, from pants to boots to saddles.

Even in the age of mass produced goods, some items resist commoditization, like the saddle pictured above. It was made by Noel Warr roughly 60 years ago. Noel was a local Utah saddlemaker who never aspired to fame. As a longtime friend and fellow saddlemaker said of him; “His craftsmanship was not for recognition, but [for the] passion and art of building a high quality saddle that people would cherish.”

If you ordered a Noel Warr saddle, you’d have been well advised to cultivate patience because the man couldn’t be hurried. But, in the end, you knew what you were getting.

Noel Warr, the man, was the brand. It’s a quaint notion in today’s world.

Corporate types speak of “brand equity” as just another asset to be bought or sold—and ultimately expended. Even in the relatively rarified realm of high-end audio we’ve seen the steady dilution of brand: once proud companies bearing the name of a founder bought by other companies, in turn swallowed by engorged conglomerates.

Once brand is divorced from a personal vision and a stubborn personal insistence on a standard of quality guaranteed
by the good name of the builder, it quickly loses meaning.

Wilson Audio is a private company owned and guided by the man it’s named for. Dave Wilson long ago determined his sole criterion for deciding what kind of loudspeakers to build was that they had to be products he personally would want to listen to and to own. Hence, products he would be proud to put his name on.

That’s why you’ll never see a “budget line” of Wilson Audio speakers. That’s why you’ll never find Wilson using loopholes in FTC regulations to re-label products made offshore as “Made in U.S.A.”

There’s a very simple reason for our success and amazing customer loyalty: we pour our passion and our art into every loudspeaker we make. At Wilson Audio, the man is still the brand, and people who buy our loudspeakers are confident in knowing what they’re going to get.