Current MISCO News

Minneapolis Speaker Company (MISCO) Celebrates 60th Anniversary

This year the Minneapolis Speaker Company (MISCO) celebrates its 60th anniversary as a loudspeaker design and manufacturing company. Founded by Cliff Digre and now led by its president, Dan Digre, MISCO builds technologically advanced speaker solutions to meet its customers’ needs.

By seeing opportunities, recognizing needs, and solving problems, MISCO has forged working partnerships with industries from around the world. MISCO’s customers come from a wide variety of markets including commercial installations, gaming, pro/commercial audio, medical, aerospace, transit, military, home audio & theater, car/motorcycle audio, signal/alarm systems, theme park and outdoor audio, voice communications, and musical instruments.

From engineering to manufacturing, with quick development and persistent manufacturing quality checks, MISCO provides its customers with the application solutions they need when they need it. Speaker technology evolves quickly. As the loudspeaker industry and audio technology have evolved significantly even during the past ten years, MISCO has applied these advances as they develop products for their customers.

At the very outset, just as MISCO was about to be born in 1949, Cliff Digre was studying at the National Radio School. His wife, Bernice, bought a small radio that sounded terrible after just a few hours of play. Being an attentive husband, Cliff decided he had better help her fix it. The speaker had a rubbing voice coil and needed reconing, so Cliff sent it to a local company to have it repaired. After weeks of waiting, the speaker company had muffed the job, even losing the speaker. A light went on for Cliff, and he decided there was room for competition. The opportunity and need arose, and Cliff responded.

Soon MISCO was established, and Cliff hasn’t looked back since. Cliff repaired the little radio speaker and began reconing and building speakers to new customer specifications. Today MISCO manufactures more than 1,500 models of speakers for hundreds of customers worldwide.

MISCO is one of the few speaker manufacturers that still builds products in the United States. Onshore production can reduce total procurement costs through smaller lot sizes, shorter lead times, lower- cost coordination, and the absence of duty costs—all accomplished through effective design and efficient production of high quality products. MISCO also has manufacturing partnerships in Asia for high-volume, low-cost production with on-site logistics for customers who manufacture in Asia. This productive balance of U.S. design and manufacturing, offshore partnerships, and global distribution is the focus of MISCO’s President, Dan Digre.

MISCO built a new facility in 2001 with 20,000 square feet of space. The new location allows MISCO to operate with increased quality and efficiency through lean manufacturing. Now MISCO has a stable, ambient environment to offer the control necessary for continuous manufacturing.

Through the 60 years of its existence, MISCO has always grounded its engineering and manufacturing expertise on a steady financial foundation with a plan for long-term growth. The company prizes its ability to invest in technology and infrastructure and quickly take advantage of advances in the industry. MISCO’s engineering, manufacturing, and financial strategies all combine to keep quality high and costs to customers low.

For more information about MISCO’s founder, Cliff Digre, go to the MISCO web site, www.miscospeakers.com, and visit the link to information about his recently published memoirs. His first-person narrative recounts his experiences as a ball turret gunner on a B-17 during World War II as well as his life during the founding of MISCO.

Misco 60th Anniversary (PDF)