Noise Engineering sounds the alarm
In a candid blog update, Southern California-based Noise Engineering laid out the stark reality facing boutique synthesizer makers. “Not going to lie, it’s pretty bleak,” the company wrote, noting that printed circuit board (PCB) prices have skyrocketed alongside higher minimum order quantities and longer lead times. U.S. tariffs on Chinese electronic components (initially imposed at 25% a few years ago) have only added to the pain. “When the tariffs were first announced, we sat down with our manufacturer and agreed we would try to minimize price increases however we could. Shortly after that, the tariff amount increased again. And then again. And then they were decreased, but only temporarily,” Noise Engineering explained. “This fluctuation makes it extremely difficult to know how much our raw materials will cost”. Because the tariff rate isn’t locked in until an order actually clears U.S. customs, the company never knows what extra hit it will take on essential parts like microcontrollers, power regulators, and capacitors.
Noise Engineering builds all its products in the USA, but like virtually every electronics maker, it sources many parts from China out of necessity. “In most cases there are no viable options to acquire these from other countries,” the company noted, adding that alternative suppliers (when they exist) tend to be more expensive or less reliable. In short, the supply chain for Eurorack modular synths is inextricably tied to China, which means U.S. trade policies directly affect material costs. As one small manufacturer put it bluntly, “it is basically impossible… to make a Eurorack device without interfacing with China either partially or totally. US factories just don’t do this, or if they do, they do it for DoD money and don’t want to deal with us”.
The result, Noise Engineering says, is a squeeze on margins that can’t be ignored. The company revealed that a PCB which previously cost about $3 to produce now costs $17, a nearly six-fold jump driven by both raw material inflation and tariffs. (PCBs contain small amounts of gold, whose price has more than doubled since Noise Engineering started in 2014.) Facing these pressures, the firm is striving to hold retail prices steady for as long as possible, but concedes it “can’t guarantee that we won’t need to increase our prices at some point” going forward.
In the same update, Noise Engineering announced measures to streamline operations and cut costs wherever feasible. “The bottom line is that we’re going to expedite end-of-life’ing some products, and we are going to stop offering silver panels,” the company wrote, referring to the silver aluminum faceplates long associated with its modules. Going forward, Noise Engineering will focus on core products (like its Versio platform modules and mixers) and discontinue certain older or less profitable designs, potentially reviving them later if component prices come down. The shift to only offering black-fronted modules (a change dubbed a “goodbye to silver panels” in the blog title) is aimed at simplifying production and inventory. These decisions, the team said, were not taken lightly, but they see no alternative: “We can only build something if we can sell it for a price we think is a good value”.
Shared struggles among boutique manufacturers
Noise Engineering’s predicament is far from unique. Across the boutique electronic music hardware sector (from modular synth specialists to pedal builders) small companies are grappling with the same headwinds of volatile costs. In late 2022, the founders of Noise Engineering warned that Eurorack had just endured a “rough” year in which “a lot of really great brands” shut their doors. Indeed, several beloved synth manufacturers have gone under recently. Colorado-based WMD (William Mathewson Devices) announced it was closing after 17 years, bluntly citing the inability to get parts due to the global shortage and cost spikes. “After 17 years… WMD has announced that it will be closing at the end of 2022, because they can’t get the parts that they need to make synth modules,” reported Synthtopia. In a farewell message, WMD noted that “times are tough for everyone. The state of the world has destroyed our sales numbers while operating costs continue to rise. We have many new designs in the pipe that unfortunately cannot be made due to the global parts shortage”.
WMD joins a growing list of small makers that have been forced to scale back or shut down entirely. Other casualties of recent years include Future Retro (a boutique synth and sequencer maker) and Texas-based Synthesizers.com, which both ceased operations in 2022. Even Mutable Instruments, the influential French Eurorack innovator known for open-source module designs, closed shop at the end of 2022 as founder Émilie Gillet opted to step away. While Mutable’s closure was a personal decision, it underscored how sustaining a one-woman hardware business had become increasingly challenging. “Many small companies are closing and more will close in the near future. This is probably the end of this golden era of synthesizers,” one user lamented on the Modwiggler forum as the news broke.
Those that remain in business are having to make hard choices. Make Noise, a prominent Eurorack manufacturer based in North Carolina, has largely kept its internal challenges out of the public eye, but industry observers note that it faces the same cost pressures. The company’s recent products, like the Spectraphon oscillator released in 2023, launched at higher price points than past offerings of similar scope, reflecting the new cost baseline for parts. In the UK, ALM Busy Circuits and other European boutique makers have had to navigate not only global component inflation but also post-Brexit import fees and shipping snarls, compounding their expenses. Canadian synth builder Intellijel may have one slight advantage, because its products are manufactured in Canada, they aren’t subject to U.S. import tariffs when sold in the States, according to Intellijel’s staff on industry forums. (Tariffs are technically paid by the importer of record, not the manufacturer.) Still, Intellijel must source many components internationally like everyone else. Ultimately, whether a small company is in Los Angeles, London or Vancouver, the cost of doing business in 2025 has surged. As Noise Engineering observed, nearly every component they use became more expensive in the past year, many items increasing in price multiple times over.
Keeping retail prices affordable is a balancing act. “Our goal has always been for our products to bring a lot of value, even when we are not the least expensive brand,” Noise Engineering wrote in their blog, emphasizing their reluctance to raise prices unless absolutely necessary. Other companies share that sentiment; they don’t want to price out their enthusiast customer base. But absorbing the higher costs indefinitely is unsustainable. By the end of 2022, Noise Engineering had already quietly inched some prices up “a small amount” and knew that further increases were inevitable in 2023 if they wanted to survive as a company. Make Noise, for its part, has increased the U.S. list price of some popular modules in the past year (for example, the Maths and Mimeophon modules saw modest bumps) and has occasionally had to pass on surcharges for limited-run items.
Many builders are also reconsidering what products they can afford to keep in production. Noise Engineering’s decision to discontinue certain modules echoes moves by others. Some firms have trimmed their catalogs to focus on best-selling or flagship products, putting niche or slow-selling items on hold. This strategy reduces overhead and the complexity of sourcing many different BOMs (bills of materials). However, it can disappoint loyal users when a favorite module is suddenly no longer available. Intellijel and ALM have both rotated certain modules out of production when component sourcing became impractical, sometimes reintroducing them later once parts became available again. And as WMD’s experience showed, even new designs can be stuck in limbo if key parts have multi-year lead times or exorbitant spot prices.
Unpredictable tariffs complicate planning
At the core of the issue is the shifting landscape of U.S. tariffs on electronics. These tariffs, first implemented during the Trump administration’s trade war with China, have made many Chinese-made components 25% more expensive for American importers since 2018. For a while, the 25% levy was a new normal. Noise Engineering recalls how the company initially tried to eat that extra cost rather than raise prices, until it became clear the tariffs were not a short-term blip. Over the past two years, there was some hope that the Biden administration might roll back these duties to ease inflation. Instead, the tariffs largely remained in place. By 2024, the U.S. Trade Representative had even expanded or increased tariffs on certain tech-related imports, for instance: imposing new duties on items like semiconductor wafers, solar components, and other electronics as part of a broader strategic rivalry with China.
To make matters more complex, tariff rates have seesawed with geopolitical developments. Late last year and into early 2025, policy shifts created whiplash for businesses trying to plan. “Shortly after [the tariffs first hit], the tariff amount increased again. And then again. And then they were decreased, but only temporarily,” Noise Engineering noted of the past cycle. In fact, by January 2025 some tariffs were slated to double: the duty on certain Chinese semiconductor products was set to jump from 25% to 50%. Industry chatter on forums like Modwiggler and Reddit turned anxious as makers braced for potentially steeper import taxes on everything from analog synth chips to OLED screens. “The loss of the de minimis means that a $3 pack of potentiometer knobs will cost $52 to import,” one Reddit user warned, referring to proposals to eliminate the rule that previously exempted low-value imports from tariffs. “Multiply that times resistors, Arduinos, switches, panels, PCB trial runs… and I’m out of business quick,” the user wrote bluntly. That scenario highlights how even a small hobbyist operation or DIY kit maker could be crippled if every tiny component order started incurring heavy fees.
For now, the worst-case scenarios have been averted... partially. Early 2025 brought a diplomatic truce of sorts between the U.S. and China, dialing back an extreme round of tariffs that had been threatened. Analysts say that under the current agreement, many U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods have been trimmed down to about 30%, after having been briefly much higher. (Reports in April described a temporary deal that cut some tariffs from an eye-watering 145% rate down to 30%, illustrating just how volatile the trade environment has become.) But even a 30% import tax is still extraordinarily high by historical standards. A Bloomberg survey of trade analysts in May 2025 found an expectation that U.S. tariffs will remain around 30% through late 2025. In other words, industry observers don’t foresee a return to pre-trade-war conditions anytime soon. “We expect trade negotiations to end up in shallow, surface-level deals… There is not enough time for [new] trade agreements to quickly undo duties,” one economist told Bloomberg, reflecting widespread skepticism that the tariffs will be fully rolled back in the near future.
This persistent uncertainty is a nightmare for small businesses. Because tariffs could climb again with a single policy decision (or snap back if an exemption expires) companies are forced to plan for the worst-case cost when setting prices. Noise Engineering illustrated the dilemma: a tariff rate “is not locked in when we place an order. Rather, whatever the rate is when an order crosses the border is what we get hit with”. As a result, a module maker might budget for a 25% tariff on a batch of parts, only to be billed 50% by the time the shipment arrives, a potential thousands of dollars extra on a large order. Conversely, if a tariff is suspended, a company could benefit from a short-lived cost dip, but it can’t count on that lasting. The safest course is to assume high tariffs are here to stay, and adjust business plans accordingly.
Community voices and adapting to the new normal
Within the synth community, these economic undercurrents have become an increasingly common topic of discussion on social media. Users on the r/synthesizers and r/modular Reddit forums regularly swap news about price hikes and commiserate over dwindling deals. Some end-users have noticed the rising prices on store shelves and reacted with frustration or resignation. “Are modular synths about to get even more expensive? Probably,” one Redditor mused, adding that it might be time to purchase desired modules sooner rather than later. Others express concern that the era of plentiful inexpensive gear is ending. “Capitalism gonna capital,” joked one commenter darkly when discussing price increases on a popular module – implying that economic forces were inescapable.
Manufacturers themselves have taken to Instagram and other platforms to speak out. Pedal and synth-maker Meris posted a pointed statement in April, amid talk of new tariffs, saying: “These tariff wars are greatly hurting American businesses, especially [those of us] manufacturing in the USA”. Meris and others have emphasized that import taxes don’t just hurt overseas producers, they directly hit domestic manufacturing by driving up the cost of parts that U.S. companies need. Back in 2018, the iconic synth brand Moog Music raised similar alarms. Moog, based in North Carolina, warned that sweeping tariffs “will immediately and drastically increase the cost of building our instruments” and could even force them to move some production overseas. (In fact, Moog’s owners later did shift certain product manufacturing abroad, illustrating how tariffs can unintentionally incentivize offshoring, the opposite of their intended effect.)
Despite the challenges, the community of boutique synth makers is nothing if not resilient and resourceful. Many companies have doubled down on transparency with their customers, explaining why prices are rising. Noise Engineering, for example, has been upfront about its cost structure and the tough calls it faces, hoping that loyal users will understand the need for higher prices or pared-down offerings. “We know that some of our modules won’t be compelling at these higher price points and we’ll need to discontinue them… we will continue to do everything we can to keep prices as low as possible for you,” the company told its followers. Similarly, others have communicated when certain products had to be postponed or redesigned due to part shortages, an approach that tends to earn goodwill from customers who prefer honesty over silence.
Within the industry, makers are also banding together to share advice and even pool resources. Informal groups of small manufacturers regularly compare notes on sourcing alternatives, second-hand component markets, or design tweaks to eliminate especially scarce parts. Abe Fessler of AI Synthesis (a Portland-based DIY synth kit maker) quipped that at a recent meet-up of boutique manufacturers, “the vibe was that the part-timers are probably not going to be able to put stuff out, and the full-timers would have to find another line of income,” in light of the tariff outlook. He half-jokingly mused about picking up a side job dog-walking to make ends meet. Beneath the humor is real anxiety, but also a sense of camaraderie. “My monthly maker meet-up group contains combined decades of experience… we are constantly exploring and sharing ways to continue to make weird things for you to make weird music with,” Fessler wrote, assuring that the spirit of innovation remains alive.
For musicians and customers, the shifting landscape has a direct impact on access to new gear. If prices climb too high, some enthusiasts will be priced out of the market, or at least forced to scale back their plans to expand their synthesizer setups. A 50% jump in manufacturing costs, as some fear could happen, would likely translate to substantially higher retail prices. “It will… become ~50% more expensive to make a thing… It seems impossible to raise my prices 50% and still have a market for them,” the AI Synthesis founder warned in April. Already, many Eurorack modules that once sold for, say, $299 a few years ago now list for $349 or more. Some customers have shifted to buying second-hand modules to save money, a trend reflected in brisk trading on forums and Reverb.com. Others look to cheaper mass-produced alternatives for instance, Behringer’s budget synthesizer modules. Although those too are subject to tariffs if imported from China (and indeed saw U.S. price hikes in response).
Ultimately, the question is how these economic pressures will shape the innovation in music hardware. Boutique synth companies have been a wellspring of creativity, continually pushing the boundaries of sound design. If they are forced to curtail R&D or pause new releases due to costs, the pace of innovation could slow. On the other hand, adversity can also spark inventive solutions, such as redesigning circuits to use more readily available components, or developing digital firmware updates instead of new hardware. Some makers are experimenting with hybrid approaches (like offering DIY kits or PCB-only sales) to reduce their risk and involve the community in the build process.
Navigating uncertainty ahead
As of mid-2025, small electronic music hardware companies are battening down the hatches for a volatile period ahead. There is cautious optimism that the worst supply chain crunch has started to ease. Lead times on some chips have improved compared to the height of the pandemic shortages. But the tariff situation remains a wild card. A recent Bloomberg survey of investors and analysts concluded that U.S.–China tariffs will likely persist at elevated levels through at least the end of 2025. In Washington, there is bipartisan skepticism of China that makes a full rollback of tariffs politically unlikely in the short term. While some U.S. lawmakers have introduced proposals to ease the burden on American businesses (one Senate bill aimed to temporarily suspend certain tariffs, for example), meaningful relief has yet to materialize.
For the niche world of Eurorack and boutique synths, this means companies must continue to adapt or perish. “So the TL;DR is that in a market that is already pretty saturated, it will, one way or another, become ~50% more expensive to make a thing,” wrote Abe of AI Synthesis, summing up the predicament. His tongue-in-cheek prediction: if costs keep rising, even the most passionate full-time synth builders may need to become part-timers or find outside income. That grim outlook is not stopping everyone. New boutique makers still enter the scene, and existing ones are finding creative workarounds, but it injects a note of caution into what had been a freewheeling boom of modular synthesis innovation over the past decade.
In the coming months, synthesizer enthusiasts will likely see higher price tags on new gear and perhaps fewer product launches than in the heyday years. The hope among both companies and users is that these challenges will prove temporary, and that component prices will stabilize and trade frictions will cool, allowing the boutique synth market to regain its momentum. In the meantime, the sector soldiers on with a mix of pragmatism and passion. Manufacturers are striving to preserve the qualities that made them beloved in the first place: hand-built quality, adventurous designs, and close-knit relationships with their user community. As Noise Engineering put it, even amid the cost chaos their aim is for products that “bring a lot of value” to musicians.
For the synth aficionados who have fueled this renaissance in electronic instrument design, there is a recognition that supporting these independent makers may cost a bit more now, but it’s an investment in keeping the scene alive. “We’re all in this together” has become an unofficial mantra. If there’s a silver lining to the tariff turbulence, it’s that it highlights how interdependent the ecosystem is: from the silicon foundries and factories half a world away, to the small workshop assembling modules, to the artist patching together a new sound in their bedroom, each link influences the others. Despite the economic uncertainty, the drive to create new musical tools remains strong. And as long as there is demand for novel sounds and musical experimentation, these boutique manufacturers will be motivated to find a way forward, navigating tariffs, tweaking designs, and finding creative solutions, and to ensure the music keeps on flowing.
Read the pricing update in detail on the Noise Engineering blog post.
And learn more about Noise Engineering in the following video.
