Am I the only one annoyed?
May 12, 2013 at 12:34 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 37
droido256

droido256

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Am I the only one annoyed at the fact that pretty much Grado Labs is the only headphone maker that still designs, and manufactures most of their headphones in the country of origin? Lol everything is made in china! With quality going lower and lower.
 
May 12, 2013 at 12:57 PM Post #2 of 37
What about Audez'e?
 
 
Sennheiser still makes a large part of their line in Ireland.
 
What does it matter anyways? 
 
 
And last I checked some of those China facilites are kept better than ones here in the U.S.
 
May 12, 2013 at 1:55 PM Post #5 of 37
I'm not saying all is bad from China, just seems like once companies have migrated over to Chinese manufacture, quality plummets. Like Fiio is good , same with Hifiman, however those are Chinese companies.
*shrug* aye I'm never good at expressing my point lol.
To me the Chinese companies made in China are pretty damn good. Companies that sent their manufacture to china, seems like over all quality is declining.
 
May 12, 2013 at 3:13 PM Post #6 of 37
I mentioned HiFiMAN specifically because they were actually founded in New York back in 2006, and I believe you own a pair. Maybe include some specifics to which products you think are declining? It was a very broad statement with no evidence included.
 
"Companies that sent their manufacture to china"
 
Please be a little more specific?
 
I agree to an extent with lots of other products products outside of the Audio world, but I can't really think of any good companies (ones listed on this site) going downhill because of their marketing choices.
 
Things like Cars and parts, Televisions, and Kids toys  I could definitely agree with. I, for one, try my best to buy all-American made products if I can (e.g. Schiit Audio), but there's still a fair amount of good stuff from China. Just gotta know what you're looking for :)
 
So I'm genuinely interested as to which companies you're referring to. Talk to you soon!
 
May 12, 2013 at 4:56 PM Post #7 of 37
One example are the AKGs which I swear by, example I got a k404, took it out of the box, and the left pod falls off, it falls OFF it falls the fk off (to quote Ron White), sound quality wasn't exactly up to AKG snuff, even for their low end. Some of the newer AKGs I was checking out seem..... More flimsy. The igrados felt flimsy also. Maybe it's just me lol. As for other areas yeah that's even worse. Lol I remember when Toshibas were rock solid workhorses, my gf's brand new one broke after a month. Shipped it out to Toshiba. I def can say Chinese made car parts suck (no offense intended to the Chinese) as a short lived cam shaft position sensor, tps, and alternator proved.
I dunno, Id just like back German made sennheisers, American Shures, Austrian made AKGs and Japanese made Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba and what not. Altho the quality issues may not be at the factories, could be with the companies
 
May 12, 2013 at 8:02 PM Post #8 of 37
More to do with QC rather than the way things are made. Not to mention the amount of fakes out there, just remember everything comes at a price based on labour costs and wages but not always necessarily true. You pay what you get is the saying I always stick by and it annoys me when people (not OP) bitch and moan about how crap product X is made from Y country, yet they don't realise they are the ones to blame for buying cheap crap in the first place.
 
May 12, 2013 at 8:06 PM Post #9 of 37
Heh get what you pay for, thinking of monster and beats products....... Made me chuckle :wink:
Some Chinese made stuff is still excellent, I guess I'm more irked a company like AKG went that route, but I'm noticing more "by Harman" on their stuff........
 
May 12, 2013 at 8:18 PM Post #10 of 37
There are some companies out there that skimp out on quality which is one dead giveaway is the cheap cost. There are good and bad from every country but since most of the stuff in the world is manufactured Taiwan and China, the rate of crap coming out is of higher percentage. The only reason why big companies end up going for 3rd world or undeveloped countries to manufacture there stuff there is because of high premium prices mainly from labour involved. You can have product X made for $100 a piece from Germany or you can have the same product made for $50 from China with almost equal quality (under strict QC regulations), this way more can be produced for less to withstand supply and demand in the market keeping the economy afloat and maintaining a neutral, balanced or high GDP rate for that particular market sector (including that manufacturer). 
 
May 12, 2013 at 9:08 PM Post #11 of 37
We live in a world economy. Consumers want to minimize the amount they pay for goods. Manufacturers owe it to their investors to maximize their profits. Lower cost resources exist outside the USA and Europe. Welcome to capitalism. :wink:
 
May 12, 2013 at 9:18 PM Post #12 of 37
Quote:
billybob_jcv said:
We live in a world economy. Consumers want to minimize the amount they pay for goods. Manufacturers owe it to their investors to maximize their profits. Lower cost resources exist outside the USA and Europe. Welcome to capitalism.
wink.gif
Click to expand...


That's why I love Schiit. They avoid all the marketing mumbo jumbo garbage and all their stuff is 100% American made and everything you order is straight from them.
 
From Schiit.com | Direct sale. This is key. Dealers double the cost. Do you like your dealer that much? Companies selling through a typical rep-distributor-dealer model are at about a 2x cost disadvantage to direct sale. Period. End of story. The old distribution model is like nuclear waste–you don’t want to get too much on you.
 
May 12, 2013 at 10:55 PM Post #13 of 37
skolar311 said:
That's why I love Schiit. They avoid all the marketing mumbo jumbo garbage and all their stuff is 100% American made and everything you order is straight from them.

From Schiit.com | Direct sale. This is key. Dealers double the cost. Do you like your dealer that much? Companies selling through a typical rep-distributor-dealer model are at about a 2x cost disadvantage to direct sale. Period. End of story. The old distribution model is like nuclear waste–you don’t want to get too much on you.
Click to expand...


Schitt doesn't need to do NEARLY the volume of a large corporation. They are probably low enough volume that they can get their boards printed locally, but if they were doing larger quantities, I would bet they would go offshore for their PCBs just like everyone else.
 
May 12, 2013 at 11:02 PM Post #15 of 37
Quote:
billybob_jcv said:
Schitt doesn't need to do NEARLY the volume of a large corporation. They are probably low enough volume that they can get their boards printed locally, but if they were doing larger quantities, I would bet they would go offshore for their PCBs just like everyone else.
Click to expand...

What qualifies as a large corporation? Out of curiosity do you even have an idea of Schiit's volume? If not, I think that says enough about
your presumptions.
 
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