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Originally Posted by LoweArt /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Ok, I'm not going to flame anyone, but seriously in this day and age you will be looking far and wide for any product that ISN'T made in China
I understand the concerns that some people have in regards to the quality of either parts used or the workmanship of China produced electronics. Some of this is justified and some is not. A lot of well known Japanese brand electronics have been using China, Philipines, Indonesia & Malaysia as manufacturing bases for years. The key is quality control and control over what parts and what factories are doing the work. Classic example is the NAD brand used to be made in Japan back in the 70's, then in the 80's it was made in Taiwan and now in China. When I compare a circuit board of a NAD amplifier that is made in China verses one from 10 years ago that was made in Taiwan ( which was considered good quality ) I can't tell them apart in quality of parts or assembly. But if I compare the NAD amp that was made in China against one from a "No name" brand amplifier there it is clearly evident that the "No name" brand amp doesn't meet the assembly standard/quality of the NAD amp. Different factory and different contract and different cost.
The Darkvoice is one of the better assembled tube amps to come from China. Not only is well put together, but it also been well designed with good grade parts. If you compare the Darkvoice brand with say a brand seen on eBay auctions called Hi-Fi, it's immediately apparent that the Darkvoice is the superior quality. Even American based brands like Jolida have their amps and CD players made in China based factories. My Jolida tube based CD player even came with Rubycon & WIMA Caps and Electro-Harmonix tubes where the American market CD players don't have this as standard. There are other Chinese brands like Consonance who make their own amps with superior Japanese and German parts that compete very well in the market and sound GREAT.
I still remember when I was growing up as a kid, my dad saying that Hong Kong assembled/made electronics was more reliable than that of Japanese. It was certainly true of that time, but it only took the Japanese about 5yrs to
turn that around and become one of the best and reliable in electronics. This also can be said of Taiwan and Korea and of course now China is catching up. There are still of course some Japanese branded electronics that have their HIGH END equipment being made in Japan which is still considered to be the best in QUALITY, but as you can expect it comes with a higher price. An example of this is the Esoteric brand of CD players made by TEAC of Japan that cost in excess of $2K for a base model.
I'm very happy with the price and quality of my Darkvoice 336i when compare to some of the other chinese made/designed amps. The other thing to be aware of is that it's easy to design a bad sounding valve amp regardless of the parts and country that it's made. Solid state amps are easier to design and get at least a reasonable sound from.
If you want a valve headphone amp that is not made in China, can I suggest you consider that the MAD ( Mapletree Audio Design ) Ear that is made in Canada. Yes, I can highly recommend this amp and yes I have been using one that I made from a kit now for the last 3yrs.
See - http://hollowstate.netfirms.com/
All the best to you in your search
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Very well said.
When we say "made in China" I think there are two lines of thoughts - (a)
Chinese brands that are storming the market in the last few years, adn (b) "Foreign" brands that outsource their production / assembly work in China.
For (a), it is true that there are just too many Chinese brands coming into market in the past few years. Some are doing well, and established their reputation as a real capable contender for the bigger pie. We have seen Consonance Opera Audio emerging as the widely recognised "top-end" player with business all over the world - they are active not only in North America, but also in various European countries. I have once a Cyber 20 headphone amp and would say the workmanship and quality is top notch, but priced very competitively in the market. Other examples include Shanling (specialised in its own design of high end CD players), and Original - folks here only heard about their headphone amp but actually Original makes very competitive CD players as well. I am sure there are many others. But there are also Chinese brands that are coming from cottage factories in the back ally, from a one-person start up. Usually the person who create the product / brand is a great designer - but executing the design into a finished product is a different story - and we end up with fit and finish issues, reliability, QA/QC problems. Yes, they are (almost) dirt cheap to buy, but also frustrating to use. But this is exactly how the market works - overtime, those who continue to improve will survive and grow - look at Little Tube - each and every iteration of its amps is better. Looking back the short history from Little Dot, LD II, LDII+, LDII++, LD MT, LD III - they are just getting better and better - both sonically and comestically, and getting wider acceptance. But there are those who cannot sustain the competition, and they will be gone in a while. This is no different from other countries - I travelled to Japan and can find some crappy design and lousy products. I was in Germany many times and can always find cheap and disappointing products "made in Germay" but actually produced in the ex-East Germany. So, this is not a China only issue, but happen all over in this world.
For (b) it is not news anymore many many global brands are using China and many Asian countries as their world factories. A lot, if not all, of Apple products - famous for its design and quality, are actually made in Asia. Audi is having some of its A4 and A6 sedan production done in China. Even Boeing is outsourcing parts of their planes from China ! Many audio companies are actually outsourcing the production in China as well. the famed Monarchy Audio M24 DAC is actually made in China, same as Julida products. The fact is many of this "unsung heroes" making all these high price items in the background have learned over the years and are now looking for ways to make themeselves better known in the market, and have a more direct share of the pie. Nothing wrong here.
China aside, I should also talk about South Korea. The progress South Korea made in the past few years is really stunning. South Korea is now the largest producer of LCD displays. Their cars are improving fast. Stello (April Music) emerges as a giant killer in the audio circle.... And I congratulate them.
For the record, I am Chinese. And I don't see anything wrong about that here.
F. Lo
