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Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2006
- Posts
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1. you'd be pretty bad at making fakes if you didn't make packaging that looked semi-convincing too. Most of the definite fakes I've seen people show on this forum were in packaging that was only subtly different than the original. Usually they put more effort into the package than into the fake item, because it's easier and because that's what sells;
2. OEM just means that the manufacturer is a different company than the brand selling the item, which is now true for almost all electronic goods, period. The question is whether the OEM is also the designer. There are now three possibilites in product design:
a. in-house design, in-house production
b. in-house design, external production (in China, say)
c. rebranding of an item designed and produced by a non-credited company (e.g., "Sennheiser" CX300, "Creative" EP-630)
d. independent design firm, in- or out-of-house production.
Of these, d. has become the biggest likelihood for a lot of consumer products. I happen to teach at a design school and my girlfriend is a product designer, so I have some idea of what I'm talking about. What we're looking at with Audio-Technica headphones is likely either b. or d. In either of these cases, it seems likely that the OEM stuff is exactly what it claims to be.
Now, here's the danger: a lot of out-of-house production facilities, especially those in China and SE Asia, have their own engineering and design departments, and are perfectly happy to work for Sony one shift, JVC the next, and then spend all night coughing up fake Sony's to a ****** cut-rate design on behalf of a third party.
If authentic OEM stuff is for sale, it is because there was a loophole in the contract with the brand company that allowed the producer to sell seconds or extras-- obviously without warranties and so forth. This usually happens in the situation I describe as c. above, i.e., when the OEM company made the design themselves, they can tell Senn or Creative to go screw themselves and sell extras if they want-- they just can't use the brand name. That's why they say what they are, OEM. When they don't mention this, there's a chance you're into the territory of fakes, as I mentioned in the paragraph above.
My personal rule is, if they say OEM, it's probably true, otherwise if it seems too good to be true, it probaby is. I hope all this is useful to some of you guys, and anyone in production feel free to let us in on the inside story,
Erik
2. OEM just means that the manufacturer is a different company than the brand selling the item, which is now true for almost all electronic goods, period. The question is whether the OEM is also the designer. There are now three possibilites in product design:
a. in-house design, in-house production
b. in-house design, external production (in China, say)
c. rebranding of an item designed and produced by a non-credited company (e.g., "Sennheiser" CX300, "Creative" EP-630)
d. independent design firm, in- or out-of-house production.
Of these, d. has become the biggest likelihood for a lot of consumer products. I happen to teach at a design school and my girlfriend is a product designer, so I have some idea of what I'm talking about. What we're looking at with Audio-Technica headphones is likely either b. or d. In either of these cases, it seems likely that the OEM stuff is exactly what it claims to be.
Now, here's the danger: a lot of out-of-house production facilities, especially those in China and SE Asia, have their own engineering and design departments, and are perfectly happy to work for Sony one shift, JVC the next, and then spend all night coughing up fake Sony's to a ****** cut-rate design on behalf of a third party.
If authentic OEM stuff is for sale, it is because there was a loophole in the contract with the brand company that allowed the producer to sell seconds or extras-- obviously without warranties and so forth. This usually happens in the situation I describe as c. above, i.e., when the OEM company made the design themselves, they can tell Senn or Creative to go screw themselves and sell extras if they want-- they just can't use the brand name. That's why they say what they are, OEM. When they don't mention this, there's a chance you're into the territory of fakes, as I mentioned in the paragraph above.
My personal rule is, if they say OEM, it's probably true, otherwise if it seems too good to be true, it probaby is. I hope all this is useful to some of you guys, and anyone in production feel free to let us in on the inside story,
Erik
