Rackhour
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I figured that part as much. That’s partially why there are numerous Android phones of varying quality sold around the world, among other electronics.It is not only earbuds, but other audio gear like IEMs and sources are mostly made in China (or at least they use Chinese parts and/or assembly, even for some Western/boutique brands).
China has economies of scale with audio parts, cheap labour and less strict licensing/patents. They perhaps do not spend as much on marketing and arguably may have less robust CS/QC than so-called western brands, but Chinese audio gear is generally king in price-to-performance ratio for these reasons.
Let me rephrase my question. There are tons of non-China-based IEM and over/on-ear brands. But the only brand that the everyday person may know of that still sells non-closed buds is Apple, courtesy of their EarPods and open AirPods. Sony only dabbles with open back buds through the older LinkBuds and one other wired model that clips on your earlobes. Sennheiser has practically erased the fact that they once manufactured the MX500; I only learned of this through RikuBuds.
This backdrop is what made me wonder why it is seemingly only Chinese companies that are actively iterating on earbuds.
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