[T-Jax]

Hi everybody,


Can anyone reccomend an online store in the US which sells Cowon iAudio G3 2GB mp3 players made in Korea, not China? Does anyone know what's the origin of the players that Amazon sells? Or the ones on Newegg? Has anyone in the US actually bought a G3 recently that wasn't made in China? I'd prefer mine to be made in Korea, not China; I have my reasons - please don't hijack the thread with opinions about how the Chinese players are the same quality.

Thanks.

 

[TonySunshine]

how do you tell if its made in china or korea? I bought a G3 from amazon about 3 months ago. I'm looking at it right now and there no "made in..." engraving anywhere

 

[T-Jax]

That's weird.... Based on the picture on Newegg or this one it should be written on the back on the unit: Tested to comply with FCC Standard / Made in Korea. Or, like in this picture, on the last row, right next to "COWON", it should be written "Designed by Cowon. Made in China." Isn't anything like this written on your player?

 

[TonySunshine]

Heres what the back of mine looks like

 

[kalis104]

FWIW I bought my U3 from amazon and it says made in korea

 

[T-Jax]

The layout of the text is the same with the one on the Chinese version, they just replaced "made in China" with "www.IAUDIO.com". I suspect it's a Chinese model, but there's no way to tell. Thanks anyway for the picture, TonySunshine.

 

[apnk]

so whats the difference between the two besides "made in ***"?

 

[T-Jax]

In theory there shouldn't be any. In real life though, chinese products often suffer from quality issues. Read this thread to find out what could go wrong; there are 2 users, "BlackStar" and "jusstice" which argue about the quality of the chinese products. In the end it's more or less a personal choice, and I just don't trust them. I've read too many negative things and had too many chinese-made products fail on me.

 

[Pluman]

made in China means assembled in China by casual laborers, not by engineers.

 

[RickH]

T-Jax,

I've been wondering the same thing, especially since players I look at locally is secured from the back so the origin can not be read. I ran into the same problem while digital camera shopping. I also prefer non-Chinese goods for many reasons well beyond the scope of a Head-Fi forum.

Since Cowon/Iaudio are apparently some of the best-sounding digital players I want one, just not from China. I'll email the US office and will post the reply.