[garbulky]

I agree with the FTC. I think it's not good to see made in USA when it's really the box and the assembly - not the actual components. I would agree that assembled in USA followed by a blurb in your paperwork about exactly what is made here would be helpful in showing how much is done here.

Say a resistor or essential transistors is not made in the USA - that points out a significant deficit in USA manufacturing. That we can't get USA made resistors or the components we need to make a component work in the USA is sad. (And other countries are happily making these essential parts of products and thriving). Companies have been able to HIDE this fact from their consumers by using tricky wording like made in USA when they are not actually fully made in USA.

Sounds perhaps pedantic - but what about manufacturers that do go to the strenuous efforts to actually be fully made in the USA? Do we want people that only assemble in the usa to be part of this designation? That would be unfair to those companies - whoever they are - if they even exist!

Perhaps when consumers see how little stuff is actually fully made in the usa then it may drive demand for higher priced products that are indeed made in the usa.
I don't take things like being able to create USA-made products for granted. It takes a lot to get there and we've given a lot of that away. I think the FTC is helping to show us that importance by owning up to what we collectively are doing.

 

[RickB]

So does this mean the gear that says "Made In USA" will become collectors' items?

 

[Kn1nJa]

I would be lying if I said the "Made in USA" didn't influence my decision to buy Schiit products. That being said, the primary reason I buy Schiit products now is because they sound good to me. The reason I initially bought my first piece of Schiit was because of Jason's snarky descriptions on the website (I think it was the audiophile not meaning stick-up-the-ass comment). Some may find this just as pointless as buying for the made sticker, but I felt I had to give some props to a fellow smartass.

Different people buy things for different reasons. Most of them aren't inherently "wrong" (except for maybe anyone who buys beats headphones ..... [joke]). If someone decides to not buy Schiit now because they don't have a made sticker, their loss. I don't think Schiit's target market is primarily "people who only buy 'Made in USA' products". I think there is a pretty good chance their target demographic is "people who enjoy good sounding audio at reasonable prices". Maybe I'm just a doofus.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

Why not be bold and go for "Born in the USA"?
That covers all and satisfies the gov.

 

[RickB]

Why not be bold and go for "Born in the USA"?
That covers all and satisfies the gov.

And get sued by Bruce Springsteen?

 

[barondla]

@Jason Stoddard good choice. Can't let the government suits derail our Schiit. Can't imagine @Baldr's thoughts and comments.

Thanks for writing a great chapter and letting us see how all this works. I'm pretty sure the government outlawed fun at work years ago. You should take Bob out for a beer. He probably saved you from a lot of future grief.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

And get sued by Bruce Springsteen?

I don't think so.
It's not a protected trademark. It's just plain English.

 

[Mr. Pete]

Jason,

You and Mike did the right thing. No sense in getting in a "pissing" match with the government. The cost of lawyers, etc., just is not worth it. I am sure that all current/future Schiit Audio customers will understand why a new
label process is necessary. You are much better off spending your money on new products/tooling/etc. I am looking forward to meeting all of you at the NYC show in February.

Mr. Pete------------>
aging hippie

p.s. I wonder how Harley Davidson handles all of this stuff??

 

[wabe]

p.s. I wonder how Harley Davidson handles all of this stuff??

http://theconversation.com/why-it-doesnt-matter-if-a-harley-is-made-in-america-99267

This might help answer that.

 

[bboris77]

This is a very interesting theoretical debate. As a consumer and a Canadian, I would have absolutely no issue with a product being labeled as "made in USA" or "made in Canada", even if it contained a bunch of components inside that originated somewhere else. I always took the "made in USA" to mean "the final product made in USA", not "every atom within this box originates within USA" . The parts themselves are meaningless until they are put into a meaningful whole by an engineer and manufacturer. It is like saying that a painting is not "made in USA" even though it was painted there unless all the ingredients used to make the oil paint have not been extracted from the US soil. Heck, if you use the same logic, you could argue that a recording is not "made in USA" unless every instrument heard on the recording is a US-made instrument.

What I am saying is that it is the intellectual expertise and labour that matter, not necessarily where the raw material came from. I am sure that there are good and bad raw materials in any country, and just because the raw metal comes from USA, it does not magically make it superior in any way. At the end of the day, it all comes to the selection of materials, quality control, engineering and artistic expertise.

 

[RickB]

I don't think so.
It's not a protected trademark. It's just plain English.

I was being mostly facetious (the emoji selection here is terrible).

 

[HumanFly]

Just put: Made by nice people or Made by people who give a Schiit.
Covers all the bases that matter. Who cares where people come from anyway?

 

[winders]

Those of you running the Vali 2 with headphones, is it at low or high gain setting? Thanks.

High gain solely because it sounds better. The same is true with my Lyr 3. I am using HD650 headphones.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

I was being mostly facetious (the emoji selection here is terrible).

Mwah, my period is coming up. I'm a bit cranky.

 

[bboris77]

High gain solely because it sounds better. The same is true with my Lyr 3. I am using HD650 headphones.

I actually prefer the low gain setting on my Lyr 3 with HD600 as it appears slightly less aggressive sounding. I think it really depends on the headphone and individual tastes. As always, low gain is better from the distortion and noise floor point of view. It also is better for channel matching as you end up using the better part of the volume pot.

I used to own the Vali 2 a long time ago and I remember that it exhibited some barely audible hum in the high gain mode, but only with extremely sensitive headphones. It was fine with HD600, and it actually sounded better in the high gain mode.