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Difference in quality in products made in China?

There is a belief among many audiophiles that electronics assembled in China or Korea are not as well made as products assembled in the USA and England. This has nothing to do,(I believe) with the "technical abilities" of workers, as it has to do with standards of quality control, and the sourcing of less quality parts throughout Asia

This may be all hogwash and just biased opinion, but this question comes up to often to be quickly dismissed. From my own experience which is limited compared to other members, the products(amps. pre-amps CD players) I have owned that were made in the USA, or UK, and Canada, have been solid in terms of long term reliability. I would like to hear others opinions on this issue.
sunnyjim

Showing 3 responses by williewonka

williewonka
3,110 posts
 
Been there - done that - got the repair bills

Won't ever buy components or wire from china EVER!,

Some iec connectors/plugs seem to be OK.

Since most stuff is built there these days its probably the same as with everything else - buy brand names!
williewonka
3,110 posts
 
My purchase was a 50 watt integrated amp - looked fantastic ,stainless steel chassis, cast aluminum tube cages, remote source switching/volume and it sounded pretty good, but under the covers...

The transformer was not built to 120v spec so the heater voltage tap was measured at 7.1v and not 6.3v as it should have been
- this caused premature failure of a complete set gold lion tubes tubes in 3 months

The circuit board had under rated pcb traces that had to be rewired

Some resistors were under rated for their duty - had them replaced

Capacitors used were sub standard for this type of component - had them replaced

I had it fixed for around $400 and it worked very well

After I had sold it (mainly because I was tired of heating my house every time I played music) I had heard that the output transformers were not a great quality either

Looks can sure be deceiving
williewonka
3,110 posts
 
Because of the huge manufacturing "ability" in China, there are many products that are designed in the west but built in China. Some western companies take quality control seriously and others do not.

It's exactly the same with Chinese companies.

Problem is right now the WWW lets us buy from companies that have a web pressesnce, but no real reputation.

Their products initially look good, but ultimately longevity is not their main goal.

Also, many dealers looking to tempt us in to their stores, provide less than stellar quality products sourced form China. It's easy for them to stop selling that product once quality becomes an issue, with the age old line "Oh yes, we stopped selling that brand due to quality issues".

From what I've read on Agon, Pangea is one company that does provide quality products - and I'm sure there are many more.

But it is very much a case of buyer beware :-(

A little old Italian man once told me...

" to trust is good - not to trust is better!"
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