Is the V.P.I. Traveler made in China

It would be very hard for anyone to know unless they saw boxes full of all parts coming from a local machine shop. While I don't think VPI is top of the heap in precision and while I cannot understand how this product is so cheap, this is not any sort of "hard evidence" they are made in China.

Lots of manufacturers lie about product being made in USA, implying parts are made here too. You would be surprised. Yet, that means nothing about VPI. He may be real clever about getting cheap prices from US machine shops based on quantity and long term relationships.

Just as every athlete guilty of using steroids will deny, deny, deny, so that there is no way of telling them from the clean athletes, so will a manufacturer deny, deny, deny using parts from China, whether they are or not. So nobody on this forum, including me, having been involved with manufacturing in industry for 30 years, has any idea whether what VPI says is true or not.

If the quality and finish levels were absolute top notch, insanely good like Boulder, then we could say they were probably done in USA as opposed to China. Obviously, that's not the case.

I can tell you with certainty there are manufacturers at higher quality and prestige levels than VPI that indeed use off-shore suppliers for the bulk of their parts yet claim everything is made in USA. I know some well. I hate to say this but in the end, does it matter? There are plenty of poor tolerance things, including turntables, made exclusively in the USA.

In the end, maybe the importance is more of a philosophical thing, and a concern for country thing, not wanting to keep exporting jobs.

Please, get off your high horse(s). I did not accuse VPI, re-read my post. I'm saying none of us can be sure, and that goes for any manufacturer, because many secretly have things done in the far east, and that is FACT. Admitted to me by several. Been in the industry 3 decades, I know a bit about how it runs, who is doing what.

Now, if this is a fact: "I've been to the factory and seen VPI tables, including Travellers, in various stages of assembly. These are hand built from machined parts that are also made almost entirely in New Jersey by local machine shops"

then it would make me believe they were done in USA.

Zenblaster, much more evenly presented, a balanced post.

When you put yourself out in the public, either by designs, or your acting, or sports activities, you are subject to speculation, derision, adulation, criticism, suggestions, and others human actions. Folks are passionate about their audio, for sure, and very, very, very concerned with minutia, it's the way it is. For some folks, that's the big part of the hobby!