Tariff Panic At Axpona 25?

mapman,  
Forbes Article                                    

It took us over 65 to 70 years to get where we are today. I can't see any way to turn back now. Unless we want to lower our standard of living and our way of life to compete with the likes of China and Vietnam.

I guess with a wall of tariffs high enough to make US consumers buy in country manufactured  products it might work.

Practical? No.

FWIW, the richest man in the World is against tariffs as they are being implemented now.

Yea I won’t waste time posting and citing facts relating to tariffs  because it will just get deleted. 
 

Tariffs are bad for business period.  Audiogon is a business so no surprise such talk is not welcome here. 

@gano  HA!

AWESOME!!!

I worked on many USAID projects.

Poland, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, all are strong in manufacturing audio equipment as are others. If the plant is owned by say NAD they will have total control of the manufacturing process than say a company using contract manufacturing. This is more prevalent than not in Asia. 

I had some relatively high-end audio products lined up to purchse from a website based in Singapore for about $2,700 USD total. The "Tax" added was over 50% (previous purchases had NO tax added from them). Since the tariff on goods from Singapore is only 10% this has to reflect the Chinese origins of the products, even though they are in Singapore (well, perhaps the products are still in China). Looking for products already here has helped avoid some tariff charges, but what I think we are all going to be figuring out one way or another is how much the China tariffs will even affect the cost of products made or assmebled elsewhere. Will an Innuos Streamer with components made in China go up 20% (the EU tariff that hits portugese products), or will it go up much more because of the Chinese origins of some of the chips or microcircuitry inside their stuff (I am speculating since I am uncertain if they use Chinese parts - using this as an example).

I note that some folks staunchly feel that Chinese-made means poor quality. I am curious about their feelings about other national origins, such as Poland for Closer Acoustics speakers, or Italy for Sonus Faber, or Britain for B&W or Cambridge Audio, or Canda for Classé amplifiers? What are the distinguishing characteristics of Chinese made components or companies that lead to the belief that such are much worse? I am actually curious about that (and I have my own opinions, of course). For example, I decided to skip the use of luxury vinyl flooring in my upstairs remodel after thinking about how come it was so cheap - using Uyghur forced labor. So in that instance, I decided to go with much more expensive wood flooring.

But in all domains it is so hard to "buy American" - I am certain that the computer I am typing on has Chinese components and later when I see if there are responses to this message, I will use an iPhone. But most of the Chinese made stuff I use seems to be pretty good.

Comrade @gano !!

Laundering money.

Which already started with the slashing of USAID. 

In the new ARC facility, it appears the face plates are now made in House.

Also go to time mark, about 33:45, their transformers are now made in North America again instead of Asia. I would say they are not made in the US though. (Of interest, another example how the ear can hear problems where measurements could not.)

Audio Research Factory Tour. New facility

.

Diplomacy put us way longer on the road, than threat of annexation,bluff, unilateral tariffs wars, etc

Laughable stupidity is not a win...

What can say a wise man?

He say that :

Uncertainty ain’t good for business.

Uncertainty ain't good for business

I keep hearing that what a great strategy it is to keep the world on edge, by threats and giant sweeping insults (list here of anything he said relevant to anything outside the US, aside from Congo, which nobody knows what it is).

It is mafia style operation which is good for no one other than for the mafia in the short term. In the long term it leads to generations living in fear, massive exodus, and endless tragedies. Which already started with the slashing of USAID. 

I just had VAS rewire a defective tonearm and replace a missing stylus on a cartridge's cantilever.

Luckily, they had parts in-stock,

because they told me they generally could not get new parts, the suppliers are like a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, jumping this way and that, a simple bag of screws might be priced ridiculously high, or normal price, with a huge shipping charge added. 

Uncertainty ain't good for business.

@knownothing No time for you do what you usually do, Google and read a bunch of talking points from the media and the morons that work in the media. God forbid you read a book or two. 
 

Those who can do, those who can’t just bitch and moan. 

@texasblues1959 please share your deeper knowledge as it relates to this topic.  Inquiring minds want to know.

kn

The business, engineering and manufacturing acumen on this audio form is non existent. Why I give zero stock to the statement and opinions expressed in this forum. 

@cleeds Agree 100%.

According to the link provided, Audioholics believes, "the best factories in the world for audiophile components are located in China and Vietnam." So as usual, I really don't care what they might think or feel about anything.

It’s not just one part that’s at issue.

Using Audio Research Corp as an example, just a guess 98% of the electronic components in their audio equipment is imported from China, Taiwan, or Vietnam.

Going from memory the face plates are imported. ARC is basically a design and assembly manufacturer. Made in the USA? Well? Engineered, and assembled in the USA.

You might ask why doesn’t ARC buy the electronic components from manufacturers here in the USA?  Who might that be?

The math in the article is a bit sketchy.  I'm doing this from memory.  If a part of a piece say costs $20 and the tariff is added to that part at 100% increases the COGS (cost of goods sold) $20.  The article stated the $100 piece of finished equipment would go to $225 because of one part. 

Businesses have two decisions to make on their markup.  We can either make x% or $x per piece.  The said piece of equipment went from $50 to make to retail of $100 to now $70 to make.  They still make $50 the price is $120.  If they want to make 100% then the $70 piece to make now sells for $140.  $225 isn't in the equation.  Maybe that part was hyperbole, but come in man.  Now let's say 100% of the product and not just a part is made overseas.  Now the cost goes from $50 to $100.  Now they either sell for $150 or $200 depending on the business model.  If it was my business I would do the $150 until it goes back to normal and lower the price to $100 in the future.  There are different ways to slice and dice COGS and profit.

Aren't a lot of companies (like PS Audio, Dynaudio, etc.) having parts made in Asia? So, it's not an all or nothing issue but the tariffs could affect the availability or price of parts for non-Asia brands.

This is the context in which they said that bit about the factories; makes sense, just a silly way to say it...

But Chi-Fi isn’t the end of the conversation, because the best factories in the world for audiophile components are located in China and Vietnam. Simply put, unless you are buying Rolls Royce-level products (think: handmade by artisans in an expensive locale), the chances are that your next audiophile upgrade component will be made in China or at least sourced with parts from the country. 

According to the link provided, Audioholics believes, "the best factories in the world for audiophile components are located in China and Vietnam." So as usual, I really don't care what they might think or feel about anything.

Interesting read. Thanks for posting