@toronto416 Japan excels in making superlative audio components - especially Accuphase, as well as Luxamn, Esoteric etc.
Would you consider Japan an "unusual" country for audio?
Unusual countries for audio gear
We all know that audio product come from Canada, the U.K., America, Denmark, France, Italy, Germany, Australia.
What are some unusual places you've heard make really good stuff? Anything from Norway? Or New Zealand? How about Qatar or somewhere in the middle east?
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@chenry Pro-Ject is Austrian |
Not relevant here, but rather surprisingly, Australia does export snow-making machines to Switzerland. Climate change is making snowfall less reliable in both countries. On the Supercars, they started as genuine production cars you could buy at car dealers. The slogan was "Win at Bathurst on Sunday, buy on Monday". So we had the fastest 4-door production cars in the world you could actually buy My office in Canberra was bang in the middle of the parliamentary triangle and across the road from Parliament House. For two years in a row, the Supercars raced right there, but winter in Canberra is too cold for the punters and we gave up holding that race! |
I dont know if we can count Yoruba talking drum as a piece of audio... Certainly not, It is a musical instrument... But the best book on acoustics i ever read was written by a Nigerian acoustician Akpen J. Essien who play also the Yoruba talking drum and was inspired by it to wrote his doctorate revolutionary thesis on acoustics... After revolutionizing acoustics is there an audio company in Nigeria, i doubt it ? But who knows if it takes someone from Nigeria to understand acoustics ....
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Thanks for the compliment about my adopted country, which by and large is hot! One of the themes here is that cold climates might induce more thoughtful designs. I found out through this forum that the coveted Dohmann turntables are from Melbourne, which is renowned for getting four seasons in one day. On the other hand, our snow fields are bigger than Switzerland but give no signs of spawning any HiFi startups |
@richardbrand Lovely country and I agree though there is some local audio manufacturing albeit small and specialized. My company has a very strong presence in Australia and and we did quite a bit of sponsorship in you Supercar Series.
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Good question. I had no problems with any of the firmware upgrades for my DAC (Ideon Audio Epsilon Meta) -- on the contrary, the service level was first class (alert from them for online upgrade, immediate response to my suggested dates, etc). No repairs ever needed so far |
I would add Meze Audio and Rokna Audio for Romania. https://mezeaudio.com/pages/about-us https://www.rockna-audio.com/company I have lived in Qatar for 14 years, still here and hope to see a brand establish itself locally.
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I was pointing out that a lot of very good stuff does come from China, or is owned by Chinese interests. One advantage of being in Australia is that we are almost equally far from everybody else, except New Zealand. Everybody wants to sell us stuff and we have no barriers to trade! Tend to agree with you on B&W though. |
Serbia: Kran Acoustics. Karan amplifiers are really outstanding high end components, fully balanced and DC coupled, there are no condensers in the signal path, meaning true linearity – without condensers which would act as filters, influencing both frequency and phase responses. Minimizing phase shift results in perfect positioning, especially in the increased depth and overall resolution of the soundstage, while keeping the natural timbres intact as well. |
@richardbrand Nothing here about your system either. Was 20 years ago and I did not like them just as I think B&W is overrated retail stuff. No offense I am done with the efforts to derail the OP'S post. Start your own thread about KEF . Gd-Day mate. |
@foggyus91 Ok what 'paid' of KEFs did you own? What did you feed them with? Obviously not 'overrated' Blades and not any of the Reference series ... My Quad electrostatic ESL-2905 speakers were made in China. Are you going to claim these are not audiophile quality? There is nothing on your system here! |
@gano lets agree to disagree and steer clear of each other. |
you are the authority on most people @foggyus91? You are really just too wound up. In Europe, "most people" associate Switzerland with - well - everything I said. |
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@mapman Great question. I feel this is where a great relationship with your dealer comes into play and supporting the brick and mortar stores become very important. At risk of being gullible the distributor and retailer should understand what's at stake when you represent these companies from abroad. And to that end have services and problem solving answers in place. |
@tony1954 it wasn’t an apology. It was an explanation. I honestly didn’t say anything offensive. I meant it in a positive way. I am perfectly aware of the climate and weather and geography of Canada. I have been to all over Canada, US and Europe. It’s simply a feature of the latitude where Canadians live that they have more indoor time. It is changing with climate change so there is that. I praised Canada for producing awesome audio gear. Yes, it is stereotyping and generalizing when in one sentence I talk about a county's climate in generic terms, when it has a diverse geography and climate and extreme. Does it rain a lot in Vancouver? Is it colder in Montreal than in Southern California? I think I have a point.... @foggyus91 Switzerland is also well known for innovation and precision, old tech (watches) new tech (geodesic equipment - Leica), to me it’s only natural they have hifi companies |
I appreciate the apology, but to say that Canadians have "no pressure to be outside" only underlines the stereotype you apply to Canada as a whole. I live in Vancouver. It is on the west coast, about 2 hours north of Seattle. 65% of Canada'a population lives south of Seattle. Although we hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics and, yes we love hockey, in 2021 the temperature just north of Whistler reached over 120 degrees. Despite the beliefs of many Americans, weather doesn't change the minute you cross the 49th parallel. Canada has the highest number of golfers per capita in the world for a reason.
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From India, I know of two. Rethm Speakers and EBI Audio (cartridges and turntables). From Serbia: Auris Audio, Vista Audio (partly American too), Karan Acoustics Slovenie: Apollon Audio, Audio Alto In addition to this there are many obscure ones in France- though I understand the question was on obscure countries and not obscure manufacturers. |
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