Are there any Korean made TT's ??

BrocLuno

BrocLuno

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Seeing as how the Koreans have done very well in ship building, autos, home theater, etc. I'm wondering why I have not seen any Korean made turntables. Seems there is a high end asian market and at least a middle upper market in the US. Wondering if the situation is ripe for say Samsung or LG to actually make a fine turntable :scratch2:
 
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BrocLuno said:
Seeing as how the Koreans have done very well in ship building, autos, home theater, etc. I'm wondering why I have not seen any Korean made turntables. Seems there is a high end asian market and at least a middle upper market in the US. Wondering if the situation is ripe for say Samsung or LG to actually make a fine turntable :scratch2:
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Makes sense but I don't know. I believe I've seen some pretty nice looking Lucky or Goldstar ("Lucky"... LG stands for Lucky/Goldstar) components and someone in Korea made some of the Pioneer receivers in the SX-#80 series and some of the H.H. Scott solid state receivers (had one of those).

John
 
Frank Sol said:
I have a name: Kimchi LX
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LX for LaXative? ;)

I found an old AK thread which indicated that it was indeed Goldstar that made Pioneer components, both for and as "Pioneer" and as "Gold Star". They even used essentially the same Pioneer model numbers like a GSA-8500 integrated amp which was simply a Korean-made Pioneer SA-8500. Could be that there are some Gold Star PL-### type turntables out there too.

John
 
As much as we here would like to believe there's a full blown LP renaissance, I think the numbers are still way too small for manufacturing giants such as LG or Samsung. They'd only be interested in something totally accepted...and vinyl is decidely not.

Aside from the high end boutique 'tables, and Rega's unique position, most of the bulk of mainstream production so far is either knockoffs from China or the Czech twins from Music Hall/ProJect. If either of the South Korean giants were to enter the market, I'd bet the manufacturing would be done in China anyway.
 
Unlikly any large Korean mfg is going to bother mfg turntables, the vinyl "resurgence" amounts to next to nothing as far as AV/electronics sales go and turntable mfg is destined to remain a cottage industry.
 
I sort of understand, but why all the OEM and Super OEM tables coming out of China? The tooling costs and such are still obstacles. I get that the exchange rate would affect final pricing, but among the Asian Tigers it seems to me that you really don't want it all in China ...

OK, if audiophiles are seen as a snobbish class of finicky customers, then how come the mindset that Jolida and Jasmine and others have built up in China as the innovator in many areas. I get copying what went before to learn. But, at some point you start to diverge from the past and break new ground.

Samsung and LG are both very successful companies and I own their products and enjoy them. But, I think they are missing out by not playing. There is a place to show some of your engineering prowess. Turntables are a very small market, but what a nice arena to show off in. Mechanical, electronic, and aesthetics/design - wow I'd think they'd want to be there, even if only limited production ...

I'm very happy for the Chinese folks who are learning and building and trying ideas. We soak up some of that, then we DIY their stuff to make it better or align it with personal tastes. We bitch about some of their build quality, but really get into some of their stuff.

In other words they are at the table and in the conversation. Seems to me that Korea would like to be at the table and included too :scratch2:
 
Oh, but they are. Cars. TV Displays. Smartphones. Computers (except for those upstarts in Taiwan).

Turntables? Pish. Small beans.

I think China is perhaps better oriented towards small entrepeneurial manufacturing, if that doesn't sound illogical. Korea seems more aimed at large multinationals. Hyundai makes container ships!
 
Outside of a small number of people like ourselves turntables are considered a novelty item and like a lot of todays electronics will be disposed of when the next new toy comes along. If Technics decided it was time to pull the plug I doubt any major mfg anywhere on earth is going to invest time/resources on whats generally considered an obsolete technology. When "scratching" goes out of fashion like most music genres eventually do that will be the end of the turntables from Asia.
 
majick47 said:
Outside of a small number of people like ourselves turntables are considered a novelty item and like a lot of todays electronics will be disposed of when the next new toy comes along. If Technics decided it was time to pull the plug I doubt any major mfg anywhere on earth is going to invest time/resources on whats generally considered an obsolete technology. When "scratching" goes out of fashion like most music genres eventually do that will be the end of the turntables from Asia.
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BrocLuno said:
Sad, but maybe true :(
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Maybe, when that happens, the supply of used vinyl will explode like it did when radio went to CDs!

But it will all have been played on Crosleys........................:tears::cry:

John
 
Samsung made at least one assault on the 'High-End' in the '90s. I saw photos of a flat panel speaker which would have been at least 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide(per channel).

I've never seen a photo of it since then.

There's a lot of stuff that the Japanese and Koreans have done which we know nearly nothing about.
 
Korean company Inkel bought Audio Reflex (Canadian) and Sherwood (American) in the early-1980’s, and still manufacture hi-fi for export under the Sherwood brand, which is their main export brand. I don’t know if their turntable is made in Korea (it probably is made in a low-wage country like China), but that’s where the profits end up, so a Sherwood turntable is Korean.
 
Inkel, that was the name I was searching for. I have seen some rather nice looking gear selling locally under that brand. No turntables but a quick Google search brought up a few images.
 
majick47 said:
Outside of a small number of people like ourselves turntables are considered a novelty item and like a lot of todays electronics will be disposed of when the next new toy comes along. If Technics decided it was time to pull the plug I doubt any major mfg anywhere on earth is going to invest time/resources on whats generally considered an obsolete technology. When "scratching" goes out of fashion like most music genres eventually do that will be the end of the turntables from Asia.
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I thought Technics HAD pulled the plug? They stopped making the SL-1200 in 2010.

Lee.
 
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