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Have you ever brought a Chinese power amplifier?

Bubo said:
The primary driver for Made in China is lower taxes and regulations,
the effect of labor is not significant in the product cost.
$1,000 I-phone the labor cost is only $20, so if it's 50% higher in the US or EU it's only $10.
Apple is the largest mfg of audio playback in the word aka streaming and $2 ear buds.

Not really, contract manufacturers are famous for delivering quality batches, then over time substituting in lesser quality parts that go un-noticed until the failures begin.
Japanese companies, the first in for low low labor and reg costs, ended up up shipping in components in sealed containers to be assembled, then exporting the assembled products in sealed containers, with Japanese employees on site to supervise assembly every step of the way.
Still they pulled out to Malaysia and others.

If the selling price is less than the cost of quality components, how do you explain it ?

How is this possible

Products sold in China, are not the same quality as exported products.

These are the facts, products are more than a spec sheet and list price
Click to expand...

Your "facts" are not factual, and your post indicates a lack of familiarity with a maufacturing-based business.
 
Yes. But be sure and take your blood pressure medicine before reading my quote below or the thread:

"In my opinion, the Clone MC275 is one of the best buys in tube amps today", T. Lang, circa 2023.

McIntosh MC275 MK VI Clone

I have an original MC275 Mark III, circa 2000. AFAIK it has the newer E-I core. Let me know if you want me to disconnect and send it to you for evaluation.
audiokarma.org
 
rustnrot said:
Yes. But be sure and take your blood pressure medicine before reading my quote below or the thread:

"In my opinion, the Clone MC275 is one of the best buys in tube amps today", T. Lang, circa 2023.

McIntosh MC275 MK VI Clone

I have an original MC275 Mark III, circa 2000. AFAIK it has the newer E-I core. Let me know if you want me to disconnect and send it to you for evaluation.
audiokarma.org
Click to expand...
I read that when you posted and filed the info away :thumbsup:
 
rustnrot said:
Yes. But be sure and take your blood pressure medicine before reading my quote below or the thread:

"In my opinion, the Clone MC275 is one of the best buys in tube amps today", T. Lang, circa 2023.

McIntosh MC275 MK VI Clone

I have an original MC275 Mark III, circa 2000. AFAIK it has the newer E-I core. Let me know if you want me to disconnect and send it to you for evaluation.
audiokarma.org
Click to expand...
That's total dishonesty in my opinion. (Not your comments, but the amp itself.)
The honest way to make an an amp is to design it, manufacture it, put your name on it, and then start the hard work of trying to sell it.
The dishonest way is to to take someone else's design, style it exactly the same, put their name on it, and then sell it based on the reputation they have worked to establish. How many people would buy that amp if it looked different and didn't say McIntosh on it, even if it performed exactly the same?
 
hugo454 said:
I have owned 2 Jolida tube amps and currently listen to a Yaqin 300b tube amp and have been pleased with their performance.
Click to expand...

I had three Jolida integrated amps and all were very satisfactory. Note that "real" Jolida (now Black Ice Audio) is an American company that makes their products in their own factory in China.
 
GChief said:
its marketing ;)
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It's intellectual property theft. The Chinese have been doing this for years with tacit approval of the government.
The large tech company I work for could easily prove this; their source code (including comments!) was found on a Chinese clone of our stuff.

But to answer the OPs question, I have 5 chip-based Chinese amps and I think they sound very good and each cost me less than a pizza.
I also just bought a brand new Chinese 18" ride cymbal for $25(!) that sounds pretty damned good to me.

Call me a hypocrite. I can't argue...
 
Bubo said:
Odd I worked in high tech electronics manufacturing for 20 years.
We made and shipped comms products all over the world, to the most demanding customers.
Click to expand...

If that's the case, you must not have been familiar with the financial side of the business.
 
spark1 said:
If that's the case, you must not have been familiar with the financial side of the business.
Click to expand...
Which financial side is that ?

I set the cost, the price, discounts, approved bids and proposals, was involved in M&A, and flew out for show and tell with companies we purchased tech from or were looking at purchasing. Internally, when asked I gave Divisions the thumbs up or down. I doubled everything I touched and had very high margins.
 

Have you ever brought a Chinese power amplifier?​

No Amp, sorry... :confused:

But I bought for cheap a nice pair of Unknown Chinese manufaturer output transformers :cool:, sold 2nd hand brand new by a Guy who thought that a pair of Hammond 125GSE Standard Series were way better than these "Chino Xfo"... https://www.hammfg.com/files/parts/pdf/125GSE.pdf

I installed these Chino Xfo on my U-KT120 SE DIY amplifier :

1703271717664.png

1703271783869.png

Here are the Square Waves tested at 4.5WRMS /8R 20Hz/200Hz/2kHz/20kHz - not different from those at the max output power of 12.5WRMS/8R (I should take a set of pics !) :

1703272000641.png

I doubt that the Hammond 125GSE Standard Series can seriously compete... :biggrin:;)

T
 
sanford12 said:
Patents expire and you can't blame manufacturers for picking these units to produce clones. Look at the clones of the ST-70 and ST-35 Dynaco's. begs the question if it's just a beef with the Chinese doing it
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How can a transformer cost less than the cost of the copper that is claimed to be in the transformer ?

This repeats everywhere, unless it's software or other Ip in which case it is replicated without royalties or permission aka theft of IP.
 
Mart Mccall said:
Krell KSA100 - https://he.aliexpress.com/item/1005004921454882.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.7.7e822f6fiMGKSr&algo_pvid=8420e31f-9d17-4924-83b8-e396a96f2e10&algo_exp_id=8420e31f-9d17-4924-83b8-e396a96f2e10-3&pdp_npi=4@dis!GBP!772.34!502.02!!!6798.74!!@21038ede17033249109015482e29b4!12000031026766607!sea!UK!0!AB&curPageLogUid=gawjPRr9kVEY

I have the real thing and the twin transformers aside this looks nothing like it internally. It's tat. Won't even go to the safety aspect.

Scroll down the page to see acres more rubbish - 'Naim', 'Mark Levinson' and so on. You'd need to have rocks in your head.
Click to expand...
I got this 'Krell' (but not from Ali Express, rather eBay, so I paid more than $175.19)
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832538128541.html

The rocks in my head are very satisfied! :music:
 
Last edited:
rothwellaudio said:
That's total dishonesty in my opinion. (Not your comments, but the amp itself.)
The honest way to make an an amp is to design it, manufacture it, put your name on it, and then start the hard work of trying to sell it.
The dishonest way is to to take someone else's design, style it exactly the same, put their name on it, and then sell it based on the reputation they have worked to establish. How many people would buy that amp if it looked different and didn't say McIntosh on it, even if it performed exactly the same?
Click to expand...
The Chinese have zero respect for intellectual property. When I was working with Jim Fosgate on his Signature phono pre, that was the biggest concern when finding a builder, that the factory over there would run 8 hours of real production, then 8 hours of fakes. Worse yet, part substitutions. When I was reaping API and they moved production to China, the first batch of the C series production was perfect. The second one failed testing. The factory sourced caps from a "connected" supplier that spec'd nowhere near right. They had to have a full time crew in China to prevent a repeat.
I avoid buying Chinese at every possible juncture. Sometimes it gets hard
 
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