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Where is it made


bambam

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Unless it is for patriotic reasons, why is this an issue? China has lots of top scientists and engineers, modern manufacturing plants, educated workforce. Most mass produced electronics is made in China. A lot of industrial and commercial electronics that need high quality and reliability are made in China. China can put a man in space, built airplanes and rockets, they have some of the biggest chip fabs etc etc. Why do you not think they can make top quality speaker parts? Speakers are quite low tech in comparison. Years ago we used to giggle at stuff like Sony and Hondas that where made in Japan! Now look at who is laughing! China burst on the scene with almost none of the growing pains that Japan had. Sure they are still learning, but fast! In terms of manufacturing process and quality controll they are where the US was about 20 years ago. (US manufacturers first crack at quality was to actually get the right resistor in the right holes- we are beyond that now, but the Chinese are still at that stage, at least when making the real cheap stuff) And 20 years ago, the US shure made some good audio equipment! We still rave about the good old stuff!

If it where not for inexpensive products from China, our inflation would be thru the roof and our standard of living way down. IMHO

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I don't doubt the chinese have quality control, but remember that intel

makes there pentium still in america. Apple computers have a

restriction to china, Honda Toyota Mercedes BMW make some of their

vehicles in America and make a profit while Ford, GM, Chrysler make

their vehicles in canada or mexico thank you very much north american

free trade act...

I just hate the so called walmart system. Ok, the principle goes that

sooner or later we will all work for walmart and buy from there too.

This is because Wal-mart happens to have cheaper prices and stuff. But

as with everything in life there are compromises. Wal-mart demands to

the wholesellers lower prices or they will not stock the item in their

stores. I remember watching a quality PBS show stating that walmart

~25% of all retail merchandise sold in america. So a company that does

not abide by the walmart low prices will not stay competative enough to

survive. What is the company forced to do? they relocate to China where

modern wages, safety standards, and envrionmental converns are the same

conditions that America faced when it first industrialized. Put it this

way, children are working in hostile environments and such just so you

can save 50 cents on a plastic broom that will probably break in a

year. I remember hearing a story that in India they like to use

children to dip their hands in scalding hot water to extract the

silkworm cacoon from the pot (you put silkworm cacoons in hot water and

they unravel so you can spin it into thread) but the owner said he

prefers children because they have smaller hands and are more sensative

to the temperature of the water. The kid's hand was blistered and

scarred. And then when they relocate to China the jobs in America are

lost, forcing the American workers to suck up their morals and take a

job that pays less or taking two jobs to make ends meet.

My heart goes out to the west virginia coal miners that go into a

dangerous hole and sometimes do not come back out to see their children

grow up. Plus they work 12 + hours in the most inhospitable environment

just so their kids can grow up to become better. It should not be I

work at a job that doesn't pay enough because my old job relocated to

China. I hate walking into walmart and see it an absolute mess with

children screaming and running around because their parents don't have

someone to watch them at home because daddy's paycheck is not enough

and mommy has to work too (A little sexist but it could be vice versa).

Not only that but to watch people work 8 hours are walmart and than buy

products from walmart before going home is a bit scary to me. Its like

the factories that in the 1800's payed workers coupons in which they

can redeem at the factory's general store. Also what happened to they

late 80's early 90's walmart ads that proclaimed "Buy American!" Hell I

was only 5 but I still remember them. Eh Im ranting I'll be quiet now.

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also this is nota new trend, the market always goes where there

is cheap labor. America became the cheap labor of England. And then

American became the country it is now. Japan was the cheap labor up

till 15 years ago. Moved to Korea, now to China etc. The market moves

to wherever the labor is the cheapest but customers don't realize the

double edge sword of cheaper prices.

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I remember not too many years ago me and my brother pulling out nails

with a claw hammers. His hammer $25.95 Plumb and mine a chinese wannabe

Plumb $4.95. Well, after maybe a dozen nails the claw on mine came

right off.

How do we really want to spend our money? Are we, in the end saving any

money by buying crap? And what about the guy in the plant down the

street that just closed?

We made damn good stuff here. The best. Still do. Maybe before "saving"

a few miserable dollars (and I do wonder in the long run if you really

do), we had better think of the long range impact of what we are doing

to ourselves.

I too have been guilty in this matter. It's tough to shell out the

extra cash. I'm cheap too. But it does make you wonder where the hell

we are going with our economy. At least I hope it does.

I did redeem myself a little by purchasing an Odyssey Stratos. Made in

the USA with a 20 year warranty. This amp is the keeper. I went thru

many amps before this one. Tube as well as SS.

Patriotic reasons? Just try for once, just one time try like hell to imagine you lost your job to overseas outsourcing.Then let's talk about "Patriotism".

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Oh, boy, lots of issues discussed here:

1: world economy and free trade is here to stay. You can no longer expect to drop out of high school and get a $40/hr job assembling cars at GM for life. Stocking shelves at Walmart overnight IS a minimum wage job, nothing more, and that is what you are going to get for dropping out of HS. Like previous poster said, the world will find the cheapest labor, and China is it for now. In a few decades China will have pulled itself completely out of third world status and hopefully the cheap labor will move to Africa. That continent needs all the help they can get. What is the alternative? Would you rather have a backward, poor, arch communist China and $40/hr GM jobs or a modern, prosperous China integrated into the world economy and $20/hr GM jobs? I chose the latter. We should be thankfull that China has managed to get itself into a modern economy.

2: Walmarts is efficient, capitalism at its best. What is better, paying $3 for a widget at your corner general store, badly managed, where it takes 3 employees to stock the shelves, or paying $2.50 for the same widget at Walmarts because they are efficient and it takes only 2 workers to do the same job, leaving 1 worker to contribute to the economy in another area? I pick Walmarts.

3: Don't blame Walmarts or China for our crappy schools that don't teach the 3Rs properly and demotivate kids so they drop out and then find that the only jobs for them are flipping hamburgers and stocking shelves. (and if that is a run on sentence or if I have some dangling participles, I blame it on SusieQ for ever distracting me in English class, not on China or Walmart!)

4: YOU are the one that picks the cheap broom that breaks after a few months. North American consumers have been trained to buy the CHEAPEST! No one wants to pay a reasonable price for a quality product. Everyone wants to get a deal! That is why they are always after the best deals in electronics, but then end up paying a fortune for snakeoil cables! Buy quality, buy it once. You make the choice, not Walmarts. If you don't buy it, Walmart can't sell it!

5: Enough for today...

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Hey some of that audio gear made in China is fantastic. I know Rockets take some heat on this forum (and maybe rightly so if you are really enamored with the horn...err...Heritage sound), but have you ever actually seen 'em. I bought them after I did. Never seen a pair of speakers built that well at that price point. Hell, they are put together better than my Audio Note speakers and for 1/100th of the cost. OK...they don't sound as good, but in terms of build quality, anyway. Onyx, Cayin, etc. NICELY built stuff. When the design quality starts to match the build quality it should get really interesting...

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Oh, boy, lots of issues discussed here:

1: world economy and free trade is here to stay. You can no longer expect to drop out of high school and get a $40/hr job assembling cars at GM for life. Stocking shelves at Walmart overnight IS a minimum wage job, nothing more, and that is what you are going to get for dropping out of HS. Like previous poster said, the world will find the cheapest labor, and China is it for now. In a few decades China will have pulled itself completely out of third world status and hopefully the cheap labor will move to Africa. That continent needs all the help they can get. What is the alternative? Would you rather have a backward, poor, arch communist China and $40/hr GM jobs or a modern, prosperous China integrated into the world economy and $20/hr GM jobs? I chose the latter. We should be thankfull that China has managed to get itself into a modern economy.

2: Walmarts is efficient, capitalism at its best. What is better, paying $3 for a widget at your corner general store, badly managed, where it takes 3 employees to stock the shelves, or paying $2.50 for the same widget at Walmarts because they are efficient and it takes only 2 workers to do the same job, leaving 1 worker to contribute to the economy in another area? I pick Walmarts.

3: Don't blame Walmarts or China for our crappy schools that don't teach the 3Rs properly and demotivate kids so they drop out and then find that the only jobs for them are flipping hamburgers and stocking shelves. (and if that is a run on sentence or if I have some dangling participles, I blame it on SusieQ for ever distracting me in English class, not on China or Walmart!)

4: YOU are the one that picks the cheap broom that breaks after a few months. North American consumers have been trained to buy the CHEAPEST! No one wants to pay a reasonable price for a quality product. Everyone wants to get a deal! That is why they are always after the best deals in electronics, but then end up paying a fortune for snakeoil cables! Buy quality, buy it once. You make the choice, not Walmarts. If you don't buy it, Walmart can't sell it!

5: Enough for today...

First lets look at the above...

1. Nobody says a high school dropout should make $40/hour,all dropouts should get MINIMUM SALARY,nothing more.Stocking ANY shelf in ANY store should pay MINIMUM WAGE.China will NEVER become a South Korea or Japan,countries with huge populations will also never abolish or...get rid of extreme poverty NEVER.Mark my words.To take a country with 1.4 billion people and give jobs to all is impossible in the current world economy(read your own posts).This would imply WE(america,europe...even Japan) all lose our jobs and give them to THEM.Not a fat chance in blue hell.

2.No you are a little blinded here,Walmarts are efficient true.Only for a very select few who pocket billions and all worker drones making peanuts and smiling like clowns(hey they like it,goo whip them more).yeah you go to Walmart and pay "cheap" what they paid next to nothing and still made a good buck on cheap third class good on your back! Walmart is efficient for the select few, not for YOU.You fatten thier pockets,they take the money from you.Get it

3.I would never blame Walmart and China.Why woudl I blame them?Did China attack america and take the jobs ,no WE send them jobs,we create jobs there.Why blame them? Blame the snakes(again not YOU).Make garbage goods for next to nothing and sell for...a little cheaper.

4.No I buy quality and buy Canadian(I am Canadian)first,American second and the rest follows.I promote local people and in fact did not buy ANYTHING at all at Walmart and will go out of my way not to even get close to one.If all the peons would not buy there they would be nothing.They prosper so much because the peons buy in huge quantities over there.

In north america heavy taxation should be imposed on any cheapo mass produced goods not made here [:D] Taxes in the right places can solve many problems.

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And where do the billions that Walmart's makes go? To the shareholders, which are you and me. You mostlikely have Walmart stock in your pension plan etc. There is a misconception that the billions that corporations make go into someone's deep pockets. No, the profits go to the people who own the shares. If you think that Walmart's is making way to much money, buy some shares.

On your last topic, do you mean then that the cheap massed produced goods made in America should also be taxed when they are imported to other countries? Sort of like the tax on Canadian softwood lumber imported into the US? No, history has showed that duties and other barriers to trade don't work, that is why the world has been trying remove these barriers thru WTO negotiations, NAFTA etc.

This is my last post on this subject. I'd rather be talking about how speakers sound, not where they are made, but I was not the one that opened the Pandora's box on where Klipsch speakers where made.

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