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What's going to happen to Quad, Audiolab, etc. ?

T

Tumeni Notes

pfm Member
Along with any other manufacturer who has shifted production to China...

Are they managing to continue manufacture at the moment? Are they getting product shipped out?

If there's huge pushback over China's crackdown on Hong Kong, will things get worse for them?
 
As far as I know China, as a country didn't go into lockdown. Wuhan did, and they managed to isolate the problem rather better than the rest of us (who had prior warning) - and as a country where what the government says is not 'advice' it's 'order'.

A friend of mine lives and works in Shenyang, which is a long way from Wuhan and things have remained pretty normal there - normal being the new normal, facemasks and social distancing, and his wife and kids couldn't fly back from their French home, but no actual lockdown.

Shenzhen, where Audiolab etc are based is similar I believe, so I guess it's business as normal. They have had more experience of lethal virus outbreaks, so probably know what they are doing. Here, well, chicken with head pulled off, springs to mind! We have a lot to learn from others.
 
China now has zero cases, so the virus is not the problem locally.
Nobody buying anything is the headache.
 
JemHayward said:
As far as I know China, as a country didn't go into lockdown. Wuhan did, and they managed to isolate the problem rather better than the rest of us (who had prior warning) - and as a country where what the government says is not 'advice' it's 'order'------
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As I understand it, it was only Hubei Province (capitol city Wuhan) that was 'officially' 'locked down' by the Government. However, the local authorities in other provinces also insisted that people followed similar rules. My wife is currently 'marooned' in Nanchong (Sichuan Province), she flew out in January for the New Year celebrations, I was due to join her in March, but the 'pandemic' prevented that.

JemHayward said:
----------Here, well, chicken with head pulled off, springs to mind! We have a lot to learn from others.
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Sadly, after decades of political mismanagement, short sighted business policies, and despite the regularly regurgitated mantra "that lessons will be learned" - I have to agree. In fact one only has to look at how Germany has handled the situation - (so far Germany 8366 versus 'uk' 36675 deaths).
The one thing I didn't want to do, was to finish up as a 'pensioner' in this now 'disunited kingdom', unfortunately, and due to a distinct lack of foresight on my part, that is exactly what has happened.

davidsrsb said:
China now has zero cases, so the virus is not the problem locally -----
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Not quite true, there have been other cases, and not only in Hubei province, in fact, my wife mentioned this morning that a couple of cases have just been reported in Chengdu (capitol of Sichuan)

Regards
Mike Kelshaw
 
Personally, I try to avoid buying Chinese made HiFi because, in my experience, it is generally of questionable quality. I did buy some Audiolab kit 8 or 9 years ago and much of it suffered from one failure or another; failure of an MDAC within about 3 years due to poor quality capacitors bursting, phono sockets that would pull out of a CDQ with the plugs, failed logic board (CDQ) and buzzing power supplies in power amps. Contrast this with my European/Japanese made kit; Ittok, 30 years old and in perfect health, Linn Linto, 20 years old and fine, Olive Naim NAC 72, HiCap and NAP 250, 28 years old and still going strong (not in use at the moment, but they work just fine).

The only exception for me is Auralic, but that is because the company is controlled by two guys who care about quality, not just making a fast buck.
 
Oddly. I heard British built Audiolabs and loved them. My friend bought newer,Chinese built, Audiolab stuff and it really didn't sound as good. He disagreed, so he bought all his kit (I had more) to mine and we did a comparison. It was quite obvious, in our crude head to head that the older British stuff sounded more "complete and refined".

Luckily, he managed to sell his stuff without loss and invested in the older stuff. Still has it and is happy.
 
mjkelshaw said:
Sadly, after decades of political mismanagement, short sighted business policies, and despite the regularly regurgitated mantra "that lessons will be learned" - I have to agree. In fact one only has to look at how Germany has handled the situation - (so far Germany 8366 versus 'uk' 36675 deaths).
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It is impossible to tell who has handled the situation better or worse yet for the simple reason that the pandemic isn't over yet. For example, those countries that have lower death tolls to date also have a lower rate of infection in the community and those with higher tolls have higher infection rates in the community. The former, therefore, are far more vulnerable to future infections and deaths than the latter. The grim reality of viral infections of this nature is that all you can do is to slow down the progress of the disease, but you can't stop it; the virus will become endemic and it won't stop spreading until slowed by sufficient immunity in the general population. Slowing it down a lot will only prolong the problem and cause more long term harm (including deaths from the effect of poverty induced by economic collapse), not slowing it enough can overwhelm healthcare systems and cause excess deaths (which did not happen here). Behind this is the fact that the IFR (infection fatality ratio) is the same for any given population with equal access to healthcare.

The art, if I may call it that, of managing this is to allow the virus to spread at a rate that does not overwhelm healthcare systems, but not a lot slower. The only country that is taking steps to do this is Sweden. Yes, their figure for deaths per 100,000 is higher than some others now, but they will be out of the pandemic very soon and their final toll in deaths per 100,000 is unlikely to be significantly different to the figures elsewhere; it's just that they will not have trashed their economy and way of life in the process.
 
Timcat said:
Personally, I try to avoid buying Chinese made HiFi because, in my experience, it is generally of questionable quality.
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You are talking about UK equipment that is now made in China to save costs. I have bought quite a lot of Chinese equipment designed and built in China by the Chinese. Shanling, Jungson, Ming Da, Yaqin, and especially Opera Consonance. The Ming Da monoblocks are about 20 years old now and still going strong, the Yaqin phono amp was admittedly set for 220V, but I modified it to suit 240V, and all the Consonance gear has worked faultlessly. Similarly the Shanling CDP and Jungson power amp.
My Quad 2805s are Chinese made, and costs have been cut there, which make manufacture easier, but servicing harder.
 
As understandable as it is from a cost point of view, IMHO, it is very short sighted not to get stuff manufactured in the UK; it's bad for our economy and has a big social impact too. When the country gets back on its feet after the virus has subsided, I will make even more effort to make sure that the things that we buy, are made in the UK. Often though, you won’t find out until it arrives if you are buying on-line; maybe another good reason to buy from real shops? Also, I object to seeing goods plastered with Union Jack symbols and the seeing that its actually made in China.
 
Timcat said:
The grim reality of viral infections of this nature is that all you can do is to slow down the progress of the disease, but you can't stop it...
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Looking at the situation across the world, I reckon the lockdowns will do far more harm than good.
 
wylton said:
As understandable as it is from a cost point of view, IMHO, it is very short sighted not to get stuff manufactured in the UK; it's bad for our economy and has a big social impact too. When the country gets back on its feet after the virus has subsided, I will make even more effort to make sure that the things that we buy, are made in the UK. Often though, you won’t find out until it arrives if you are buying on-line; maybe another good reason to buy from real shops? Also, I object to seeing goods plastered with Union Jack symbols and the seeing that its actually made in China.
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Ignoring Rega as an obvious exception, how many brands actually manufacture here any more under, say, £1000 per box?
 
pocketkitchen said:
Ignoring Rega as an obvious exception, how many brands actually manufacture here any more under, say, £1000 per box?
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Probably very little, I was actually aiming my remark at buying stuff in general as opposed to hi-fi in particular.
 
Bottom line is manufacturers are going to do what makes them the most money and buyers are going to buy what saves them the most money. Which means, China. To change that you'd need to have a situation where the entire population deliberately chose to be personally worse off in order to support UK industry. Don't see it happening.
 
An item may say made in u.k. but you can’t be certain all the parts in the kit are made in the u.k.

I now pay more attention to where anything is made and no longer want to support PR of China if i can help it, it’s not a race thing either and yes i do believe more mfg will go elsewhere. I understand Japan has already seen mfg return to Japan.

Look how Taiwan has been treated by PR China.

I’d rather pay more for quality and not support a regime like PR China.

Usually though with these things, follow the money.
 
amazement said:
An item may say made in u.k. but you can’t be certain all the parts in the kit are made in the u.k.

I now pay more attention to where anything is made and no longer want to support PR of China if i can help it, it’s not a race thing either and yes i do believe more mfg will go elsewhere. I understand Japan has already seen mfg return to Japan.

Look how Taiwan has been treated by PR China.

I’d rather pay more for quality and not support a regime like PR China.

Usually though with these things, follow the money.
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I'd be amazed if any semiconductors were made in the UK, bar any research bits and pieces.
 
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