CD player NOT made in China under $1,000?


Is there a CD player NOT Made in China, but preferably Made in Quality, under $1,000?
waryn

Showing 5 responses by trelja

Johnk, the point you make is most valid.

As the importer of a line of Chinese gear, I can speak with authority in saying the failure rate of their CD players and solid state/hybrid components is so incredibly high as to be difficult to believe.

In the industries I come from, a 1% failure rate is utterly unacceptable; enough to launch us into a frenzy to determine the problem, then rectify it immediately. However, in seeing 75% failure rates in the aforementioned categories, one is lead to the conclusion that something is clearly amiss in terms of the design of the components, and not only their execution and assembly.

The sad reality is that we have entered the age of the CNC, where a beautiful chassis can be rendered by a third party, providing the illusion of build quality, when in fact, the business end of things - what is actually inside of that nice box, is pitiful.
Your point about human versus machine manufacturing is valid, Kijanki. However, as I said in my first post, it presupposes the design of said product is sound in the first place. Clearly, in my situation, it's not.

And, again, the company I represent is one of more well known and successful. One of the Chinese "Big 5" as they're known, in high-end audio circles.
Kijanki, "Trelja - where do you see 75% failure rates?"

I see it in the line that I represent, which is one of the foremost and well respected of Chinese audio producers.

I'm not pulling numbers out of thin air, I've documented this, and obviously shared them with the company. Along the way, I've also built up relationships with counterparts ala other distributors for the line, and their figures work out the same. In fact, there is one product that has a documented 100% failure rate. 100%!!! The company's reaction? Well, if they took their quality issues seriously, and reacted in the expected manner, you would see me writing from a different perspective in this thread.

I understand your point regarding CNC. But again, what I am saying is that it provides a false sense of build quality in that we are led to believe that what inside the box is up to the same standards as the box itself. In reality, they have absolutely no relationship to each other whatsoever.

You can infer from my previous post that it is, in fact, the hand soldered components (tube amplifiers and preamplifiers) that are far more reliable than those relying on PCB and/or SMT (CD players and solid state/hybrid amplification). In fact, statistically, the tube components are at least 3 orders of magnitude more reliable. Therefore, I actually have no hesitation in recommending this gear.

One final point, the price advantage of Chinese components has disappeared. For example, a certain tube integrated from a well known and established American manufacturer costs $1795. My aim was to have the company I represented produce for me a similar offering. When all was said and done, what would that product have to retail for? $2495.
Newbee is correct. I am the distributor/importer (and in charge of repairs) for all Opera Audio and Consonance high-end audio components in the North American (USA and Canada).

As I have said, they are one of the largest and most respected Chinese manufacturers in the field. I don't want to single them out, as my opinion from "comparing notes" with other industry insiders is that my experience is not out of the ordinary. But, to put a positive spin on things that deserve it, the sonics of their CD players at their respective pricepoints are class leading, and their tube equipment is not only solidly built and reliable, but especially good sounding.
Excellent question, Chayro!

I will answer the "right out of the box" in terms of CD players with the proviso of "First 100 hours of operation". The reason being that when one is dealing with the laser head of a CD player, the danger is in damaging it via ESD (electrostatic discharge), which will often result in the laser initially working, but failing in the first day or two of playing. Following that, I'd say it's about 50/50.

In terms of solid state and hybrid integrated amplifiers, the failures come not right out of the box, but down the road.

As an example, about a month ago, a guy I sent a replacement integrated amplifier (long story, but customer service is important to me, and you have to do what you have to do - which means eating a lot in terms of cost) 2 or 3 months previous to that called to let me know his amplifier just up and quit one day. I had him send it up to me, and it was clear the amplifier wasn't abused in any way or shorted out, it simply kind of melted down in being asked to drive a 4 ohm loudspeaker load. In that the speakers were Totem Arros, about as ubiquitous a loudspeaker as one is ever going to find, this was particularly outrageous to me. Again, this is another case not of workmanship during the assembly, but improper design. If a product cannot easily go 5 - 10 years when partnered with such a mainstream product, what does it really say about what is coming out of that place?

I've worked with the factory in getting him the next amplifier up the food chain, with a bit more in the way of output transistors and power supply. I'm crossing my fingers right now, as I have no idea that the end result won't wind up the same as what we've just seen. Note, this is now costing me twice for a sale the previous importer made, and took all of the profit on, but the customer should be the last one concerned with this.