Why I prefer gear that is made domestically

Great stories guys-

This is the same reason for me why most of my equipment is either, US or Canadian built, with the exception sometimes for speakers. Seems like around $3k - 4k is the breaking point that many of the "high end" speaker manufactures quit manufacturing in Asian countries. Many of the under $3k speakers by B&W, Revel, Paradigm, KEF etc. are outsourced but are still excellent quality, and I’ve owned quite a few. Wharfedale for example has one of the largest manufacturing facilities in the world, in China. They make their own drivers, wire, crossovers, cabinets, grills, everything, they just do it in China to save labor and maybe have some other advantages that I don’t know about, I’m not an economics expert. I just recently sold a pair of JBL 4312E’s that were made in Mexico and they were nothing compared to the older, US manufactured ones.

I never thought about the repairs angle. I guess it’s never been much of an issue for me until recently. My Schiit Saga concerned me after I inserted the tube the wrong way(!!) and I caught a little whiff of electronics letting out the magic smoke while my speakers emitted this loud hum. Didn’t see any smoke, and I was kneeling in front of the audio rack(and the Saga) at the time.  I immediately turned it off and then sat there ashamed of my sins.

I didn’t think it was possible to insert it wrong, it has the tab, and I was in a hurry...oops. Anyway, after becoming hyper alert about any perceived sound degradation, it seemed like the soundstage had shifted to the right a little. A couple of months went by, I bought a new tube hoping for joy, but no difference.

So I sent the Saga in, explaining everything, and although they could find nothing wrong with it during a week of testing, they replaced the main(only) board at my request. Under warranty, although it was completely my fault. Now that’s a company I would recommend to anybody, and their stuff is also made domestically.

Anyway, while the Saga was gone, I found the source of the channel imbalance. 2 pairs of Audioquest Sydney RCA’s that I had bought used. I didn’t have the heart to tell Schiit this, <sigh>. Now I wonder if I have counterfeit cables from China.

Which had been my main concern with foreign(actually mostly China) made gear. In the early 90’s they started welcoming American companies into China to build factories and set up manufacturing, and everybody involved made tons of money, and you had to ask yourself, why was China suddenly allowing this? And was Clinton a genius?

Fast forward 20 years, and it becomes clear that China was allowing this so that they could appropriate all kinds of tech, manufacturing know-how, and industry for themselves without actually having to develop it out of nothing like the rest of the world did.

Oh, and by the way, looks like they are going to get a "better grip" on Hong Kong, is Taiwan next? Also, in their tariff response to the US, they are specifically targeting swing states that Trump could lose. How’s that for interfering in an election? If we didn’t like Russian interference, we shouldn’t like this, or else we are hypocrites.

No thank you, I’m not interested in foreign made gear anymore, whenever I can avoid it.