Its common knowledge, SOME of the 555s were very good, some were not. Many companies design a product and then have it made by a company specializing in that product; this is not always a bad thing. The Japanese company Jelco has only recently become well known despite making high quality tonearms for decades for other companies to be sold under their names. The problem is that sometimes a company will turn to manufacture A to make a product; after it is established it will then turn to manufacture B to make a cheaper version without changing the appearance or model number. This is what I had heard was the case with the 555 but I have not compared them myself. NAD is another respected marketer, who, so far as I am aware, does the design work and contracts out the actual construction to others. At least that was the case in the days when I was one of their dealers. But since so much of the industry has moved to the Far East and so many famous brands have been juggled between companies I will not pretend to have an exact knowledge of who is making what these days.
