Are you sure that the material choices are the same? It's not that difficult to make something that looks the same (f.x. Usher speakerunits which looks like Scanspeak but have never even been close to being the same materials, engineering and performance).
Most often I have seen goodlooking Taiwan terminals made from less than pure materials, i.e. not a high consistent quality.
I agree on consistency in many products, but as everywhere, so in Taiwan there are also very serious companies paying much attention to quality and consistency. Much like everywhere else.
Let me go local here a bit. Serbia is traditionally a farming country, with some industries running strong (e.g. textiles, decorative crystal, etc), and others being weak. Some years ago, a friend needed some high power connectors, for power transfer (meaning AC voltage, not audio), which had to be compact yet powerful (100 amps at 220 VAC, or 22 kilowatts!), obviously well insulated (safety first!) and of course, economically sustainable (a sexy way of saying cheap).
Anyway, we rocked and rolled and produced just such a connector. With its own Teflon insulation, its price is about 5 euros (if memory serves) in lots of 1,000. Now, try finding something like that at anywhere near that price and if you do, let me know.
The point being that technology is a wonderful, but very surprising thing, it can jump at you from places where you would never expect it from.
Another example. A few days ago, I was shown a new product offered by a local dealer friend, a moncrystal cable of very obviously outstanind quality. Price is 200 euros for a stereo pair, 2x0.75 m. Somehow, it looked vaguely familiar, and rang a few bells. So I borrowed a pair, went to a lab I know is well equipped and staffed with good friends, and compared it to what it reminded me of, a British "product". No matter what we did and how we did it, we always came to identical results, the differences being second digit after the decimal point. RLC on both comes out the same individually and in a trio mix, with practically speaking identical performance.
No famous brand name, different outer skin color schemes, the obvious original costing 200 euros retail, whereas the differently colored and rebadged British "product" costs exactly 5 times the price in Britain.
What would the ups costs be for that parcel, I might be interested (though we will definitely not stop using WBT on our products).
Frankly, no idea - I'll have to ask. I don't use them much, so I'm not in touch with the current prices.
But let's make sure we are talking about the same thing - I was referring to RCA Cinch plugs, the kind you turn to screw on tight to the receptacle. I think you referred to loudspeaker terminals.
Cheers,
DVV
