[geowak]

I have owned a Line Magnetic 216ia integrated amp now for three years. It sounds great, built great and I just had to have it serviced. LM Audio replaced a transformer that burned out tube socket at no charge. Am I out of line in saying I think some chinese audio companies can provide decent equipment, great prices and quality service? This company makes gear based on the older ideas and engineering of Western Electric. Can companies like Yaqin, ShengYa, Jolida, Grant Fidelity, Vincent, Eastern Electric, Opera, Cayin, Ming Da or LM Audio compete with the rest of the audio manufactures?

[DaveC113]

I think like anywhere there will be a wide range of customer service and overall quality. There does seem to be a lot more drama with Chinese companies since some use counterfeit parts, intellectual property is never safe and distribution agreements are never followed. Jolida split at some point, now there are 2 Jolidas AFAIK. One Chinese brand quit and reopened under a different brand because they got caught using counterfeit parts and their name was ruined, and Line Magnetic (and others) can be had from the grey market direct from China for around half of legitimately imported goods.

Also, China's human rights and environmental policies may not be to your liking.

Despite these issues I'd consider a grey market Line Magnetic amp if I didn't build my own...

[jarcher]

I think there's are good and bad Chinese audio co's just like there are from any other nation. I rank Line Magnetic as one of the really great bang for buck ones. I'd take one over Prima Luna, Cayin etc. very good build quality, quality control, and most important, sound quality. They have the traditional tube amp sound without getting too mushy. The LM-502ca dac also sounds incredibly good.

With that said, I would be very wary of buying a grey market one from say alibaba etc. Customer of ours did that and it literally burst in flames moments after plugging it in. If the Chinese can do fantastic knock offs of high end watches (movements and all), making one of a simple point to point wired integrated tube amp is child's play. Yes Virginia - there are now Chinese knock offs of Chinese products!

[geowak]

I think there's are good and bad Chinese audio co's just like there are from any other nation. I rank Line Magnetic as one of the really great bang for buck ones. I'd take one over Prima Luna, Cayin etc. very good build quality, quality control, and most important, sound quality. They have the traditional tube amp sound without getting too mushy. The LM-502ca dac also sounds incredibly good.

With that said, I would be very wary of buying a grey market one from say alibaba etc. Customer of ours did that and it literally burst in flames moments after plugging it in. If the Chinese can do fantastic knock offs of high end watches (movements and all), making one of a simple point to point wired integrated tube amp is child's play. Yes Virginia - there are now Chinese knock offs of Chinese products!

Great point, especially the last one about chinese grey market, knock offs of chinese products. It does seem as though some legitimate chinese companies are trying to make quality gear. They need to separate themselves from the companies making cheap stuff and battle the stigmas with chinese made gear. But again, not ALL stuff made in china is junk.

[Folsom]

Despite these issues I'd consider a grey market Line Magnetic amp if I didn't build my own...

I want the one on wheels!

[timind]

Chinese knock offs of Chinese products, hmmm. Maybe they'll tighten their intellectual property laws.


Unlikely.

[wushuliu]

Chinese knock offs of Chinese products, hmmm. Maybe they'll tighten their intellectual property laws.


Unlikely.

Recent Planet Money podcast discussed the origin of 'hoverboards' and Chinese manufacturing. Because of China's lax intellectual property laws they had a hard time finding out who created the original design. Finally they got a name, turns out hoverboards were designed by some guy in Oregon. He has no idea who ripped of the design, but like that *snap* there were copycats everywhere. Now it's one of the hottest items on the market, and the creator left in the dust.

[ctviggen]

Recent Planet Money podcast discussed the origin of 'hoverboards' and Chinese manufacturing. Because of China's lax intellectual property laws they had a hard time finding out who created the original design. Finally they got a name, turns out hoverboards were designed by some guy in Oregon. He has no idea who ripped of the design, but like that *snap* there were copycats everywhere. Now it's one of the hottest items on the market, and the creator left in the dust.

Did he get patents in the US?

[Folsom]

Ya but who hasn't thought about them since BTTF.

[FullRangeMan]

I think like anywhere there will be a wide range of customer service and overall quality. There does seem to be a lot more drama with Chinese companies since some use counterfeit parts, intellectual property is never safe and distribution agreements are never followed. Jolida split at some point, now there are 2 Jolidas AFAIK. Ming Da (I think, might be a different brand) quit and reopened under a different brand because they got caught using counterfeit parts and their name was ruined, and Line Magnetic (and others) can be had from the grey market direct from China for around half of legitimately imported goods.

Also, China's human rights and environmental policies may not be to your liking.

Despite these issues I'd consider a grey market Line Magnetic amp if I didn't build my own...

Ming Da (I think, might be a different brand) quit and reopened under a different brand because they got caught using counterfeit parts and their name was ruined,
Do you would inform details on this?
I keep an eye at Ming-Da as I like his 211 and 805 mono integrated amps and I unknow this story.
The Ming-Da call Ming-Da here, its site is online, a bit slow as always, but I feel this company is in good shape due his Frech branch with hi profitable Euro prices.
http://www.mei-xing.com/english/English/index.html

[sebrof]

Chinese knock offs of Chinese products, hmmm. Maybe they'll tighten their intellectual property laws.


Unlikely.

Brings Keb Mo's lyrics to mind, "It was a high price to pay to get more for your money today."
Country of origin is important to me, although we often have to make tough decisions.

[DaveC113]

Ming Da (I think, might be a different brand) quit and reopened under a different brand because they got caught using counterfeit parts and their name was ruined,
Do you would inform details on this?
I keep an eye at Ming-Da as I like his 211 and 805 mono integrated amps and I unknow this story.
The Ming-Da call Ming-Da here, its site is online, a bit slow as always, but I feel this company is in good shape due his Frech branch with hi profitable Euro prices.
http://www.mei-xing.com/english/English/index.html

Unfortunately, my memory is not quite good enough to find a link, but there was a discussion on one Chinese brand that had been around a while but was found using counterfeit parts, I think one was "Rudycon" caps instead of "Rubycon", which is the real brand. Their reputation tarnished, they simply renamed their brand and started over. I don't know the details and as I said, it might not be MD, but it was a fairly well known Chinese brand. In retrospect, my wording was poor so I changed it.

I'm also not surprised LM is getting counterfeited too, it's out of hand... the question is why are other countries not demanding China do something about the problem?

[Guy 13]

Hi all,
Vietnamese like Chinese are good at counteirfit
or trying to take advantage of good reputation built by large corporation
by making their product's name sound lke the real stuff.
Examples, just to name a few...
La Vie mineral water = La Ville
Honda motorcycle = Hongda
Toshiba oscillating fan = Joshiba
I have also sold Made in China photographic equipment
and the quality control was poor,
however, I did represent a company from Taiwan and
(Control of) quality was superbe.

Guy 13

[Bemopti123]

I remember that Melody did have some reliability issues, I do not know if that was because of underspec their components or due to fake parts.  I  wonder if the new Melody has improved on the issues. 

[sebrof]

Hi all,
Vietnamese like Chinese are good at counteirfit
or trying to take advantage of good reputation built by large corporation
by making their product's name sound lke the real stuff.
Examples, just to name a few...
La Vie mineral water = La Ville
Honda motorcycle = Hongda
Toshiba oscillating fan = Joshiba
I have also sold Made in China photographic equipment
and the quality control was poor,
however, I did represent a company from Taiwan and
(Control of) quality was superbe.

Guy 13

I was in China In October, on the shuttle bus and out the window I see Starbuckjs Coffee. Green letters exactly like Starbuck's, green lady looking sign exactly like Starbucks. This is a big lighted sign on a building that looked, well exactly like a Starbuck's.
I also saw a Nibe sign that looked exactly like Nike, swish and all several years ago.

IP is just not seen the same way in some parts of the world.

[orientalexpress]

China have come a long way ,the last 5 years I see a lot of good quality high end stereo equipments come this way,for example ,the last 2 equipments that I just add to my lineup Auralic Aries and Gustard X20 Dac ,they're Amazing product and great customer service ,I could never said that 5-10 year ago.

[Hugh]

Those are NOT real Melody products.

I still have the P1688 Signature Pre-amp which I bought used more than 12 years ago.
This is part of the reason why I accepted to be their US Distributor.

I remember that Melody did have some reliability issues, I do not know if that was because of underspec their components or due to fake parts.  I  wonder if the new Melody has improved on the issues.

[Poultrygeist]

I've owned Chinese tube gear from Dared, Yaqin, Jolida, Bada, APPJ, MHZS, and Nobsound plus many class D's and T-amps from Shure, Yung, Yuan Jing etc. as well as a DAC from Audio GD

I've never had an issue with any of these products and the performance/value quotient is unmatched.

[mcgsxr]

I have never had a problem either.  I have not owned a ton of Chi-Fi, but do own some today.

I currently use a Grant Fidelity TubeDAC-11.  I have a HA-INFO usb-spdif converter.  I own a Nuforce preamp (not sure what qualifies as Chinese - does making it there count, or only if it is HQ there?). 

I have coming in a headphone amp/dac that from Matrix (the Mini I) so there is more to come here.

It does not phase me where the gear comes from.  If a US/Canadian piece sounds great, that's great.  If a Chinese piece sounds great, that's fine with me too.

I have never had to have any audio gear repaired under warranty since the mid 80's when a Fisher (!) ghetto blaster ceased to function.  It was hell on wheels dealing with the local place that sold it, and the local "fix it" place. 

[FullRangeMan]

Unfortunately, my memory is not quite good enough to find a link, but there was a discussion on one Chinese brand that had been around a while but was found using counterfeit parts, I think one was "Rudycon" caps instead of "Rubycon", which is the real brand. Their reputation tarnished, they simply renamed their brand and started over. I don't know the details and as I said, it might not be MD, but it was a fairly well known Chinese brand. In retrospect, my wording was poor so I changed it.

I'm also not surprised LM is getting counterfeited too, it's out of hand... the question is why are other countries not demanding China do something about the problem?

Just came to mind I see it at Lampizator site-Rudoycon:
http://lampizator.eu/AMPLIFIERS/CHINA/Mingdamc300-C/ming-da.html