[beatdownvictim]

bwahahhahah wtf? what a small world! another vancouverite that looked at those speakers! hahaah.

Fife, go to Zhou Jia Zhaung, I'm working there from 12-8.  I'll get you a congee on the house.  

I fear for the safety of the speakers in that damn place, it seems as if though all the tweeters are pushed in.  Anyway, i think i'm going to pass on those speakers.  But for $350 before taxes, it's pretty close to paying cost.  And those are NOT scanspeak drivers no matter what they tell you, they are 8945, which have the same cone, but different motor structures.  As i stated before, for the price they're a good buy, but at near 700 usd, i'd steer away.  

And Bill makes a good point about the products, i think the made in china stereotype must be enforced, especially with good "looking" stuff, i think online research was probably the best thing i did when looking at these speakers.

Regards,
BDV

[rahimiv]

i should! i'm going down there to see if i can swindle it for some ludicris price.  Damn, that thing is deceptively big though, 16 inches tall! yikes, but i've heard that speaker in action before, dynamics and soundstage = excellent.  But Carlman(g), got it right, i was thinking about selling it after i'm done with it.  Also, what did you pay for your ushers?

Regards

BDV, (The El Cheapo Audiophile)

Yea, come to Taiwan and visit an Usher shop... get a S520 for like 150 USD (the lacquered version), the P307 costs around 1000 USD (would be twice that in the USA), R1.5 cost the same too... Heck, buy a bunch then try and sell it for more in the USA or something... just good luck hauling those things back because Usher amps and speakers are HEAVY!

[Rick Craig]

Cabinet quality from China can be very good or not so good. Same thing applies to speaker designs. Some of the finishes I've seen looked nice but proved to not be very durable. Others looked like a plastic resin covered table at a chain restaurant.

The choice of veneers is usually limited and how the veneer is selected / matched can really vary. You'll often see a "cherry" with no cherry veneer, maybe stained birch or poplar with a reddish tint. Fit quality is usually pretty good because many of the cabinet shops are tooled for high production with CNC routers.

Driver quality can vary quite a bit as well as the crossovers. Within the same line I tested one 2-way that was fairly good but the companion center channel was not so good.