Hi nandric,
The last line of my post says that I buy from Gyger all the time and so can you. They are easily found with a Google search. That’s how I found them.
Not sure where the confusion is. Yikes.
They aren’t hiding. AJ van den Hul is certainly not going to peddle a diamond called a Gyger when he can sell it as his own. Besides, Gyger doesn’t make van den Hul’s diamonds. I think calling them all the same would be confusing for the consumer. I know my Gygers come from Gwatt (Thun) Switzerland.
You’d have to ask AJ why he keeps it a secret that Expert produces his van den Hul diamonds, but Wyndham would be glad to tell you that his Paratrace are the same. You’re dealing with very successful people with business ideas that surround brand identity. Even they are built to the same formula, it’s really only Paratrace and van den Hul who are “hiding” if anyone should be accused of hiding. Gyger makes his diamonds and is up front about it and he doesn’t seem to care that van den Hul has diamonds made to the same formula in England. Why should he? He has no obligation to. The patent is his as much as it is van den Hul’s for all practical purposes.
Ortofon I guess can be maybe accused of hiding, but it’s marketing and they are probably at worst simply developing a tier system. It makes sense to grade diamonds and then charge a little more for the better ones. Most manufacturers do this in audio. Grados color schemes come to mind right away. I can think of others.
The drawback to their approach is that people who rely on Gyger’s nominal specifications can always sell the same 5/120 diamond as an upgrade to the Replicant 100 since if I don’t grade mine, I can assume all mine are 120. But that’s just an ironic detail.
The only mystery I see is who makes the Decca diamond. I would guess that it’s Expert because Expert can make that r/R and put it on larger diamonds that they already make. And they are in England, so I assume there’s a relationship there. John Wright probably knows Wyndham Hodgson professionally. Plus, Gyger only uses one size diamond blank for the two diamonds they make. So I’m my book, it’s less likely that they make the Decca diamond.
I understand your point about different languages having different names to indicate the same geographical place. That would sort of apply maybe to van den Hul and Paratrace since they come from the same source. But Gyger is separate. It’s not the same diamond even if it’s made from the same formula. One could say it’s sort of like the difference between a Fiat 128, Zantave Koral and a Yugo GV. Same frame, same philosophy, same parts, different factories and different locations with some modifications. But here, in this case, this is a clearly defined license agreement between Zastava and Fiat, and a marketing decision between Zastava and Yugo.