Do these look similar?


The top one is the plate amp from the Wilson Audio Loke. The bottom one is from Dayton Audio. Granted Wilson Audio probably has some of the better enclosure materials they use, but a $329 plate amp in an $8750 subwoofer? This seems pretty similar to that company that put their case on an Oppo and jacked up the price, a lot.

 

mrskeptic

Little to question here. Probably made in China. If so.


What can happen is a production line is set up for a company (probably Wilson)…. the contract manufacturer produce the run for Wilson… a thousand.. The parts are shipped to the US and the production line continues to turn out parts… to be sold to any interested party.

In this case, if real, Wilson may have designed the piece and gotten their production run without being careful to make sure they protected their design and the finished pieces were sold to Dayton Audio (quite possibly with cheaper parts… so performance will not match Wilson’s).

Alternatively a Chinese parts distributor or contract manufacturers can offer designs with options (custom labeling and/or different quality sub components) if you purchase your materials / labor from them. Wilson could have told them what they wanted and the CM then gave them subcomponent options and labeling options, then produced this for them.

 

I have worked in China and Japan for decades with some of the largest high tech manufacturers. I have been involved in the manufacturing chain of all the portable and automotive electronics you all use every day.


One thing to be aware of… the internal components may be different… although the plate and connectors look the same. A lot of high end audio is the quality of the components. Or of course they could be the same… can’t tell from the faceplate.

Back in '93 Theta put intact $300 DVD players into cases and sold them as $1200 high-end transports! And the audiophools at TAS loved them!

I’d bet good money that the internals are identical! Wilson ain't going to build plate amps when they can buy them from China for less than $150!