Wharfedale Elysian 4 Incredible build quality and sound, but made in China.

The most expensive loudspeaker designed by Peter Comeau and we still have no idea how it sounds.

These are several times more expensive than the highly regarded Lintons but are they worth that difference?

I still remember his Heybrook HB1s from way back. I had the Mk2 version and they were excellent all rounders.

The made in China thing doesn't bother me at all as long as the people doing the doing the manual work are treated well.

The real question is how do they sound?

Apart from the odd slightly vague review, there doesn't seem to be a lot of user experience being shared online.

Economies of scale. If it was made in the UK or US. $25K

@webking185 

Economies of scale. If it was made in the UK or US. $25K

Modern day global business practices often make it a nonsense to judge products by price.

This is all good news for the consumer and it's hardly surprising that many businesses have adopted this method of supply.

This is bad news for startup companies because the competition is not on a level playing field.

But then again, wasn't it always like this?

@cd318 , 

Some things can be judge by price, but for luxury goods like audio equipment.  I think its highly overrated/marked up in price as these equipment just play music.  How much better each amplifier, DAC, speaker, cables are?  It will be up to the consumer shelling out the price to find out.

US goods has stopped the made in USA concept years ago, many of the product were made in Taiwan, now China and etc... If any of the goods were made here, you know we are paying a fortune for it, and many consumers would cry about the cost being so high.  One of the iconic and most recognizable brand is Harley Davidson. those bikes are now made in China too.  Lets go figure

Competition is competion, nothng is ever on an even playing field unless companies start from scratch with technolgy and were born at the same time.

I boycotted all countries once my audio low cost system was assembled and optimized... My dap used as a fixed battery dac and files bank is made in china though.. My headphone come from Germany and my amplifier from Japan...

Now high qualities speakers cost high money, way too much for me and anyway i know now the difference between a living room and a dedicated acoustic room...

But i cannot afford one in my new smaller house...

Going back to headphone seems catastrophic for me at first, but some TOP headphone optimized beat most speakers in living room or rival them in her own way, especially the K340 ...

Now i boycott every country, china included... i buy NOTHING... I am free 😊

«When my wife is shopping alone , i boycott Germany, you know she is German»--Groucho Marx 🤓