When did Musical Fidelity start making stuff in...

Technology "creep" is the industry term. It does happen, but the reputable companies either open up shop over there, ie; Rotel, or they keep QC staff, or they maintain the quality utilizing other methods. Asia is Asia if you ask me... I've seen good and bad from the entire region. Musical Fidelity, especially, has been able to maintain retails as well as quality.

As if a lot of western audiophile brands are the pinnacle of reliability and quality.....

The Chinese have nuclear weapons and have put humans in space. I'm sure they can figure out how to make audio equipment. Once they get their heads around this "capitalism" thing and realize what the market wants in terms of quality or market needs, life will become increasingly uncomfortable for competitors.

There was a Japanese motorcycle manufacturer (I don't remember who, but possibly Honda)that wanted to enter the Chinese market. A Chinese comptetitor then built a similar product. The Japanese bought a couple and took them home to take them apart and analyze them. They then withdrew from the particular market segment. They decided they couldn't build a product of that quality for the price the Chinese were selling it for and make a profit.

People in North America (i.e. GM, Ford and Chrysler) were equally dismissive of Japanese car manufacturers in the '70's when they entered the North American market because of their lack of quality and reliability. Well, what's the situation now in car manufacturing?

Guess what? Three or four Chinese car manufacturers are talking about coming to North America in the next couple of years. The American car manufacturers are as equally dismissive of the Chinese cars as they were of the Japanese and the Koreans. They still haven't learned their lesson which maybe explains in part why they are in the predicament they are now in. The Chinese cars may be crap for a model generation or two. And then what do you think will happen?

I don't know what the quality is with respect to Chinese audio equipment. But if they want it to be good, it will be....at half the cost. Even now, Chinese companies are buying western brands. You'd be surpised at who they own.

Anyway, it's fun to watch it all from a business analytical perspective. We'll see what happens.

Here we go again, if anyone thinks they can avoid China then they have their head in the sand, if it works good, is safe, reliable and a good value I buy it no matter where it comes from. China got its strength in large part because of our own greed, unions and other factors that we both were and were not at fault in creating.....I buy whats works for me and dont dwell on things I cant control.

Has2be, the kW line is still made in England. The rest is sourced out.

the only thing worse than a flood of products from a territory that dismisses human rights and intellectual properties, is the flood of products which are being marketed as 'name brands', or silently sold as if they are still what 'they were', and are simply 'badged' as such. 'anyone' with enough capital can phone-in(and badge as 'designed by')orders for any product you can name. If Harley Davidson did this, they would not be able to keep it a secret....Since many audio companies are privately owned, disclosure is not necc. It would be the right thing to do, but will be unlikely, given the conditions their products are made under, and the margins they can make. there are lots of great sounding products that come from China, and i wouldn't criticize anyone for buying anything they liked...the 'makers' do owe it to their consumers however to be honest about their products. otherwise 'the name' means nothing.