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Difference in quality in products made in China?

There is a belief among many audiophiles that electronics assembled in China or Korea are not as well made as products assembled in the USA and England. This has nothing to do,(I believe) with the "technical abilities" of workers, as it has to do with standards of quality control, and the sourcing of less quality parts throughout Asia

This may be all hogwash and just biased opinion, but this question comes up to often to be quickly dismissed. From my own experience which is limited compared to other members, the products(amps. pre-amps CD players) I have owned that were made in the USA, or UK, and Canada, have been solid in terms of long term reliability. I would like to hear others opinions on this issue.
sunnyjim
tpreaves's avatar
tpreaves
2,686 posts
 
Every country manufactures good and bad products. I think the reason China stands out so much in the bad department is the sheer volume of goods coming from there. When you produce that much volume, quality control is bound to suffer. My comments are directed toward the mass marketed aspect of manufacturing not the miniscule one man operations, that's another ball of wax entirely. Just my opinion, biased as it may be.
jameswei
883 posts
 
I've often felt that quality control is a corporate choice. Like what kind of failure rate is acceptable for the brand and how much would it cost to reduce it.

I have had failures in notebook computers made in China. But they are complicated products, and I have had no notebook computers made in the U.S. So an apples to apples (sorry pun) comparison is hard.

The best comparisons would be between similar products from the same company but made in different locations. (e.g., BMWs made in Germany vs BMWs made in U.S.) There are a few high end companies that do sell electronics made in China and in the U.S., but I haven't seen any failure data to make a comparison. Has anyone else?
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
Management is more important than origin. Kentucky plant that makes Toyota Avalon is one of the best in the world (my 17 year old Avalon works like Swiss watch). I also have Mac Mini and Macbook Air, both made in China, with no problems whatsoever. The biggest distinction in electronics is technology. Hand soldering require skills and often leaves cold solder joints (RCA TVs were famous for that) or placement mistakes, but surface mount is a very well controlled process. Once it is set properly it works identical here or there. As for quality of the parts - a lot of them come from Asia anyway while list of approved sources is supplied by engineer. I wouldn't mix Korea into this because they have much higher standards (just look at Samsung). Samic, for instance, is completely automated Korean factory that makes guitars for many brand names. They just dial required components and machines complete the work.
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