Let me make clear that the following RANT is based on economics and ethics, not race. The world has changed since Covid hit us in March of 2020. Our biz hasn’t been the same since.
The audio industry has gone largely cookie cutter in the last few years. Company after company is hiring the same handful of Chinese OEM vendors to make gear for them. They’re doing it with speakers and electronics. The market has become FLOODED with badged mediocrity.
During Covid these Chinese job houses passed out masks and kept PUMPING out gear, which earned them higher market share because… the production of our N American & Euro companies fell to a trickle.
Companies from N America & Europe followed health guidelines. They spread out employees in factories which vastly diminished production. Administrative staff worked from home whenever possible. Production in N America & Europe became virtually constipated with the changes and inefficiencies. The left hand rarely knew what the right was doing.
The Chinese companies that manufacture containers of gear for most of the brands we recognize- just passed out masks and kept filling up boats. Covid was hardly any skin off their noses.
Further, these opportunists recognized the situation and leveraged pricing by the month, not unlike what we see with gas. Some of us took notice. I didn’t like it then. I don’t like it now.
To add insult to injury… when products hit the US, our distributors and importers got LAZY. They would just move whatever inventory they got to a few online sources. We, the brick and mortar guys who actually do demos for customers and support people who buy from us, had to FIGHT to get any inventory. The guys sitting at their computers out east just allocated inventory for bigbox.com. We… were lucky to get a few scraps off the carcass.
Of course… I took notice. The blankety blanks didn’t give a rat’s arse about small brick and mortar guys who DO THE WORK of helping build their brands and deal with customers in person. They gave the lion’s share of the spoils, the inventory, to online warehouses. Those outfits sell via clicks on a computer. No demos. No expertise. No follow through or service… just clicks and widgets.
The Tables Have Turned!
Well NOW the tables have turned. Our N American and Euro manufacturers are healthy again and we can provide SUPERIOR quality with their products vs the Chinese. I am making a concerted effort to support N American and Euro suppliers who MAKE BETTER GEAR and didn’t hose the marketplace during Covid.
The good news is, for not a lot more money than what’s coming from the other side of the world, we now have N American and Euro suppliers who have recovered and STEPPED UP.
Several companies in particular are making this possible. Please consider supporting these N American and Euro companies, who are largely owner/operators, instead of ginormous Chinese MACHINES.
Bryston
In 2010, James Tanner, Bryston’s CEO, designed a loudspeaker for Bryston to use for evaluating its own electronics. James wasn’t happy with the market’s affordable speakers. They didn’t have deep bass with control, a smooth top end, or heavyweight power handling. So he created his own!
This speaker was called the Model T (Tanner) and was intended for internal use. James contracted Axiom, a friendly Canadian speaker company down the road a piece, to custom make this Model T for Bryston’s lab use. The Model T checked all his boxes and became a valuable tool in Bryston’s engineering arsenal.
In the aftermath of the 2009 market crash and recession, top speaker manufacturers who manufactured in N American or Europe, saw their sales plummet to peanuts. As they tried to get back on their feet, literally making speakers to order, pricing DOUBLED very quickly. These same companies went to China to fill their lower price points.
Bryston T Series
James realized his Bryston Model T speakers could now be slotted into the marketplace. He could make some smaller, still formidable brothers, from the same platform. These smaller T speakers (Mini T and Middle T) were just as good as the Model T- though not as powerful. This T Series of speakers was an instant, tremendous success.
Bryston A Series
With the success of the T Series, based around Bryston’s hugely robust, 8” cast woofers, James soon created Bryston’s A Series, based around commensurate Bryston 6.5” woofers.
In short order James had created a broad line of Bryston speakers. These speakers are constructed to a more hearty and reliable standard than virtually any others in our business and thus are backed with a 20 year warranty! That’s right- TWENTY.
The 20 year warranty is a valuable asset to YOU. It’s not a phony marketing tool Bryston won’t stick with. Bryston has had a 20 year warranty on its electronics (!) since the 80s.
We have learned in dealing with other speaker companies that they only support their parts for about a decade on any given model. Beyond that, parts typically aren’t available. Sometimes you can find them from a speculating parts vendor who will gouge your eyes out with pricing. It makes sense to buy Bryston. Not only do they sound better, you’ll have solid support for decades.
Bryston / Axiom
Bryston and Axiom merged. The resulting company is simply called Bryston. James Tanner is the CEO. I think that’s GREAT! The guy who designs the speakers is DaBoss.
Bryston does more things RIGHT, and at reasonable pricing, than anyone else out there. Bryston speakers have prodigious bass, a Steinway smooth musical balance and are the most reliable speakers I’ve ever sold. Bryston speakers are built in their own house, in Canada.
I’ve been in biz since 1975 and sold many of the top brands in our industry. The vast majority of them don’t make their own speakers. They buy parts from vendors and assemble them. Further, we have the disturbing trend of companies hiring Chinese job houses to ship mediocre speakers over here- with whatever name you request slapped on the boxes. It’s just like buying golf shirts with different company logos on them.
Bryston makes its top products, that invariably push the state of the art, under the Bryston name, again, in Canada.
Axiom
Bryston is now beginning to produce a family of amplifiers and speakers under the Axiom brand name. Axiom products are also made in Canada- and have a 5 year warranty. Axiom products aren’t made to the same heavyweight standard of Bryston’s. Yet, they’re outstanding in their own right and a true step above the Chinese imports, at not much higher pricing. A 5 year warranty is generous support for amplifiers in particular.
Axiom speakers are less powerful than Bryston’s, but still a notch stronger and tougher than the mass imports. The tonal balance is euphonious, not harsh. The bass is hefty with impact instead of feeble or mushy.
Rogue Audio
Mark O’Brien started Rogue in Pennsylvania in 1996. Rogue has offered great sounding, tube based integrated amps, preamps and power amps throughout this time.
In recent years Mark has juiced up his affordable integrated amps. Rogue’s Sphinx Magnum and Pharaoh 2 are among the best sounding integrateds in the biz! Running linear power supplies, tubes, and employing them with Mark’s secret sauce, these integrateds have superior midrange flavor in particular. Voices of humans and instruments are more breathy and less congested than their Chinese counterparts. It’s a pleasure to hear music in the sunshine instead of under a cloud.
Mark now offers more affordable preamp and power amp options. Rogue is a welcome oasis in the market of affordable electronics.
Atoll Electronique
Atoll was founded in France by brothers Stephane & Emmanuel Dubreuil. Atoll manufactures a wide array of solidly built, great sounding electronics, IN FRANCE! Atoll eschews tricks and short cuts. Atoll builds its gear around dual mono power supplies to offer conspicuously BETTER sound than the mass houses they compete with, typically at apples to apples pricing. Atoll offers basic versions of its gear, like integrated amps and preamps, in line stage configuration. You can add features like DACs, Bluetooth & phono with cards as you need them. What a great idea! Custom configure what makes sense for YOU!.
The Imports
Now, of course we understand the temptation to take the easy way out. Companies can hire poopbox of China to make products for them. They can choose parts from a menu and they’ll build whatever you want. Why hassle with any details, like quality control or pleasing employees? So what if they work a 72 hour week and get paid $1.82 per hour? People are just as conscientious at hour 71 of a six day week as they are of hour one, right? What could go wrong?
China is still trying to get away from its “996” working hour system. What’s THAT? That’s when employees work 9-9, 6 days per week, equals 72 hours.
We understand that entry level products are likely to come from China or somewhere else in the neighborhood. Butttt, we now can offer fabulous sounding integrated amps made by Atoll in France for just over a grand. Please be open to spending a few pennies more for clearly smoother and more muscular sound of better build quality.
Let’s Look Beyond Generic
Why settle for the traditional stock in trade gear that permeates the market? We have mentioned several alternatives above. There is hi-fi gear that sounds demonstrably better than what mass manufacturing can provide, for not a lot more money.
Support
Please support N American and Euro companies who build their gear with pride. These companies really try hard to make better sounding, more reliable gear. Bryston, Axiom, Atoll, Rogue, Klipsch Heritage & Magnepan put a lot of TOIL into their gear and running their businesses honorably.
Please don’t support the mendacious importers that are trying to trick you with pricing games. They list bogus MSRPs and always have their gear “on sale.”
These marketers know that human nature is to want a “deal.” With a fallacious MSRP, they offer a pseudo discount to where they wanted to land from square one. Please don’t hold it against Bryston, Rogue, Atoll & Magnepan that they DON’T play ball that way.
Snickering?
I hear some of you snickering back there in the cheap seats, thinking I’m over stating this situation. I’m not. Here’s just one example for you.
There’s a Chinese company called Zhongshan ShengYa. Zhongshan is a city of 4.5m people, not far from Hong Kong. Its population is 42% bigger than Chicago and we’ve never heard of it. Zhongshan ShengYa makes MANY audio brands, some of which have had some success in N America.
If you’re a deep dive audiophile you may have heard of Vincent, Willsenton, Shanling, Opera Audio and maybe even Custard. ZSY makes those and many other brands that we haven’t heard of. Here’s a list of some, and I’m not even including cables/accessories. Bada, Bewitch, Boyuurange, Choseal, Dugard, Dussun, E&T, G&W, JungSon, LKS, Linlai, Master Audio, MingDa, Music Angel, Old Chen, Paijon, Psvane, Qinpu, Raphaelite, Reison, Shunguang, Sound Artist, Winner, Xindnk, Xaing Sheus, Yaoin, Yarland, Yaqin.