Question on LSi M stuff...

naturallight

I've been looking around on other "stereo " forums...they seem to think the LSiM stuff is all made in China.

Now i'm not sure what is..or may be made in China. If all the drivers and X overs are made there, or the whole speaker is made there. Now of course alot of stuff is made in China these days..which may or may not be good.



Now i don't know if any of this is true...but for a speaker they want 2K per for. Kind of makes me think twice about it. Not that i could afford them in the first place, but kind of makes me feel not so great about them.



Now I don't know if any of this is true. Dose anybody have a clue on this???????



I will probably never sell my SDA's.....and somebody will probably find me dead in my chair with drink in hand in front of them...LOL

naturallight

I guess what i'm saying... If i buy cheap speakers from say CV..I expect them to be made in China. If i buy 2K each, speakers from Polk..i don't expect them to be made in China. That just dose not float my boat....

marvda1

look at it this way, $2000 made in china $4500 for the same speaker made in the usa. my numbers may not be right but you get the point. whether or not the usa made speaker would be better than the china made is up for debate.

BlueFox

Polk has been using China for years. The original LSi speakers were made in China.

naturallight

Well thanks for punching a bunch of holes in my Polk Boat...LOL I know you can't get away with out having alot of China junk...but i kind of thought Polk still made there own speakers. At least for the most part. Probably explains why the MW6511 that i got from Polk about 2 or so years ago...doesn't work worth a crap compared to the original 25 year old drivers. It pops when you push the volume to much, and yes, i moved it to the other speaker cab..dose the same thing. So i will look for an original driver for it.

I'm sure there is nothing wrong with the LSiM stuff...just dose not float my boat.

I'm more then happy to play my "made in the USA" SDA's..and find an original driver for it.



I'm not saying any Polk product is bad.... Not that you can get away from China made stuff today...I just tend to avoid it if i can.

VR3

The LSiM is a top notch product in build, far superior to alot of USA made product I have seen these days.

skrol

When I was in China a couple years ago it was fun to find stuff made in USA. The one that really got me was the hand dryers in the men's rooms.
Stan

F1nut

Dose anybody have a clue on this???????

Dose? A dose of what?

Upstatemax

There are poorly made Chinese products and well made Chinese Products. Just like American products...

I'm pretty sure my Monitor 70's(not mine anymore), RTi's and LSi's were all made in China and they are all well built.

cfrizz

Bingo! You can't have everything. Polks are designed in Baltimore & produced in China. There's not much you can buy that is made in America. Get over it already. The LSIM are one beautiful looking and sound speaker.

marvda1 wrote: »

look at it this way, $2000 made in china $4500 for the same speaker made in the usa. my numbers may not be right but you get the point. whether or not the usa made speaker would be better than the china made is up for debate.

tonyb

Best sell your "american made" car too.....full of parts from China.

heiney9

naturallight wrote: »

I'm sure there is nothing wrong with the LSiM stuff...just dose not float my boat.

So you've demo'd them for a period of time with the right gear and you just don't like their sound? Or, you assume because assembly takes place outside the USA, they must not be any good? Your loss, your loss dude.

H9

leroyjr1

At least in China they can spell the word "does" correctly.

tonyb

I sometimes throw up alittle in my mouth when I hear the "buy american" phrase.....for many reasons. First, we aren't the only ones that can make a quality product in the world. Second, you are still supporting a company based in the U.S., They employ many here too. Third....if everyone took that atitude, who would we sell our products to ?

Again with the hypocracy. Don't buy products from other countries, but expect them to buy ours. The problem arises with trade agreements, politicians, Unions, and goes down hill from there. Look around your house, I defy anyone who spouts the "buy american" slogan to keep that faith. Your appliances, furniture, clothing, cars, lawnmower, toys, bedding, window treatments, electronics, even the materials used to build your home have come from China, Asia, South America, India.....everywhere but here, in whole or in part.

If people are wanting to be so supportive of keeping the manufacturing jobs here, how about stopping to think why they left to begin with and not supporting those who's actions or policies contribute to it.

KiTsuNe

I fail to see how a product's origin relates to the quality of it.

Clipdat

I've definitely heard lots from the "Made in China vs. Made in Japan" camp, but I think when it comes to a higher end expensive product like this, your chances of getting something you will be happy with is pretty good.

KEF now also makes their speakers in China, including the R series which are very expensive.

cstmar01

annnnnddd if the speakers were asembled in the US but the parts were from China would you still buy?

I don't know of many speaker companies that are doing everything in the USA including drivers, etc made in house.

Maybe YG does, yet I don't think you want a 100K set.

There are others, but like I said most of the parts are coming from overseas anyways.

Yes there are some good things still made in the US. Heck my amps and pre amp are US made. However if you were to buy them today you are looking at 6K and 15K for the latest models to be made here in the US. (and I underpriced them as well).

Its going to come at a cost to get it here. Polks idea is to make a good quality speaker that sounds great at a decent cost. China is a way to do that and I'm sorry but the build quality of the LSiM 703's was awesome! Even if it was made in China.

BlueFox

Not to get off onto an economics tangent, but the cost of China and India is increasing, so that the difference between US made and China made is decreasing. Of course, then we are going to start see manufacturing in the Sudan or some other place with slave wages.

naturallight

I had no intension, of starting a "political debate" I "assumed" (and very wrongly in fact) that the price jump from the RTi's to the LSi M series, was do to the fact these were all made here. I have never said...or will say anything bad about Polk speakers. I pretty much have nothing but Polk speakers, and they work great.

I will never get a chance to see or hear the LSi M line. All i have is a Best Buy near me. Plus i never could afford to throw 4K at a set of speakers. Are they great...I'm sure they are. It just took me by surprise that there made in China.



The sad fact that most of the stuff you buy today is made in China..well it is, what it is. You can't get around it.

Is most of it crap..yes. Chinese Drywall..there's a good buy. Pretty much all the houses that were built with that stuff had to be gutted. The crap they used to build it...is toxic. Corroded brass pipes and cabling within the house. They have no rules or regulations on how to make this stuff. They use whats the cheapest, weather it's toxic or not. They don't care about copy write laws or anything else.



Can they make a good product..sure. I guess Polk would be a good example of that.



Is my Mustang 302 engine or drive train made in China...I think NOT..is the Chevy 350 Block and drive-train, made in China..again i think not. I'm sure there are parts and piece's of the car that are made there. But for the most part....it's pretty much all made here.



Dose country of manufacture make a difference....well i would think Yes.

Would you like the Chinese made Sheetrock in your house??? Hell do you like Chinese made tubes in your pre or power amp???

Would you run out and Buy a Yugo? Would you buy a Kia, or Hyundai? Not that Kia or Hyundai are on the face of it bad cars. They look nice and run well..to a point. I've had to work on these things. I mean the stuff in there is Cheap. Did you know that on the Hyundai, you have to change the timing belt at something like 60K miles. Thats an easy $400 buck job, depending on who you take it to. If it breaks, because it's just a rubber belt, like your fan belt...you can pretty much toast the engine..(that would be worst case).



Dose that mean there bad cars..no. Would i trade in my Ford or Chevy small blocks that will pretty much run forever, as long as you bother to change the oil in them..not on your life.

teekay0007

skrol wrote: »

When I was in China a couple years ago it was fun to find stuff made in USA. The one that really got me was the hand dryers in the men's rooms.
Stan

I bet that was like a breath of fresh air!

tonyb

Geez man, C'mon.....theirs quality goods and cheap arse goods in every country......including ours. Yes we can make some decent car engines, but so can China or Japan. Ask anyone with a Honda or Toyota, or their upscale counterparts. Pretty broad brush your painting with is all I'm sayin'.

It's your choice, and I respect that, about where to spend your coin. If your going to withhold buying Polk speakers because they are made outside the U.S., then I would hope you follow that line of thinking in everything else you buy.

The thing is, you have options in a free society....well, for awhile still anyway. You can buy cheap chinese drywall, it's up to you. A chevy cobalt or a Camry, who cares ? The economic wheels still turn.

Conradicles

naturallight = bobt

cnh

tonyb wrote: »

Geez man, C'mon.....theirs quality goods and cheap arse goods in every country......including ours. Yes we can make some decent car engines, but so can China or Japan. Ask anyone with a Honda or Toyota, or their upscale counterparts. Pretty broad brush your painting with is all I'm sayin'.

It's your choice, and I respect that, about where to spend your coin. If your going to withhold buying Polk speakers because they are made outside the U.S., then I would hope you follow that line of thinking in everything else you buy.

The thing is, you have options in a free society....well, for awhile still anyway. You can buy cheap chinese drywall, it's up to you. A chevy cobalt or a Camry, who cares ? The economic wheels still turn.

Bingo, I spent over a year living in Beijing and toured any number of Chinese manufacturing facilities in the capital, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen and Dongguan.

What tony is saying is spot on. Some factories are "state of the art" with engineering and design, like Polk happening in the U.S. Over the last decade, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have moved many production facilities and built new ones in China. American companies like GM, etc. have joint ventures in cities like Chongqing. And you "all" know where Iphones are assembled! This "absurd" idea that something "made in China" is automatically suspect is woefully out of date. Plus, as mentioned above, what series of Polk speaker being sold currently is not made in China? The point is exactly that your LSiM 707 would cost twice as much if it were manufactured here.

That's not to say that we should neglect returning some manufacturing to the U.S. I'm all for that. But dumping on the "quality" of products because they're not made here. Really? We can manufacture crap as well as the next country! And we can also make "great" stuff.

China bashing doesn't solve our problems nor properly represent the quality of much that is made there.

BTW, open up some old vintage Polks and see if you don't find some parts that are MADE IN MEXICO in some??

cnh

cstmar01

well, seeing you asked about tubes, why yes I would put some China made tubes in my amps.

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0509/shuguang_treasure_series_6CA7_kt88.htm

and I could careless where my car was made, my "american made" car had to go in for a "common failure" that is part of the security system that left me high and dry in the middle of a parking lot one day.

and the other one is a pile of crap that sits in my garage that is "USA made" and wouldn't trust to get me very far these days. Oh and I have put oil in it.

Once again, just because it was made in China does NOT mean its terrible. Do I like the idea of giving jobs to US people, yes, but once again. I would think something would give in terms of build quality or price if the speakers were to be made in the US.

naturallight

Tony..I'm not saying that China can't make a really good product. Nore that Polk products have any faults at all. Never said that, never will. The price jump between the RTi line and the new LSi M thru me for a loop. I had "assumed" again a bad thing to do. Was these were all made in the US. Hence the price jump.

I can't afford them, nor could i listen to them. I'm sure there great. The priceing to me seems over the top. Plus way out of my price range. When i found out there made in China....took me back abit.
Thats it ..nothing more.

DMara

naturallight wrote: »

Tony..I'm not saying that China can't make a really good product. Nore that Polk products have any faults at all. Never said that, never will. The price jump between the RTi line and the new LSi M thru me for a loop. I had "assumed" again a bad thing to do. Was these were all made in the US. Hence the price jump.

I can't afford them, nor could i listen to them. I'm sure there great. The priceing to me seems over the top. Plus way out of my price range. When i found out there made in China....took me back abit.
Thats it ..nothing more.

The major cause for the price difference is the quality; you can bet the LSiM line is above and beyond the Rti line in all facets. You should sign up for the Demo tour in order to have a chance to experience the LSiM quality. I don't want to repeat what's its sound output like since there already have been plenty of reviews, both right here in this forum and printed articles on well-known magazines such as Stereophile & Sound+Vision, etc.

naturallight

I'm sure your right about the "quality" of the speakers..and being far beyound the RTi stuff. I would love to hear them. But the sad fact is i could never afford them. So me listening to speakers i could never afford..kind of like beating me in the face, saying these are great ..have a listen..but sorry..send them off to somebody else..you will never hear this quality again...LOL

I will just stick with my SDA's..try and upgrade them when i have the money...and leave it at that.

I'm sure there wonderful...the price is just far too much for me.

thsmith

I agree with some of your points but you dont have to go back to many years to come up with crappy made American products like your drywall example.

We did it to ourselves unfortunately.


We can still do it if we wanted but it will not be with union labor.

DMara

naturallight wrote: »

I'm sure your right about the "quality" of the speakers..and being far beyound the RTi stuff. I would love to hear them. But the sad fact is i could never afford them. So me listening to speakers i could never afford..kind of like beating me in the face, saying these are great ..have a listen..but sorry..send them off to somebody else..you will never hear this quality again...LOL

I will just stick with my SDA's..try and upgrade them when i have the money...and leave it at that.

I'm sure there wonderful...the price is just far too much for me.

If that's the case then why did you even mention about the LSiM line? I'm sure almost each and every speaker manufacturer make various models just so they can accomodate each and every person's budget. It isn't Polk's fault for pricing their flagship speakers that much. Polk didn't demand you to buy the LSiM speakers at all :razz: