Polk made in China?

SamSagaZ

well, i was looking the box if my MMC6500 box and i noticed that it say made in china, is that possible?
at least i will buy the C400.4 next week but i dont want to get ripped.
i will buy it to the same guy that i buyed the mmc6500 and MM2124.

Hope you understand my english

VR3

Yes, Polk recently moved to China for their assembly.

They're HQ is located in Baltimore, MD however where all the R&D still takes place. But yes, they are put together in good ol China.

1996blackmax

Just the way things are now. Companies have to make a profit. Knowing Polk, I think the quality will not change .

Toxis

^we can hope!

wlrandall

Toxis wrote:

^we can hope!

Yeah, right...about the time H/K first started making things over there they had some issues. As for my industry, the stuff we've tried to get manufactured there or in India had MAJOR issues. You just can't make someone who works for fifty cents a day and 14,000 miles away care...

VR3

Hey folks...

Moving to China is what brought you the fit and finish on the current RTi, Monitor, and LSi lines - that seamless, painted high gloss finish over the laminated one? All china...

Better veneers, all China.

Although I hate when Americans lose jobs, its not like your seeing negative effects are you?

audiobliss

Build quality aside, it depresses me whenever I hear of yet another company switching to China or India for their assembly/production. That's one reason why I like New Balance so much more than Nike - New Balance, a lot of the time, is made right here. I like that. And would pay more for it.

MacLeod

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote:

Hey folks...

Moving to China is what brought you the fit and finish on the current RTi, Monitor, and LSi lines - that seamless, painted high gloss finish over the laminated one? All china...

Better veneers, all China.

Although I hate when Americans lose jobs, its not like your seeing negative effects are you?

Another thing is not only are you getting better fit and finish but youre getting it cheaper than you normally would ($250 for the RTI4's is an absurdly low price for what you get!). And those jobs that are being lost seem to be getting found. Outsourcing has been going on for about 10 years yet unemployment is constantly going down and household income is going up.

VR3

But jobs are still lost.

No, thats a very high price! The RT25i, 35i, RT5, RT35 all can be had for between 100-200 shipped.

Also note that the RT5, RT35i, RT35 are ALL larger models than the RTi4.

SamSagaZ

well thanks, ill order the C400.4 this wednesday

MacLeod

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote:

But jobs are still lost.

No, thats a very high price! The RT25i, 35i, RT5, RT35 all can be had for between 100-200 shipped.

Also note that the RT5, RT35i, RT35 are ALL larger models than the RTi4.

Yeah, but thats $250 brand spankin' new!

VR3

Yeah, but thats 100-200 shipped ALMOST brand spankin new (and sounds just as good, if not better too)

Shhh...don't tell no one but the LSi7 sells for about 350-400 shipped.

MacLeod

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote:

Shhh...don't tell no one but the LSi7 sells for about 350-400 shipped.

WHAT!!! Er, I mean what?

That is used, correct? Cause now youve got me imgaining a set of 7's sitting on my shelf!

VR3

MacLeod wrote:

WHAT!!! Er, I mean what?

That is used, correct? Cause now youve got me imgaining a set of 7's sitting on my shelf!

Used, yes...

fireshoes

audiobliss wrote:

Build quality aside, it depresses me whenever I hear of yet another company switching to China or India for their assembly/production.

Don't sweat it, the manufacturing was in Mexico before...

audiobliss

fireshoes wrote:

Don't sweat it, the manufacturing was in Mexico before...

ROFL...that makes me feel better.....sigh

Shawshanks

Sucks that things have to be moved over to another country for production, sucks that jobs here are being lost to people overseas... but the fact of the matter is that its a business descision and if Polk doesn't make this move then there may not be a Polk around in the near future. the cheaper labor is key and for those who think that these companies are taking advantage of the workers overseas by paying them cheap wages, in american eyes it is cheap, but its relative to that country's economy of scale and cost of living. trust me for some of them getting paid something is better than nothing at all and if you thought that unemployment in the US is high in certain places, its nothing compared to some places in asia. i know this because i used to work for Nike inc. in their apparel production department and i would have to work w/ the liasion office overseas and factory production.

Don't worry too much about Polk products being produced overseas, most of the components that goes into their products maybe manufactured in the US and shipped to china for assembly. mostly everything we have in the US is mfg or assembled overseas. plus if something were to go wrong, i assume that Polk would do what needs to be done to retain you as a loyal customer. get the polk products.

SamSagaZ

ok, thanks

[Deleted User]

Funny, but deleted due to.....hell, you know why.

Sami

There is nothing wrong about outsourcing work overseas. USA is all about free market economy, isn't it? Well, not really, but that's what it is touting to be.

PoweredByDodge

... and it was oh so good too.

I too agree that overseas build quality is not bad at all. In fact, at Ford we had an outside source come in for building steel pallets. At 1/5th of the cost of having a US firm do the work, this firm from India built them just as good and actually gave us a limited guarantee on life span and stuff, just as a "show of good faith". I'm sure the US firms would have given some sort of verbal assurance as well, but these guys put it in writing. We ended up getting a presentation video (during the guy's pitch) that showed the inside of his facilities and such, and I have got to say, he ran a very clean place, a lot of workers, and it appeared that safety equipment was in place as it should be.

I agree with Shawshanks, just because it's less than what minimum wage is over here, does not mean that it's not "good money" over there. The guy that owned this pallet company was a "millionaire" in India, but I doubt he would be considered more than "middle class" in the US.

I really don't care about how jobs get shuffled so long as the distribution stays the same. I mean, if the US gets more design and research jobs than it had before, but it loses some fabrication jobs, then we're still "even" as far as jobs go, they're just different ones. And, considering the US has (at least I think so ??) the most schools and education available of just about anywhere, and we have good financial aid and state schools that are cheap, so people can get "brained up" and take advantage of those employment opportunities.

Just my look at it for now - I'm trying to get a better grasp on all of what's going on with this stuff - everybody has such skewed views of it online (websites and such, mostly political ones) that it's hard to get the "real story" without having to make inferences and guesses as to what reality is from looking at two extremely different views and tryin to get the middle ground outa it.

Thom

PBD wrote:

And, considering the US has (at least I think so ??) the most schools and education available of just about anywhere, and we have good financial aid and state schools that are cheap, so people can get "brained up" and take advantage of those employment opportunities.

Holy **** our public schools suck. I bought a house I didn't like and spent way too much money just because it's in a blue ribbon school district. And I still have to spend money on pre- K because they don't start until K. Private schools are insane money and a lot of them force religion down your throat. But I'm still glad I went to one, only because I realized how bad public school was once I talked my parents into letting me go there for my last few years of high school.

PoweredByDodge

true - but i was aiming more at higher education. just about every country sends their people here to go to college, many for highschool even. while our education may suck in our eyes, overseas its totally ****. china is about the only country with an education from grade K through college that's better than ours.

Sami

PoweredByDodge wrote:

china is about the only country with an education from grade K through college that's better than ours.

So China IYO has better education system in every level while in some levels US might have better than other countries?

PoweredByDodge

my opinion is that China has the best education overall, the US would be 2nd but the gap between the two is more than i would like to admit. The rest of the world, i believe, has a long way to go to catch up with the US.

Sami

PoweredByDodge wrote:

my opinion is that China has the best education overall, the US would be 2nd but the gap between the two is more than i would like to admit. The rest of the world, i believe, has a long way to go to catch up with the US.

I don't think so. Overall the US education level is rather poor compared to Western Europe. Top universities yes but the drop is quite huge after them.

MacLeod

I belive education dont mean ****. There is a big difference between education and intelligence. Some of the stupidest people Ive ever known have bachelor degrees or better.

Everybody is always talking about how dumb Americans are when compared to the geniuses of China and Europe. If thats the case, why is it China is still about 20 years behind us in military technology and just recently launched a man into space for the first time 40 years after us? Why is it always America that comes thru with the technological breakthroughs in medicine, science and engineering? Not too bad for a country full of dumbasses.

VR3

I second Mac...

I have met tons of smart people with almost next to zero common sense, and when I say next to zero, I mean on the negative side of the board...

Just because you can answer equations in a book or figure stuff out don't mean you know what it going on in the room around you, much less infront of you.

Jstas

wow.

audiobliss

PoweredByDodge wrote:

Ruiner1981: we should write a book "How to solve the world's problems through dictatorships, slavery, and violent mayhem"

ROFL

Man......that's....ummm..........yeah.....

Dizzy_124dvc

Saddest part about outsourcing is, American working men and women now can't buy the products that they used to produce because people in other countries get paid a fraction of their salaries.

As for the quality, though, so far I haven't had issues with that. Except, perhaps, what I've read about fake Alpine amps in Asia. Rumours are that a failed outsourcing contract from the '90s by Alpine left certain people with the blueprints (or whatever the electronics equivalent is) of old Alpine amps, like the ones that came out after the 3534. then they get sold looking exactly like the originals, but a sticker on it says "1000watts" but miraculously an MRD-M301 drove all test subs much better.

Even more absurd, there are ones that came out looking like Phoenix Gold Titaniums, but have bright colored trims and huge //////ALPINE stickers all over them. right next to it is "4000watts". yeah, right. at least most people who are into car audio know better, and since most Asian distributors are members of car clubs, they know this and don't feel threatened enough to spend on legal fees to call for crackdowns.