who made this stuff (Japanese brands and their contractors)

Comments

• DollarDave Posts: 2,589

  January 1

  Very interesting read!

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• Moose68Bash Posts: 3,572

  January 1

  Yes, very interesting.

  Family Room, PS Audio PW Transport, DirectStream DAC; AQ Sky XLRs, Perreaux SM6 MKII Pre; AQ Sky XLRs, Perreaux Prisma 750 Amps or CAT 600.2 Dualmono Amp, Morrow SP7 Speaker Cables, SDA SRS 1.2tls (RD0198s, Dreadnought, Black Hole 5, Acousta-Stuf, Dynamat Extreme, JBWeld. Vr3 Mods: "The Abbot" Monastery-Level Xovers, Custom Internal Wiring, Binding Post Plates, & SDA ICs).
  
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  Synology 713+ NAS on Gigabit LAN serving PW MkII DAC & DirectStream DAC.

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• F1nut Posts: 41,804

  January 1

  Wow, the guy had a lot of time on his hands!

  Political Correctness'.........defined
  
  "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
  
  

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• verb Posts: 6,369

  January 1

  Interesting read for sure. But really not atypical of any industry. In my biz (automotive) we subcontract identical parts to multiple sources, to keep up with production demands. The key to maintaining quality is having and enforcing rigid performance specifications. Even today, common (non proprietary) components are shared among other OEMs, who otherwise would be the competition!

  Basement: Polk SDA SRS, Cary SLP-05 Pre, Enlightened Audio Designs CD Transport, Northstar Designs Excelsio DAC, Silnote Morpheus Ref2 Digital Cable, Marantz SA-14 SACD, McIntosh MC300 Amp, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Pangea Power Cables, Wireworld Oasis 8 RCA IC's, MIT Shotgun S3 IC's, MIT Shotgun S1 Bi-Wire speaker cables
  Office: PC, Marantz CD-1, Marantz AMP-1, Denon UDR-F10 Cassette, Acoustic Technologies Classic Speakers, SVS SB12 Plus sub, MIT AVt2 speaker cables, IFI Purifier2, AQ Cinnamon USB cable, Groneberg Quatro Reference IC's
  Spare Room: , Antique Sound Labs Wave AV-8 Monoblocks, Tisbury Mini Passive Pre, Tjoeb 99 tube CD player (modified Marantz CD-38), Analysis Plus Oval 9's, Zu Jumpers, AudioEngine B1 Streamer, Klipsch RB-61 v2, SVS PB1000 sub, Blue Jeans RCA IC's
  Living Room: Pioneer SX-N30 Network Receiver, Pioneer PD10AE CD Player, Furman M8-LX Power Conditioner, Polk RT265 In Wall Speakers, Polk DSW Pro 660wi sub

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• mhardy6647 Posts: 21,599

  January 1

  F1nut wrote: »

  Wow, the guy had a lot of time on his hands!

  
  and/or OCD and/or on the spectrum...
  with, in all seriousness, no offense meant to those who fall into either, or both categories -- hifi wouldn't be the same without us.
  

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• mhardy6647 Posts: 21,599

  January 1

  verb wrote: »

  Interesting read for sure. But really not atypical of any industry. In my biz (automotive) we subcontract identical parts to multiple sources, to keep up with production demands. The key to maintaining quality is having and enforcing rigid performance specifications. Even today, common (non proprietary) components are shared among other OEMs, who otherwise would be the competition!

  
  Right -- but there is this weird belief in hifi that when something says, e.g., "Marantz" (or even "Realistic", for that matter) on it, that its provenance is more fixed than, in many cases, it actually is (or was).
  
  There was (and still is) quite a bit of badge engineering in hifi, too -- some examples being more egregious than others.
  
  Here's an only mildly egregious one
  
  
  
  
  
  

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• mhardy6647 Posts: 21,599

  January 1

  ... and I reckon Clearaudio laughed all the way to the bank when McIntosh paid 'em to make OEM tts with a big blue meter to indicate the speed selected
  
  
  

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• txcoastal1 Posts: 10,344

  January 1

  Back in the day, we couldn't afford name brands like Sony. I wanted a disc man really bad, because all the other kids had one. I ended up with a Realistic. I had knocked it off my dresser once and had to do a little surgery to get it up and running...guess what was inside the box???...All Sony parts

  2-channel: Modwright KWI-200 Integrated, Dynaudio C1-II Signatures
  Desktop rig: LSi7, Polk 110sub, Dayens Ampino amp, W4S DAC/pre, Sonos, JRiver
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• verb Posts: 6,369

  January 1

  Interesting. Or the most egregious (maybe not but good business) they simply buy the minor company, and re-brand it.

  Basement: Polk SDA SRS, Cary SLP-05 Pre, Enlightened Audio Designs CD Transport, Northstar Designs Excelsio DAC, Silnote Morpheus Ref2 Digital Cable, Marantz SA-14 SACD, McIntosh MC300 Amp, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Pangea Power Cables, Wireworld Oasis 8 RCA IC's, MIT Shotgun S3 IC's, MIT Shotgun S1 Bi-Wire speaker cables
  Office: PC, Marantz CD-1, Marantz AMP-1, Denon UDR-F10 Cassette, Acoustic Technologies Classic Speakers, SVS SB12 Plus sub, MIT AVt2 speaker cables, IFI Purifier2, AQ Cinnamon USB cable, Groneberg Quatro Reference IC's
  Spare Room: , Antique Sound Labs Wave AV-8 Monoblocks, Tisbury Mini Passive Pre, Tjoeb 99 tube CD player (modified Marantz CD-38), Analysis Plus Oval 9's, Zu Jumpers, AudioEngine B1 Streamer, Klipsch RB-61 v2, SVS PB1000 sub, Blue Jeans RCA IC's
  Living Room: Pioneer SX-N30 Network Receiver, Pioneer PD10AE CD Player, Furman M8-LX Power Conditioner, Polk RT265 In Wall Speakers, Polk DSW Pro 660wi sub

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• Dennis Gardner Posts: 4,796

  January 1 edited January 1

  Alex must be the DarqueKnight of Japanese Audio History.

  Post edited by Dennis Gardner on January 1

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  2 Channel Thorens TD 318 Grado ZF1, SACD/CD Marantz 8260, Soundstream/Krell DAC1, Audio Mirror PP1, Odyssey Stratos, ADS L-1290, ICs-DIY Twisted , Speaker-Raymond Cable

  1
• pitdogg2 Posts: 13,375

  January 1

  txcoastal1 wrote: »

  Back in the day, we couldn't afford name brands like Sony. I wanted a disc man really bad, because all the other kids had one. I ended up with a Realistic. I had knocked it off my dresser once and had to do a little surgery to get it up and running...guess what was inside the box???...All Sony parts

  
  you know there is a ton of truth to that.
  
  After my second Pioneer CD player had problems I had taken it to the local repair shop. The price to fix was almost as much as the player. I had a good relationship with the owner and after talking to him he opened up the pioneer and pointed out all the important chips and other parts all said yep SONY. He then said " Do yourself a favor go buy a Sony" ... He also said I've never had to work on any of the Sony's. So I did just that and you know what both of those Sony ES CD players are still playing after 30+ yrs. My Sony X33ES I did do a complete recap on but other than that both still work. The only reason I had to recap the X33 was because Sony used Elna Dourex II electrolytic caps in it instead of the better Elna caps they used prior. Those are nasty nasty caps and will flat eat out your copper traces.... Don't ask me how I know this.
  
  My son is using the first one I bought after the Pioneer. It was a Sony 508ES (I think) still never any problems and it has tens of thousands of hours on it. He uses it daily just like I did for years.
  

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• verb Posts: 6,369

  January 1 edited January 1

  So @mhardy6647 Professor I had to look. I have a Luxman TP-114 Tuner/Pre-Amp. No T-tag. In reading the link all export models did not have any, so there is no way to know if mine was made by a 3rd Party.
  
  

  Basement: Polk SDA SRS, Cary SLP-05 Pre, Enlightened Audio Designs CD Transport, Northstar Designs Excelsio DAC, Silnote Morpheus Ref2 Digital Cable, Marantz SA-14 SACD, McIntosh MC300 Amp, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Pangea Power Cables, Wireworld Oasis 8 RCA IC's, MIT Shotgun S3 IC's, MIT Shotgun S1 Bi-Wire speaker cables
  Office: PC, Marantz CD-1, Marantz AMP-1, Denon UDR-F10 Cassette, Acoustic Technologies Classic Speakers, SVS SB12 Plus sub, MIT AVt2 speaker cables, IFI Purifier2, AQ Cinnamon USB cable, Groneberg Quatro Reference IC's
  Spare Room: , Antique Sound Labs Wave AV-8 Monoblocks, Tisbury Mini Passive Pre, Tjoeb 99 tube CD player (modified Marantz CD-38), Analysis Plus Oval 9's, Zu Jumpers, AudioEngine B1 Streamer, Klipsch RB-61 v2, SVS PB1000 sub, Blue Jeans RCA IC's
  Living Room: Pioneer SX-N30 Network Receiver, Pioneer PD10AE CD Player, Furman M8-LX Power Conditioner, Polk RT265 In Wall Speakers, Polk DSW Pro 660wi sub

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• mhardy6647 Posts: 21,599

  January 1

  I don't think so, no.
  

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• F1nut Posts: 41,804

  January 2

  verb wrote: »

  So @mhardy6647 Professor I had to look. I have a Luxman TP-114 Tuner/Pre-Amp. No T-tag. In reading the link all export models did not have any, so there is no way to know if mine was made by a 3rd Party.
  

  
  I think it is very clear that almost every piece of gear made has a 3rd party involved.

  Political Correctness'.........defined
  
  "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
  
  

  0