Chinese Manufactured Mics-for the sake of newbies.

[acorec]

Manufacturing in China is spawned by the people in America to obtain more cost effective goods. It is US who drive the manufacturers to find cheaper labor to build goods that are price competative. How many threads are for "The cheapest mic, mic pre, mixer etc."

If people are worried about losing jobs to China, PAY the MONEY for AMERICAN made products and quit whinig that you cannot afford the expensive labor and higher prices that America brings.

 

[Bowisc]

Does anyone have info on Global Audio mics... they're branded as being made by CAD.

Bowisc

 

[acorec]

So let's see,

Rode (very good mic company)
has all of their microphones manufactured for them by a Chinese electronics manufacturer(I hear they are in the process of moving their manufacturing to Australia) but all of the Rode mics that are available now are Chinese.

Marshall (also a good mic company) has all of their microphones manufactured in their Mogami plant that was originally created to manufacture their cables.

Studio Projects (very good new mic company) has their microphones manufactured in the 797 Audio plants in China which in the industry is considered China's premier microphone manufacturing plant.

Fielo is a knock-off microphone and electronics plant in China.
I believe they are responsible for Behringer, Nady, et al. (Am I correct in this? I could be wrong, this one is hearsay.)

So, some of the microphones that we all regard so highly are manufactured in China. The cost of living there is much lower and therefore production costs are much lower translating to a saving to the consumer (not neccessarily
diminished quality).

So what's the problem with Chinese mics? Is it the color of the skin of the workers, the shape of their eyes or their politics?

None of the above, The "problem" with chinese mics is centered around the "mic" companies who contract the chinese FACTORIES to build mics TO THEIR SPECS. Quality Control is a process of MONITORING and CORRECTING manufacturing problems arising from the design and/or manufacturing methods of a given product. If the "mic" companies (who contract the chinese factories) don't give a shit, the contract manufacturers keep building bad product. It IS the fault of the "mic" companies. If you don't believe me, ask Alan Hyatt how much time he spends making sure that the quality of his mics and the quality CONTROL of his mics is top notch. It is a full time job. Now, some m"mic" companies just have the chinese contract manufacturers build sort of a "plain vanilla" version and put the "mic" companies name on it. They unpack them and sell them with out ever checking a single one. These are the bad mic companies we hear of.

 

[sae]

So in theory, is it possible to get a GREAT mic from one of the no name microphone companies?

I think it should be...same caps, resistors, etc. So if you luck out and get one that's great (everything was sodered right, screwed together tight, etc) then you'd be laughing! Right?

 

[Rimshot]

Okay, I confess! I had an agenda when I started this thread. I have not been a member of this BBS for all that long, but in that time I have seen the term "cheap Chinese" used repeatedly. So I did a search on those words and came up with over 6 pages and 141 threads. It was used mostly in a derrogatory way to put down those people using "prosumer" budget products instead of the exhaulted German products.
Am I slamming the German manufacturers? NO! Those products are excellent and well known. I even own a few (not Neumann tho, I ain't that rich).
I was worried that other "newbies" might be swayed from trying some very good inexpensive equipment solely on all of the trash talk here. Especially when it is nationalistically biased.
I grew up in a time when the popular opinion was that all things made in Japan was cheap and inferior. We don't hear that anymore do we?
I think we just need to pay attention to specifics a bit more and less on country of origin and the old tried and true. Who would have thought 20 years ago that a Latvian company would be producing world class microphones?
Not everything made in China is good and not everything is bad.Some of it is quite good. If you hear some one raving about a microphone or piece of equipment, don't automatically dismiss it because it's made in China, or Latvia or Russia or even Brooklyn . Check it out first. That person just may be on to something. This field is changing by leaps and bounds and the equipment is starting to become more accessable and new equipment is always on the way. 30 years ago, only a VERY rich individual could even consider doing multi-track recording at home. Now, everybody's doing it (maybe not well, but we're doing it).
Okay, so the new tube mics out of China may not be as good
as your classic $8000.00 Neumann that you show off to all of your friends when they visit your studio, but you're afraid to use that often for fear of damaging it. But some of those Chinese mics sound pretty damn good, and they're getting better.
Use your ears. Don't look at the brand name first. You might be pleasantly surprised.

And yeah, a lot of it is just junk. But a lot of stuff made elsewhere is just junk too.

 

[willovercome]

yeah, i've spent a lot of time in china, and more in taiwan. but i've noticed and talked to a number of business men in china about the attitudes of the workers. they all agree that under a wage set economic system (basically modified communism), there is no incentive for the worker to work harder to do quality work. i'm not sure how that translates into microphones, but i would think with an instrument that is so delicate, quality work would be essential for good sound.

this is not a racist statement. even under socialist economic systems there is little incentive to work hard. besides, many of my best friends are chinese and taiwanese, and i know a good amount of the language and i'm learning more. this is just an observation on the communist system and its bearing on microphone quality.

 

[Rimshot]

yeah, i've spent a lot of time in china, and more in taiwan. but i've noticed and talked to a number of business men in china about the attitudes of the workers. they all agree that under a wage set economic system (basically modified communism), there is no incentive for the worker to work harder to do quality work. i'm not sure how that translates into microphones, but i would think with an instrument that is so delicate, quality work would be essential for good sound.

this is not a racist statement. even under socialist economic systems there is little incentive to work hard. besides, many of my best friends are chinese and taiwanese, and i know a good amount of the language and i'm learning more. this is just an observation on the communist system and its bearing on microphone quality.

______________________________


But as you stated above, you DON'T know how that translates into mic quality, so I'm assuming that you haven't listen to or used any of the high grade mics that are manufacrured in or have components manufactured in China.
Or maybe you have although you just don't know it because it had an Anglican or German name on it.

I know and speak to many Americans that work in American manufacturing. They aren't exactly living in the lap of luxury,y'know. So the point is?

I just picked up an Audio Technica drum mic kit to use on the road. Audio Technica is a highly regarded microphone company. The mics were made in Taiwan, they're quite nice for the price.
Tama drums are made in Taiwan and many drummers consider their hardware to be some of the best in the business.
Then of course there's all of the GREAT electronics that come out of Taiwan. Some considered to be among the best around.

Pursuit of excellence in product manufacturing has more to do with pride and self worth than it does with the dollar. That's why the really good companies will often discard a product that has cost them a fortune in developing because it is not up to their standards. Is that the case with Chinese companies? I don't know, but I'm betting you don't either.

 

[acorec]

So in theory, is it possible to get a GREAT mic from one of the no name microphone companies?

I think it should be...same caps, resistors, etc. So if you luck out and get one that's great (everything was sodered right, screwed together tight, etc) then you'd be laughing! Right?

YES. Look at Studio Projects for a good overall company strategy.

 

[DJL]

None of the above, The "problem" with chinese mics is centered around the "mic" companies who contract the chinese FACTORIES to build mics TO THEIR SPECS. Quality Control is a process of MONITORING and CORRECTING manufacturing problems arising from the design and/or manufacturing methods of a given product. If the "mic" companies (who contract the chinese factories) don't give a shit, the contract manufacturers keep building bad product. It IS the fault of the "mic" companies. If you don't believe me, ask Alan Hyatt how much time he spends making sure that the quality of his mics and the quality CONTROL of his mics is top notch. It is a full time job. Now, some m"mic" companies just have the chinese contract manufacturers build sort of a "plain vanilla" version and put the "mic" companies name on it. They unpack them and sell them with out ever checking a single one. These are the bad mic companies we hear of.

If 797 Audio in China makes the Studio Projects microphones for PMI Audio in CA, USA and 797 Audio in China ships the SP mic's straight to the UK for sale instead of shipping the mic's to PMI in CA, USA for inspection first... does PMI/Studio Projects even do a quality control inspection... and if they do inspect every mic, how did all those Studio Projects mic's with the bad internal shock mounts make it to the market?

I wonder how many Chinese missiles pointed at neighboring countries and etc PMI has paid for.

 

[cominginsecond]

If 797 Audio in China makes the Studio Projects microphones for PMI Audio in CA, USA and 797 Audio in China ships the SP mic's straight to the UK for sale instead of shipping the mic's to PMI in CA, USA for inspection first... does PMI/Studio Projects even do a quality control inspection... and if they do inspect every mic, how did all those Studio Projects mic's with the bad internal shock mounts make it to the market?

I wonder how many Chinese missiles pointed at neighboring countries and etc PMI has paid for.

You're really on a crusade, aren't you?

 

[Mark7]

I wonder how many Chinese missiles pointed at neighboring countries and etc PMI has paid for.

And how many CIA sponsored repressive Latin American regimes did Shure and Electro-Voice's Tax dollars help to fund?

 

[DJL]

You're really on a crusade, aren't you?

Either answer the questions, or add some input to the subject of the thread, or shut the fuck up.

 

[DJL]

And how many CIA sponsored repressive Latin American regimes did Shure and Electro-Voice's Tax dollars help to fund?

What is a regimes?

 

[Mark7]

It's a plural form of regime. You know what one of those is don't you.

Would you like a list?

 

[DJL]

It's a plural form of regime. You know what one of those is don't you.

Would you like a list?

No I don't, what is a regime?

 

[Mark7]

Which definition would you like: Oxford or Merriam-Webster?

 

[kjam22]

No I don't, what is a regime?

re·gime also ré·gime ( P ) Pronunciation Key (r-zhm, r-)
n.

1) A form of government: a fascist regime.
2) A government in power; administration: suffered under the new regime.
3) A prevailing social system or pattern. The period during which a particular administration or system prevails.
4) A regulated system, as of diet and exercise; a regimen.

 

[DJL]

Oh ok, thanks kjam22. I don't know Mark7... how many?

 

[cominginsecond]

Either answer the questions, or add some input to the subject of the thread, or shut the fuck up.

You weren't adding any good input on the subject. That whole "missles pointed at other countries" thing was sure on topic!

 

[cominginsecond]

No I don't, what is a regime?

Do you live in a cave? When Bush and Powell were talking about regime change in Iraq, what did you think they were talking about?