Photos of one of manufactories of China

[danshi]

Giganova , I only take photos of one area of the whole factory . In fact FEILO are not small compare the others mic manufactories . Many famous companies also are small , just no one show you their photos . Note they make only 40 mics everyday , so don't compare them with PC manufactories .

Hand built is not singularly .

About the quality , I'm sure they have did their best . In their workshop I saw a notice (on the wall) about the quality , if some worker make a incompetent part , she will be amerced . Every mic will receive several tests , include machine analyse and human test , and every test have enough time .

 

[Scinx]

factory and tools are not belong to someone , so they don't need use products to pay for the factory and tools , so every mic is cheap .

The additional costs fall out somewhere down the road. Reduced economic efficiency isnt exactly wonderful.

 

[faderbug]

The additional costs fall out somewhere down the road. Reduced economic efficiency isnt exactly wonderful.

only in a capitalist economy! the chinese economy works on the principle of collectivism, since everything is owned and run by the state (ie the people) there isn't a 5-20% profit being made on every step of the production process.

 

[faderbug]

hey danshi, just out of curiosity, how much do these mikes sell for in china? and how is the availability and price of recording gear in general? (compared to average wages and the cost of living)

 

[danshi]

hey danshi, just out of curiosity, how much do these mikes sell for in china? and how is the availability and price of recording gear in general? (compared to average wages and the cost of living)

This is depends on the sell way . Most of our manufactories don't like sell mikes in China because our own market is too small and US or Europe market is too large . So the shops in China must import them from US or Europe . So the price almost same as yours , unless the manufactory directly sell products in China .

Our general recording gears are a little less/poor than yours . Because our average wages are low . But we try our best to save money and buy nice gears . Our most popular soundcards are ESI Waveterminal and RME 9632 , the most popular mikes are Rode, FEILO, Superlux , monitors are Event TR series , preamps are Presonus TubePre and TL-Audio FAT-2 .

 

[Bobalou]

the most popular mikes are Rode, FEILO, Superlux ,

I guess that answers my earlier question, at least part of it!

 

[DJL]

I seem to recall that Alan Hyatt once tried to answer the question based on his (inside) knowledge of what was going on in the industry and it ended up being another one of "those" threads.

I don't think Alan really knows which Chinese factories are manufacturing which mics for which companies or distributors... he may know about a few, but he's already told us about them... like 797 Audio makes both the Behringer B5 and Studio Projects C4 mics and etc.

I think FEILO looks like a good factory, and the pictures danshi
posted of FEILO preforming quality contol inspires confidence.

Anyway, hopefully this won't turn into one of "those" threads.

 

[Scinx]

only in a capitalist economy! the chinese economy works on the principle of collectivism, since everything is owned and run by the state (ie the people) there isn't a 5-20% profit being made on every step of the production process.

Actually - if I want to buy a tool in the US it costs money. If I want to buy a tool in China with someone elses money - it costs money. No matter where you are - things have a cost - and it costs money to buy these things. In China - the government (aka the people) have bought a facility and buy production tools, pay wages, etc. If there is no profit (as you seem to infer) then eventually the entity performing this work (aka the gov't) will go bankrupt. I view this as a cost. If they have a small enough profit to cover expenses - then they wont be able to grow. No matter how you slice or dice it - it has more costs than that shown in the price. Essentially the government/people are eating costs so the consumer doesnt have to. Note that I am overgeneralizing. Some of the lower price is of course from lower wages among other things. But it certainly is not cheaper overall because its communism vs capitalism

 

[crazydoc]

Personally, the manufacturing conditions shown in the photos of Feilo don't inspire confidence.

I don't know - can you imagine having one of your Neumans modded here?
(Apologies to Tony and SP)

 

[ausrock]

C'mon doc, that's not really fair. If you have that pic, you should know there was more to "the lab" than just that.

And to answer your question............if I had a Neumann, most definitely.

 

[Rossi]

Thanks a lot, Danshi, for posting those pictures. While it doesn't look like hi-tech to me, I do see a commitment to the product. Actually the pictures confirm my feeling that the workmanship isn't so bad. I suppose the tolerances are not quite as tight as those of more expensive manufacurers. Yet I have a feeling that a bigger factor is cultural difference. What sounds good to a person in China doesn't necessarily sound as good to a European or American ear. That's not so much a question of quality as a question of what you're used to hearing. Chinese music sounds strange to me, and I suppose the stuff I listen to sounds just as strange to a Chinese person. So it's not surprising that there should be differences in what we expect from a piece of gear to record our respective kinds of music. And hence the popularity of brands such as MXL and SP who do their best to translate western taste into chinese manufactured products.

Anyway, thanks again for the pictures, Danshi!

 

[crazydoc]

C'mon doc, that's not really fair. If you have that pic, you should know there was more to "the lab" than just that.

And to answer your question............if I had a Neumann, most definitely.

I just wanted to point out that the most excellent work can be done even in the most primitive of conditions. Even though the Feilo factory (and likewise, we probably haven't seen the whole thing) appears to be sparse and low tech on the surface, the capability is there for excellence, depending on the humans involved.

 

[DJL]

I don't know - can you imagine having one of your Neumans modded here?
(Apologies to Tony and SP)

What factory is that? FEILO looks much better than that factory... that factory is a holy mess.

 

[ausrock]

DJ,

It isn't a factory, it is a less than flattering pic of a bench in Stephen Paul's lab.

And just for some balance in the impressions doc's choice probably left, here is the controlled environment cabinet where Stephen and Co did some of the more critical work on capsules.

 

[ausrock]

If you really want something to compare Feilo to, why not see if there are any photos of Neumann's production facility available.

 

[acorec]

I don't know what she's doing

I do. Not one single person is wearing a static strap, there is no static grounding anywhere in any one of the photos. She is (as they all are) damaging most of the electrical components on the PC board. Now I understand one of the failure mechanisms that cause the infant mortality rates so common to these chinese mics.

BTW, I bet the russians don't use static protection either.

 

[crazydoc]

I do. Not one single person is wearing a static strap, there is no static grounding anywhere in any one of the photos. She is (as they all are) damaging most of the electrical components on the PC board.

None of the mic circuitry I've seen uses CMOS components, so anti-static protection is not really necessary, as far as I know.

 

[Rossi]

I'm pretty sure what she's doing on that particular photo is measuring DC resistance on the transformers in front of her. You don't need anti-static protection for that.

@ausrock: I don't have any pictures of Neumann production facilities, but expect them to conform to all the German clichés of compulsive over-cleanliness. They're in Berlin, which is literally the capital of Preussian nerdiness. Around where I live, in the southwest, we're a bit more relaxed, but even here production facilities are usually squeaky clean. To a German that's almost question of moral dimensions. I just visited Mindprint/Hughes & Kettner, just a few miles from here. Even in the final assembly the floors were cleaner than my kitchen table on a good day.

 

[DJL]

DJ,

It isn't a factory, it is a less than flattering pic of a bench in Stephen Paul's lab.

And just for some balance in the impressions doc's choice probably left, here is the controlled environment cabinet where Stephen and Co did some of the more critical work on capsules.

Holy cow, what a mess. Thanks for the picture.

 

[DJL]

Danshi, were you ever able to take pictures of any of the other mic factories in China?