CHINESE HIFI
Chinese hi-fi companies are now starting to enter the world market on their own. For years Japanese companies such as Denon sold rebadged OEM products by 2Shanling and 2Shengya, and Rotel and Mark Levinson's Red Rose Music sells rebadged OEM products by Korsun. Carrying on his successful story of Korsun, Mr. Zou Yuan Yuan, president and chief designer, founded 2Dussun. 2aaa-audio.com and 2Response Audio are targeting the high end, definitely not "cheap" electronics with excellent Chinese products. 2Affordable Valve Company and PrimaLuna are getting popular in Europe. Many speaker brands including Klipsch, Velodyne, Infinity, Tannoy and 2Athena import speakers from China. A lot of hifi equipment and cables are actually rebadged imported OEM'd electronics from China with huge price markups.
Maybe finally the world hifi market deserves a "wake up call" to start selling their products at reasonable affordable prices. The decline in sales of hifi hardware is directly attributable to the insatiable greed of hifi companies who've raised their prices to insane tiers.
This article "The Chinese way: I want to know" lists Chinese brands that are OEM'ed and rebadged by more expensive brands. This article 2"Busman's Holiday, China Style" shows that hifi is more popular in China than anywhere else in the world, probably, next to Japan. Hifi dealer Sekei, listed below, sells Chinese hifi in their native brands.
Here is some correspondence about the price difference with someone from AAA-audio that contacted me:
hi,
i am aware of your web site from my web page monitor Referrer Visits. it is nice, i do feel your passion, but at the same time i just want you know the other side of the story: grey market.
why high-end stuff is so cheap in china? the factory's workers normal salary is about $200 US a month. their price structure is different, their dealer cost is different. so chinese stuff is less expansive then compatible western brands outside of china, even less expansive in china. the cost of distribution and retail is much more expansive in the western world.
it is why more and more online grey market sellers. it is the biggest problem for chinese high end manufacturers. end user bought their stuff from grey market for less money without any support and guarantee.
the world has its rules, the high end audio market has its rules. the chinese high end audio market now is like the old US wild west, but it will it will become stable very soon.
Europe is going to pass a law regulate chinese audio product marketing practice. the manufacturer will try their best to stop it too.
as the audiophile, i'd like to haer yoru opion.
best regards.
my reply:
hi,
Thank you very much for your information. I will be more carefull now where to buy a Dussun v6i. I will share your information on my website (if you don´t have a problem with that) so others can take notice of it too. I wrote an email to Dussun asking them where to buy a V6i if you are in the Netherlands (where I live). On the other hand, I would like to find a local reseller(dealer) that tries to keep the low price in tact, since my budget is just small sized. Since the product seems well manufactured a warranty-guarantee system should not cost much. Resellers can buy cheaper and ship cheaper. And if they put on just a fair margin of profit and minimize operation costs I am sure I could buy a V6i new for under 1000 euros.
However resellers in the west are oftem tempted to take huge profit margins and so people will always look elsewhere using the internet to find a bargain. And so, the grey market will grow with the pace of the Chinese economical growth. And the grey market will mature and blend into a ´normal´ market eventually, I can imagine I could buy something in China via the internet, have it shipped to Europe and buy my service warranty seperately here in The Netherlands.
It is a broad question that is mainly dictated by the need for protection of national and regional markets, that is why the EU wants to regulate electronic imports from China. It is not really about protecting the European consumer but more about protecting the European market. I understand it has to be done or otherwise a lot companies will get into trouble and unemployment rises. The Global market is in progress but it is a very regulated and gradual process, with expanding markets on one side and protectionistic measures on the other. In the meantime the ´old´ economical leaders are all trying to find a good market position in the new upcoming economical world order.
Meanwhile, the grey market hasn´t matured yet and chances are you´ll get into trouble buying stuff from it. However, like I state on my website there more stories on the internet about succesfull buys through this grey market than about unsuccesfull buys. I now know about three stories where the result was dissapointing. I think it will be a matter of risk calculation for me and a lot of other people like me. We try to minimize the chances for dissapoitment while maximizing the price advantage. If it feels acceptable people will take the chance.
Best regards,
reply from AAA-audio:
hi,
Yes, money is a universal topic. people will always find bargain. Frankly, i think the grey market will eventually gone. All the manufacturers i represent know how to deal with grey market. It just takes time.
The western distribution and retail cost is very high. in US a normal dealer will need to pay rental $3000-$5000 monthly, one sales person in the store monthly salary and benefit are about $4000. that is why the price is higher. in Japan, the distribution system even more expansive. so i can buy the same product in US cheaper then in Japan. i went to Japan several times.
if you want to buy the latest product, then you buy in Japan, but for a much higher price.
as a distributor, we need to pay international shipping, import tax, warehouse and labor cost and so on.
as i told you that a chinese factory work's monthly salary is only about $200. %90 of the people there still live at that salary, but the living cost is low too. there are super rich people there now. if any body from western world get western standard salary, pay chinese price for a gear he wants, it is definitely a bargain
As i know that there is no authorized Dussun dealer in Europe at this point.
any dealer claims that they can provide warrantee is doing themselves, nothing to do with Dussun. Dussun will set distribution in Europe soon,
You can share the information i have send to you at your web site.
Regards.
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