A Look Inside the Chinese Audio Industry
December 11th, 2007 — By Robert HarleyDecember 11 - It’s no secret that an increasing amount of hi-fi consumed around the world is made in China. But what are these factories like? Who are their founders? How do they approach high-end design and manufacturing?
To answer these questions, I embarked on a four-city tour (GuangZhou, Zhu Hai, Shanghai, and Beijing) for a firsthand look inside the Chinese audio industry. I visited four companies—a metal fabrication plant, and three equipment-design-and-manufacturing facilities.
Metal Fabrication
The first stop was ETKG in GuangZhou, the country’s leading supplier of metal parts to the Chinese audio industry. The company started ten years ago with a single CNC machine for fabricating metal parts and has since grown to 170 CNC machines. The factory takes in raw aluminum stock and produces faceplates, chassis, heatsinks, knobs, and other metalwork found in audio gear.
Next: Metal Fabrication (cont)
Fascinating!
Comment by Donald January 5th, 2008 @ 2:54 amSorry for the double post - great copy - I am excited to see the blog taking off!
Also, my X-mas gifts this year were two of your three books (Home Theatre will be for my birthday).
Comment by Donald January 5th, 2008 @ 3:42 amVery interesting read. Great photos as well. Dugg.
Comment by JustinM February 13th, 2008 @ 7:01 pmI have the Dussun v6i Integrated, great to see the people behind the excellent products.
Comment by Stephen Varga February 27th, 2008 @ 7:27 pmI am very glad to see it.I am a Chinese guy.I am a salesman in audio equipment company.I have the real experiece about those things.
Comment by Hank Tang May 14th, 2008 @ 10:24 pm