Chinese Hifi in the UK

One of the dealers I signed up when I was in the business stock the Icon brand so I am surprised it's hard to get a demo, maybe there just isn't a wide circulation.
Opera/Consonance I think you might be treading on toes with, Alium Distribution are the authorized UK reps for that brand.
I looked at Jolida and Canary Audio before (both from the USA), but both manufacturers at the time did not understand CE marking and would not get their products CE approved (which is pretty typical of smaller US manufacturers attitude). Jolida had serious reliability issues in the past but their newer equipment is supposed to be much better, I would say it is crucial to investigate sources in their home market to see what current reliability and build quality is like.
Canary are fantastic, there are a few really nice 300b monobloc designs, if you can get the very limited Gotham limited edition set, they are superb. The importing UK agent I know in the past was bringing them in without CE approval, that may have changed now though.
Sellers on ebay with brands like Ming Da would be nice to test though, once you get set up Markus let me know what you have, would be very interested in trying out some of the valve gear.

 

...nearly forgot, check out the company link below:

http://www.sophiaelectric.com/

Superb amps

 

Hi Markus

As you are no doubt aware there are people trading on ebay right now who are selling the products you mention and posting them to the UK direct from Hong Kong.

Picking Shanling as an example I think there are two major factors that are putting a large number of people off buying. The first is uncertainty about the voltage that the components run off and whether they are compatible with the UK mains supply. The second (and possibly more important as this isn't fixable) is that if you visit the Shanling website, the first thing you see on its opening page is a warning about buying Shanling products from anyone other than an authorized dealer (they give several examples why this is a bad thing).

What is more worrying however (from your point of view) is that there must be an abundance of people importing/exporting Shanling products unofficially for them to feel the need to do this?

 

...and here lies a problem that both distributors and dealers get so frustrated with; it's all very well a manufacturer putting notices on their web site about only buying from 'authorized' channels, but how does the product get into the unauthorized channels in the first place?!

Far too many manufacturers have weak contracts and procedures for controlling the supply-chain. They do not engage reputable distributors who in turn will sell through any means to any buyer.

Manufacturers are even selling direct, especially b-grade product. I had a huge gripe with one manufacturer on why they seemed to do nothing in terms of analysing why they had so much b-grade product and doing something to reduce it rather than sell it off at highly reduced rates through sites like Audiogon.

When you are marketing a high-end product it does not exactly look great when people see the web based auction sites flooded with b-grade product.

What we should all be doing is supporting our dealers and distributors here in the UK, rather than thinking just because we can bring in cheap product we are doing something better for the general listening public.

There I'v said it,...I'll get my coat!

 

LE,
i agree with you in principle but to be honest i've only felt i've got value for money from a dealer a few times. most are rude, ignore you and when they do deign to acknowledge your presence they treat you like a time waster. At shows this is even worse, the music being played seems designed to alienate new customers, the attiture most have is 'fcuk off i'm talking to my industry cronies or sucking up to magazine staff' and so they just fuel their own self fulfilling prophecy of doom within the industry.
don;t get me wrong there are a few decent dealers and manufacturers out there. but to be perfectly honest i've found that it's best to deal directly with the people making the product wherever possible. naim have a good reputation in this respect as do audio synthesis and i found ivan at ipl great to deal with. compare this to most dealers i dealt with when i was thinking of dropping 4k on a cd player a few years ago, most were supercillious and rude, one was great and one couldn;t be bothered turning up for the appointment made. dealers? fcuk 'em they are getting what they deserve imho.
cheers


julian

 

Agreed Julian, everything you say is also true of many dealers over here. Dealers fail to accept responsibility for the damage they have done and continue to do to the customer base, and independant importers also fail to see the long-term damage they could be doing to the industry.
It's a real vicious circle and one the the customer feels the brunt of.
From my time in the industry I saw a very incestuous business with alot of self-inflated opinions.
Whatever happens in the future we can only hope that the end-customer is allowed to enjoy the music aside from all the silly industry bickering, back-stabbing, and lack of professionalism.

 

LE,
definately. i'm on the outside when it comes to hi-fi - a pure consumer, however even i can see the rot within the industry. i can recall a number of manufacturers (iirc lesw at avondale and someone from exposure) saying that the future for the industry is going to revert back to a 'cottage' style model where customers talk to the manufacturer directly. in one way this is a good thing however the biggest minus point is the lack of a centralised 'dealer' to enable comparative auditioning. this imho is where the internet and forums like zg take up the baton. personally i've found bakeoffs and visits to be invaluable in defining what 'good hi-fi' is to me personally and for listening to various bits of kit in comparison, best though is the real 'zero sales pressure' situation. perhaps there is still time for traditional dealers to salvage their position on the sales chain but honestly i can see the few good ones being dragged down by the multitude of rude, exploitative ones.
cheers


julian

 

I tried to go through the 'official' channels when buying recently. I was going to buy one of the big 'Class A' Jungson AV amps and they put me in touch with Active Distribution who handle the UK side. Got some initial contact from Active about the lack of CE mark, voltage difference etc. but they could supply one to me 'no problem'. So then I asked about warranty and the price and never received anything from them again. It was the same when I emailed Fryer Sales about some Magnat THX speakers, when he asked how much I had seen them for on the German sites I received no reply and my follow up email was ignored too.

OTOH contacted Alium Audio after seeing them on eBay and they were great to deal with, so I now have a couple of Opera Consonance Amps.

 

Alium Audio are good guys to deal with, Ian Large is one of the good guys