Know of any good Korean manufacturers?

I'm just about to go for two weeks in Korea.

Excluding the inevitable plastic boxes that will profuse the place, does anyone know of any high quality dedicated hi-fi manufacturers in Korea?
Thought it might be an interesting opportunity to try to pick something up on the cheap.

 

found this


Silvaweld.....

www.silvaweld.com/


Must be others, I'm just not asking the right questions of google.

 

Zanash,

Had a quick look at the Silvaweld website earlier. Appears to be high-end valve gear. They have distributors in the US, Spain and Germany, and from looking at their prices, they have a lot of noughts on the back end. I was hoping to find a group similar to Shanling, who might sell some mid-high end gear (when it hits Europe), which might be available for peanuts over there.

 

I though there would be more ....but didn't come up with much.

Have a good trip, by the way !

 

We get most of our "Japanese" furniture from Korea... Nice quality "Tansu" they are, too. Don't believe him for one second when the shopkeeper says it's an antique, though.
There are a couple of Korean valve amp manus, I will try and dig that out for you.
Every time I've been there, it's been a case of great food and drink (ooh er), *very* friendly locals (but only the guys, and not in *that* way either), did I mention the food and drink already?, anyway, low low prices, luverly scenery away from Seoul, good shopping for some things (see furniture above) and, um, great food.
Be warned, it will be very hot and very humid in Seoul. THis summer ihas been cool and wet up until now, but the heat is beginning to kick in. If you've never been somewhere like Sao Paulo in summer - your body is in for a serious shock. And in the evenings it's barely any cooler In fact you will probably want to escape to the hills. The KTB is well organised for arranging these things (monasterys are always a good bet for simple and clean lodgings - but you will need to book in advance) and travel within RoK is cheap and efficient, or at least it used to be.
Not coming over to Nippon while in this part of the world? Afraid of the Wallet Shock perhaps

 

Joel,

Thanks for the feedback. Doesn't look like I'll be spending a lot of time listening to gear in Korea then.
Being fair, I'm sure the missus and her folks will drag me around some interesting places.

I have to admit that I'd love to pop over to Tokyo whilst there, got any idea of flight costs in that area of the world. Had a quick look on some UK websites, but they're quoting £300 for Seoul to Tokyo, pretty bonkers when it's only 700 miles, as against the 12,000 miles to Seoul, which is only 60% more.

 

Sukebe_sama
Weekend flight to Seoul should cost no more than 25K JPY here and generally a fair bit less. That's about 125 quid. Probably cheaper if you buy in Seoul. I think the flights still come into Haneda rather than Narita. That is good because Narita is out in boodocks while Haneda is just a short train ride from Central Tokyo.
Sounds like you have "family" in RoK. If so, you probably won't have the time or energy (the family that drinks together falls under the table together :guiness: ) to pop over. Plenty of stuff to listen to/look at if you do, though.

 

My post may be too late to be of any help, but...

There are a few valve amp manufacturers here in Korea but the price can go up very high. There's April Music which makes CD players and SS amps at reasonable price but to my biased ears the typical british products sound much better for similar price.

If you're an analogue fan, you can pick up some japanese cartridges at a much lower price than what you would pay for in London. For instance Lyra Helikon is around 1.4M Won = 700 UKP and DV XX-2 is 0.9M Won = 450 UKP. I hear that Koetsu is also sold at attractive price.

Give me a call at [deleted] if you need further information.

Joongul