One of the reasons B&O will be having the BS8 made in China will be the availability of companies to do it. All of the large contract electronics companies - Flextronics, Foxconn, etc - are now almost exclusively based in China.

And it is an ipod dock, not a mainstream B&O product. Like the 2200s of old they are looking for a way to get new users to look at the B&O brand. That means addressing the ipod generation.

B&O cannot survive on the people using this forum (including me). They need new and younger customers. The BS8 is a way to do that and by outsourcing production to a contract manufacturer they are keeping their capital risk to the minimum. They also get access to a very flexible production system - if the BS8 is a success a contract OEM will be able to ramp up production much faster than B&O's existing factories could. 

B&O can probably make their traditional products much more cost effectively than Chinese firms. The BS8 is not a traditional B&O product.

To the post above.

Here's the Mark Levinson "Red Rose" version:

link

And here's the Dussun original:

link

soundproof wrote:

To the post above.

Here's the Mark Levinson "Red Rose" version:

link

And here's the Dussun original:

link

(The only perceivable difference was the price differential: from USD 900 to USD 7000.)

 

USD 900 ...

Interresting info Soundproof!

I have had my Beosound 8 for 6 weeks now. I am very pleased with looks and the sound quality.

I did requests a one with White frets but they came with violet due to B&O having some issues with the white material marking too easily.

I don't think the unit is over priced.

Mark

soundproof wrote:

USD 900 ...

OK,

I think it was Goldmund who was caught doing something similar with a CD player.

bayerische wrote:

soundproof wrote:

USD 900 ...

OK,

I think it was Goldmund who was caught doing something similar with a CD player.

It happens all over the industry - you'd be surprised. Even the most 'trustable' companies do it...

Nowadays is impossible to avoid using Chinese goods. for example, 80% of the world's Christmas stuff is made in a single town in China.

I won't buy the BS8 for the time being because I don't particularly like it and don't really need it. But I think its sound is 100% B&O and can't understand why anybody blasts it because it's origins. When B&O dropped the use of fine wood and there were immediate adverse reactions, and here we are. 

If the BS8 is a below-par product, don't blame China, blame the specs and the QA that has to be excercised by B&O.

My 2 cents.

I believe in Goldmund's case they were up front about it, telling clients they were using the Pioneer innards in order to create a dvd-player - and their clients didn't want the player to be cheap (an Eidos player, if I remember correctly). Lexicon did the same thing when they declared they would be wrapping an Oppo BD83 with a Lexicon skin, at a substantial mark-up. They didn't make a secret of it.

In the Red Rose logo on a Dussun integrated amp case, it was different, and indistinguishable from fraud, when one considers how the product was described.

But that's not the point. You can get exactly the level of finish and quality you want from the OEM-companies that operate in the Far-East. For a company such as B&O, which wants to establish long-term customer relationships, it makes no sense to produce low-spec'd units. For instance, B&O have remained customers of the highest-spec'd Pioneer cd-player, where the mechanism is made with metal parts, because they wanted that quality inside their units. Very few brands in A/V have gone that path, and have preferred to use the cheaper plastic mechanisms, to make more money, making B&O a lone hold-out in that respect.

BeoSound 8 is an entry-level portable music capable unit that places itself in the upper echelon of such products - it carries the B&O logo and is made to B&O design spec's for form and function through a manufacturer which can deliver more inside an acceptable price-point. I really don't see a problem - earlier I mentioned BeoVision 8, of which I'm one very happy owner of one of the first generation sets. I knew it was made in the Far East as I bought it, and it didn't bother me one bit. It integrates perfectly with other B&O components and is designed like no other television on the market.

From direct experience, I know you can spec a product manufactured in China to absolutely outperform anything made anywhere else. Of course, I also know that certain brands exploit the ability to get away with outrageous spec'ing, in order to move more to their bottom line. Today, customers find out about such maneuvers in short order, the internet makes us aware of it, and we learn to choose wisely among the offerings on hand.