Century Gold Parts ,made in tiawan WHAT!!!

[dblaxter]

i recently bought a nos x-overs for the century golds and they came in the box ,but they were clearly marked made in tiawan ,is this true , they look to be true jbl items ,northridge california etc, but i am very suprised , i know harman ,jbl etc have items made in chine but century golds !!!
can someone comment on this ,i will post pics to show what i have in a short
thanks michael

[dblaxter]

pictures

[dblaxter]

pictures

[Storm]

Wow, what a mess!

Glad I did not win the ones on eBay just a few days ago...



-Storm.

[clmrt]

First sniff tells me they are counterfeit, but I'm suprised at myself - what market would there be for such an endeavour?

[Don C]

The box is identical to the one that my XPL200 crossovers came in. I think it's genuine.

[dblaxter]

i would say they are genuine also , i compared them to other items i have and it looks to be the same workmenship, and it was from ebay but he said he was a jbl dealer with new old stock that he needed to get rid of, second the other items he sells, seems he is some kind of audio dealer
more info , would be nice to see if what i feel is a sorry situation, but again ,the almighty dollar was involved ,so i guess the work went to the lowest bidder, but for 5000.00 century golds i would be pissed to buy a pair and findout the tiawan,china etc factor was in effect
thanks michael

[Storm]

Were they really $5K a pair back in 1996?

Wowza.

-Storm.

but for 5000.00 century golds i would be pissed to buy a pair and findout the tiawan,china etc factor was in effect
thanks michael

[dblaxter]

yes, if memory and brochures serve me correctly ,that was the retail price,
amazing isnt tit LOL

[4313B]

i recently bought a nos x-overs for the century golds and they came in the box ,but they were clearly marked made in tiawan ,is this true , they look to be true jbl items ,northridge california etc, but i am very suprised , i know harman ,jbl etc have items made in chine but century golds !!!
can someone comment on this

Um, JBL has outsourced networks to China for many years... It's Harman International, not Harman SoCal. Besides, I think it is illegal to solder anything in CA and it takes solder to make crossover networks (yeah, yeah, I know, some people just wire nut everything together).

Added trivia - it is also illegal to paint anything in CA and that's why JBL had to paint all the M9500 enclosures in AZ and then ship them to Northridge to load them with components.

[John]

Um, JBL has outsourced networks to China for many years... It's Harman International, not Harman SoCal. Besides, I think it is illegal to solder anything in CA and it takes solder to make crossover networks (yeah, yeah, I know, some people just wire nut everything together).

Added trivia - it is also illegal to paint anything in CA and that's why JBL had to paint all the M9500 enclosures in AZ and then ship them to Northridge to load them with components.

So I guess all the california custom hot rod guys
are moving out of socal

[edgewound]

Um, JBL has outsourced networks to China for many years... It's Harman International, not Harman SoCal. Besides, I think it is illegal to solder anything in CA and it takes solder to make crossover networks (yeah, yeah, I know, some people just wire nut everything together).

Added trivia - it is also illegal to paint anything in CA and that's why JBL had to paint all the M9500 enclosures in AZ and then ship them to Northridge to load them with components.

That's a broad paint brush statement....probably for brevity's sake...but not true. Restricted, yes.

It's not illegal to paint anything in CA. Mfgs can't use paint that has high VOC's in large volume. Water based is fine. Lot's of furniture mfgs have switched to powder coating/baking. So are car manufacturers. If it was illegal to paint in CA there would be no custom car biz at all.

High volume solder must be RoHS compliant.

It's a matter of cost's. Harman would still outsource to China regardless of the solder material used.

As far as the Century Gold crossover goes....you can bet that was a bean-counter decision and not the engineering dept. Maybe that's why biased crossovers were born. To make cheaper caps sound better.

[4313B]

That's a broad paint brush statement....probably for brevity's sake...

Tongue in cheek. We're all familiar with the CA warning labels on products including paint and solder.

[edgewound]

Tongue in cheek. We're all familiar with the CA warning labels on products including paint and solder.

I caught your pre-edited response...and that was funny.

Thanks for the much needed laugh today.

[scott fitlin]

It's a matter of cost's. Harman would still outsource to China regardless of the solder material used.

As far as the Century Gold crossover goes....you can bet that was a bean-counter decision and not the engineering dept. Maybe that's why biased crossovers were born. To make cheaper caps sound better.

Ya, I agree.

But I still think its kind of sad to know that what we buy under the guise of " High End " has assmembly of certain items made in China.