JBL manufacturing in China

[scott fitlin]

Oddly enough I remember when made in Japan items were considered to be crap products and now people look for the label because it indicates a higher level of quality. China I am sure will be the same way, when they first starting producing electronics quality control was a big issue and im sure still is for some items but I would be willing to bet in 10-20 years that will change and their products will be looked at in a different light.

If JBL wants to make the type of profits other companys do then they will have to follow suit, now if they were happy with making a small profit and just keeping their head above water I dont see a problem with staying here in the USA but you have to realize that the people in charge want ever bigger profits not become a small botique company that produces high quality audio products. Look at what Lexicon did with the whole Oppo Blu Ray debacle, greed has became the name of the game.

REGARDS JIM

YES, this is true! I was a little boy when this was first really starting to take foothold. And I remember well, my grandparents, and my parents, and their friends saying Japanese made was junk, etc! And back then, we still had "Made In NYC", let alone "Made In USA". Sadly, made In Japan did come to mean Better made than what we make! Detroit got it's ass kicked, now didn't they?

Wagner baby, JBL isn't dead, it is changing and for some the change is unacceptable! But, to me it's like anything else, UNLESS you find something you really like better, at some point you'll be back for more!

For some. though, you'll never buy another item labelled JBL ever again, you'se ell be the screamin mean 'ol SOB,s we have to use moderation on!

[scott fitlin]

Because, in all seriousness, I been here and done all this before!

[Mr. Widget]

My point is that JBL, as we know and love it, isn't just moving off shore or out of the country..............

It's DEAD and I don't want to accept that fact just yet but we are in denial to think (or discuss) otherwise.

Oh, there'll be bones to pick for a while, but it's DEAD and it ain't coming back.

Assuming they go through with the plant closure, I am afraid you are right.

Oddly enough I remember when made in Japan items were considered to be crap products and now people look for the label because it indicates a higher level of quality. China I am sure will be the same way, when they first starting producing electronics quality control was a big issue and im sure still is for some items but I would be willing to bet in 10-20 years that will change and their products will be looked at in a different light.

They are already producing very high quality goods as well as inexpensive crap.

A few have been saying moving to China (and Mexico) will be the death of quality in our beloved brand. While there will undoubtedly be hiccups initially, I have every confidence that any factory in China or Mexico can produce top quality goods given the proper training, management, and time to get the kinks worked out... but that isn't the issue. The issue is that the little company that started in Southern California over 60 years ago will no longer be. Even though it has grown and grown, and with that growth both good and bad have come from it... it simply will no longer be.

Sure this is sad for us as fans of the heritage of Mr. Lansing, but MUCH more importantly it is one more sad factory closing that is driving our country bankrupt. If we as a people don't demand the stop of the free fall manufacturing decline in this country we will have little to offer the rest of the world. We get caught up in the side show of Left and Right ideology... more taxes, less taxes, more freedom, or more regulation. The Karl Roves and David Axelrods spin, spin, spin... people get all wound up and putty in their hands. Free Market my ass, there really is no Free Market, and if someone doesn't put the brakes on this situation, the Dot Com Bubble and the Housing Bubble will feel like minor speed bumps.

America, we've got a problem. It isn't healthcare, it isn't cap and trade, it isn't our national debt, it isn't jobs! It is high value jobs. Without high value jobs and exports the rest is simply a ponzi scheme.


Widget

[Wagner]

Assuming they go through with the plant closure, I am afraid you are right.

They are already producing very high quality goods as well as inexpensive crap.

A few have been saying moving to China (and Mexico) will be the death of quality in our beloved brand. While there will undoubtedly be hiccups initially, I have every confidence that any factory in China or Mexico can produce top quality goods given the proper training, management, and time to get the kinks worked out... but that isn't the issue. The issue is that the little company that started in Southern California over 60 years ago will no longer be. Even though it has grown and grown, and with that growth both good and bad have come from it... it simply will no longer be.

Sure this is sad for us as fans of the heritage of Mr. Lansing, but MUCH more importantly it is one more sad factory closing that is driving our country bankrupt. If we as a people don't demand the stop of the free fall manufacturing decline in this country we will have little to offer the rest of the world. We get caught up in the side show of Left and Right ideology... more taxes, less taxes, more freedom, or more regulation. The Karl Roves and David Axelrods spin, spin, spin... people get all wound up and putty in their hands. Free Market my ass, there really is no Free Market, and if someone doesn't put the brakes on this situation, the Dot Com Bubble and the Housing Bubble will feel like minor speed bumps.

America, we've got a problem. It isn't healthcare, it isn't cap and trade, it isn't our national debt, it isn't jobs! It is high value jobs. Without high value jobs and exports the rest is simply a ponzi scheme.


Widget

Hallelujah!

Thomas

[Mr. Widget]

I am not going to run out and buy Martin Logans because they are claiming to be "The Great American Speaker Company", but I do applaud the fact that they are offering a custom shop and acknowledging their heritage.


Widget

[Ducatista47]

Never having been a fan of the greed - I mean growth model, I applaud the feature section in the new (April 2010) Scientific American. The really big picture is the theme, and the article "Breaking the Growth Habit" is germane to this thread in particular.

The growth model of business makes a very few very wealthy and leaves everything and everyone else in wreckage, the Earth included.

Clark

[scott fitlin]

Yeah, so now BEING American, is something to capitalize on? Whoop E Doo!

Electrostats ain't my bag any way, holograhic imaging though. However, pay more attention to the way our Gov't moves, in addition to our manufacturers.

BTW, just to say so, IF you have EVER bought ANYTHING at Radio Shack, any resistor, and adapter, YOU HAVE ALREADY BOUGHT MADE IN CHINA beginning MANY MOONS AGO!

And OUR clothing, even our designer brands! Yeah my designer label shirts NEVER say Made In Sri Lanka, or Indonesia! And again, this didn't start happening a year or two ago! Where was everyone then?

[jim3860]

Assuming they go through with the plant closure, I am afraid you are right.

They are already producing very high quality goods as well as inexpensive crap.

A few have been saying moving to China (and Mexico) will be the death of quality in our beloved brand. While there will undoubtedly be hiccups initially, I have every confidence that any factory in China or Mexico can produce top quality goods given the proper training, management, and time to get the kinks worked out... but that isn't the issue. The issue is that the little company that started in Southern California over 60 years ago will no longer be. Even though it has grown and grown, and with that growth both good and bad have come from it... it simply will no longer be.

Sure this is sad for us as fans of the heritage of Mr. Lansing, but MUCH more importantly it is one more sad factory closing that is driving our country bankrupt. If we as a people don't demand the stop of the free fall manufacturing decline in this country we will have little to offer the rest of the world. We get caught up in the side show of Left and Right ideology... more taxes, less taxes, more freedom, or more regulation. The Karl Roves and David Axelrods spin, spin, spin... people get all wound up and putty in their hands. Free Market my ass, there really is no Free Market, and if someone doesn't put the brakes on this situation, the Dot Com Bubble and the Housing Bubble will feel like minor speed bumps.

America, we've got a problem. It isn't healthcare, it isn't cap and trade, it isn't our national debt, it isn't jobs! It is high value jobs. Without high value jobs and exports the rest is simply a ponzi scheme.


Widget

Agreed 100% I was sorely tempted to say the same things virtually verbatim but was afraid that might be considered political. But true enough once we lose the ability to manufacture products and the knowledge base and the skilled labor to do so we as a country are in serious trouble, and it has been happening for years. Look at all the companies that used to support workers in the USA that have moved away and are not coming back everything from Zippo lighters Kodak cameras almost all textiles and electronics literally thousands of companies and millions of jobs and a way of life for many small towns have came and gone.

Japan started the electronic wars with the transistor radio and actually sold their products at a loss until they gained market share then the rest was history all sanctioned and approved and even paid by in large part by the Japanese goverment, our goverment could learn a lot from this

REGARDS JIM

[Wagner]

Yeah, so now BEING American, is something to capitalize on? Whoop E Doo!

Electrostats ain't my bag any way, holograhic imaging though. However, pay more attention to the way our Gov't moves, in addition to our manufacturers.

BTW, just to say so, IF you have EVER bought ANYTHING at Radio Shack, any resistor, and adapter, YOU HAVE ALREADY BOUGHT MADE IN CHINA beginning MANY MOONS AGO!

And OUR clothing, even our designer brands! Yeah my designer label shirts NEVER say Made In Sri Lanka, or Indonesia! And again, this didn't start happening a year or two ago! Where was everyone then?

What the heck you think I've been trying to say? But then it gets too close to that 3rd rail here..........."politics".


Thomas

[Wagner]

Yeah, so now BEING American, is something to capitalize on? Whoop E Doo!

It should be.

Thomas

[scott fitlin]

What the heck you think I've been trying to say? But then it gets too close to that 3rd rail here..........."politics".

We ARE on the same page.

Thomas

I always knew what you were trying to say. BUT the problem is it did NOT start with JBL! rather JBL is following what has been done over the last 40 years.

Look, just look at what our Gov't is doing, and WE say NO, and THEY say OH YES, anyway! SOCIALISM!

Heck, I wouldn't want to here , either, If I were them, meaning LBJ!

4313B! He makes a HUGE stink, but the company he works for, BEEN took the Tijuana Taxi! Nobody quitting jobs over it though. We do still all have to eat and etc, etc!

My point is we have been at, what we are speaking against, for so long now, it is commonplace to do. If it were 1967, I would say differently.

Like I said, look at so much of our clothing, yeah, sneakers like Nike were mentioned, and IT doesn't matter, KIDS still want the AIR JORDANS!

Bottom line? Too late, accept or don't, but it is being done, and the precedents to do so were set many generations ago.

[scott fitlin]

It should be.

Thomas

Well, unfortunately, so is making THE BIGGEST PROFIT!

[Wagner]

I always knew what you were trying to say. BUT the problem is it did NOT start with JBL!

I don't think anyone said it did.

Interesting that when I used non audio, non JBL examples to gently illustrate some of the same points you are making I was scolded.

Mmmm?

Thomas

[Wagner]

Can't we all just get along?!

Thomas

[scott fitlin]

Can't we all just get along?!

Thomas

NOW you want to get along?

We wanted to NOT go here, but some so desperately NEEDED to go there!

So, now we are here, BUT the problems with your arguments, are simply that this has been going on for so long, and we have been dependent upon American design/Foreign manufacture for so long, we can't turn back now. We just won't, either.

Wagner, you wanted to be a politician, NOW we are all POLITICIANS!