Is all the good stuff going to Japan? ;-)

[Lee in Montreal]

Just found this blog and am amazed at the good stuff some people have over there. I am totally impressed.

http://blog.jbl43.com/?cid=18824

[JeffW]

Kenrick restores vintage speakers and also produces quality replicas, they have a presence here on the forum.

The "good stuff" goes to where the money is, where we have people griping over the cost to rebuild authentic JBL drivers.

They deserve the good stuff.

[Cooljjay]

The "good stuff" goes to where the money is, where we have people griping over the cost to rebuild authentic JBL drivers.

They deserve the good stuff.

This is true, I feel if we had a good economy as some of the over seas buyers we could afford to keep our vintage audio. But as it goes now everyone and there mother is trying to keep the lights on in their homes, so we have to sell what ever we can to get by. Its the sad truth. With no manufacturing left in america we have no jobs thus no money thus a horrible economy where as Japan say...makes every tooth brush you see at the drug store thus employment thus money for hobbies. Here we are stuck in a depression so our vintage audio has to go over to the people who have an economy. I wish I could stuff everything I found into a museum but why let that piece collect dust when I can get 600$ for it to pay medical bills.....Bring back manufacturing to America and we won't have to worry about overseas buyers.

[SEAWOLF97]

where as Japan say...makes every tooth brush you see at the drug store thus employment thus money for hobbies.

don't know where you got that .....Japan has been stagnant since the 1990's ...they no longer have lifetime employment , cars/motorbikes are one of their few bright spots.

China & Vietnam is where the growth is ...they have the #1 and #2 fastest growing economies in the world.

But yes, there is still a lot of held wealth in Nippon that still appreciates quality audio gear.

[RKLee]

This is true, I feel if we had a good economy as some of the over seas buyers we could afford to keep our vintage audio. But as it goes now everyone and there mother is trying to keep the lights on in their homes, so we have to sell what ever we can to get by. Its the sad truth. With no manufacturing left in america we have no jobs thus no money thus a horrible economy where as Japan say...makes every tooth brush you see at the drug store thus employment thus money for hobbies. Here we are stuck in a depression so our vintage audio has to go over to the people who have an economy. I wish I could stuff everything I found into a museum but why let that piece collect dust when I can get 600$ for it to pay medical bills.....Bring back manufacturing to America and we won't have to worry about overseas buyers.

That is absolutely true. Many people in Calif have a big disdain for big business. The Calif govt have raised the cost of doing business in Calif to point where it can't be sustained.

Case in point, the Buck Knife Co was founded in El Cajon, a suburb of San Diego. They moved to Iowa, and cut their worker's comp costs by 25%. In the past few years, Calif has lost many big companies, General Motors(Van Nuys & Fremont), Ford(Pico Riveria), Boeing, Northrop, Lockheed, Hughes Ground Systems, Hughes Radar, Union 76 Oil, ARCO etc. The list goes on.

In the news, the struggling Bank of America is poised to layoff 40,000 people, and ~6000 of them are in Calif. Bad news for a state that has 12% unemployment rate. Today, Calif left is a minimum wage jobs in the hospitality and retail industry. Contrary to the wishing and hoping by Calif politicians, the Calif economy will not be improving anytime soon, at least not to the point what the economy was 20-30 years ago, or even 10 years ago. It will take years for the economy to improve, if it can.

OK, back on topic, years ago in the mid-1970s, my friend worked at this company, where all they do is export high-end JBL and MacIntosh electronics to Japan.

My friend borrowed a MacIntosh pre-amp, a pair of tube amps(output 250 watts each, those thing were super heavy, most of the weight was due to the output transformer), and set of JBL speakers(D130 & 075) for a party. Oh my did it sound good. The owner made a pretty good living until he retired. I don't know what happened to the company though.

So exporting high-end USA built audio equipment to Japan is nothing new. I have heard, and can not verify, but most of the later production of JBL Paragons were Japan-bound

[Titanium Dome]

That is absolutely true. Many people in Calif have a big disdain for big business. The Calif govt have raised the cost of doing business in Calif to point where it can't be sustained.

We have a big disdain for CA government, county government, and city government, too. The crazy rules and last-century wage and benefit laws prevent many of us from hiring people who want to work. These are people who would gladly accept any job they can get rather than be on unemployment or welfare, but in order to "protect" workers, CA won't allow us to pay Federal minimum wage or save on overhead by offering 4-day 40 hour workweeks, etc. It still pays unemployment to people who get fired for cause, who steal from their companies, and who lie about income. If we try to straighten this out, we have to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees, so there's less left in the kitty for the workers we do have.

It's insanity: doing the same things that drove us to recession and expecting the recession to go away. Harman International left town because of stupidity like this and because of lame legislators like Jane Harman (name ring a bell?) who did nothing to keep jobs in CA, cared nothing about the workers that were laid off, and made no moves to try fix any of the reason the jobs went elsewhere.

Heck, I'm getting political. Bad Dome!

[BMWCCA]

My friend borrowed a MacIntosh pre-amp, a pair of tube amps(output 250 watts each, those thing were super heavy, most of the weight was due to the output transformer), and set of JBL speakers(D130 & 075) for a party. Oh my did it sound good.

Same system I used in high-school and college: Mac C-20, JBL 030 C37, with just one Crown D150. We'd put the big JBLs out on the back porch in student farmhouse in the Blue Ridge Mountains and let them sing to the hills all day long for a hundred happy revelers. Still have it all today, too.

Back when my dad bought the first 030, a healthy middle-class in this country could afford to aspire. Hope and faith were on their side but so was a good post-war economy. JBL sold the D130 as an add-on system for the middle-class to aspire to improving over time by adding components as they could afford them. Back them we "knew" eventually we'd be able to afford better. Today I don't have that confidence for myself or my kids. The income disparity in this country has become a self-fulfilling prophecy and no one, not even JBL, can afford to base their business model on folks "moving up" anymore. Sadly.

[Wardsweb]

Are they converting 2405 to polished ring radiators?

[grumpy]

2402 perhaps

I seem to recall seeing a 'gold' unit, similarly polished, in these fora at one time.