Blue is Me

Tag: quality

  • Why is made in Japan generally considered superior in quality as compared to made in China?

    Japanese distinguish themselves from other Asians in that they are craftsmen and care about the process in how they do things.

    Other Asians – Koreans, Chinese etc care only about the result of what they do.

    Japanese care about the process, the materials, the artisanship, the aesthetic value, the nature of what they do. It is not uncommon in Japan to find people who dedicate their lives to doing one thing whether it be crafting handmade swords or guarding temples and shrines.

    I always equate Japan’s craftsmanship to Germany’s – both countries are known for paying particular attention to the details of the design and engineering of what they make.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37JQSEEh-t8

    This is a high end Japanese pool cue made by Mezz/Exceed costing $2400. Again – this is a pool cue, an item that some others might find only as an instrument to play pool, the Japanese have managed to inject their craftsmanship into.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoRUlYzxGUA

    This is the Sony SA-Z1 near field speaker system costing $6k+. You can hear how passionate the Sony engineer was talking about this.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0hR9jagpSM

    These are the watchmakers working on a Grand Seiko – Grand Seiko watches cost upwards of $5k-$10k. Grand Seiko dials are known for having the best finishing in the entire business – better than even high end Patek Phillipes.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn-V3gWjAOc

    or the Urushi laquer that adorns the dial of the Seiko presage limited edition

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y_aoK0ZcB4

    For 5 years the disciple of a master Japanese swordsmith does nothing but craft Katanas. No salary, no days off, just complete devotion.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVs-Suu-ljE

    Manufacture of high end badminton racquets by Yonex the leading supplier

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la-VuEubHLE&t=467s

    Engineers of VAIO talk about the design of the laptop – again you can feel how passionate they are about every small detail of engineering.

    https://youtu.be/LjzBl2JACsk

    You can hear about the amount of detail and attention that it takes to make the flagship Fostex TH900mk2 headphones

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgQTaP1yCqU

    See how much the Tokyo restaurant chef cares about the ingredients, the process, the experience of eating? Not just the result of the dish itself but everything.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_CSLU28hCI

    This man has worked his entire life for the sole dedication of supplying a single vending machine in the countryside which he refills with fresh rice and curry every day.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LUz6Zhud_k

    Somewhere in a remote corner of Japan, a family has been dedicated making high quality ramen for generations.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCfhPias2aA

    Takumi – A 60,000-hour story on the survival of human craft – follows four Japanese artisans who are dedicating their lives to their crafts, including a double Michelin starred chef, a traditional paper cutting artist, an automotive master craftsman and a carpenter for one of the oldest construction companies in the world.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOV9W_7uQGQ

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbgODjNNRsM

    Stunning McIntosh level design and quality from high end Japanese audio companies like Accuphase and Luxman

    This is the special cultural element about Japan that other Asian countries or even Western countries don’t really have is their dedication to their craft.

    That is why made in Japan is considered much more prestigious than made in China or made in any other Asian country, is because Japanese have cultivated this reputation as caring a great detail about their craftsmanship, design, materials and artistry and this has reflected in their products. Although made in Japan usually costs much more than made in China – you get a product that is premium quality, was made with care and attention and will last a generation.

  • Do made in USA products actually have substantially better quality than made in China products?

    Hmm, it depends on which product.

    You see, in China there’s a vast array of different products manufactured to meet different price points. Most people associate Made in China with low cost products and if it’s low cost, then quality control and materials is bound to be lower as well. After all, there’s a reason why the product is cheap, and its most likely because cost cutting measures were taken into place.

    Now, when we come into the high end Chinese brands, or USA brands that are made in China – Huawei, Xiaomi, FiiO, Shanling, Oppo, Hifiman, DJI, Zhiyun are a few of the higher end Chinese brands, then when we look at USA brands manufactured in China like Dell, or HP, or Apple or Microsoft, then we can say the quality is pretty equivalent there. Generally the prices for USA brands manufactured in China tend to be higher than Chinese brands.

    But there’s also products that are made in the USA, and these happen to be very expensive, usually boutique brands and are usually limited to some space. Examples include Gibson guitars, Martin Guitars, Fender Guitars, Ayre Acoustics or McIntosh Power Amplifiers, Wilson Audio Speakers, Grado headphones, Audioquest or Kimber Kable cables, Custom guitar pedals, Oak and Oscar or Detroit Watch Company watches, Mission Workshop or Brown Buffalo or DEFY backpacks, Empire Ears or Noble Audio IEMs etc like very high end products and these usually cost hundreds or thousands of dollars more than the equivalent made in China product. Are they better quality then made in China products? Well yes in general they are, and they should be, because the prices are much, much higher and cost of labor is a lot higher in the USA. Are they worth the thousands of dollars of price premium over made in China products? probably not. I mean, you could buy 20 made in China acoustic guitars for the price of one USA-made Martin guitar.

    There’s also some bigger companies in the US that manufacture some lines that are in made in the US i.e True Religion Jeans or New Balance Sneakers – the made in USA line are their highest line and the most expensive and again – more expensive than the made in Asia versions by a considerable factor.

    The money you save by buying a high end Chinese or made in China product is probably a better value than buying a made in USA product, because made in USA products, although better quality overall and in general, are usually much much more expensive and I personally don’t feel that the difference in quality is worth the price premium, but it may be to some people (out of patriotism and thats why made in USA products tend to be very premium boutique brands.

  • What are the similarities between the product of America and China?

    Majority of American products are made in China. but there’s a difference between designed in America (i.e Apple) and designed in China (Huawei).

    As far as I can tell, the quality difference between top Chinese brands like Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo and American brands that are made in China like Apple, Microsoft, Dell, HP etc is minimal. What separates them is that American designed products tend to be more innovative and Chinese products more derivative. Often you pay a markup (in the case of Apple a big markup) for that American designed product.

    There is a big quality difference between “no-name” Chinese brands that you find in Wal-mart or Amazon versus American brands. But that’s hardly a fair comparison, you are paying a fraction of the price for those Chinese brands.

    Lastly, there are American brands that are actually designed and made in America. These tend to sell at a very high markup – Gibson guitars, made in America Fender guitars, Shinola watches, Klipsch speakers, etc they do seem to be better quality than any Chinese made product but usually the high premium you pay for “made in USA” is not worth the marginally better quality you get. Usually people pay this premium because they want to support the American economy, that’s why.

  • I’m an “audiophile”… and no one needs ultra HD displays

    I play music for a hobby; I am a musician part time. As of now I have about 270 guitar/piano videos on my Youtube (which you can check on the media page on the side). So yeah, I care about audio alot and audio tone. The irony is that I care about audio more than I care about video. Mainstream consumers are the opposite. They love their 4K super high resolution displays and stuff, but for me, video quality has always been secondary to audio quality.

    I remember when HD first came out (720p / 1080p) I couldn’t see much of a difference between that and 480p DVD quality videos. But maybe my eyes are just used to 240p/480p VHS/VCD/DVDs. All my computer resolutions have been 720p (that is, 1366×768) and lower, until this year. That’s right! It took me until 2015 to get a computer with a full HD resolution! so yeah no 4K for me for a while. I also don’t like 4K because I would have to redownload all my movies and tv shows and anime in 4K which takes up a ton of space. I would prefer just a FHD OLED display instead.

    Now we have smartphones rocking 4K resolution. Which is absolutely ridiculous because 4K is questionable even on a flat screen TV. At the distance we sit from the TV I doubt many people notice the difference in resolution. Having super high resolution also impacts another big factor in battery life. I like my stuff with good battery life thats why I chose a regular 720p laptop which gets me 20 hours of battery life (thanks to the dual batteries in the Thinkpad X240!) and a regular 720p phone as well, the Sony Xperia Z3C which gets me 2 days of battery life. For my 17 inch gaming laptop I “only” have a full HD resolution. Having Ultra HD 3200×1800 resolution on a laptop will both kill the battery life and alot of windows apps don’t scale well beyond FHD anyways.

    Anyways for me audio quality has always been more important, thats why I own tube amps and a record player and 180gram vinyl LPs. I listen to FLACs (lossless) whenever possible (My Sony Xperia Z3C has a built in walkman and support for high res and lossless audio), and have owned countless pairs of headphones and earphones. The irony is the average consumer doesn’t really care about audio that much. They are happy listening to their lossy MP3s, listening on their Mac or PC with a terrible built in DAC, or using cheap quality iPod or Beats headphones.

    Let me take a head count here. How many of you have heard of these audio companies: Bose, Sennheiser, Fender, Marshall, IK Multimedia, Apogee, AKG, Beyerdynamic, Shure, Etymotic, Ultimate Ears, JBL, Altec Lansing, Cambridge Audio, Boston Acoustics, Polk Audio, Klipsch, Onkyo, Dynaudio, Denon, Pioneer, Philips, Creative Labs, Monster, Beats, Hifiman, Woo Audio, Linn Audio, Meridian Audio, Apple, Audioquest, Focusrite, M-Audio, SRS Labs, Jays, Dolby, DTS, Audyssey, Wave Audio, Grado Labs, Audeze, THX, Grain Audio, Audioengine, Master & Dynamic, Audio Technica, Skullcandy, Sony, Samsung, LG, Harmon Kardon, Bowers and Wilkins, Bang and Olufsen, Infinity, Sol Republic, Yamaha.

    I even know most of the various amp, effects, and guitar pickup makers: Fender, ESP, Gibson, Jackson, Ibanez, Dean Martin, Epiphone, G&L, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, Kramer, Vox, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Dr Z, Two Rock, Victoria Amps, Tone King, Line 6, Digitech, Orange, Crate, Boss, Behringer, BBE, Korg, Roland, Maxon, Dunlop, MXR, Way Huge, Xotic, Lovepedals, Keeley, Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan, Lace, Lindy Fralin, Bill Lawrence, TV Jones, Fishman, Electro Harmonix, Visual Sound, Teese, Fulltone, Analog Man, I could go on and on….

    That’s a wide range of audio companies, from mainstream to boutique, from headphone makers to DSP and effects makers. But anyways you get my point; I know all these companies because I care alot about audio. I even made an article about the best portable bluetooth speakers, and the Best over ear headphones.

    Here’s the audio gear I currently use:

    Guitar equipment:
    Swart Atomic Jr (Tube Amp)
    Fender 60s Strat relic w/ handwound Alnico III/V single coil pickups
    Martin OMJM acoustic guitar
    Boho Moonshine guitar
    Boss Looper
    Digitech Trio
    Lovepedals Dover drive
    RambleFX Plexi Drive
    Xotic compressor
    Xotic booster
    Maxon TBO9
    Seymour Duncan 805
    Keeley magnetic echo
    Keeley Oxblood
    BBE Wah

    Audio recording equipment:
    Shure MV88 iphone mic
    Shure MV51 computer mic
    Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB interface
    IK Multimedia iRig 2
    MXL 770 Condenser Mic
    Shure SM58 Dynamic mic
    Behringer XENYX502 Mixer

    Listening equipment:
    Philips Fidelio X2 open back headphones/monitors
    Sennheiser Momentum closed back headphones
    Master & Dynamic ME03 Earphones
    Bose Quietcomfort 25 Noise-cancelling headphones
    Creative Soundblaster E5 USB DAC/Amp
    Creative Soundblaster Roar 2 bluetooth speaker
    Audio Technica LP60 Turntable
    Creative T4W Speakers (for connecting to anything including record players)
    Klipsch R10B Soundbar

    Not a bad setup. Unlike some people, I don’t have particular brand devotion to anything. Some people like to have all their equipment the same brand, but I actually embrace diversity of brands. I like experiencing difference. My TV is Panasonic. My phone is Sony and Apple. My tablet is Apple and Nvidia. My computer is Asus and Lenovo. My keyboard is Aorus. My mouse is Logitech. My microphones are Shure. My speakers are Creative and Klipsch. My headphones are Sennheiser, Philips, and Bose. My camera is Nikon and Canon. So yeah I am not a ‘fanboy’ of anything although you could say the closest I come to that is Sony. I have a Sony phone, Sony camera, Sony UMPC, Sony PS4 and Sony PS Vita. But even then.. I like to diversify.