Kar Hoe's Blog - Why you should not be deceived by looks when buying speakers

Why you should not be deceived by looks when buying speakers

Monday, 23 June 2008

From my experience of working as PC Fair promoter selling Edifier speakers for 3 times, many customers prefer to buy xxx (censored) speakers because they 'looked better'. Well of course, since a bigger portion of the cost is invested into the apperance. But if you are an audiophile, you would know that xxx speakers don't perform on par with their competitors counter part.

If you do not know, many companies do not produce their own products, instead they get an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) to produce the parts and put their brand on it, then it's up to the company to market their brand and the product. A year ago my father went to China with few a traders association to visit few of the factories. He came back with many catalogs, as I browsed through the catalogs, I see many familiar products with different branding on it. My dad even bought a shoes from one of the factory that produces shoes for a famous brand which I would not put here, just that the shoes was given some China brand, everything else was the same, the same QC, the same manufacturing process.

Let's get back to topic.

I came across this article, which reveals the 'secret' of low end speakers. It's in Chinese so get a translator if you need to

http://tech.sina.com.cn/roll/2008-05-21/1541667448.shtml

Even if you don't understand Chinese, the pictures tell a thousands word, you can see that the tweeter is a fake and is only for decoration purpose. The picture of the speakers in the article resembles Sonic Gear Evo 3, so wait till I get my hand on Sonic Gear Evo 3 , I'll open it up to see if the tweeter is really fake.

Sonic Gear Evo3

Sonic Gear Evo 3

NVIS OEM speaker

Don't they look the same?

When the speakers (NVIS) are opened, the so called 'tweeter' is not connected to anything, it's merely for decoration. On Sonic Gear website, it's mentioned on the specifications that the speakers has a 1" tweeter.

The conclusion is this, before you want to buy anything, do some research, don't be deceived by the look. Some speakers can come big and put up a powerful advertising line "PC Speakers? Or Hi-Fi set". What's the use if the inside is empty?

Disclaimer - I do not guarantee the accuracy of the article nor do I assure you that Sonic Gear speakers are OEM from Nvis, nor do I make any assurance that Sonic Gear Evo 3 = NVIS speaker shown in the picture and I do not guarantee that the tweeeters of Evo 3 are fakes.

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