HEGEL - Is it really made in Norway ?

It is the right of the consumer to know the country of manufacture of the products to be purchased. It is one of the parameters that affects the decision to buy or not. Hegel knows this and decided to hide this information from the buyer when the same buyer knows very well the origin of the tomatoes and the t-shirts he buys.
This is a cheap trick and very bad marketing practice.

The Absolute Sound staff Kirk Midtskog visited Hegel R&D offices in Oslo and wrote the following article http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/visit-to-hegel-music-systems-in-oslo-norway/
Although he wrote all the details about the facilities and the people working there, with an analytical presentation of Bent Holter the head of the company, he never mentions anything about the factory. There is no word about the most important part of a manufacturing company: the factory.
It is clear that Hegel requested from Bent not to mention the "forbidden" word, China.

Sabai,

Hegel is a mid-high end company. They believe that the image of their products is favorable if people think that they are made in Norway that has a good name in HiFi, created by products like Tandberg and Electocompaniet. Obviously, Hegel believes that they can attract more customers at this segment of the market, by giving them the impression that their equipment are made in the homeland by dedicated and highly motivated staff, instead of in a country like China that is known for mass production, low paid workforce and less expensive products.
Personally I think there is no difference in the quality of the final product irrespective of the country of production.
With hifi equipment, where you cannot really measure the level of quality and amplifiers are evaluated quite subjectively, customers need to be impressed very positively. Especially people who do not buy at the budget category.

Hegel avoids to write made in China for commercial reasons. The majority of high end audio buyers avoid equipment of Chinese origin for two reasons:
a. Lower prestige products compared to those produced in U.S., UK, Germany, France, Switzerland etc.
I'm wondering, if their amps were build in Germany, would they still insist to hide this info?
b. Considerable loss of value in the second hand market.

Their refusal to provide important information, shows lack of respect for their customers.

Knghifi,
This is not a matter of SQ. It is a matter of a company that is writing at the back of their equipment the location of their drawing desk and not the factory that makes their equipment. This is a very irresponsible way to do business.
The majority of Hegel owners don't know the real origin of their dearly paid equipment, and for me this is unacceptable.
The "omertà" by the audio reviewers, correctly makes us believe that something very wrong goes on behind the scene.

ZD542 you wrote:
"In all fairness to Hegel, very few people in China can speak any English."

Agree, they don't speak English but you should know that most Chinese speak fluently...Norwegian instead!

The fact is that Hegel decided to cheat its customers by making them believe that their equipment are made in a different country from the one they are actually made. Dealers and reviewers helped Hegel to complete the trick.
Hegel should apologise for the wrong doing and use the correct labels if they care to be considered a decent company.

VW huge issue shows that companies are using all means in order to
succeed.

Nonoise/Ashbnrg,
The distance between Oslo and Beijing is 10,061.6 km.
There are not many high-end companies who try to close such a gap.
Probably two or three. I'm sure most of the customers of Hegel would never buy their expensive products, if they knew the real place of manufacture.
This is the definition of cheating and unethical behavior.

Nonoise,
It is not the relocation that makes a company unethical. It is the hiding of basic info from the customer on purpose, in order to bias his opinion and maximize profit, that makes it. For this reason, nobody from Hegel will ever respond in this thread.

Joecasey, Ps
I'm sorry if I created to you the impression that there is something suspicious by expressing my opinion on this matter. You definitely don't agree with me, but please make an effort to point out were I am wrong.