HEGEL - Is it really made in Norway ?

randy-11,

This is clearly a pattern -- from shoddy to superior. Of course, it can take decades to make the transition. But I think we should watch carefully the emerging trends in Asia. The movement eastwards portends a lot of changes in the future. I think this could have a positive impact on the high end audio industry. Because, with lower production costs in China and its satellites, there is a lot of wiggle room for discounting high end products.

Agreed, but low labor costs won't last long and have already changed quite a bit.  Most labor will be done by robots in a few years anyway.

Whether China will set up something like JIS would be the biggest near-term effect on quality.

Another thing about China - if you suddenly need 10,000 engineers for a project... they can be on site in a week.  Even India can't match that (yet).

Greed will rule no matter where something is made or sold .

randy-11,

Robots are the wave of the future and China is a world leader. The use of robots may actually keep the cost of labor down, which is why they are proliferating.

schubert,

I agree. Greed is omnipresent.

Having been insulted (unprovoked) by top people at Hegel Headquarters, after paying full price for their product, I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that there is something very strange going on at Hegel. I think the underlying problem with is one that we also see elsewhere from time to time. Hegel simply cannot bring themselves to say ... we made a mistake here ... sorry ... this needs to be corrected. If they were able to do this they would immediately gain respect and credibility. Instead, they act reflexively, trying to save face.

We can also see this happening with the labeling of their products. There is something strange in their corporate culture that impels them to do the opposite of what one would reasonably expect of a mature company. It is as if, after shooting themselves in the left foot they are ready to reload and repeat the exercise using the right foot. They fail to examine the way they present themselves in certain problematic instances -- being incapable of rectifying problems that are actually quite simple to solve. Their behavior is all the more odd because those I have spoken to at Hegel seemed to be otherwise quite intelligent people. How can we explain this kind of corporate behavior?