You may be waiting a while.

The 4311CI and A100 are still coming from Japan. The AV7005 has indeed shifted production from Japan to China. A dealer friend of mine said that since the AV7005 is now coming from China, it is only a matter of time before the 4311CI/A100 comes from there too. But since the A100 is an "anniversary" type thing, maybe they will stop production on those entirely before the switch. One reason why I didn't want to wait any longer for the 978: I wanted to make sure I got an A100 from Japan. May not matter for some people, but it matters to me.

The 978 will almost certainly be coming from China.

Almost certainly? Unless I missed something, I could have sworn that I read one of PeterT's comments where he said as much.

At the end of the day, we all need to decide whether or not we're going to continue sending money to a country that is explicitly working against our country's national interests. Higher end audio equipment clearly falls into what I'd call "discretionary spending" and I'd rather funnel those dollars to companies and people that are more focused on the bigger picture, even if that means I need to spend a little more. Sending money to a company who then sends some of it to an "enemy" to make/keep short-term profits at the expense of the very people who they would call their "family" and their customers strikes me as a bit odd. But perhaps I'm just old fashioned that way. I wouldn't buy any Emotiva gear for the same reason.

Edit: Outlaw/ATI amps are another matter. They're made in the USA.

Best,

If you look at the rear panel of the 978 it clearly says "Made In PRC". So that would lead me to believe the 978 will be made in the Peoples Republic of China. I would like to buy a prepro that is made in the USA but thats not going to happen. The same concerns about "made in Japan" were voiced over 30 years ago.

Bill

30 years ago, Japan was not actively subverting our economic and political policies across the globe. Anyway, this has gone far afield from the original subject.

I hope that the Outlaw product will someday see the light of day and that the company manages to stay in business. I don't agree with their offshoring policies, but I will say they've provided me with good customer service and high quality products in the past.

Best,

Although some very expensive equipment is built in the USA most of the parts used to assemble it are built elsewhere. Outsourcing is a way of life and there's no way around it unless you have unlimited capital. That doesn't fit the "best bang for the buck" model of Outlaw and it never will. 30 years ago the Japanese were trying to put the automakers and every other consumer electronics company out of business, clear and simple. They have almost succeeded, with the exception of the high end market where price is not a factor.

But this is exactly what China is doing to them, Europe, us, Canada, etc, today.

A bunch of US solar technology companies just filed a complaint with the US gov't because Chinese companies are dumping solar products here ... trying to drive US companies out of business.

Frankly, my personal concern is more about quality control and long term reliability, than any politics of where a particular audio component comes from.

I'd love to buy US, and I'd pay a reasonable premium for that, but that's almost impossible with AVRs/SSPs. So with the Denon 4311CI/A100, if there's a choice between a unit manufactured in China vs Japan, I'll take Japan every time.

Since the 978 can and will only come from China, I don't have a problem with that.

My only concern was that we still don't know when the 978 will be available (hint, hint Outlaw ), so I wanted to get the Denon AVR before there weren't any more Japanese-made units available.

Good thing I have absolutely no qualms about changing a decision I just thought I made. (I should be a politician.)

I don't know how many of you follow the Audyssey thread at AVS (I know Sanjay does ), but Markus767 has just recently posted graphs of before and after in-room measured responses with XT and XT32.

XT32 isn't the fundamental improvement over XT that I thought it was.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=795421&page=1553

Start at post 46581. He presented the comparison originally in post 46553.

That changes the game for me. I could see moving from the AV7005 to the 4311CI/A100 if XT32 was a bigger improvement over XT. But just for an incremental (if that) improvement, I can wait for the hopefully improved analog output stage and better DACs of the ... 978 !!

I think my views on China, and specifically about not buying made-in-China products, have been posted enough that I need not repeat them all.

However in the context of comparing China of today to Japan of thirty years ago...

There is a huge difference between economic competition as practiced by Japan back then, and the economic threat that is China, specifically because of the military, environmental, political, and human rights threats that go hand-in-hand with China today, and which never existed with Japan thirty years ago.

Jeff Mackwood

I think your views on China and Chinese equipment is well known and I am sure many feel the same way. My point is that there is likely nothing to be done to forestall the onward march of cost conscious buyers towards lower priced equipment.