There isn't one manufacturer that makes a product in each category. JL was mentioned, and unless they opened an office in Korea, they don't make amplifier, they market them. Their name is used to add value to a product and increase their profits. When Pioneer,Sony,Alpine,Kenwood make speakers and amps, they invest more R&D into choosing the color and packaging than how it sounds or performs. They start with the selling price and engineer backwards. Quality manufacturers that specialize in a product category, Start with R&D, develop better products and then price them accordingly.

Mitsubishi makes a great rally car, If I ever go to the airport and see Mitsubishi on the side of a plane I'm walking instead of flying.

When a company devotes 100% to a design, the results are better than when they order out of a catalog and put their name on it.

 

i think you ment to say that JL doesn't make headunits right? cause they certainly make amps.

and funny you mentioned mitsubishi airplanes.... guess who made the zero in WW2? hehe just a funny fact. you have nothing to worry about at the airport if your concerened with mitsu building planes (but they do (co)own an airline or at least a very large fleet of passenger jets). but ironically the NEC LCD monitor i am reading this is manufactured by mitsubishi

 

JLK doesn't make amps. A factory in Korea makes amps and puts them in a box that is labeled JL Audio and ships them to the west coast where thy are shipped to stores. JL Audio is in Florida BTW. JL headunits will be coming soon though!

 

that stupid. JL designs the amps and a factory in korea makes them. so of course they are a JL design and a JL product. ford designs cars and they are assembled in mexico, that still makes them a ford regardless of where they are made.

 

Ford cars are built by Ford plants in Mexico, that is far different from vending out a product to the lowest bidder. As far as the design goes, they are a rehashing of a 10 year old PPI design and the E series are off the shelf asian product. Just like almost every other amp company out there. My point is they are no better quality than most other stuff out there. The name just costs more. I would take a JBL product over most stuff anyday. Same manufacturing, but they actually have over 2000 engineers employed by them, a bigger R&D budget than the next 3 companies combined and cost less. Look at Rockford, since it is almost impossible to increase market share, the best way to increase profits is to introduce new product. The have 3 brand names that each offer almost everything at various price points.
Lightning Audio = Low
Rockford = medium
MB Quart = High

The stuff is all made in the same factories and marketing has more to do with the costs of product than quality. Look at an MB Quart Q series midrange and compare it to a Lightning Audio coax. It costs more to make the coax once you add the cost of tooling for the 2F2F cool grille, (material costs are pretty equal) than it does to make the entire Q series mid which is almost completely plastic. Your thinking would imply that Rockford really couldn't make a great amp, but once they got some speaker engineers from Quart they could then build a better one.

JL is on the same path, a board of directors makes the decisions, not the engineers. Jim Birch, The "J"/Lucio Proni, The "L" have nothing to do with their products anymore.

This industry is 99% marketing and 1% product. That is why most people never heard of the really good brands.

 

anyone know where this factory is in korea?

 

JL's slash amps are definately a JL design, but they are DEFINATELY manufactured in korea...this is nothing new, but the design is definately something proprietary to JL...

JL Subs are assembled in US...

 

Most of them by JL themselves.

I think the factory in Asia is Chung Lam, they build most of the stuff we get here from "American" companies.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure if the W0 and W3 lineup are assebled in US by JL, though...

Bill, do you know?

 

They are all in the US, JL only started building themselves a few years ago. The W7 are for better QC, the W0's are because of the sheer volume of them they sell.