IME also. There's good and bad products out of Asia and everywhere else; to suggest otherwise is jingoistic racist BS.
Knowing how high a standard of quality Eminence US holds itself to I'd be shocked to find out that they would be satisfied with anything less from their Chinese factory. Neither would their customers who buy those products. There are over 200 driver manufacturers in the Far East for OEM users to choose from, and I'd be willing to bet most of them offer pricing considerably lower than what Eminence does. The only reason why they'd go with Eminence is for the higher than average standard of quality they know they'll get. No rational company wants to have to deal with warranty returns. As for the OPs situation, Eminence drivers are warranted for seven years, you should be making a claim w/Fender.
...(comments are directed at the red highlighted portion)...oh, & I'm not singling out Eminence, it's not too much different for any company...
I'm sure that's what Eminence wants also & that may very well be what they're getting & will continue to get. Hope so. The
possible (& I say possible, I don't have 1st hand knowledge of Chinese speaker manufacturing plants) fly in the ointment, though, is that there are probably few "western" eyes looking at the product. No jingoism involved, simply a fact.
The Chinese manufacturer wants to ship product, bottom line. They want it to be acceptable product, but if it come down to shipping less than acceptable product (or even some abysmally poor units) or not shipping less than acceptable product, they're almost always (if not 100% of the time) going to ship the less than acceptable product. Another unit out of the door is another unit they get paid for. Pure & simple.
The primary QC personnel in the factory work for the factory, not Eminence (unless Eminence actually owns the factory, in which case it's a whole different ballgame, but I doubt Eminence owns it/them). The factory QC are on the production lines as long as they're running, from early in the morning to late in the night or into the wee hours of the next morning. Sometimes even throughout the entire night. The Eminence westerners (if there are any) and/or the Chinese/Taiwanese/Fillipino/whatever Eminence QC/production people are probably only there from 9-10 until 4-5 or thereabouts, M-F. Maybe a 1/2 day Saturday. Almost never there on Sunday. After they're gone it can turn into a "when the cat's away the mice will play" scenario. They must check all areas of the factory, so while they're in one area, another area is not monitored. They may have multiple factories to cover, so there is time spent traveling from one to the others (& travel in China can be s-l-o-w going at times). All this is additional time not watching each individual unit as it is completed & packed.
As I mentioned at the top, I hope the Eminence product is quality from the get-go & remains so throughout. I like Eminence. A lot. I think they are committed to quality product. But producing in China, especially during the first years, can be a true challenge. It's a difference of mindset & it's so real that it can almost be tangible.
. But the lower labor prices will threaten factories/employment in the established provinces too. Social unrest is one of the greatest worries, if not the greatest, on the minds of China's leadership.
