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Is the “China shock” coming for high-end headphones?
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respice finem
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At least for IEM, it's here already.
Just an example - price vs. performance:
www.audiosciencereview.com
Just an example - price vs. performance:
Truthear x Crinacle Zero:RED IEM Review
This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of Truthear x Crinacle Zero:RED IEM. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $55. I was relieved that they are more mahogany/darker red than what the name implies. Compared to the previous Zero version, they are supposed to have...
www.audiosciencereview.com
Cote Dazur
Major Contributor
Do you mean high-price category? high end would suppose some kind of performance advantage, which price is not representative of in most case.
So will China, offer high performance headphones at reasonable price out performing so called "high end" outreageausly priced headphones, they already do.
danadam
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I thought that was high-fi(delity).
Cote Dazur
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You must be as old as I am.
Not all the high end brands are made there, but e.g. hifiman is. I tend to agree, China "disrupted" headphones a long time ago, I think the interesting thing is actually that some headphone manufacturing survives elsewhere.
Yes
Honestly if the cost difference hasn't done it already I'm not sure when it will happen. The advantage China has in headphone manufacturing is considerable in terms of local supply chain, and the labor cost has been low. The latter factor is less true than it was and if a given manufacturer outside of China doesn't need their supply chain already, they're probably all set. So I don't see that the pressure to move manufacturing there will definitely increase for most firms.
I think a big factor is that Chinese companies are able to sell smaller products like DACs, desktop and HP amplifiers directly to consumers outside China. This gives them a massive price advantage for those willing to 'take the risk', especially when the lower price reduces the perceived risk. Headphones fit into this size and weight category, so I can't think of any reasons why China wouldn't also transform this market. I think speakers, even bookshelf ones, will be a much harder market for them to break into.
IMO it's more a question of brand-building than international parcel shipping rates. More than a few respected western brands do some or all of their manufacturing there. Edifier is starting to make inroads. If Chinese firms can make a profit selling wholesale to western brands, they can do the same under their own brands, eventually.
I think a bigger reason they don't is that the hi-fi and studio monitor markets are relatively small compared to the markets for cheap stuff. If you open a factory to make $50 bluetooth speakers you can maybe move a million units a year. If you open a factory to make $1500 studio monitors, take a few zeros off that number.
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Maybe we should be asking "What are headphones selling for $3000-5000 all about?" 
Because AFAIK, it's not about pure sonic performance, but rather, a sense of exclusivity and luxury. And while Chinese-made luxury goods (including exotic cars) have been a thing for awhile, I think awareness of them in the USA is still pretty low.
Because AFAIK, it's not about pure sonic performance, but rather, a sense of exclusivity and luxury. And while Chinese-made luxury goods (including exotic cars) have been a thing for awhile, I think awareness of them in the USA is still pretty low.What I'm waiting for is the "china shock" for wireless headphones. It's an abysmal market. There are barely any competent wireless headphones period, and absolutely no cheap ones.
We know we can build half decent closed backs for not that much money, see the FiiO FT1 for instance. But there are essentially zero decent wireless headphones that don't cost hundreds of dollars. It's either something like the HDB630 (which was a bit of a revolution in of itself as such a "cheap" and well tuned wireless headphone didn't exist before, either) or really badly tuned garbage.
So I'm waiting for the $200 China Bluetooth headphone that does a half decent job feature wise and has decent tuning.
We know we can build half decent closed backs for not that much money, see the FiiO FT1 for instance. But there are essentially zero decent wireless headphones that don't cost hundreds of dollars. It's either something like the HDB630 (which was a bit of a revolution in of itself as such a "cheap" and well tuned wireless headphone didn't exist before, either) or really badly tuned garbage.
So I'm waiting for the $200 China Bluetooth headphone that does a half decent job feature wise and has decent tuning.
The short answer is yes. China will soon dominate and rule the headphone arena! The US is not and hasn't been involved in doing much interesting in the audio space kind of across the board for awhile. Speakers are a big exception.
UGreen has a $30 wireless over ear headphone (as low as £15 in UK) that comes with a well-tuned preset (“jazz”). Fiio has on-ears with PEQ for about the same price that can be tuned any which way.
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Who cares about expensive headphones 
“China shock”, really?
“China shock”, really?
Peterinvan
Senior Member
I rate my FiiO FT7 planar magnetic headphones better than the several other phones I have heard at twice the price.
I don't think headphones need to be over $1k to be all they can be. The two times I bought headphones over $2k I wasn't impressed enough, and in one case I hated them.
I've bought a few pairs of more expensive phones but keep coming back to my (2001!) HD600s....
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