One speaker 2 brands ????

[PAULJ5555]

Ok so looking at this cambridge audio ws30 http://www.richersounds.com/product/installation-s...


I have also noticed that its the same speaker as this Opus WMS145
http://www.google.co.uk/url?url=http://www.ebay.co...

Whats going on here? who makes this speaker?

[Schtum]

PAULJ5555 said:

Whats going on here? who makes this speaker?

A speaker company somewhere in China....?

[Crackie]

PAULJ5555 said:

Ok so looking at this cambridge audio ws30 http://www.richersounds.com/product/installation-s...


I have also noticed that its the same speaker as this Opus WMS145
http://www.google.co.uk/url?url=http://www.ebay.co...

Whats going on here? who makes this speaker?

Audio Partnership owns the Cambridge Audio and Opus Technolgies brands ( they make Gale speakers and Mordaunt-Short speakers too ). These brands are available at Richer sounds and the link you possted to appears to be Richer's E-bay company called Hi-Fi specialist; this E-bay seller only stocks brands that are exclusive to Richer on the high street. Not sure where Audio Partnership's association stands with the TDL and Ariston brands at the moment, they used to own them too.

[PAULJ5555]

Crackie said:

Audio Partnership owns the Cambridge Audio and Opus Technolgies brands ( they make Gale speakers and Mordaunt-Short speakers too ). These brands are available at Richer sounds and the link you possted to appears to be Richer's E-bay company called Hi-Fi specialist; this E-bay seller only stocks brands that are exclusive to Richer on the high street. Not sure where Audio Partnership's association stands with the TDL and Ariston brands at the moment, they used to own them too.

Wow thats a lot of knowledge thanks.

Reading both write ups the specs are the same and the wording is the same, but -

cambridge Audio £199
Opus £125

Thats £74 for a CA badge.

[sparkyhx]

PAULJ5555 said:

Crackie said:

Audio Partnership owns the Cambridge Audio and Opus Technolgies brands ( they make Gale speakers and Mordaunt-Short speakers too ). These brands are available at Richer sounds and the link you possted to appears to be Richer's E-bay company called Hi-Fi specialist; this E-bay seller only stocks brands that are exclusive to Richer on the high street. Not sure where Audio Partnership's association stands with the TDL and Ariston brands at the moment, they used to own them too.

Wow thats a lot of knowledge thanks.

Reading both write ups the specs are the same and the wording is the same, but -

cambridge Audio £199
Opus £125

Thats £74 for a CA badge.

there may be other differences - component specs/quality may be different, quality control levels may be different. the CA is almost certainly made in China as well maybe even on the same production line - so its entirely plausible you are paying for the name - you may never know.

[ERIKM400]

There's rather a lot of "paying for the badge" in the world of hifi and high end audio.

One of the best examples I have seen dates from a couple of years back.

There's an American audio company called Red Rose Audio (founded by the famous Mark Levinson, renowned for his high end amplifiers) which was selling the Affirmation integrated amplifier for around 5000$.
Try Google for some images of the exterior and interior of these amplifiers.

Then try the same using Dussun V6i as your search term.
Dussun is a rather unknown Chinese hifi brand selling amplifiers.
The V6i is still available today, costing a little under 1000$

These amplifiers not only look very similar, technically they are identical.
The Affirmation was simply a rebranded V6i selling for 5 x the price.

[OldSkoolRS]

Not unlike Lexicon a few years ago who put a £500 Oppo BluRay player in a nice box and charged £3k for it. I mean I like nice lookingg gear, but mine all goes under the stairs in a rack these days, so only the sound and operation matters to me.

[98elise]

OldSkoolRS said:

Not unlike Lexicon a few years ago who put a £500 Oppo BluRay player in a nice box and charged £3k for it. I mean I like nice lookingg gear, but mine all goes under the stairs in a rack these days, so only the sound and operation matters to me.

Was that the one where they the original chassis was just screwed into the new chassis. I remeber reading about a high end BluRay player that was just a reboxed lower end player, and most of the old box was inside the new box

[OldSkoolRS]

Yes, pretty much.