high end audio , low chinese prices.

http://www.cattylink.com/

worth a look i recon.

 

yes, everything is worth a look as long as you don't spend anything.

 

Hmmmmm.........interesting.

I was having a look around and I turned up most of these products on ebay, being offered by a seller based in Hong Kong. There was one product in particular that caught my eye..... the Aurum Cantus Leisure 2 MkII loudspeakers. Here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3280&item=5713078087&tc=photo

They are supposed to be an OEM version of the Red Rose Rosebud 2's, which are AMAZING speakers and normally sell for $3500, and these are selling for £289 + £56 postage!!

So what do u guys reckon? A genuine bargain or a cheap imitation?

 

Not a cheap imitation. It's exactly the same speaker, after all. The Red Rose is simply a rebadged version with a price hike.

-- Ian

 

don't forget they've had mark levinsons hands on them so that instantly adds a 0 on the end of the price!
cheers


julian

 

Still seems scarily cheap. I was looking at these as an alternative to Von Schweikert VR-1 which I ended up with. From what I can remember they were around 1k from the uk importer. Nice looking speaker though must say. Never actually got around to hearing any cos the chap never got back to me !

 

The the Aurum Cantus Leisure 2 MkII that you saw selling on e bay are the asia market version and is totally different to the export version. The use of cheaper grade drivers etc to bring the price down. If you check out the page on ebay where the chap from H/K are selling, he made it very clear that they are the chinese version, I know because I have spoken to him and I m from there too. be careful.

 

Oh well....... I guess there is no such thing as a genuine bargain these days

You get what you pay for I suppose.

 

Interesting site that e-bay link leads to.

Inca design CD Player £221.00.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3272&item=3828764779&tc=photo

I have tried both at home, the original Jungson is better IMO than the Inca. (Jungson also make some cracking power amps and speakers.

Shanling Tube mono blocks £884.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3280&item=5710673503&tc=photo

The start of the China revolution?

Thing to be wary of (maybe) is 220V

 

Can you elaborate on the differences?

-- Ian

 

Lets just say they use cheaper cones. The retail price of the leisure se is £900 from simon ( absolute analogue). £300 in china is alot of money considering most of the factory workers take home about £30 per month, so they have to use cheaper drivers to cater for the chinese market. Buy a pair and compare the two.

 

Did you get this information from Absolute Analogue by any chance? If Cattylink are selling them online for £300 they probably retail for a lot less than that in China too, since Cattylink is aimed at undercutting Western suppliers, not selling cheap into the home market.

-- Ian

 

No, i did not get this information from simon, I have spoken to shirman ( ebay seller) from H/k because I wanted a pair of Aurum cantus moon goddess and he adviced me of the differences.

 

sideshowbob,
If you want a pair of aurum cantus, I might be able to help you buy a pair of uk spec at good price.

 

Nope, not looking for speakers.

The reason for asking was I've read a tremendous amount of BS from UK distributors, and, in some cases Chinese manufacturers, describing differences between the import and domestic versions of products, which turn out to be non-existent.

-- Ian

 

My other-half has the Aurum Cantus Leisure 2 MkII in her system, with a TEAC P700/D700 and Meridian 551. She purchased them from CattyLink. I think they end-up costing £400-£450 once you've paid the shipping and import charges.

We did a straight comparison between them and my old Cyrus CLS70s (RRP £1050) that I use in my 2nd system. The Cyrus beat them in all respects, so based upon that the Aurum Cantus are in no way a high-end speaker.

It might have been an unfair comparison as the ACs were only a few days old (CattyLink claim to run them continuously for 72 hours to break them in) whereas the Cyrus had 1000s of hours on them.

But, having said that I think they'd give any UK bought speakers in the £500 range a good run for their money; they were certainly better than I expected them to be for the price.

 

I had an interesting chat to the local Chinese restaraunt owner who has just moved back to the UK from China. Even he was amazed that you could buy a chinese made clock in the local market over there for 30 US cents, that's about 16p and there was profit in it.

As for Jungson I contacted the factory in China to see if they sold direct and received a reply pointing me to their UK disti, Guess who. So I mailed them about supply and got a reply saying yes they do supply Jungson but no CE etc. I asked for a price and then it went dead. AFAICT the disti's want to buy cheap from China and make up whatever price they think the local market will tolerate. Cattylink and others show just how much that mark up can be.

 

I have too, especially shanling......220V bla bla bla.....load of crap. I m going to china soon and going to bring back some of the cheap ming da valve amps to try for myself....

 

I agree with you....I have heard the 2se and the 3se, and the 3se is by far a much better speaker out of the two. They do need alot of hour to show their best especially the ribbon tweeter.

 

I was interested in the Aurum Cantus 2's so I contacted the advertiser, asking if they were the same model as those on sale in the UK. His reply is copied below.

"If it's Leisure 2 MkII, then yes. But we believe that there is another version called Leisure 2 SE. For Leisure 2 SE, there's roughly an extra cost of GBP150 on top. The SE uses a different woofer driver and a better crossover."

He went on to say that he did not think the difference was worth £150.00.

I will be at a meeting in China before Christmas, so I might take an extra day to have a look around.

Ken