For many years, Taiwan's audiogeeks had little choice but to browse the brochures and Web sites of international brands to purchase high-priced imported hi-fi equipment. A more recent trend, especially after a number of the island's manufacturers started winning acclaim overseas--such as at the annual Golden Ear Awards--is for local enthusiasts of high-end devices to give serious attention to local products.
Most Taiwanese manufacturers of speakers, amplifiers and CD players started their operations as OEM or contract companies. This OEM experience empowered them to produce high-quality, high-fidelity audio devices bearing the logos of foreign brands. As in other industries, Taiwan became regarded as a giant in manufacturing but a dwarf at establishing its own brand names on the international stage.
This stereotype has gradually changed, with Taiwanese companies now marketing their products under their own brand names to target both domestic and international markets. This was apparent at the 2006 Taiwan Audio Association International Hi-End Hi-Fi Show held between July 21 and 24 at the Holiday Inn Asiaworld Taipei, where a large number of the 120 companies--demonstrating products ranging in price from US$300 to US$3 million in 200 rooms--were local. Three of the leading local companies present were Usher Audio Technology, Calix International and Vincent Electronics.
Usher Audio Technology
In 2005, an Usher Dancer series floorstanding loudspeaker manufactured by Taichung-based company Usher Audio Technology became the first Asian winner of the Best of the Best award at the Golden Ear Awards organized by the industry magazine The Absolute Sound. As the magazine's editor Robert Harley explained, "Golden Ear Awards represent, in our editors' collective opinion, the best highend audio products available regardless of cost. Products are awarded a Golden Ear purely on sonic performance." Nevertheless, in addition to citing the speaker's quality of sound and superiority of construction, mention was made of its relatively low price of US$7,735. In another review in the same publication, Chris Martens wrote "The Taiwanese-made Dancer, a design shaped by Dr. Joseph D'Appolito, is by no means inexpensive, but it is so good that listeners invariably compare it to speakers several times its price."
Usher Audio was founded in 1972 by Tsai Lien-shui. In a recent interview with the Taiwan Journal, Paul Chen, Usher's assistant manager, described his boss as "A typical Taiwanese, a very practical person and very insistent about quality." Chen recounted that Tsai started his business in a small shop vending imported audio components and providing maintenance services. As his knowledge and experience grew, Tsai began assembling his own audio products. The name Usher, Chen explained, was suggested by a female audio-obsessed English teacher in Taichung who said it sounded like A-zuei, Tsai's nickname in Taiwanese.
According to Chen, Tsai's main motivation to design and sell high quality audio products tagged with his own brand name came as early as the 1970s. One customer, while complimenting the company on the quality of its products sarcastically pointed out that, bearing a Made-in-Taiwan sticker, they would never make a suitable gift. From that moment, Tsai dedicated himself to developing audio products that were better but cheaper than those he could import.
Intent on sound quality, Chen said that Usher continually invested in cutting-edge manufacturing machinery and quality control equipment. For the manufacture of its speakers, for example, Usher Audio uses a proprietary technology called Symme-Motion, which, according to the company's publicity materials, is said to give the speakers "highly symmetrical long-throw excursion capabilities" as well as an "ability to play with low distortion at high- and low-output levels." The company's latest claim is that it has now joined U.S.-based Technical Audio Devices and France-based Focal-JMlab to become one of only three companies in the world producing Beryllium tweeters and midrange speakers, which it describes as being capable of demonstrating high-frequency and upper-midrange detail without a trace of edge or glare.
In addition to his focus on sound quality, Chen says that Tsai then started paying attention to product design, inviting the industry-respected D'Appolito to be responsible for crossover design and speaker voicing. Their cooperation led to the creation of loudspeakers capable of competing with the world's best.
"Doing OEM or ODM business might be possibly replaced, but having our own brand name will never be," Chen quoted Tsai as saying, emphasizing the significance of brand names for the global market. With regard to growing competition from China, Chen added "We aren't really worried about it because of our brand name recognition and advanced technology."
Calix International Corp.
The Calix Phoenix Grand Signature loudspeaker similarly advanced onto the world stage, being selected as one of the best sounds at the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show in New York and being listed in the Class A products in 2003 by the U.S. audio industry magazine Stereophile.
"In terms of its cost, complexity, and weight, the Calix Phoenix Grand Signature is a super-speaker," wrote Paul Bolin in Stereophile.
The Phoenix is manufactured by Calix International Corp. of Tainan, which was founded in 1998 by Sun Liu after retiring from running his own electronics company at the age of 65, principal designer Lee Kun-yi and Japanese artist Minol Araki, who had worked in the audio industry for more than 40 years. As Liu explained in an interview with the Taiwan Journal, they felt that speakers had hardly changed over decades and were long due for an overhaul. Consequently, they spent five years designing the company's first speaker, the Phoenix, which Liu described as having an eye-catching midrange horn atop the front panel, graceful curves and rich mahogany finish.
"The Taiwanese audio sector is the world's biggest in terms of OEM businesses but is almost invisible in the high-end market," Liu said, explaining Calix's determination to tap the high-end field that had long been dominated by international giants. "We're already capable of doing so. All we needed were a brand name and creativity," added Liu. By creativity, he was referring to the combination of unique outward appearance and innovative design, such as the vertical pillar supporting the horn, which he says helps avoid resonance from the bass driver.
"Among all high-end audio products, a speaker is the most difficult component to make, and that's why I determined to make it as an artistic piece rather than simply a commodity," said Liu, adding that, for him, Calix's hand-made products are more like exquisite artwork than machine-made items, and what he really cares about is not the question of profit but of how to bring to the world's attention Calix's level of high-end audio devices and fair prices.
Vincent (V. G.) Electronics Co. Ltd.
Vincent (V. G.) Electronics Co. Ltd. was founded in Sanchong, Taipei County by Jammy Huang in 1972. After more than a quarter-century of undertaking OEM or ODM audio manufacturing for foreign companies, the company launched its own Audio Refinement brand in 1998 to target the U.S. and European markets.
AR amplifiers, preamp-processors and CD players quickly caught consumers' attention, with Chip Stern describing the company's Complete integrated amplifier in the April 1999 edition of Stereophile as "Laid-back, transparent, and totally neutral, The Complete delineated tonal details with pristine clarity." Within the industry, French company Yves Bernard Andre was similarly attracted, and sought cooperation with the Taiwanese company.
Presumably voicing the ambition of all within the audio world, Huang says that Vincent Electronics's aim is to reproduce music as close to the original performance as possible. In a recent interview with Taiwan Journal, he explained what he described his excessive sensitivity to sound quality as possibly due to his 10-year stint working in a hotel before setting up the company. "While working at the lobby of a hotel, I always enjoyed the live performances there. That is to say, this gradual influence of being bathed in the live performance sharpened my sensitivity to sound."
This almost paranoiac insistence on sound quality has enabled top quality Audio Refinement products to gain acclaim from industry magazines as well as from the underground publication IAR Hotline!, which reviewed the Complete as "At US$980, and putting out 50 watts per channel, it is the obvious value leader in integrated amps, and indeed is the best solid state integrated amp we have yet heard at any price, surpassing big name high end units."
While he evidently enjoys such reviews, Huang believes that, as long as his company continues to manufacture high quality products, customers' word-of-mouth propaganda is more powerful than any form of advertisement.