"Keith G" wrote in message
...

Anybody considering a commercial venture of any kind needs to know that
(outside of intangibles like 'skill' and ingenuity) the costs of the
workforce, vehicles, plant & machinery, premises and raw materials *will*
dictate unit cost price, but competition will dictate the ultimate selling
price - thus any competitor that has a significant advantage in any of
those cost areas stands a greater chance of succeeding/surviving in a
marketplace where he has no monopoly...!!

And yet you expect people here in the West to to repair Chinese amps for
a bowl of rice:-))

Valve audio is a niche market, served by a small number of
boutique builders. With the exception of the Chinese, there
is no mass production any more - nor is there ever likely to
be again.

But, people who are planning to spend say 30k on a system,
are not too concerned whether choice A is a little cheaper than
choice B. They pick the one they prefer and the flexible friend
looks after the rest:-)

For this reason, I think that the future of hand crafted tube amps,
like hand-made furniture, or small-volume specialist cars, is not
threatened by anything Chinese.


Factor in also that a lot of the 'Eastern' competition in many areas (call
centres, to name but one) receives serious Government assistance/subsidy
to run their businesses while here in Good Old Blighty you can only depend
on being shafted at every opportunity and saddled with ruinous legislation
heavily loaded in favour of the weakest link in your workforce,
irrespective of any company's capability to pay for the necessary
implementation!!

Wouldn't know about that, Sor.

:-))

Iain