[jamcambs]

Apart from the two Arcam Blu-ray players are there any other British made ones out there?

[Deacon1972]

Cambridge Audio

[peter3hg]

Depending on what he means by "British made" I'm pretty sure Cambridge Audio kit is made in China.

[jamcambs]

I think the only true 100% British Blu-ray is the Arcam then followed by Cambridge Audio.

As you say Cambridge Audio is designed and engineered in England but assembled in China.

[Robert__law]

Cello assembled in the UK with Chinese components ?

[jamcambs]

Have just ordered the Arcam BDP300

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by jamcambs

I think the only true 100% British Blu-ray is the Arcam then followed by Cambridge Audio.

I think 100% is a wild exaggeration, the BD mech will just be a bought-in unit, probably from Sony?.

[jamcambs]

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

I think 100% is a wild exaggeration, the BD mech will just be a bought-in unit, probably from Sony?.

I dont think so, as Arcam kit is far superior to anything Sony have to offer.

Arcam designs and manufactures award winning Hi-fi and home cinema equipment from its base just outside Cambridge in the UK.

Arcam exists to bring the highest fidelity reproduction of music and movies into people's homes. We are committed to engineering products that deliver a level of audio performance that is so convincing and lifelike that it connects you straight to the emotional power of the music. If you love music and movies then you need to experience the magic that an Arcam-based system can produce

[webbie]

Where do you think they get the bits (including the disk mechanism) from then?

[Deacon1972]

Originally Posted by jamcambs

I dont think so, as Arcam kit is far superior to anything Sony have to offer.

Arcam designs and manufactures award winning Hi-fi and home cinema equipment from its base just outside Cambridge in the UK.

Arcam exists to bring the highest fidelity reproduction of music and movies into people's homes. We are committed to engineering products that deliver a level of audio performance that is so convincing and lifelike that it connects you straight to the emotional power of the music. If you love music and movies then you need to experience the magic that an Arcam-based system can produce

I found a document for a restoration project on an Arcam CD player - If you look towards the end of the document you will see a reference to a laser pick up, the part number is KSS213C, this was the original part when new, afraid to say but this is a Sony part number and refers to one of their laser pick up units, the cost is under $10. No idea what they use today, but I doubt they will be manufactured by Arcam themselves.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...ErfPsHSzKkm1OQ.

[webbie]

No, I'd be very surprised. Lots of fiddly little plastic parts, motors, gears, springs, etc. Unless you're going to make millions of them, very hard to justify setting up a production line for them.

[Orbitalzone]

They probably design and make the PCB and circuit design but buy in the mechanism (well you'd hope)

But ultimately some other company will no doubt actually make each component inside it.

I'm sure I read about B&O using the same CD mechanism as Amstrad did back in the late 1980's

[webbie]

What are the rules for a "Made in Britain" label? Can you import something from China and put one screw in and then say "Made in Britain"? How many screws? Do you need to actually do some soldering here?

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by jamcambs

I dont think so, as Arcam kit is far superior to anything Sony have to offer.

That's only because you've just ordered a very expensive BD player and you're trying to convince yourself

The mech is almost certainly made by Sony, just as almost all CD players were.

I'd certainly bet that you couldn't tell the difference on double blind tests - the limiting factor is the quality of the discs, not the equipment..

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by webbie

What are the rules for a "Made in Britain" label? Can you import something from China and put one screw in and then say "Made in Britain"? How many screws? Do you need to actually do some soldering here?

I've no idea - but there's certanly no soldering requirement.

The cheap crappy sets made by Cello claim to be 'made in the UK' but are only minimally assembled there.

As far as I'm aware, the 'last production process' decides where the place of manufacture is.

[Orbitalzone]

Cello state they're 'assembled in the uk' which is a far cry from being British built but I suppose some semi skilled Brits are given some work which is better than none.

[jamcambs]

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

That's only because you've just ordered a very expensive BD player and you're trying to convince yourself

The mech is almost certainly made by Sony, just as almost all CD players were.

I'd certainly bet that you couldn't tell the difference on double blind tests - the limiting factor is the quality of the discs, not the equipment..

You pay for quality and you get it.

Its like buying a Bentley or a Fiesta, there is a massive difference.

[Orbitalzone]

The point Nigel is making is that the the disc drive mechanism is still most likely the same as found in a fairly average spec Sony blu ray player.

I'm not arguing that the rest of the machine won't be of a higher build quality, I'm sure it'll be far superior but it'll still be using a Sony optical drive mechanism to get that data from the disc.

I can understand why some people prefer to pay a premium to get what they want, there's nothing wrong with that.

In this example your Bentley would have a Fiesta engine inside it.... there I've said it

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by jamcambs

You pay for quality and you get it.

Its like buying a Bentley or a Fiesta, there is a massive difference.

Except your Bentley doesn't come with a Fiesta engine in it

You might be paying for construction quality, but are the results any better? - I seriously doubt it.

As always, if it can't be reliably spotted in double-blind tests, it doesn't exist.

[jamcambs]

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

Except your Bentley doesn't come with a Fiesta engine in it

You might be paying for construction quality, but are the results any better? - I seriously doubt it.

As always, if it can't be reliably spotted in double-blind tests, it doesn't exist.

Yep much better!
LG blu ray was poor.
The same has happened in the past when I have brought cheap hifi then upgraded and the difference is amazing. Top end hifi is like actually being there in your living room.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by jamcambs

Yep much better!
LG blu ray was poor.

That's because it's an LG

Top end hifi is like actually being there in your living room.

A BD Player isn't a HiFi.

The differences are also pretty slight between 'decent HiFi' and 'top end' (not to mention 'top end' is pretty personal anyway).