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Sound-Devices HX-3 or Superlux HA3D?


sergiofucchi

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How has this company not been sued into obliteration??

They are obvious copies of many big audio manufacturers. A quick look around reveals Sound Devices, AKG, Schoeps, Shure, Nagra, and Rode imitations, just to name a few.

Is there any possibility that these companies are licensing designs to Superlux for foreign consumption? Wishful thinking, I'm sure, but I suppose it's possible.

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Yes, the Superlux is a 100% copy of our HX-3. So too is the included documentation. The PC board layout was either photocopied or they measured and layed it out exactly the same, errors and all.

While companies like Shure and AKG (Harman) have the resources to go after this kinds of products, the legal costs just to do due diligence on this would cripple a small company like Sound Devices.

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You should return both of these to the retailer if not too late.

Is too late :-( (Several months old), but I'll write the seller about this issue. The seller and european importer is a major online company called Thomann www.thomann.de

http://www.thomann.de/es/superlux_ha3d.htm

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I hate it when I see this. It really irks me when I see rip offs of things that are really really close but one little thing is different so the person that did the ripping off can claim they didn't, but this stuff. This is just a blatant copy with a different name on it.

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Knock offs are a big part of sales in the consumer audio area. A company like Thomann sells originals (like an SM58) and cheap lookalikes by their own brand. To me, as long as the knock offs have a clearly different brand name (as in Superlux) than the originals, and don't have the same quality (which at the price difference is more than likely) I don't have a problem with that. Many consumers don't want to spend the money the originals cost and don't need the quality anyway. Whoever needs reliable equipment will go for the originals. I don't believe Superlux harms Schoeps or SD sales noticably.

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Knock offs are a big part of sales in the consumer audio area. A company like Thomann sells originals (like an SM58) and cheap lookalikes by their own brand. To me, as long as the knock offs have a clearly different brand name (as in Superlux) than the originals, and don't have the same quality (which at the price difference is more than likely) I don't have a problem with that. Many consumers don't want to spend the money the originals cost and don't need the quality anyway. Whoever needs reliable equipment will go for the originals. I don't believe Superlux harms Schoeps or SD sales noticably.

The problem is this device is more than a simple copy, is near to original (Machine, box and manual). This is the reason that I had the idea that this machine was made by the same manufacturer, but I read in this thread that is a knockoff. Is very bizarre

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A look at Behringer's history, for one example, shows that this sort of thing isn't unheard of near our corner of the audio world. Mackie, Aphex, dbx, Roland, and others have all sued Behringer. Not all successfully, but all presented pretty compelling evidence. A bummer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behringer#Recent_developments

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"On November 30, 1999, the U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington, dismissed Mackie claims that Behringer had infringed on Mackie copyrights with its MX 8000 mixer, noting that circuit schematics are not covered by copyright laws."

Interesting.

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I heard a story about Behringer getting pissed when one of their contract manufacturers knocked off Behringer's products and sold them FOR EVEN LESS MONEY. This may be apocryphal, but it's a good story.

Oh. Small world. From Sound on Sound: "The Superlux CMH8 mics are only a few of the products manufactured by Tenlux Electronics, based in Taiwan. The company... continues to manufacture microphone products for many companies including Sony, Sharp, Electrovoice and Behringer." http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan02/articles/superluxmics.asp

So maybe Tenlux knocked off Behringer, Schoeps, Shure (even a 520/Green Bullet clone), and who knows whom else (besides Sound Devices). Well that brings us full circle on the sordid tale of Superlux.

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I think that Sound Devices buy its electronic circuits and components from China and from others countries of that Area. So it is possible that the electonics of Sound Devices is manifactured by Superlux.

Absolutely not. Every Sound Devices product is designed in Reedsburg, WI.

The only time(s) a Sound Device product has appeared without the Sound Devices name on it is when we OEM'd some products for our friends at Shure.

Luckily, since a good majority of our products are now software driven, the chances that something major like a recorder or mixer will be copied are nil.

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