Dear Allen & Heath and ......

Any other company that is now out-sourcing your labor to China. I keep hearing the claim that the parts that go into the equipment are exactly the same, just the location of assembly has changed. If this is truly the case than you companies need to get much tighter quality control inspectors in these factories. The fact may be that the parts are the same, but they must not be installing them correctly. Case in point,I have a friend who has an Allen & Heath Xone 02 mixer made in the UK. When I compare it to my 02 made in China, my mixer is noticeably of poorer quality. His eq and pan faders have a definite center click like they're supposed to while you have to search for the center clicks on my mixer. His level meter is mounted perfectly flush with the face plate while my meter is slightly crooked. And lastly, my 02's P&G crossfader failed after just 4 months and his has been going strong since they first came out. I also feel that, since my P&G crossfader failed, I should've been upgraded to the Pro X Fade just for the inconvenience. The new model is shipping with them standard anyway! This could all be coincidence, but am I really to believe that now of these build quality inconsistencies have to do with the difference in geographical location of the factories that they were produced in? After purchasing a $500 mixer that failed in four months, I feel that I would've been better off purchasing a used Rane TTM56 for slightly more money. Get your quality control up to par Allen & Heath! Your rep is suffering!!!!