More screech?

RoHS And Its Death Blow To Hi-Fi

All our teach-ins are supported by references (here the evidence is taken from a magazine and a hyperlink to an online review magazine)

On a more frequent basis these days, I receive emails to the tune of "My Graham Slee [product] has sounded great for months/years, but since buying a new [somebody else's product] it has gone bright" ???

Just how can something that's worked so well go wrong the moment it's plugged into something brand new? The simple fact is, it doesn't.

Unfortunately many of our customers have not avidly followed our pioneering work in, and lobbying against, RoHS (the 2006 European Union directive that removed some very useful metals from electronics because of their alleged hazardous nature).

These pictures reproduced from Hi-Fi News August 2006 prove Graham Slee Projects were actively lobbying against RoHS even after its introduction into European law, and an article at TNT-Audio magazine proves we were doing the same in defence of Hi-Fi in 2005.

But nobody, it seems, listened.

So why is this problem just coming to light some 3 years later? Well, actually it started around late 2007/early 2008, and there is a good explanation - a true explanation - the loophole the British government engineered to protect its overseas debt-financiers from the immediate impact of RoHS, whilst leaving its own manufacturers out in the cold.

In July 2006, RoHS in Britain didn't apply to the vast stocks of imported electronics brought in prior to that date, and having been pre-warned, many "made-over-there" manufacturers filled their warehouses to the rafters and beyond.

Why? They new just what a massive impact RoHS would bring to the sound of Hi-Fi equipment.

I discovered that fact in 2004. I was not alone - the major UK Hi-Fi manufacturers knew too, but kept tight lipped. So how did I know they knew? Simple! Component representatives talk!

To cut a long story short, we effectively overcame the bright screechy sound of RoHS - many of our RoHS products going on to win awards and top-notch magazine recommendations.

But what happened when the big importers had to restock after their large buffer stocks (designed by "noughts and ones" non-analogue digital engineers) sold out?

And what about the component manufacturers? Do you think they could afford to run RoHS and non-RoHS lines together? Some did, but then the economic bubble burst, and costs had to be cut.

RoHS has now won worldwide- the customer has lost! But not the Graham Slee customer.