Chinese LEDs

[roadietech]

Hello folks, I've been digging round the nets for a while looking at cheapo options for outdoor LED fixtures. I've noticed that a lot of the smaller American companies seem to be buying cheap Chinese gear and rebranding it as their own, and then just started looking for the Chinese sources. I found some outdoor LED pars that sound pretty nifty, but I'm hesitant to dive into the Chinese waters without know much about the quality of these things.
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Does anybody have any experience with these guys, or similar fixtures? How about the company- Guangzhou Color Stage Equipment? Any experiences worth sharing? At $210 the price is right, so I don't mind if they end up being slightly disposable in the long run, but I'm mostly wondering what the long run looks like. I don't need years of durability but I obviously dont want to see these things drop like flies if I push them hard.

 

[gafftaper]

The two cliche's "your mileage may vary" and "you get what you pay for" should be stamped on your forehead before you start looking into this market at all.

Here are a few of my thoughts on Chinese Imports:

Irradiant Lighting aka Neo-Neon is one of the big players in this market. I wouldn't be too nervous about buying their products because they are the OEM for a lot of the larger manufacturers. You can buy an American DJ or Elation product or you can buy the Irradiant clone for a lot less money. They are literally clones because they come from the exact same assembly line. Some people say they are the same products. Others warn that the housing may be the same but the internal components may come from a different lower quality source than the major label they are cloned from. In theory it's a decent quality product and the company is going to be around a while to back it up if you have a problem. Plus you have likely source of repair parts coming from whatever label your product was ripped off from. I believe there is some serious moral gray area that one must contemplate before buying these products. Who spent all the money on R&D vs who is making quick cash once the ordered number of units leaves the factory. I have made a big deal in the past about how I don't buy Behringer products because of their business practices. Although I haven't thought a lot about it, to be consistent I probably have to take the same stand on OEM clones too.

You are looking at a product that is imported directly from a Chinese manufacturer to your loading dock. I personally would not purchase this way either. What happens when the product breaks down? Where are you going to go for repairs? Is there any sort of an enforceable long term warranty? Heck is there any enforceable short term warranty? What happens if you open up the box and three are broken? Do you have any recourse that you can really trust in? PLUS you have the same moral gray areas as above. These guys aren't inventing these things they are taking other manufactures products and reverse engineering, and selling them with cheaper parts, no R&D costs, and no overhead.

Finally you have the Chinese made product brought to the US by an American Company. This is the only route that I personally would consider buying for one big reason. If something goes wrong, there is a business I can go to and demand some sort of resolution to my complaint. If I find a company that has been in business for a while to stand behind my Chinese gear, this takes a lot of the potential pain out of my purchase. Long term there are still a lot of potential problems with this gear (Like who's going to fix it in 5 years when the Chinese manufacturer no longer exists?), but as long as your expectations aren't set high for durability, I think this is an acceptable way to go.

You are definitely asking the right questions and you seem to have a pretty clear understanding of the reality of Chinese made gear. I think the truth is there is probably a different level of risk between every batch shipped from the factory. Good luck!

 

[Esoteric]

Yeah gaffer, that is where we come in. We do all the leg work of finding which stuff is good and which stuff is junk (and believe me, we went through a lot of junk before we found stuff we liked) and we deal with the manufacturer. The Chinese are nice, but communication can be a....... pain. And we keep the inventory and take care of problems if something needs repair/replacement.

And if your order is larger than 4-5 units, we take care of the import fees and duties which can drive the prices of units way up.

It is hard to go wrong with Irradiant/Neo Neon. They have good gear and are opening a direct distribution point in Cali. For me, it is just as good as Elation/Chauvet Pro line gear.

Our gear is in that range too (although, we did specify a newer, different software for the dimming driver, so we like to think we get a little smoother curve than Elation/Chauvet Pro).

 

[AEGProduction]

Finally you have the Chinese made product brought to the US by an American Company. This is the only route that I personally would consider buying for one big reason. If something goes wrong, there is a business I can go to and demand some sort of resolution to my complaint. If I find a company that has been in business for a while to stand behind my Chinese gear, this takes a lot of the potential pain out of my purchase. Long term there are still a lot of potential problems with this gear (Like who's going to fix it in 5 years when the Chinese manufacturer no longer exists?), but as long as your expectations aren't set high for durability, I think this is an acceptable way to go.

+1

The company I get my LED's from must have some sort of deal with the Chinese. However, they take care of me, regardless the situation. The DMX chips on my RGBA lights got fried when a tech connected our 120V splitter to 208V; completely our fault. Called up the company to order parts, he told me to just ship the lights back, and gave me NEW replacements. This I might add was 2 years after purchasing them. Before this incident, I was debating the same thing (Should I go direct?). After the ease of dealing with this company, and the level of support they gave me without any hassle, I find it impossible to believe that getting the support out of these direct manufacturers would be as hassle free or in any way as pleasing.

My $0.02

 

[Morte615]

I would be interested in what companies people are working with. I am always looking for new suppliers and would live to take a closer look at some of the companies that other members have had good experiences with.

 

[avery]

This is a reasonable question. Of course most of the people here are going to tell you to only go with the top brand name stuff because they are never the ones paying the rental bill for the gear, and don't actually own anything themselves.

I know several venues that are using import par 64 LEDs and they are a really great deal. The biggest downside to the cheap LEDs are usually the crappy dimming curve. Aside from that they are nice. Super bright and now you can get lenses for them so you can use them as ACLs or Washes.

The funny thing is, most people trash these products, and then turn around and spend 10 times more on a name brand when they are actually the same exact fixtures, one just has a label stamped on it. Most of the large brands are selling white label import LEDs right now. So before people start trashing them they need to check the facts.

So my opinion would be to order a few and see how you like them. If they don't live up to your hopes you can always try a different importer. Worse comes to worse they aren't going to last long, but a short life for an LED is still going to last 5 times as long as a par64 lamp.

 

[DuckJordan]

Don't beat a dead horse, We've discussed the differences between the two. We don't need to go down that road again.

 

[Wood4321]

Never mind, not worth the drama,
Duck is right.. Buy the equipment from the company that designed it. /soapbox

 

[Pav636]

I have gone through this and recently purchased a few 12 watt quad leds from china. They cost me $150 each and if I was to get anything similar over here I would be spending over $300+. So for me I was worth the try.

I got mine from the same manufacture as where the Eternal lights and the Blizzard lights are made. Yet I paid 1/2 the price.

There are pros and cons as stated by others here. But for me the advantage of lower cost and getting more output for a year is well worth it for me.

I am going to be ordering a few color blast 12 replicas as well. I have a few and they do the job well.

Pics attached.