Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it, Italy has very lax labeling laws. For instance, when I was in Milan, I wanted to buy some Italian shoes, but I couldn't find a single pair of shoes that listed it's origin. IE, they're not required to put it on the box.
We take this for granted in the States, because our labeling laws are enforced.
So if you're a Chinese manufacturer, it makes a lot of sense to build your stuff in China, ship it to Italy, then slap a 'made in Italy' label on the box. Heck, you might not even ship it to Italy.
Methinks that's why you see a lot of this:
18" Parts Express woofer for $230
18" RCF Woofer for $720
I held that PE woofer in my hands at CES this year, and to my eyes, it was every bit as nice as my B&C woofers.
Putting my Tinfoil hat back on, this might also explain why we're seeing consolidation in the prosound worlds. If all of the speakers are coming off the same Chinese assembly lines, what's the point in maintaining four offices in Italy?
Nearly everything from Tymphany is being made in China now, JBL seems to like building stuff in Brazil and Mexico but perhaps that's just to keep their products from being cloned, and who knows where B&C/Faital/RCF/18Sound makes their stuff?
In defense of RCF, they don't even list a country of origin for that woofer:
LF18N451 - rcf.it
Yup....all kinds of very legit looking B&C and RCF drivers listed on Alibaba by model number ready for mass production. I don't think it's a coincidence that these two manufacturers are probably the largest Italian prosound brands.
18Sound and Ciare didn't have a chance to compete with B&C. Sica is hanging in there for now. At least the new Italian/Chinese company LaVoce is honest about it. Faital has a strong automotive foothold to support their pro division. Probably still made in China.
Would be nice to have some real numbers to back up this speculation.