Fire at the AKM Factory in Japan - Will It Affect Live Sound Industry?

[@Coneman3]

I ordered a Pioneer UDP LX 500 blu ray player but it was cancelled after this fire and I believe Pioneer have discontinued the item. Last year I bought a Jay’s Audio DAC for under £3k which uses AKM DAC chips. Maybe I bought it just in time!

[@matthewgaines10]

I'm a little disappointed in the commentator's lack of knowledge. 1) AKM supplies alot more than the high end market with DACs. A 600 USD audio receiver isn't high end. Yet AKM has plenty of chips in consumer grade devices. This problem scales across all levels of consumer, pro audio, and consumer electronics. 2) Hardware designed to include a particular DAC isn't easily just switched. Thus, evaluating supply chains for vulnerabilities isn't a thing. When boards are designed around components they are to use, there isn't a quick work around or the ability to just drop something else in. It sounds like the commentator doesn't understand how these things work in the real world. The time it takes to switch is often less than the time to resolve these types of problems.

[@kidwave1]

Its hitting some car manufacturers pretty hard too.

[@fresnoman419]

good info thank you

[@shayhan6227]

An ever since that day DACs never sounded the same again.

[@Only-one-life-68]

Live music is dead 💀 at the moment anyway.. Recorded is the only music we can enjoy 😉 Thank you for the update.. These chip factory are all burning down . The auto industry is going in to lockdown as cannot get chips.. Why the world relies on only 2-3 manufacturers is ridiculous

[@gigihanmandarin]

Microchip is a very high tech, R&D intensive, and a very very costly business to set up. it is not like a billionaire can suddenly decide to set up a microchip plant and it can be up and running in 2 month's time. Many private firms and even countries tried and failed. (India, Russia, Malaysia etc). Even Japan, once a microchip tycoon, the technology has advanced so much that they are losing the cutting edge. Their microchip businesses are now resorting to non-cutting edge (like audio chips) in order to survive.