A few years ago Divinci Speakers were one of the brands that seemed to be all over the place, featuring prominently with big glossy full page ads in reputable audio magazines and websites. Shortly after that they vanished without a trace from the market. You can still find them for sale on Ebay and other second hand sites, and you may even see them for sale new in some cases. So are these speakers something you should invest in, or steer clear of? We are going to be talking about the brand today, so you can decide for yourself.
Are Divinci Speakers a good choice?
The short answer to this is no. And the long answer is unfortunately also no! Divinci branded speakers are very low grade speakers that are made in China, and then shipped out and slapped with “premium branding”. This branding grossly inflates the recommended retail price, valuing them in the thousands of dollars. This made them very popular with the white van speaker scam perpetrators. For those of you who don’t know much about this scam, you can read more about it on wikipedia here.
Essentially the way it works is that some guys buy a bunch of cheap imported speakers, load them up in a rented white van, and then go around offering consumers these “premium” speakers at a fraction of the so called “retail value”. The unsuspecting consumer thinks they are getting a bargain, whilst in fact they are getting garbage products that sound awful.
These so called Divinci surround sound system units were ideal for this, as they looked like high quality models so were perfect for pulling off this scam. They also featured a bunch of fancy marketing jargon such as Divinci Innovative Sound and Bass, which sounds good on paper but is essentially meaningless.
Are they worth anything?
So if you ended up with these speakers, did you get ripped off? It really depends on what you paid for them. If you paid around the $100 mark, then you shouldn’t lose too much sleep over that. This is assuming your speakers are still working, as you are one of the lucky ones whose models haven’t failed yet. These models tended to retail in the $50-$100 cost range once they had been imported into the country, which is more or less what these kinds of budget speakers are actually worth.
So why are Divinci speakers so poorly rated? The build quality is the main factor it seems. Many people have reported the speakers failing after a few months, so it seems like the internal components are very poor quality. An even scarier fact that has been reported is that these speakers can even destroy the amps they are connected to. The reason for this is that the impedance curve on them can drop below 2 Ohms, which can lead to the amp overloading or shorting if it cannot handle the load.
A much better bet would be to look for a quality set of used speakers, such as Bozak Speakers as a replacement for these poor quality models.
And if you try looking for a manufacturer site you are wasting your time as none exists, which should be a big red flag for any consumer. No website means no warranty, and there aren’t even any distributors to contact for warranty purposes in any case.
Same story, different brand
Divinci are simply another product name in a long line of garbage speakers imported from China. Many other dubious brands have come before them, with names such as Genesis, Danwave and Theater Research all being part of this con. After a year or two the brand name is changed, and the models are rebranded with something new to throw the scent off for a while. They have been rinsing and repeating this formula for years now, and it doesn’t seem like there will be an end to it anytime soon.
Summary
So if you somehow ended up with these speakers, then there isn’t really a whole lot you can do to get any kind of refund or repairs unfortunately. All you can do is learn a lesson from this, with that lesson being if something is too good to be true, then it almost certainly is! This doesn’t only apply to speakers, but anything you buy in the future. If you are going to spend any decent amount of money on a item, make sure you do a little research on it first to make sure you are getting something that lives up to the branding claims. And more importantly, make sure that the manufacturer actually exists, so you have some kind of support if the product fails. And be sure to tell anyone looking for speakers that Divinci speakers are a scam!
Glad to hear about “this speaker” I almost bought. I know about top brand quality speakers but these Davinci looked like they had great sound and looked amazing. Anytime I buy electronics for a great deal of investigation on it or whatever else I buy. This just saved me alot of money and I didn’t have to go to Geico to do it. Lol.😂😊
Hey Steve,
The old saying “if something seems too good to be true, it probably is” definitely applies here. Sounds like you made the right choice by doing your research beforehand.
Ok. So I did the mistake of buying this system. Long story short. Bought these from the guys in a van. I opened the box, they were brand New. So had them in storage till I bought my own place for about 5 years. (I was building up my house inventory) so bought my house almost 5 years ago. They worked great. No question at all – Till, last Sunday, luckily I was home. My wife called me into the family rm, she said there was a burning smell (electrical). She thought it was coming from the amplifier, but she said she turned it off. Well, found smoke coming from it. So we immediately unplugged it, about 10 minutes later watching it, kept smoking. It’s now in the rain outside. Story is / was. I thought I had a good deal, but could of lost everything I own in a house fire if I wasn’t at home that day.
Hey Lance,
Wow, that is a scary tale! Luckily you were at home when that happened, otherwise that could have turned out a lot worse. Hopefully your cautionary tale will heed a warning, as saving a few dollars on an unknown brand could lead to much bigger issues down the road!
Lol i ended up with the entire D7 home theater system a month ago except no remote all i wanted. Was. The sub i was gonna use theamp outta itfor a sony sub. Well after buying system got home plugged up turned on it all works fine and sounds decent. Granted the priceitcost me was a total 20 dollars after i got seller down to 5p bucks from 100 when finally met i looked and sawwhen was. Madetold him 20 bucks thats it well for20 bucks this sounds greAT. CANT COMPLAIN
Pour ma part je me suis fait donner ces speakers et je dois avouer que je les préfère de loins à mes Energy. Je dois être un des rares chanceux, la qualité de son est très bonne avec des basses profondes et des aigues limpides. Rien de négatif à dire de mon côté.