A lot of the Chinese equipment has been cheapened by the importers and distributors as much as the manufacturers themselves. In most instances, the sonics of this gear are more than fine.
The issue is with having adequate support; which falls directly on the folks importing the gear from China. They are the ones responsible for interfacing with both customers and dealers here in the USA.
In my mind, these people have often been more interested in generating short term profits than growing the brands into companies that can sit on the same shelves as ARC, CJ, etc. One facet of this is that are often unable or unwilling to put forth the requisite work and expense to support and repair product in the field. If you happen to have any of this gear, look out when it falls out of warranty. You may have to seek out a third party, one who doesn't have any experience with the product/brand necessarily, as recourse.
Compounding this, in many cases, because of their very short track record in this industry, these Chinese manufacturers have no concept of product support and/or maintenance. Parts used in the equipment of a previous generation may no longer be available once they have moved on to the next. I'm not talking the everyday resistor or cap, but circuit boards, chips, knobs, transports, and the like.
The trends are beginning to point to these brands having a lifespan of 3 - 5 years in this market. At which point, the chickens come home to roost. The service issues creep into the picture, and the customer is unable to find sufficient recourse. At that point, the frontmen in this country can move on to the next brand no one has ever heard of, grab a quick review or two from the audiophile press, blame the former company for all of the issues, wipe his hands clean, and more or less come out smelling like a rose.
Until and unless these Chinese manufacturers find people to represent them here with a better (and, more traditional) business model over their more favored price undercutting of the legacy brands, the reputation of equipment coming from China is headed for a downturn, in my opinion. So, of course, the final blame ends up falling on the anufacturers for putting their fortunes in the hands of these individuals in the first place.
