@soix
re "Frankly I’m pretty amazed by companies like Schiit, Rogue and some others who can play in the budget/midFi categories and still manufacture here in the US what with our significantly higher wages, health benefits, and overall costs of doing business — truly impressive."
INDEED, and I salute them. My system, including Vandersteens, is American-made except for my Rega CD player. I try to avoid China-made products because of their political system and hegemony, and their piracy of intellectual property. They have capitalized (see what I did there?😎 ) on America's insatiable demand for cheaper goods (looking at you Walmart and Walton family), which had led to the export of manufacturing offshore and to China by American companies.
Their manufacturing skill is truly amazing though.