Oh please! If there was a viable market in the US for hi-fi, there’d be distributors eager to import the products from japan. There isn’t a big market, so there aren’t distributors. We don’t even have brick and mortar audio stores any more. If you ever visit Tokyo, you’ll observe the huge contrast between their audio marketplace and ours. I’d wager that there are more audio salons in Akihabara, the electronics mecca of Tokyo, than there are in the entire USA.
Chak, it may just be a difference of local tradition, but it is virtually unheard of for international purchases to arrive in the US via the local Postal Service. Now you mention it, the only exception to that rule that I have experienced is when I have ordered capacitors from Russia. So maybe you guys do things differently. Fedex, UPS, and DHL do a fine job. And I’m a big supporter of the USPS.