Do chinese tube preamp/amp clones interest you?

Some of the best audio I've ever heard at a show came out of Woo Audio headphone amps.

The biggest determining factor of the quality of Anglo brands made in China is the quality of the relationship between the brand and factory.

If you go in and shop for the cheapest factory, you will get crap products.  If you build a relationship, pay a fair price, and agree to the quality control needed ahead of time you can get excellent products out of China.

My uneducated not politically correct answer is that I bought a sun audio 2A3 clone because my local record store had it on consignment, and it was an affordable experiment into SET amps.  It had upgraded Mullard caps, and PSVane driver tubes. It sounds nice to my ears.  It probably didn’t support China, it supported the American tech who owned and modded it, plus a 10% consignment fee to my record store owner. I like it.  Enough to recommend to friends.  My American Diesel pickup is a Chinese parts bin truck with some Japanese parts thrown in for good measure.  My Vietnamese Altec 1505 clones ring less than the metal originals, and are half the price. My Vietnamese stepmother makes the best lasagna you ever had.   Just be careful.   Make informed purchases. Settle down. 

There is a video I recall seeing, where a guy takes apart a ChiFi amp that crapped out after a short time. It was advertised as using top name parts, which it did, but when he pulled it apart, he found components like the caps to all to be out of spec rejects. The soldering was poorly done too. For me, this really pulled back the curtain on the value illusion. Cheap labor isn't the only magical ingredient in their recipe.

👍, Adrian...

'nuff said.

No, whenever possible, I avoid purchasing anything from China. They are responsible for the deaths of over 1.2 million people worldwide, and have not so little as apologized. I don’t feel that way towards other countries that manufacture and export. I realize that this is an audio enthusiast forum, and apologize for using it as a political retort.

All the best,