Has anybody bought or heard a Chinese knock off amplifier?

Now let's talk about the so-called 'data driven' mindset. If you read the forums, it becomes apparent fairly quickly that 'measurements' is the new game in town. In fact, it's the only game in town. Listening is optional! It's no surprise that the low-end of the Chinese audio industry has latched on to this as an opportunity to gain market share. We've moved from an artisan approach to one that's focused on numbers alone. People used to buy based on the designer's reputation (Nelson Pass, Bob Carver, etc.), now they base their decisions on charts and graphs. Again, listening is not required.

Unfortunately, the US and European audiophile industry will follow the same path as the manufacturing and electronics industries in the last 20+ years, i.e. fade into oblivion. They are burdened with comparatively high labor and R&D costs, IP regulations, and a capital market that rewards short-term profits. The Chinese manufacturers don't need to worry about any of the above.

Thanks for you wise observations indeed....

My best to you....

Another question should be Are there very good Chinese high end audio products out there that do their own research to make a quality product and not infringe upon international patents?

cayin 80 class A hybrid amp,preamp very nice sound for under $2800 beats most at over $4k

dweller,

"glupson - You failed to mention that I capitalized the word "Hate" in the last sentence.
Pretty sloppy..."

I might have overestimated your style. I thought that capitalized "Hate" is a stylistic figure of giving it presence, demonizing it in some way, rather than another example of your poor writing skills.

Please forgive my sloppiness. At least until you learn how to get your writing skills close to a non-native speaker/writer level.

I love how whenever this topic comes up, 99% of the comments have nothing at all to do with the topic. So let's talk about clone sound. I picked up a super cheap Naim NAP 200 copy from AliExpress. These are all over the place. They don't copy the case, but claim to be a copy of the circuit. I've never heard the legit NAP 200. The sound was actually very nice...as long as it doesn't get complex / busy, then it falls apart (sonically).

I also got a no-name CD transport from Queenway store (AliExpress seller, has many clones) which claims to copy a Wadia circuit and has a spring-mounted CD tray. It does sound better than my other Chinese CD player used as a transport. They don't have that version anymore and seem to sell an updated version with a better clock. Mine also has an issue of overheating / glitching where it'll stop playing and error itself out after a long period of playing. I managed to break a cable harness trying to remove the cover, and the seller actually sent me a replacement harness for just $1. But the case was cut with basically 0 tolerance so now I can't get it back on, I'd have to file some of it down I think. This is what you end up paying for I guess.

There's an Accusphase clone I'm interested in as well as FM amp which they claim to have copied 1:1 including the proprietary modules. They also have matching preamp clones too. There's many Pass clones too. 

I recently purchased several cable clones. Today I received a copy of the Nordost Odin 2 Supreme Reference RCA interconnects. The cable conductors look just like the real article (and are constructed just like them if you believe the images they have up on AliExpress). These also have the original Nordost-looking plugs "Holo-Plug", but I thought mine were kind of dirty / dull and I doubt a legit Nordost would be like that. Initial listen I didn't notice any major difference over my Audio Envy interconnects, but then they need to burn in so that's what they're doing now.

Also coming is a copy -- maybe a gray market legit product -- Audioquest FireBird biwire and WEL Signature interconnects. They look exactly the same as the legit items, including the DBA modules. The reason why I said maybe a gray market product is because Audioquest cables are made in China and just assembled in the US. Since these things look exactly like the original based on images they could be off the books factory runs assembled and sold out the back door. Of course the proof will be in the hearing, if I just end up with a set of expensive audio jewelry than oh well I deserve it :)

The only other cable I got from them was a Transparent Audio Wave Ultra MM2 power cable which is also burning in. It's a heavy and stiff cable, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to find that the center network box has nothing but epoxy in it.

Interesting I note that there's also SIltech cables which really do look like the originals and that Siltech started using a identity verification tool using a smartphone app to scan tags to validate legitimate Siltech products. It would be "funny" if Siltech is actually selling the same cables that China sells grey market for a fraction of the price.