Galion TS120

The whole Galion thing is weird and unnecessary given the number of options in the tube integrated market.

I always thought Doge’s decision to undermine sales ( or risk their reputation ) of their own product in order to fill orders for a YouTuber an odd one. Thomas is admittedly “not technical”, why would Doge let someone with his background direct a product and release it under a different label? Is the expectation that his small circle of YouTube pals will generate enough interest in Doge to allow for sales by association? Conversely, any future amplifier “reviews” set to reduce his credibility since he’s essentially a competitor this market. 

Also curious how warranty and repair claims are handled…I would hope these are under Doge’s purview. The whole thing seems set up to simply allow a YT personality an opportunity to play manufacturer like will.I.am playing car designer.
 

The Galleon evolution has been a fun trip to watch and Thomas has been pretty up front about it.  He had the idea to monetize his youtube following and voice an offshore  built amp to fit his idea of a better sound.  He even had followers comment on the faceplate markings as he developed it.  One of the interesting parts of his learning curve was the realization that to get where he is today required lots of capacitor trial and error that changing one set could undue the positive effects of the changes he just made.  I'm sure that Thomas has a huge amount of time and had to commit to quite a few units to bring the Galleon to market.  He originally proposed the amp under $3000 but it's now approaching double that.  

I haven't heard the amp and it isn't really something that would I would use in my current system but I'm sure it's fine and  cost competitive with other amps out there.  My only issue is that knowing Thomas has a financial interest in a product, how does this affect his reviews?  

I am very familiar with Thomas, and I watch all of his videos. So please take a minute to read what I have to say regarding this amp.

The Gallion TS120 is made by Doge, AFAIK, it's a collaboration between Thomas and Doge. From Thomas own words, I have to assume and conclude Thomas only worked on the voicing aspect of the amp, most of it is just the work of Doge with their own product. 

From what I can read on the website, Thomas isn't to blame for what is being discussed in this thread. The 1st crucial piece is the boss Mr. Liu doesn't like direct sales, and he wants to go back to OEM. You can tell Mr. Liu wants to pull the plug on the direct-sale approach. 

The 2nd crucial piece of information is Doge own management (has nothing to do with Thomas) doesn't want the doge10 to compete with Gallion TS120. Both product are from Doge. I have to assume the $3500/$4500 TS120 is better profit for Doge than the $2000 doge10. 

You can clearly tell this is Doge's work and decision to maximize profit. The 3rd piece of information is "if the TS120 sale is robust, doge10 MK4 will be kicked out even though it's a better product". 

Reading the website gives me the impression that a Doge employee is mad at Doge upper chain doing a business collaboration with Thomas.

I’m not speaking as a fan of Thomas, I’m just simply deducting logic from the website. There is absolutely no way The TS120 can compete with the Doge10 if it’s 95% similar. Just no way. If it can’t compete and you want it to compete, what do you do? You remove the Doge10, Thomas has 0 power to do that unless it’s in Doge’s best financial interest.

Even if it’s the same exact amp, it seems like a risk of $3500-4500 on a product with ad-hoc “support” by an individual with limited knowledge of the inner workings of the equipment they’re selling.