Prospectives on Chi-Fi

(who is Lord Melton?)

OK, here's my 2 cents. In my audio journey, first decades ago in big 2-channel gear, and in the last 10 years, all desktop audio & headphone audio, I tend to follow talented designers and the companies they build to realize their own designs. And looking around my home office I see 3 examples of that:

• A NOS DAC/headphone amp/pramp and a headphone amp/preamp by Audio GD. The owner and chief designer, Kingwa, has some serious chops. I've owned at least 3 other of his components. Never a problem with any of them. He's a true original thinker;
• And a NOS DAC ("Orchid") by the owner & designer of MHDT Laboratories. This is a throwback modern DAC using an elderly chip (and sounding quite lovely)

I'm less concerned with the nationality of a designer than with his/her originality and personal commitment to the work. So far gear from China has served me very well, indeed.

Pretty much every electronic in my system is made in China.

Aside from the preamp (DIY Pass B1 on a true Pass PCB, but I’m sure some of the Chinese PCB copies are just as good).

I own a Chinese DAC (Gustard A18) with a Chinese made transport (Audiolab 6000CDT).

All my class D amps are Chinese

External linear PSUs are also Chinese

Hell, even my cables are (Xangsane SP9001Ag silver cable, various power cables, and knock off "Odin" speaker cables)

Oh, my active crossover (Sublime Acoustic K231) is made in the USA! ^^

So far (and it’s been years) I never had the slightest reliability issue. Also have a SMSL SU-8v2 DAC and SMSL amp in my bedroom system, same same, works great, sounds great for the price, and no issues whatsoever.

There was a time when I was using second hand stuff, from USA / UK / Japan, and reliability was a major PITA with some, because of age mainly - but yeah for a given budget one can only go so far.

I will buy Chinese again, for my meager budget the price / quality ratio is impressive.

@rolox  I assume you have put close to $5k in your main system? You never mentioned what speakers you own. Did you ever consider the Quad Artera series. Quad is one of the few Chinese made electronics/speakers I would consider. You get synergy without the complexity and Quad will always maintain some resale value regardless of where its manufactured.

@dayglow my speakers are DIY, fully horn loaded. Think Klipsch LaScala on steroids (read: better, bigger, meaner) with active crossover. I’ve been mentioning those many times ;-) also two large JMLab / Focal subs. Very impressive sounding system and sounds much better than what it costs! ^^

Recently snagged 4 huge Shroeder diffuser panels at a flea market (the seller thought those were old radiators ^^) and wow, there you go, HIGH END system with peanuts money! (I’m quite proud of it as you may have noticed)

cheers

@rolox    Thx for your reply. I misjudged the level of your system. If I was 30 years younger(still in my 20's) I would make an attempt at a DIY project but now I lack the patience/skill and desire to take on such a task.