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Please see my most recent post in amp forum

Note the final paragraph. Spoiler for the lazy: I bought a Chinese amp. It appears to be better quality than the really cheap ones. I realize all the nice caps in the internal views could be fakes, but there are other elements of construction that lead me to believe this might really be a better amp than those at half the price. Of course cost does not directly correlate with quality, but there ARE irrefutable reasons why better quality items will usually cost more than crappy ones, even from China. In fact, probably more so from China than from domestic suppliers because the Chinese realize that price is their biggest, perhaps only, lever. Their strongest motivation is to offer the lowest price.

I never disparaged all Chinese products. Obviously, there are bargains to be had after careful research. Merely looking at shiny, cheap stuff or reading some garbled nonsense about audiophile quality and deciding it's worth a try does not qualify as research.

The simple fact is: a Chinese seller is several thousand miles away and does not share your language, although they give it a much better effort than we ever do and for that I admire them. For something as esoteric and complex as a discrete opamp, that could lead to insurmountable difficulties at the very heart of one's system. Or it might not, and it's a true bargain.

Another simple fact is that some eBay sellers, from any country including the USA, are unscrupulous and will gladly pass off a piece of junk as audiophile quality at a stupidly low price. Rhodium is not free, even in China, and OCC copper is not cheap anywhere. If you enjoy rolling the dice, please go ahead.

Discovering bargains and sharing them here is laudable. Pragmatism is admirable; gullibility, not so much. Can anyone who has been "had" admit it? Doubtful. Will the thrill of discovering that rare bargain overwhelm objective judgments? It's very likely. Read some reviews of those Class D mini amps. "This $60 marvel compares favorably to my Pass X350."

If you ask for someone's opinion and they take the time to give it, you have two choices. You can politely thank them for it but disagree, or you can politely thank them for it and agree.

By the way, Dave, if during your extensive capacitor testing you found NO correlation between cost and sound quality, then I have to question your methodology or the sample selection. I assume these were subjective evaluations. In other words, your opinion based on comparisons and not facts. Listening to two or more things and deciding a preference does not make one's conclusions any more factual. It certainly makes them valid for the decider, but it does not make them facts.

Peace,
Tom E
berate is 8 and benign is 9

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