Warning: China-Hifi-Audio.com

"Try and buy a better DAC than from Matrix Audio (based in Xi'an). Best ESS DAC chip, other parts are top-of-the-line, build quality is perfect, good looking design, all the bells and whistles including balanced connections. My unit even has the ability to take I2S input!  "

Denafrips Terminator!

(I only have Pontus - not rich enough to pay extra for the Terminator).

$595 shipping?
Were then sending it in a taxi?

Well ... I've had my share of warranty and shipping challenges with "democratic society" buying experiences from 'onshore / nearshore / homeland / domestic / major outlet / mainstream / reputable / regulated / covered / insured / serviceable' (whichever descriptor you wish to use) to describe US-based distribution channels, so this is not a region-specific issue. In today's world any purchase that involves the internet and a warehouse is going to face some % of risk, so pandemic or non-pandemic the only variables are supply chain and shipping times.

@calieng Again, my experiences have proven satisfactory so I'm willing to help resolve if necessary.

Sorry you had a crappy experience. Seems like it got sorted out.

And the usual suspects pipe up of course, and get on their high horses and spew the moral superiority we have all grown accustomed to.   Oh, our lovely neighbors to the south. Kinda got yourself to blame for a certain country being in a position to economically devastate you. Your greedy corporations moved production over there because they could exploit the cheap labor to produce cheap product for the entitled population back home that wanted stuff -  for cheap. Too bad. Perhaps, the manufacturers who make world class product there, might get the respect they deserve had that not been the case.
And thankfully, there is no exploitation of the labor force south of the border. Nor is there any issues with education, healthcare or making it easy for every citizen to vote freely. No human rights issues there.

I’m absolutely shocked how many people in this thread are saying they’ve bought amps from China. I wouldn’t hook up a free amp from China to my speakers (out of fear of damaging them), let alone purchase one. No offense intended to anyone, but frankly standards have to be extremely low to even consider 99.9% of Chinese amps, particularly with the outrageous shipping charges cited that could partially go towards the price of an amp manufacturer of trust. There are way too many quality amps at various price ranges to justify even considering China for anything other than Dollar Store grade throw away items. Start a search with forum recommendations on Audiogon and Stereophile reviews. There is a reason respected publications to my knowledge never even review amps from China. I read the most pathetic sole “review” of the model that started this thread that didn’t even attempt to talk about the most important factor that matters - sound quality. Instead it was Amazon ratings and appearance from a “reviewer” that clearly knew nothing about audio. Huge red flag.