Denarips and Vinshine split

INDEED AliExpress has just destroyed solar panel install companies. I ended up spending just less than 10% of what had been quoted to $60,000 project that turned out to be just slightly North of $5k and with better parts/components.

It doesn’t matter how reputable dealers are after all once you hit a nice deal for the same or even better quality.

Just remember dealer is just a third party leech that is able to brainwash customer.

If you are a very large enterprise (Sony, Yamaha, etc) with too broad a portfolio, it makes some sense to have the middlemen.

Anything smaller should be all manufacturer direct...with no middleman leech leeching 50 to 80% for sending an email and shipping a box! The former sends the cash back over to the manufacturer so the guys who make the product get paid better, more investment in engineering r&d, etc, etc, etc

The leech adds nothing of value to product that sells itself on its own merit. If the manufacturer did his own promo, it sure as hell doesn’t cost as much as a lousy 50% that goes to the dealer leech (apparently, he did some promo bull).

I’d rather not go on a tangent and talk about real estate, the franchise mafias, etc. America has loved to reward the low aptitude middlemen a bit too much, just a bit too much (make him think he's real special everyday)...

Hifi is the worst offender...

Never again will I buy a DAC without asking here first.

@nonoise says: "Denafrips also sells lessor quality spec'd units that look the same on AliEpxress."

Wow, just another reason to stay away from Denafrips. 

I tried the Ares II and sold it pretty quickly. In my room acoustics, r2r just doesn't do it for me. And I never wanted to go up the Denafrips latter because of their lack of remote. However Alvin is a great guy and I wish him the best with this unfortunate situation for Vinshine. I still dealt with him for non Denafrips products, like the Jay's cdt2-mk3 and LHY SW-10. There are very few gentlemen as helpful and courteous as him in the business.

Generally, "grey market" means you forego any warranty. I used to buy photo and video equipment and sometimes would take a chance but no more. A $500 item might be worth the risk, but for my wallet, anything more than $1000 better be the "real deal" with a manufacturer’s warranty. [Along with good reviews from customers who had to use the warranty service.]

The issue for Denafrips going forward is will they try selling direct or will they put forth the effort to have someone like Alvin again to give customers the assurance they need to spend $2000 and up on a Chi-Fi DAC?

I was set on getting a Pontus II -12th or 15th, whatever they called it, but now, well, probably not. I’ll keep looking. Maybe a chip-based DAC with a FPGA DSP will be the ticket, if it could offer all that "natural tonality, with great imaging and a wide soundstage" associated with R2R - and still give me some bass slam and definition.