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Asia is kicking Ass and Taking Names

Ancient 'phile here. Owned a lot of kit over the decades. but for the last ~8 years a dac/pre; Audio Alchemy  DDP-1, which died about 4 months ago. Thinking it might cost too much to repair, I contacted AA but got no response, which was a blessing in disguise. Being retired living on SS ans a small monthly insurance stipend, even used hi-end kit is out of h question. I had been watching YTVs (made by several non-hi-end reviewers) about various Asian companies making quality audio, but as a Amazon not only do they carry most of the brands I was curious about, but free returns AND 6 no interest payments: first I bought a SMSL PL200T top loading transport, and partly because it decodes MQA (I know not many many of  them available, but still)... Amazing for $500. Next I bought a Topping D90iii Dac/Pre; a one bit, discrete, fully balanced @ $999 (MSRP of AA  when new was $2600), and as good as. Reading more, several reviewers urged getting a preamp. I bought the Topping D90 @$900) . IMHO, all outstanding value for < a quality used transport, dac or pre. High end prices are dinosaurs. HTH

tweak1
nogaps
165 posts
 

yes, Asia is coming on strong.  I've order accessories off Ali..no issues and items performed as expected. It was even easy to correct an error in one shipment. They are mfging some pretty good tubes. Nice to see quality new stock tubes coming online rather than running the NOS treadmill, that gets thinner and pricier as time goes on. 

And, as a child of the 60's and early 70's..the band Asia really sucked. They were a poster-child of what was wrong with most of 80's rock. If you grew up in the 80's..it's what you knew..  Everyone lives a different life. 

travbrow
283 posts
 

If anyone is looking for reasonably priced amplifiers, check out the YouTube reviewer HI FI zone. He reviewed several Chinese “clone amps” based on designs from Burmester, Dartzeel, Symphonic Line, FM Acoustic etc. I actually ordered a Dartzeel based amp and Symphonic Line RG 4 based monos to try out.

tweak1 OP
3,766 posts
 

FYI Re: AliE in the left side bar you can chose USA (shorter ship times). Also, if you go hunting and select items of interest, you can typically find them in ~ 5 days at lower prices

Ive had good results choosing cables and iso devices HTH

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