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As I said below, without Ming Da and Antique Sound Lab...

...I'd never have been able to afford a good tubed phono stage and headphone amplifier (as in fully tube -- the Ming Da MC767-RD and the ASL MG Head OTL32 DT). The phono stage sounds like cheap tube gear, which it certainly is -- $250 plus shipping on eBay. The sound isn't terrific and it has a noise problem, and it uses a 6N6-T tube that's almost completely unavailable in the West (only one online store that I know of carries it, and it's based in France), but you get what you pay for. In any case, I love the thing: it's fully tube-rectified and -regulated and sounds it, shortcomings aside. The headphone amplifier is also terrific. I'm not sure how it compares to the Musical Fidelity X-CAN V3 that it replaced; it's certainly a lot more fun. It sounds completely different in that the X-CAN is basically a hybrid amplifier and sounds a lot more SS with a sort of tube coloring. Everything else I own is either from U.S. manufacturers or is homemade. I have a Monarchy DAC, which is made in and based in the USA. I don't know if the money goes back home to China, though, but I don't really care: Mr. Poon can do what he wants with it. It's no import made for a bowl of rice a day.

I don't really feel all that guilty about owning two Chinese-made pieces of equipment. I do have mixed feelings about Chinese goods in general, and had mixed feelings about buying these at the time. There are a number of reasons to buy American and in particular not to buy Chinese, but it's hard to help getting at least one or two things when the price is right. Chinese stuff tends to be dirt-cheap as far as hi-fi goes, and it's a strong temptation. If I were rich I'd keep my integrity completely intact, but I have to go the affordable route. It's sort of the Wal-Mart dilemma for me.

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