Hi all, new member here~

[RGA]

poppachubby

Yes there was a thread about this already. Grant Fidelity isn't hiding from this. There are several companies in fact that sell the exact same Tube DAC/09 under several labels - I've already seen 4 different company names for this piece of equipment.

Grant Fidelity, like I mentioned, is re-branding Chinese products under their own label. They have bought exclusive rights to the products which means units like the one you linked will disappear once they've been sold off.

The second issue is that Grant Fidelity is charging a fair bit more right now at $300 for the same units. However unlike the mail order from China units you actually get a warranty and support. And the actual sound of the unit is quite impressive does a pile of stuff and for $150 or $300 is quite excellent. It's not going to scare high end products but I can say it is a pretty impressive step up in most ways over my Cambridge Audio CD 6 (which was their top CD player in the late 1990's). Factor in that it's also a USB DAC and works as both a Solid State and Tube DAC and is also a full out tube or SS headphone amp and it is built quite well - it's really hard to complain.

Certainly you lose a bit of pride of ownership in that there could be a dozen clones out there and when you see the price of those you think gee if it's $150 it can't be any good. Me I'm surprised how much sound is on tap for this kind of money.

If you remember about 10 years ago, Antique Sound Labs - also a Chinese tube maker - put out $99 Wave 8 monoblocks (8 watts of class b tube power) and they were all the rage. This is basically the DAC/Preamp/Headphone amp version of the Wave 8's.

Basically what Grant Fidelity is trying to do is corner the Chinese high end market by making deals with their top manufacturers - Shegya, Consonance, Jungson. These companies have been making OEM products in North America for many years. Shengya has been operating under the Vincent label and Jungson apparently has been an OEM for a number of companies.

I think the DAC 09 from GF could have been handled a bit better in that what they should have done if nothing else was to make their product be differentiated enough from the other makers. But new companies make some stumbles. Indeed their stumble was being honest about what they were selling.

With the OP's budget I would not be recommending the DAC 09 anyway. The Jungson made Rita 880 is tough to beat regardless of the made in China stigma.

It should be pointed out that many brands are made in China - they just don't advertise it. A lot of the British imports are made in China and bigger name speaker companies like Energy are made in China. Then there are all the companies who use parts made in China but just happen to build the thing on domestic shores. Not unlike buy an HP or Apple laptop - not a single part is actually made by HP or Apple

[poppachubby]

poppachubby

Yes there was a thread about this already. Grant Fidelity isn't hiding from this. There are several companies in fact that sell the exact same Tube DAC/09 under several labels - I've already seen 4 different company names for this piece of equipment.

Grant Fidelity, like I mentioned, is re-branding Chinese products under their own label. They have bought exclusive rights to the products which means units like the one you linked will disappear once they've been sold off.

The second issue is that Grant Fidelity is charging a fair bit more right now at $300 for the same units. However unlike the mail order from China units you actually get a warranty and support. And the actual sound of the unit is quite impressive does a pile of stuff and for $150 or $300 is quite excellent. It's not going to scare high end products but I can say it is a pretty impressive step up in most ways over my Cambridge Audio CD 6 (which was their top CD player in the late 1990's). Factor in that it's also a USB DAC and works as both a Solid State and Tube DAC and is also a full out tube or SS headphone amp and it is built quite well - it's really hard to complain.

Certainly you lose a bit of pride of ownership in that there could be a dozen clones out there and when you see the price of those you think gee if it's $150 it can't be any good. Me I'm surprised how much sound is on tap for this kind of money.

If you remember about 10 years ago, Antique Sound Labs - also a Chinese tube maker - put out $99 Wave 8 monoblocks (8 watts of class b tube power) and they were all the rage. This is basically the DAC/Preamp/Headphone amp version of the Wave 8's.

Basically what Grant Fidelity is trying to do is corner the Chinese high end market by making deals with their top manufacturers - Shegya, Consonance, Jungson. These companies have been making OEM products in North America for many years. Shengya has been operating under the Vincent label and Jungson apparently has been an OEM for a number of companies.

I think the DAC 09 from GF could have been handled a bit better in that what they should have done if nothing else was to make their product be differentiated enough from the other makers. But new companies make some stumbles. Indeed their stumble was being honest about what they were selling.

With the OP's budget I would not be recommending the DAC 09 anyway. The Jungson made Rita 880 is tough to beat regardless of the made in China stigma.

It should be pointed out that many brands are made in China - they just don't advertise it. A lot of the British imports are made in China and bigger name speaker companies like Energy are made in China. Then there are all the companies who use parts made in China but just happen to build the thing on domestic shores. Not unlike buy an HP or Apple laptop - not a single part is actually made by HP or Apple

I agree with you. Since you seem to have good knowledge on this subject, I have a question. On the Grant site, they won't discuss any details about one of the chips in the dac 09. However, on Ebay the seller gives full details about all. Do you suppose Grant puts different, possibly more high end, materials into theirs?

You are right, the difference is obviously support. I actually plan on buying one. It just seemed from your statement that you might not have been aware. No argumments here...