Is this an right time to buy hifi?

  Someone gets it!

There is a vaccine for this

MC Yammer just regurgitates what he sees and hears on right wing media outlets. He'll never change. He treats this audio site like it's farcebook. If he just stuck to audio, he wouldn't be half bad, but he has to troll every chance he gets.

All the best,
Nonoise

Wait until 2023 to purchase stuff.

David,

Decware and Salk are very small companies. They essentially build to order and do not hold pre-built units in warehouse stock. There is always going to be a backlog in this type of small company. Yes, they may have materials constraints due to the Global pandemic supply chain issues. However, they are also limited by their production capabilities. If you want to pay more, buy from a company that builds products in advance, warehouses them, and sell through a dealer network.

People should make the best of everyday because you never know what tomorrow brings.  

MC,
you barely touched the topic at hand. OP is about reliability and quality during the pandemic.
Dan

@millercarbon.  

    Someone gets it!

I'd say if your buying new go for it, if used wait. Covid has driven the used market prices through the roof. Vintage has gone even further up the silly price range, lots of people are over spending on old equipment that's not worth it.  $5k+ for a 70's receiver give me a break. 

Get a down payment on a shiny new Sanders Magtech stereo amp as well.  
     30 day in home trial to seal the deal. 
    Salk would not cut as @verdantaudio says. They are a very good company.   

     The major brand names ou would probably have issues with warranty service.   Heck, even before this political fearstorm, one would Jump through hoops of fire from any major brand through box stores. 

     The good brands will continuously offer good products & service. 

Nobody gets it. Look. The world is approaching the end of a giant fiat money Ponzi scheme. Every nation on Earth, every central bank, pretty much every single individual, is up to their eyeballs in debt. So much debt that even with interest rates historically deemed impossibly low (negative!) there still is so much debt the interest payments are eating up pretty much all our productivity. But with trillions being printed and dropped from helicopters (figuratively- but did you not get your stimmie check? So WTF do you call that?) everyone even though up to their eyeballs in debt nevertheless has money to burn. 

Increasingly worthless money. Therein lies the problem. Yes of course this is a great time to buy audio gear. Why? Because this is a great time to buy anything tangible and of tangible value. Because soon- no not like later on today soon, or even later on this year, but soon nevertheless- soon that money won't buy you squat. At least you will have the amp. Just while you are at it please be smart and buy some gold, and silver, bitcoin, and food while you are at it.

The stuff I bought (9 or 10 items) in the last 12 months has had some delays due to COVID supply issues but I have had no issue with any of them except 1 preamp where they used a wrong board from their other preamp. This happened in May 2020 timeframe when this company was setting up remote work for their team.

They gave me a demo unit while they fixed my preamp under warranty.

I thought the past 12 months were a good time to buy since there some unexpected discounts. It was also since to help out businesses.

Depends on the manufacturer.  I know Salk will never cut corners.  That is always his lead time because his products are that in demand.    

Regarding others, I can think of only two brands where I have seen QC issues across 50 or so that I sell.  They will not be mentioned by name publicly or privately by me but that is 1 in 25 and one of them had issues prior to COVID so....

The point is most are not cutting corners.  The longer wait times are driven by supply chain and/or accelerated demand.  Demand for hifi equipment has gone up during COVID while supply has been challenged.  

The best thing you can do is just put your deposit down and be patient.  I know waiting sucks, but if you want something, waiting for it to be in-stock regularly is going to be much further away than waiting for a production run.