(who is Lord Melton?)
OK, here's my 2 cents. In my audio journey, first decades ago in big 2-channel gear, and in the last 10 years, all desktop audio & headphone audio, I tend to follow talented designers and the companies they build to realize their own designs. And looking around my home office I see 3 examples of that:
- A NOS DAC/headphone amp/pramp and a headphone amp/preamp by Audio GD. The owner and chief designer, Kingwa, has some serious chops. I've owned at least 3 other of his components. Never a problem with any of them. He's a true original thinker;
- And a NOS DAC ("Orchid") by the owner & designer of MHDT Laboratories. This is a throwback modern DAC using an elderly chip (and sounding quite lovely)
I'm less concerned with the nationality of a designer than with his/her originality and personal commitment to the work. So far gear from China has served me very well, indeed.