Red rose Affirmation made in china, any problems??

Again, I will say the Chinese have made astounding progress. I would even say the analogy of a growing teen undervalues them a bit. I would say they are like an engineer, two or three years out of college. No, they are not yet senior members of the team. But, they have been identified as stars, and will be leaders of the pack down the line.

My heavy handedness towards high priced high end equipment that does not pass muster is a result of seeing lesser Chinese equipment give it a run for the money, and in some cases, exceed it. So, megabucks equipment producers better wake up and smell the coffee.

Infinity_audio, you still haven't clarified your relationship with Red Rose. Please do so...

Infinity_audio, could you please let us know if you have any relationship with Red Rose?

I have a lot of respect for Red Rose products myself, but if the product was available in a more cost effective manner, that would just be smarter on the consumer's part in some instances than paying more. Of course, the support of a dealer network and Red Rose may offset that.

The statement that the Chinese manufacturers make the best electronics today is far from correct, in my opinion. The Chinese certainly have made enormous strides in the past decade, and most things are made in China, but I feel they are not up to the quality of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, USA/Canada, and some European countries. Just compare a CD player or television made in China versus one from Japan. Which one do you think will last longer? The answer is obvious.

You make good points there, Infinity_audio, and as I said previously, I am a fan of Red Rose gear. Good sounding stuff, on the high priced side, but a bargain compared to past ventures at ML and Cello, so who can complain?

Perhaps the issue that some have is the point that Red Rose was on the coy side of telling the world the gear was made in China. Not that a lot of us didn't know that anyway... Whereas Roy Hall has been more than upfront with the source of Music Hall products from day one coming from the Czech Republic(the analog side) or China(front end and amplification).

Roy has always been a stand up guy, who will look you straight in the eye and give you the true picture. I can think of one episode when I inquired where the $299 tuner was in terms of distribution. His answer was, "While I REALLY wanted to bring it to market, there just wasn't any demand." And, upon my assertions that I had been waiting to buy one said, "If you can get 200 people to tell me the same thing, I'll make sure it happens." I started a thread here on Audiogon about it in 2002, and got maybe 6 or 7 responses.