Which is better, Jolida or Cayin?

I don't know where you've heard "lots of negative quality reports on Kavent...in the past couple of years."

I don't own any Kavent, but did some correspondence with them earlier this year, so I am familiar with the company.

I Checked for the validity of your claim by doing a word search on AA and here at Audiogon of Kavent. There are no posts before March of 2004. There are no negative posts period. Fact is Kavent, which sells modified Shengya's, didn' exist before 2004.

I have a Chinese made Jungson amp, Chinese made Eastsound CDP and Chinese made Meibao stands. Needless to say I have few reservations about dealing with products from Chinese manufacturers. My reservation is be careful buying equipment from American and European manufacturers who are simply outsourcing to China. They do this to keep cost low and sometimes a cut in quality as well.

I've perty much eliminated American and European made amps and CDP's from consideration. You simply way overpay. Europeans are buying Chinese audio by the boat load because you pay 3-4X more for similar domestic equipment. We still haven't gotten over this bias here in the States.

True Audiogons search engine only looks for keywords in the title. However the Audio Asylum's search engine is completely different. It looks for references in text.

Type in Silverline, Cary or Kavent and if the word is ANYWHERE in the text it appears. They are archived back to 1999, which I suppose is when the Asylum stated.

Nothing before March of 2004. Look at Kavent feedback here at Audiogon and you find they got their first feedback in March of this year.

Like I've said if you have read "lots of negative quality reports on Kavent". I'd like to see some references. I haven't found even one much less lots of negative reports over several years.

Are you sure you don't have Kavent mixed up with some other company selling Chinese?

I do see where you are coming from though. The Chinese manufacturers only in the last couple of years have began to enter the US market. Unfortunatly rebadging of Chinese products, cheap OEM chinese products and some outright scams that preceded the recent Chinese 'invasion' have given them a undeserved bad rep.

The top Chinese companies manufacturering and selling their own equipment generally is very good quality. There are some second and third tier Chinese companies like Dared that you mentioned should probably be avoided.

Anyway, my apology for coming down on you so hard.

Best Wishes Maxx