Any of you chaps dealt with chinese-hifi.co.uk?

I'm considering purchasing from http://www.chinese-hifi.co.uk/buy.htm, and am wondering if anyone has experience of dealing with them.

At present, looks like their outlet is in France, and they only accept payment by bank transfer or paypal, not something I feel wholy comfortable with.
I'm sure that they're a reputable group, but would appreciate any comments either way to back that up.

 

Bought my ming-da pre/power from them. Ben is 100% trustworthy and extremely helpful and patient. However, his Engrish is a bit iffy (better than my Mandarin though!) and communication is SLOOOOOW (sent him an e-mail on thursday - still no reply). But otherwise, I'd buy off him again.

DT

 

Paypal should be ok....if you do it £500 slices ?

Your after a droplet I can tell !

And I want a listen when you get it !!!!

 

Lets just say that I was even more impressed after a recent audition of one.

 

The droplet sounded great at the Heathrow show. Ridiculously large though. Biggest CDP I've ever seen.

DT

 

how much is the droplet with them?

 

£1100 + shipping (£150).

Walrus will bend you over for £2k!

 

Hi,

Remeber, you will also have to pay Duties (around 5-10%) and 17.5% VAT on to of that, usually on the whole Invoice (inclusive of shipping) and most likely FedEx's service fee (£20 or more, depending on bvalue) for paying the Taxes on your behalf.

So by the time all is done it's more like £ 1,550 to £ 1,650 (depending on duty rate) and all that for a machine without in effect any warranty.

Happy saving.

Ciao T

PS, I'm not defending Walrus, I do notice however how people always forget about the on-costs when buying direct, which make the bargain much less that it seems.

 

I thought they were £2.5k ......or certainly heading that way from the prices at heathrow show.

It has the chance of slipping through without taxes .....I've had stuff come through without and some with....but its a big and heavy box so who knows.

 

Hi,

Maybe worthwhile waiting for AMR's CD-77 then (it will be ready in September).

All i know is that I have had a lot of stuff coming to me, from China, Hong Kong, the USA, Japan etc. Anything that had a value above the personal excemption limit was charged duty and VAT, not once has a shipment made it through without.

Maybe HM Customs & Revenue have it in for me? Can I sue for halve my money back and argue "selective enforcement"?

Ciao T

 

I've only had small value ie £50 items taxed ? some larger value item have squeezed through....suppose its what and how its declared at the far end[east?]

 

Well, the last thing I want to do is promote tax evasion (which is essentially what is going on when these chinese dealers declare a low value), but HMCE must be stupid if 40kg of amplifier can get through with no customs charge being levied.

Surely the onus is on them to perform due diligence and/or inspect the package in order to determine its true worth.

FWIW I haven't suffered tax on any import from either Ben, Cattylink or any other HK/Singapore dealer I've bought from in the past.

3D is right though - it is sensible to budget for 20% tax/duty, just in case they're awake at the HMCE depo that day.

DT

PS - Dollar's pretty weak at the moment. Might go to 1.80 by next week. Good time to buy IMO.

 

It does happen.

My AL DAC $2k and not a small dac by any means slipped through the net

Maybe one day I'll get a knock on the door..........!

Jeff aka
Lucky Jim

 

Everything I have bought from abroad has been taxed. DO NOT assume you will get away with it. Low declared values can work though.

 

If your not getting a warranty or backup why buy new? Might as well get a decent uk brand on the used market, with the usual 50% saving from rrp.

 

Hi,

Mr "averaae" British eez sukah foa bahgeen?

:MILD:



But I agree, given the potential risks it is often worth looking on the 2nd hand UK Market, it may veen be possible to find a used grey import Droplett at 50% of what that chap paid, which would make it 1/4?

Ciao T

 

Some of those prices are really cheap tho'
Check out the Ming da prices. Those MC 300C mono's at less than £700 I presume for the pair.
Icon do something very similar at £1700. Even + tax and postage it's still a very big saving.
Having said that, if I found a used pair of Icons that's where my money would be.

 

Cost is not as important as value.

It will be expensive when it goes wrong.

 

thats an interesting point though.... will it?

If you make sure that the transformers are 240v, whats likely to happen to a tube amp, especially one thats hard wired with no PCB?

a new resistor if one blows, a fuse maybe?

I doubt you'd have any repair that cost over £150.

I once had to replace a melted output transformer, but even that was less than £250. Most repairs I've had done over the years have been £50-£100.

There are some rip off repair merchants out there, but owning a simple hard-wired valve amp is a cheap thing to fix usually..



...not to mention of course if you're talking of a price differential of £700 vs £1700 (using above example) you could always buy a spare amp(!) and still have £300 to cover repairs!!

 

just wondering if anyone had a chance to hear the droplet against belt-driven CEC TL51XR....
i think that CEC is now being assembled in china so it could be found at some chinese dealers such as ornec for around 600 pounds plus shipping. apparently it has much improved DAC than XZ version. i am wondering if this really is THE high end best buy bargain CDP.

also, anyone has a clue if the belt should be replaced and what's its age?