Rosette 3 / Korsun u5
Getting back to the earlier parts of this thread, forum members might or might not be aware of all the hoo-ha in recent weeks on Audio Asylum and Harmonic Discord about the suspicious external similarity between the announced Red Rose Music amps and the Chinese Korsun company's 'u' range (the 'u' is my attempt at the Greek letter 'mu')
Have a look at
http://www.korsun.com.cn. If - like me, unfortunately - you don't read Mandarin, it might help to know that you need to click the second menu bar from the left on the homepage and then, on the next page, on the amplifier image on the far right of the second row. This is the u5 headphone amp, for which the listed price is RMB1250, which works out today at UK£104/US$151.
And, by the way, Korsun also have an integrated amplifier and a 2-box mm/mc phono stage which look 'very similar' to the other new Red Rose Rosette models.
I've no idea whether the RRMs are simple (but extortionate) rebadgings, as has - unsurprisingly - been suggested, or whether they just share the external casework. No unequivocal answer has been forthcoming from Mark Levinson (the man), so we're left wondering.
(The Korsun integrateds are also on offer from two different sources on
www.audiogon.com)
Indeed, we seem to live in interesting times!