ZERO 24/192 DAC, Anyone heard of this DAC amp? - Page 4

I had it translated on babelfish, sounds like a glowing review. PM me if you really want to know (it's too long to post here), or check it out yourself.

As usual it is about half the price or 80 dollars in China. It would be nice if you could buy it for that since it is being sold from China. When I lived in China I did enjoy buying things for half or less but I see no reason for the huge mark-up when they were making a profit at half the price of the rest of the world.

This zero sounds interesting... So is the amp inside it as good as a standalone amp?

Yeah the official page states a 680 Yuan msrp, ~92 usd
I wonder if you could get it directly from them.

When I was in China I bought directly with the help of a friend. If you read Chinese or know someone that does you might be able to order it directly and save a bunch of money for the same item. I was dealing with a seller that would order items for me, make small profit and I would purchase from him.

Would you mind describing a bit more about how it sounds with your RS-1? I'm looking for a good DAC/USB-DAC to drive mine (from a Mac, so can use its optical out for example/doesn't have to be a USB-DAC - by the way does the quality of the optical-out matter for this type of application?) and this one's just been recommended as a candidate.

You say it sounds not-bad - so can you maybe recommend any other mp3s-from-a-computer solutions that suit the RS1 better than this? (let's say at any price, but anything much the other side of $600 makes my eyes start to water a little )

Bearing in mind... I currently have a Total Bithead, which I don't like at all because of: light bass (though it does sound precise and tight), a little distracting harshness/forwardness around 8KHz (can try and find a track that illustrates this if anyone wants...), and an appallingly bad noise floor... (otherwise much better than anything else I have - nice and detailed if you crank it right up to drown out the hiss, which is there even with the volume all the way down to zero )

(I can see it's a troll, but I'm waiting for something at work; so I'll bite )

Well it goes without saying, they're going to make more money with a huge markup over a non-huge one - provided of course demand doesn't fall too much with the increased price. When running a business, making a profit is not enough - you have to make the maximum profit and at the very least (significantly) more than your competitors to stay around. If you sell your product for any less than the absolute most your customers will pay, you're not running your business properly and you're neglecting your responsibility to your shareholders.

See-also: marginal cost pricing (a-la Microsoft Windows/Office pricing model) this explains why the exact same item has a different retail price in different markets (and indeed to different people in the case of MS pricing) - they simply wouldn't sell any at all if they sold for the same price as in western markets, and at least in this case; selling some at a much lower markup, is better than selling none at a much lower markup .

(it's most ceratinly not a case of applying old-school cost-plus pricing, a bit extra for international shipping, and then slapping on a random let's-be-really-unfair surcharge for those outside China, as many people seem to think when they see these kind of price differences! )

All you guys should read my review: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/rev...re-amp-269458/ The Zero unit is really a fantastic unit and it doesn't matter that locals where it is made can get it cheaper than you. At $139 -$150, it is an extreme deal !!!!!
I realize that it doesn't command big money to own one and I'm glad it doesn't. The fact that it preforms like a big money unit is just great as far as I'm concerned! Check it out. It is worth your time.

My purchasing contact was Chan Lawrence as well. He impressed me as being honest and direct. I even bought my Opamps from him afterwards. Please let me know how things turn out!

He's just extremely happy with his Zero. He is correct about finding yourself listening to the Zero with headphones instead of your tube amp. It happens! Read my review if you haven't already. A link to it is in this thread.

What I find interesting is that the unit they are selling is such a bargain (for us) at the eBay price. Looking at it from that stand point, I'm glad they can out price others (who are making theirs in China too) and make a nice profit. Everyone wins! There is nothing better than quality audio at budget prices. Units like the Zero will help so many users get some quality that they normally could not afford to get.

Yes exactly!! Nobody ever seems to get this ;p

Who wins? the guy sitting in a room with no ventilation breathing in fumes of solder? No not all manufacturing is like this but much is. I lived there. Not in the pretty areas but in remote areas that the central government has little control over, like much of China. People here have no idea what is really going on. If you want everyone to win then give the guy at the table doing the work a good wage and a healthy area to work but until then not everyone wins.

I don't troll, and never have. I have traveled around this world and seen many things. Balance is something that we don't have and when I see such out of balance things, as with the workplace in China, I will say something. It is great to have a perceived value but at what cost? Some manufactures offer great buys at reasonable prices in China as well as other countries while others go for the gusto. It's your money and your choice but it is not all in balance for the worker set in an environment that has long past its day of being acceptable or a wage that is equal to their needs.

Without wanting to get too side-tracked.. you have a point, but the thing is, would you say it would be better or worse if these (not just electronics) companies who employ cheap labour moved out of these areas? ..where (let's say for whatever reason) GDP per capita is low/living standards are low/and (therefore?) average earnings (i.e. labour costs) are low?

In some cases these companies have sprung up locally and exist in the first place because the ingenuity of someone who due to the tendency of so-called third-world nations to leapfrog technologies (see India/Africa having poor to non-existent land-line/broadband infrastructure but extensive cellular coverage with many people's 'first computer' being a cellphone...), and the fact that technology like the internet allows various enterprising individuals across the world (from any nation/standard of living etc/not just the save-the-world angle..) to be able to find a niche making products for a profit, for (for the sake of argument) audio-geeks like us... well that's just brilliant really!

At the end of the day (whether you're buying a can of Coke produced in rural S.America where it's not unknown for families to take school-age children with them to work to help make ends meet, or a headphone amp potentially soldered in a poorly ventilated room somewhere on the outskirts of ShenZhen); you have to put the for-sure emotive stories of working conditions and expectations that would be unacceptable in our culture, into perspective of the fact that whatever happens it's a very effective net flow of capital from someone prepared (and able) to pay a hundred or more dollars for an amp, to someone who would have to work a year or more to earn that. I really think it's a good thing! Peace D.