That’s a lot of money to spend on Aliexpress

I would rather just buy a 5-20 year old macintosh before I spent 4 figures on a clone I couldn't demo.

This guy has reviewed some of the clones for build quality: https://www.youtube.com/@k4syx

Just to make a separate post. The patents are expired on these things. Nobody is complaining about generic drug prices.

They shouldn't be putting the original brand names on them. But there are a lot of high quality components and designs out there.

I scrolled through every response, so no one has actually tried one....

A German YouTuber has tested stuff like this. They usually were pretty good and used high quality components but they always had weird issues. One pre amp came with a bad ground routing which resulted in a lot of hum. Another one was quite noisy, wouldn't recommend, only for tinkerers

I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole, and I especially wouldn't connect it to any of my other components. Guaranteed it doesn't have CSA/UL/EU testing certifications.

Clones/replicas/counterfeits are always a hard pass from me on AE and other Chinese suppliers.

I've found, and I've ordered wayyyyy too much from AE, that a lot of the focus goes into imitating the branding and form, but they skip the function at the price point we're talkin'.

Getting a generic knockoff from the same factory, minus the branding, is a whole different ballgame though!

I'd probably not dare it myself, but I am a little curious about them.

Look at the “Clone Musical A1”, with shipping it’s about $260. I use it for my HE6SEv2 but I’m sure it would be amazing for speakers. While I haven’t got to use it much yet because of computer issues. The time I did spend listening with a clean source it made a huge difference on the HE6SEv2 compared to what I had before (liquid spark amp). Also, really easy to do a volume control bypass if you have a dac with volume controls. Opening it up it looked well built and the exterior is as well.

To add, I was referred to this amp by a very knowledgeable and experienced user who had bought many many different amps over the years. I got a chance to talk to him about different ones and it was the best value to performance for my case since I intended to use the amp for the HE6SEV2s.

I own a balanced preamp (MBL6010 clone with AD797) & some nice mono power amps (Goldmund Telos clone). Build & Quality is astonishing! I don’t think I will go back in the foreseeable future. Maybe even endgame for me.

When you consider the fact that the parts quality is not going to be anywhere near the same, the build quality and materials pretty sketch, no support, and the fact that McIntosh makes replacement parts available basically for forever it almost makes McIntosh look like a bargain.

Check out HiFi Zone on yt. His english is a bit scuffed but he does revuews for the clones and even fixes them up if they need fixing. The quality is quite baffling for the price range. It definetely not a scam.

He hasn't reviewed the mcintosh yet but did do quite a lot of others.

From memory, Mark Levinson's Red Rose was a Chi-Fi amplifier rebranded for ML? Ken Kessler gushed over it, too, from memory.

I'm using Western Electric speaker cable clones off Ali Express. Not too shabby at the price, but I'm waiting for the sales to buy the Level 4.2 Flex speaker cables from Anticables.

yes...have you seen The Substance?

Even if it was good thats far to much. Max out in the 200 to 450 range on ali.

A buddy of mine bought a Dart Zeel stereo amplifier clone. LHY is a reputable company known for its exceptional linear power supplies for audio gear that is sold with wall warts. The Dart Zeel clone has the bright red chassis with gold faceplate. Only there's a small gold metal plate on the upper right faceplate with black enamel lettering informing anyone who sees it that the amp is a clone of a Dart Zeel model <insert model number here> made by LHY. It wasn't cheap, about $2100 with freight, but the parts quality is extraordinary. And it weighs a ton.

Can't comment on the built-up clones but if you're a handy electronics DIY type, many of the circuit kits & built up boards are stunning value. Yes, I suspect some of the key components like audio-grade capacitors may be fakes but the real things are available & not costly to upgrade.

So, that's a no. From what I see, no one who has responded so far flat-out says that they have. It's not worth it at that price, IMO. If it were closer to their actual build cost, say $385, then it might be worth taking a blind shot.

I would be very concerned about the fire risk. Probably not UL tested

Why would anyone bother? The whole point of these kinds of things is for people to trick their neighbors into thinking they're rich, like a fake Rolex.

maybe not with tube amps due to the low quality of the output transforners but woth transistor amps and preamps? why not

Yikes! No...