Yeah, none of those companies are in the chi-fi race to the bottom lol

No, he doesn't mean every brand from Asia. He's specifically talking about the budget/value brands from Asia, not the premium brands. For example, AuR audio is a more budget/value focused company from Singapore. Penon is a more budget/value focused company from China. He isn't saying Chi-fi equals cheap, or Asia equal cheap. He's saying there are more emerging brands from Asia focused on budget/value, that's all. For example, Subtonic Storm was priced at $5,200, Cayin DAPs are astronomically priced premium offerings, Lotoo has one of the most recognized endgame DAPs, QDC has a $13,700 Sea Dragon IEM, Unique Melody's flagship is $8.5k and Amber Pearl is $8,000. He wasn't referring to any of these brands. He was actually just specifically talking about actual budget/value brands from Singapore, China, Malaysia, Philippines, etc.

Yeah - to clarify, there's a huge range of brands coming out of China and SEA right now. Between brands from China, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, etc. that I've demoed, it seems like there's a really good spread of high value and price/performance products, and more luxury/boutique type products, but even boutique brands like DITA and FATfreq seem to be able to deliver on their budget friendly products (like Project M or Maestro Mini.) On the other hand, many Western brands don't even offer anything under $500, and if they do, they're outclassed by Asian products at the same (or lower) price points.

These are made in China

I'd most likely take Project M, but Alba is a little more relaxed, and doesn't have the same potential for fatigue that some people have found in Project M.

Hexa is like half the price

I know which is best

lol, fanboys

@@or1on89 but if you listen to this review, that's basically not huge praise for the Alba. He said Alba is only for (1) if you have $50 IEMs at the moment, you can consider the Alba being an upgrade on the tech side (2) if you have better IEMs, get the Alba because you can rough it up or lose it outside instead of your better stuff. Also, I watched several other Alba reviews and they all say "good for the price" or "good for an IEM coming from Meze", etc. which are all very limiting praises. This review was actually kinda ruthless in comparison to those other hype reviews.

What is?