CD player NOT made in China under $1,000?

Trelja - It's amazing that this company is still in business. I'm surprised by better quality of hand soldered components than SMT. My experience is different. SMT process is much better controlled than hand soldering. Company I work for had a lot of problems with hand soldering a no problems at all with SMT - zero. SMT process is well controlled to pitch of 12 mils while density/pitch of an audio board is usually not smaller than 20 mils. Many companies use SMT boards (Krell, Linn etc) and a lot of CD players have SMT boards. Where this boards come from? - most likely from China. I suspect that as long as gear is put together here it can be called "Made in USA". It would be interesting to find exactly same piece of equipment made at the same time in two countries.

Your point about human versus machine manufacturing is valid, Kijanki. However, as I said in my first post, it presupposes the design of said product is sound in the first place. Clearly, in my situation, it's not.

And, again, the company I represent is one of more well known and successful. One of the Chinese "Big 5" as they're known, in high-end audio circles.

Trelja - I agree, good design and management is the main factor. People can be trained including quality control.

Waryn is afraid of CD player "Made in China", but he should be afraid of Chinese CD players. Rowland uses Icepower boards manufactured now by B&O in China. It's still Rowland isn't it?

Trelja, would you mind sharing which company your are refering to? It would be helpful for people who either own or are hoping to own something from this company.

Zanth - I second that, but he might be prohibited from reveling it.