For US and Canadian purchasers, do the Apollon and Nord units have the requisite UL, FCC, and/or CSA certifications?
I can't talk for them, but I can tell you that the certification labs ecosystem is extremely burdensome for small players. It's really a barrier and makes it almost impossible to start a business, we are talking tens of thousands of dollars, varying with the type of products. it can easily reach 6 digits, If you count licensing for stuff as basic as a usb port (I know it doesn't apply here but it's an exemple, a usb vendor ID is 5000$). FCC will take you around 15k, and it never stops. Wireless stuff... forget it. All that before you can sell one single unit. I won't pretend I know their numbers, But smaller boutique manufacturers like that, if they sell 500 of a particular model of their amps, they are doing good, and they have to run on very tight margins to actually compensate for their smaller marketing ressources, and smaller volume. So again, can't speak for them, maybe they went trough this and if they did, Kudos for them, it's impressive. Or the alternative. They will obviously not come here and announce publicly that they are not certified. Personally it wouldn't prevent me to encourage them. One day they'll be big enough if we give em a chance and I'm sure their in house testing is rigorous enough.