The price I saw in the photo on head-fi was approx £1250. Is that expensive? I would have thought it depends on how it compares perfomance wise against say an a90d/d90 combo or the d70pro/a70 pro combo. It has two screens and if you want an all in one and it performs comparably i think the price is fine. I like the looks other than I wish it had straight rather than a curved enclose on the edges. We'll have to see what the perfomance is like.
D90 and D70pro are already ridiculous products, performance wise undistinguishable from a 140$ DAC, and those 140$ DACs have been for as long as the D90 on the market, so we cant even talk about trickle down tech. And while I admit that those expensive DACs do have some interesting and useful features, neither of those have 500-600€ in extra features, be it from cost or value to the customer.
I believe that all of us chi-fi buyers do so because we can have TOTL performance for a small fraction of what is available from a european/american manufacturer, and we have come to terms with the fact that chinese made and sold products have drawbacks that we accept because of the insanely attractive prices, but why would I pay eurpean/american made prices for a product that doesnt have the same warrantees as those made in western countries?
And also, this is a complete missead of the market by Topping, hobby products in the 1000 to 2000€ bracket are the trickiest to sell when they are competing aginst more expensive similar products unless they are the bargain of the century, most people willing to pay this much for an unnecessary luxury item dont mind expending more for the best of the best, they dont care about dimishing returns and have lots of disposable income.