Hi Bare
I kind of concur in that this is my issue with many of these brands. Well not just Chinese brands - but there does seem to be a lot of "Let's start a company and sell $50,000 DACs" without any track record or any real appreciable superiority. I knew a guy who sold silver cables the website was great and his prices were actually not too high but the he has no background in audio, engineering or metallurgy - he is a guy who buys a nice silkscreen and in his garage he puts cables (that he buys) and puts his silk screen on them and makes a tidy profit. Even if you don't buy into cables that is different than Kondo-San who was a metallurgical engineer and headed the microphone division of Sony. Even if you don't buy into cable differences one actually does design and make from the ground up and understands fully the metals he is working with and their properties.
Many Chinese brands (many brands in general) merely copy. Ahh let's see the schematic - I can do that and off they go.
Now where the Chinese come back to the advantage realm in my view is in the entry level to mid market. They can produce transformers (and other parts) cheaper and can physically built the units cheaper. So if you spend $1500 on a "good" Chinese tube integrated you may have to spend $3000 - $3500 to get a comparable amp from the United States/Europe. You may get $500 for you Chinese amp in 10 years. The US/EU amp you might get $1500 back. But you still come out ahead with the Chinese amp.
Remember a lot of folks felt this way about Japanese cars and once people caught on that they were vastly better vehicles (reliability and customer satisfaction) than any and all American counterparts they held their value much better on the second hand market. Now Hyundai is experiencing the same.
Resale value is poor with domestic amplifiers and speakers as well if they change models or delete them. I like Audio Note because 10 years ago I bought an amp and speakers that I can now sell for at LEAST what I paid for them. Part of that is the Audio Note name brand but it's more that they keep the products in the line-up continuously and continue to raise the prices.
Chinese companies unfortunately often change models every couple of years and the model deleted is now usually a boat anchor value wise.
The only defense of that is that in the Ming DA or Line Magnetic case they typically have a unique design or output or even aesthetic that no one else has. And if over the time the product gains a certain appeal then the value could hold.
And ultimately you still have to go by sound quality. In my LM 219IA's case I simply liked it better than what I heard in the sub $10,000 range from the major players like ARC, McIntosh, VAC, Cary, Audio Note etc. I like the 219IA more than more costly Meishu for example. So while the Meishu is a better value, likely, in terms of resale, I also have to live with it. The Jinro is another matter but at $26,000 it will remain another matter.