I’m asking because I’ve seen quite a few posts on here saying they ordered from aliexpress and I’m honestly quite skeptical about the quality and legitemacy of anything from that site. I’m assuming most of you go to local audio stores?
I usually buy stuff when I’m travelling to Asia.
Amazon because of their returns
They have every Chi-Fi brand on there too.
Usually aliexpress or linsoul
Amazon (make sure it’s not a random third party seller)
Else: Linsoul, Shenzhen Audio, or Hifigo
Aliexpress is just like ebay or Amazon. They don’t sell their products, it’s just a storefront.
No local stores where I live, unfortunately. Have to trust reviews, or at least hope that the reviewer’s personal tastes match my own.
Aliexpress is pretty decent in terms of chinese shopping sites. Not nearly on the same level of terrible that wish or, in modern times temu are.
Amazon and accessory jack were my go to’s.
I get mine thru Amazon because good return policy if product is faulty. That and if they don’t have an IEM I want , I probably don’t need it and buy something else.
Mostly Hifigo because of great customer service and paid duty and tax
Since AliExpress is banned in India. And even with it unbanned, we have two great sites. HeadPhoneZone.in and AudioStore.in
AliExpress is fine, just use some common sense and look at the store that is selling the item.
When it comes to these Chifi IEM’s, the likelihood that someone is going to waste their time trying to fake an imitation is very low. These things come out at a breakneck pace - there is a new one out almost every week. People who produce fakes are going to do so by creating fakes of brands like Sennheiser, not whatever new Chinese subsidiary of Linsoul that started producing IEM’s a year ago.
If it’s expensive, I check BHphotoVideo first. They don’t have a huge collection, but never had an issue and their service is awesome.
Aliexpress, linsoul and used from audio groups/facebook marketplace.
I’ve purchased strictly Amazon and eBay.