UMI Class A Amp JBL 4365 K29800SE Air Tight Meixing Raphaelite

Preview: UMI 优美 Class A Amplifier
Letter from Shenzhen (23-15): Great Food 吃喝玩樂 and JBL

All of a sudden, with a few days on hand, and access to a car, we embarked on an impromptu journey to some nearby Guangdong cities. It was a jam-packed 2 days, chronicled here in order. 天時地利人和，又有两位任勞任怨的司機，故臨時起義，驅車北上，兩天壹夜，吃喝玩樂之際沒忘音響正事。

Shunde, 顺德
Shunde is famous for its authentic Cantonese food. I had some advice from our own ELO, who apparently goes there often. He remarked that there is no bad eat there. This past Thursday, we started out mid-morning from SZ and had lunch at a famous local restaurant 黄但记 (new shop). Very nice! 順德菜不用介紹。本刊作者ELO 常去，说揾食容易，鲜有不好吃的。星期四中午打卡黄但记，吃得快樂，普洱茶也不俗。自家陳村粉質感壹流，薄但彈牙，XO 醬兜兜，就把其它油膩炒河粉比了下去。鵝腸超值，最關鍵是新鮮，咬下去不止有咬的爽脆感還有延續的延綿質感，不是冰凍貨可以比。那微甜的醬味不是香港人熟悉的，但吃上海菜大的我覺得非常棒。柚皮本身好的，鮑汁卻過濃，好此味者應該點蝦子。點心也不錯。

Then, thanks to the suggestion of ELO, we went to the nearby He Museum 和 美術館. Designed by no less than Takao Ando, it was a perfectionist endeavor 7 years in the making. We didn’t have that much time so just walked around the immaculately finished and landscaped exterior (a rarity in China) and went in to survey the cafe and admire the pond. Still, we got a glimpse of some classic Ando touches, like the regularly spaced small punched out wells in concrete walls in which one can glimpse small bits of exposed supporting steel rods. I attach at the bottom some ELO photo of the inside. In case you wonder why is this museum here? Well, it was built as a statement by Chinese Appliance Giant Midea 美的, whose headquarters are right across the street. 然後去打卡電商巨頭美的總部旁邊的“和”美術館（嚴謹制作，打造7年！）。不用說，建築師名家安藤忠雄出品，必屬佳作！

Foshan City 佛山市, Lingnan Xintiandi 嶺南新天地
Then we drove another hour. Built by Hong Kong’s Shui On Group, the first and most famous Xintiandi (new world) is of course the one in Shanghai, which I have never been to. This one though is mightily impressive (for pics and comprehensive plans, see here). The Lingnan style roof structures, color scheme and deliberately carved out alleys and backways seemed quite authentic. I didn’t take any pics but we did enjoy coffee here. We perhaps only did half of it, so big it is! Lots of wonderful looking cafes and restaurants and interesting shops and stalls. 瑞安打造的嶺嶺南新天地非常大，除了經典的顔色和屋頂，還喜見非常多細節，雖然花街柳巷是營造的，卻毫不違和，值得壹贊！喝了杯咖啡，舒服！

Class A Amp in center, flanked by matching mini loudspeakers. But we mostly heard the much larger 35 clone on stands. Own CDP (lower left) was used, fed into the UMI 1:1 transformer (small black box on top). 

UMI 优美 (UMLAUDIO)
Another hour of driving and we arrived at a vast industrial district (Foshan is one of the important industrial centers; all our apartment steel doors come from there). UMI is actually a maker of transformers, especially step-downs, that are sold world wide. Regular readers would have read about its astonishingly good 1:1 Audio Transformers 音频牛 (Report by ELO, who now cannot do without it; I can't either, but have yet to write a detailed long report, soon...). The audio section is a hobby and fringe part of the UMI, not its main business (strangely, note that officially they are UMLAUDIO, not a typo!). The section is small, with a couple of technicians working and a small audio room. I had been wechatting with the Engineer Mr Li, David 李工, who had told me about his small and cheap Class A amp. It sounded very good with their own 3/5 clone loudspeaker and top loading CDP. But what truly impressed me was the focused sound I got from my cellphone Tidal via the built in Bluetooth Receiver. I was quite smitten by the full bodied sound of the cello and piano I got from the new Sony album of Raphaela Gomes (now a personal fav). I should have a review sample in due time and look forward to testing it out in detail. We also listened to the very cheap matching small speakers and they are really quite decent by themselves (when not compared to the bigger 3/5s)! A very good (in both looks and sound) complete system for a reasonable price. The inside of the amp shows quality parts, including capacitors. Of course, the transformers are all bespoke. The small one is for digital and standby functions. There is no heat-sink. Instead, the output devices are affixed onto metal tunnels with fan cooling. Parts quality is decent, so I don’t understand how they can make money! 行也匆匆，接下来去了一个工業區探访优美音响的李工。李工是個非常溫文的人，話不多，是個實幹派！我們報道過他那冇得頂的1:1音頻牛，是個寶物。這次聽了他那膽前石後的甲類合拼機，雖然只有20瓦，配搭他家的仿35，聲音却非常靠譜。更令我驚訝的是藍牙非常好聲。也聽了那配對的小小喇叭系統，都非常稱職。看看機器裏面那些零件，尤其電容，都不錯的。變壓器都是自家的，這個價，我覺得沒錢可賺，屬于打天下産品。其實音響只是這公司的小副業，主業是各種變壓器。我將會詳細測試這部合拼機，請留意下文。

Sanshui 三水
Another hour of driving to Mr. Lai’s 黎先生multiple award-winning restaurant 假日豬肚包雞. Mr Qian 钱先生met us there. I first visited this restaurant in 2007 while on a trip with some HK audiophiles, and the superb signature dish (chicken wrapped in pork stomach) had been etched in my memory. So wonderful to have a second act! Most gratifyingly, the second act was just as good as the first! 又壹個小時去到三水。時隔15年又去到黎先生獲獎無數的餐廳假日豬肚包雞，新店環境更好，重要的是重溫舊夢壹樣那麽味/美好！黎生溫文典雅，像書生多過餐館老板，端莊的太太也熱情招呼我們，壹謝再謝！你如果去三水，這是必需打卡的地方！深圳，甚至香港，豬肚雞到處都是，但你吃壹次你就會明白檔次。那酸菜魚也是驚喜，酸菜自家腌的，而魚是即殺的，微辣也惹味！牛丸超正，是軟的，牛肉味重，不像潮汕那些只有質感的。如果香港飲茶那些所謂蒸牛肉是用這丸子就發達了！正哦！

Click pics to enlarge. Center Air Tight 2-chassis Preamp. R Philips CDR700. JBL K29800SE. Air Tight amps behind. See bottom pics.

JBL K2-9800SE
After this, we retired to Mr Lai’s home nearby to listen to his JBL K2-9800 SE. I had heard the regular version many years in HK. It was to my liking and so it proved here. Unfortunately, we could not listen for very long as one Air Tight 211 monoblock developed a problem that made the sound wax and wane. 跟著去了黎先生家聽 JBL 9800SE, 聲音不錯但有問題，壹只後級有故障，右聲道時有時無，需要維修。希望下次來可以正瞻風貌（还要喝多点酒）。

Goodnight! 累！休息！
Exhausted, we retired to a local hotel. For 2xx rmb including breakfast, it was a good deal (but the coffee was horrid). 入住了三水的佳田酒店，OK, 二百多連早餐。早餐非常好，味道可以，居然有牛腩粉，我吃了兩碗，還有皮蛋瘦肉粥，各種雞蛋配菜，超值。可惜咖啡是三合壹，非常糟糕！只能喝菊花枸杞茶。啡友不宜。

JBL4365. Center top Meixing 300B Preamp driving the 211 PP monos. Flanking R top Philips CDR700, below which (silver chassis with 2 knobs) a SE version of UMI 1:1 transformer. See bottom pics.

JBL 4365
In the morning, Mr Qian picked me up and we went to his large room (about twice or thrice the size of Mr Lai’s) to listen to his JBL 4365, which is like a professional (and cheaper) 9800. Sound was very good and typical of modern JBL monitors. As for the equipment, it was obvious Mr Lai just followed Mr Qian, a lot of duplication. CD source was the same venerable Philips 700 (TDA 1547 1-bit), so you know the host likes things musical. Here were also the Air Tight 211 monoblocks, but not in use. Instead, Amplification was all Meixing (Mingda), a monstrous 300B Preamp and a back-breaking monoblock pair of 211 PP (only one pair for PP; the other 2 are for rectification!). Vinyl was played on an Amari TT sporting a Hana SL cartridge, fed into a delightfully retro-looking 2-chassis Raphaelite Preamp. As is the norm, the amps took a while to warm up and just when I started to really get into things my cohort came to pick me up for the next stop. It’s worth noting that Mr Qian is very exacting about details and power cleanliness. He DIYs all his own cables (also used by Mr Lai) and spends a lot of time tweaking. It’s also interesting Mr Qian does not believe much in damping the room, nor cares much about soundstaging. Yet music sounded very clean and focused. 早餐完，錢生把我接去了他家。器材不少，但非常整潔。錢生個性豪爽，直來直去，岩我嘴型。系統聲如其人，也是直接爽快。玩音響方面，錢生可比我執著甚多，凡事壹絲不咎。電是直拉入房間的，經過多重處理。所有線都是自家焊的。音源必需有相位選擇。CD 出來接優美李工的1:1音頻牛，不過是特別版。放大是美星旗艦一套（這篇文章描述非常詳盡）。那300B前級比我的300B後級重3倍，用膽2倍！單聲道211壹邊四根，兩根是推環，另兩根原來是整流！真系，哦地見識少！Amari 唱盤經拉斐爾前級播放，聲音濃郁，和數碼截然不同。另外，虽然钱生对音场定位不是特别注重，东西还是聚焦的。钱生也不特意房间处理，这点和我一样，但他花很多功夫在避震上。值得留意，黎先东西很多都是钱生设置的，所以结构和声音略同。可惜，正進入狀態之際，同行來接我，只有期待下次拜訪！

Back to Shunde 顺德 2
Our trip back to SZ passed through Shunde again, so we quickly hit a clay pot rice place. Again, very good! 匆忙原因之壹是我要趕回深圳晚上聽音樂會。回程又經過順德，順路快快打卡了一個網紅煲仔飯。非常地茂，不便宜, 但食料超新鮮，淡口但美味。那腐乳通菜我們吃了兩碟，沒吃過那麽美味的！味道和香港的完全不壹樣，我琢磨有加酒和糖。

Back to SZ 回到深圳
Thanks to my drivers, I made it back in time for the concert by the SZSO. Mahler 3, wow! Just lovely! What a fulfilling 2 days! 趕回深圳聽音樂會，深交的馬勒3棒！

Midea Headquarters 美術館對面美的總部

Chicken wrapped in Pork Stomach Hotpot 無敵猪肚鸡

Air Tight Preamp (PS separate)

Air Tight 211. All Cables by Mr. Qian 黎生處所有線材都是錢生做的

錢生 美星 300B Preamp 前级

Amari 唱盤。墨綠2部是拉斐爾前級

右側是煲仔飯餐廳 黃鳝，排骨，臘味都好，但米粒太碎，是敗筆。

鹽水雞，五柳旦都淡味，我喜歡。

SZ Symphony Mahler 3! 深圳音樂廳深圳交響樂團馬勒3！

Below are ELO's pics of the Interiors of the He Museum 和 美術館 内部