Important Announcement

This blog has been inactive for a while and readers are likely to wonder why. As one of the Blog contributors, I am deeply saddened to announce the news that Doctor John had passed away in April 2025. Doctor John is a life fighter and has been fighting  with his disease since late 2024 as he had mentioned in his last post.

To all our friends, we are still in shock of his leaving and will always remember his positive, unselfish and kindred spirit which is full of passion, wisdom and humor. His direct no BS type writing and inquisitive minds on reviewing all cheapo equipment benefits all of us tremendously!

Here are eulogies from some of his HiFi comrades:

From Sean P

I first came across Doctorjohn’s blog Cheaptubeaudio way before I met him, perhaps ten years before I met Doctorjohn.

Quite often, Doctorjohn wrote articles with information which was exactly what I was looking for.  So I thought, this guy must operate at a frequency similar to mine.  I would try to imagine what sort of person Doctorjohn was, was he a real doctor?  Was his real name John at all?

Few years ago, I finally got a chance to connect with Doctorjohn and it was at the time when I “regained” a room for my equipment after more than 10 years.   Naturally, I would like to buy some new equipment and Doctorjohn gave me invaluable information and advice without holding back.  Pretty much he would tell me everything he knew, his experience.

I believe Doctorjohn would like more people to enjoy listening to music.  I also believe he would also like to see improvements from smaller manufacturers in Mainland China.  Not only that he shared his knowledge and experience selflessly in his blog, he also provided these smaller manufacturers with his tips and comments free of charge.  

Doctorjohn mentioned a few times that he had been contacted many times for placing advertisements in his blog but he thought he was not doing it for the money and advertisements may give the impression that his blog was biased, he declined these proposals.  Such a selfless guy!

I rarely met anyone, perhaps no one other than Doctorjohn, who was so academically accomplished, knowledgeable about his interests, willing to share and selfless, with a great personality, and knew how to enjoy life.     

Needless to say, it is very sad that Doctorjohn is no longer with us and I will miss him dearly.  My deepest condolences to Doctorjohn’s family, in particular his wife and his son.  

Rest in peace Doctorjohn.  

Shawn Poon

May 2025"

From Philip L

The audio community lost a cherished friend and mentor with Dr John's passing. Through his writings, his passion for audio and arts touched every reader, and nurtured a community of like-minded individuals. 

I got to know Dr John through his wonderful audio blog. Like many budding audio enthusiasts, I scoured through the internet looking for ideas for the next big upgrade, which inevitably led me to his blog. His wealth of knowledge and experience instantly captivated me. On top of that, I came to learn that we shared similar backgrounds and interests despite our age difference. I started corresponding to him through his blog and email, and later had a chance to meet him in person when he visited the US. My first impression of Dr John was exactly as I expected from reading his blog. His love and enthusiasm for arts and audio was unmistakable, and he shared his enthusiasm with everyone without reservations. It was absolutely a pleasure and privilege to have met him. Through him, I had learned a lot about audio and met a lot of like-minded and equally wonderful audio enthusiasts. 

Dr John. Thank you so much for opening my eyes and introducing me to this wonderful community. Your spirit will live on among those you've touched, as we continue to venture in our journey to audio nirvana. May you rest in peace!

From Sam Chang

Dear DoctorJohn,

You were the big brother of our audiophile community — blessed with golden ears and a photographic memory for music. Your presence is deeply missed. Life is short, but you lived it fully, with courage, curiosity, and an adventurous spirit.

I’m grateful we finally met in 2023. That summer was the most memorable audiophile experience of my life. Thank you for visiting my home and for your kind mention of me in your vibrant Cheapaudios blog. As you once said, you were the glue that held our circle of friends together — and how true that is. It means the world to me that you saw in me a kindred spirit, both in music and in life.

My dear friend, I’m honored to have been part of your journey. The music plays on, and with it, your memory lives.

Missing you always,
Sam from NYC

From E Lo

I have started to get acquainted with Doctorjohn since 2014 , we have since been exchanging messages and sharing hifi and music matters. We  share very similar perspective on HiFi and music principles and hence when he proposed his idea to create a platform to let more people contributing to his blog, I accepted gleefully and thus resulting my first blog post in June 2020. 

We had explored Chi Fi (Chinese HiFi equipment) and became fascinated by the PQR of them (e.g. the popular post on Aiyima T8 , A8Pro, Douk E6 etc) and at the end, he was still enthusiastic about his new discovery of an DHT preamp with 3A5 tubes and we had discussed about the possibility of me implementing it into my rig! 

Doctorjohn is a rare gem in hifi world, his love and hate with no hiding about his belief is uncanny. He will not hide himself his dislike when he came across something that he does not agree with and praise those that he believes in! Which in some way echoes my belief, we just can't bear anything that deviates from the truth.

I have learnt so much from him and he is always generous in answering questions even some silly ones and giving advices with all his heart with no reservation!

As of today, I went through some of his previosu text messages to look for information and still cannot belief that he has left us. I had only met him once in person last year and we were talking about meeting more frequently after he had relocated from Shengzhen back to HK and is still one of my biggest regrets that I did not get to meet him more often. He also joked about people (that is me) will think it is too far to travel from Kowloon to Yuen Long where he lives but more than okay if they have to travel to Shengzhen which apparently is a longer trip!

I wish that Doctorjohn is now in a better place in Heaven with a heavenly HiFi system to enjoy every moment! You will be sorely missed!

From Ray Salamat , one of the Blog's contributor

for Doctor John:

the truth is i didn’t know Dr. John personally. we never met in person.  but his essence came through in his writings which i followed for two decades, and in our correspondences. I imagine him a big personality in whatever room he’s occupying but always with an intention to offer and share views and opinions, help and assistance, enthusiasm and enjoyment to others in the same space he finds himself in. i imagine him livening up that space and bringing color and passion to the festivities. 

in my mind, these questions stand scrutiny if a life was fully lived:

did you eat well?

did you enjoy music and dance?

did you love?

did you get loved?

did you do good to others?

did you enjoy beautiful things?

Dr. John, I am almost certainly sure you hit Yes / 100% on each of these questions. i bid you farewell, my friend. i will play Gymnopedie at 100 dB peak tonight and saturate it with inimitable and beautiful triode second-harmonic distortion to keep you company in your ascendancy. rest in peace, good sir. i shall miss you.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Yours truly,

E Lo

HK 05/25