Guangzhou Show III Rogers Amari Esti AAA Metaxas Sins Pureaudio Devialet Perlisten BMC

Click all Pics to Enlarge. Top, Wild looking Reel to Reel decks from Metaxas, and old name that I had long forgotten.

Guangzhou Hi End Show (AV Fair), Part III (of V)

Editor: 1) As the show was big, this shall be a multi-part effort; 2) If you first come to this page, I'd urge you to first read Part I for Basic Info.

Note: Since this is going to have many parts, I have given it a new tag, Show report - Guangzhou 2023. Click to view Part I, Part II IV, and V (this last one a very personal Overview, Summary and Postscript).

Some of the equipment have featured in the Shenzhen Audio Show that I reported on. This is relevant here: Although I did not do the China Hotel segment of this GZ show and missed some big rooms, many of the brands can be found in my coverage of the SZ show (e.g., Raido, CH Precision, Analog Source, Line Magnetic, Hanowa, Eizz, Pilium, Simaudio, Scansonic, rossofiorentino, Hegel, Gold Note, Franco Serblin, Prima Luna, Audes, Audio Analogue, Quested, Mymei, Ologe, Triangle, and more).

Coverage of the show follows no particular logic. As before, I’m going to grade the sound. Best is simply Bold Black, in a category by themselves. Others are shaded: Very good is Green; Good is Yellow; and Average is Red. Believe me, I'm very lenient! More so towards others than myself!

Opera Respond 锐榜 Opera Audio has been around for a long time. I know their Consonance tube products quite well. You can say I am NOT a fan. All of them lack rhythmic finesse and just sound plain boring. Smoothing the life out of music is what this company does best. Respond is a loudspeaker name new to me (BBC looks; sure, they also make a 3/5A clone). As expected, the sound was just average. I must say though that amp looks really cool.

Rogers Like what I said about Lowther in Part II coverage, never say die, or cat has nine lives! And so, after years of limbo, Rogers had been injected with a dose of adrenaline! What do you know, they enlisted Andy Whittle, who had worked extensively in the industry, for old Rogers as well as Audio Note (the AX2 that a reader recently brought up was his design) and many classic Rogers have been revived. Of course, the first was the LS3/5A (I still have original 15-ohm Chartwell and Audiomaster, as well as the undersung Chinese Beydas clone, etc). Late comer in a way, Rogers followed in the footsteps of Stirling, Graham, Falcon, even Chartwell etc (a small, almost incestuous circle who knew each other very, very well, with common denominator of BBC know-how and influence). This 15 ohm LS3/5A is similarly rigorously reproduced, with plywood cabinet and Autoformers in the crossovers etc (sign of seriousness, unlike many cheap Chinese versions, not counting my Beydas). Like Falcon, the "T27" is an Audax. The "B110" is an out-sourced unit with finishing touches in the UK, I was told by Andy. I have to apologize for the poor quality of the picture I took of Andy; he's an affable and handsome fellow - I thought I was chatting with Hugh Grant! Rogers has also revived the E20A, a late Rogers product (I think originally designed by the other of the 2 Andy's, Grove that is, and made by ANUK). Of course, updates have been made. Eons ago, in HK I bought the original amp very cheaply at clearance. It was not very powerful, but it was sweet and included a serviceable phono section (now an option). Also (at least in the original version) it did not work the tube hard, and even the fragile but sweet sounding and dirt cheap Chinese 6P3P worked well in it and was better than the stock Russian 6L6 tubes, which I have never liked (newer ones should be better). Now, how about bringing on the Cadet, which I still have (mine were III, both integrated and separates - if I remember correctly, the latter was sold to me by none other than the very nice Hayden Boardman)!

Man, memory lane! This is the first entry in my show coverage that has a second paragraph! What about the sound? Excellent! Now, notice the speakers were placed very close to the front wall, thereby reinforcing the bass. This is not what the usual Asian (Chinese) 35a afficionado would do (most use in room). The LS3/5A sat atop the matching subwoofer AB3 (cabinet also made of plywood), now active (in contrast to the original passive AB1). Driven by the mere 20 wpc of the E20, the sound was big and nice, yet sophisticated, better than the other clones I heard! I know many self-appointed LS3/5A purists still would refuse to use an active subwoofer, but that's their loss. Price? Quite expensive ("If you have to ask..."). If not pressed for time, I'd have asked to hear the LS5/9. 

 

Russell K Electrocompaniet Audio Synthesis I heard the EC. I remember AS as making small, cute amps (e.g., a red EL84 PP), but this one is large.

Pureaudio 柏韵音频 Fostex Mini Olympus Although "pure" has a supposedly sacred and spiritual connotation, I think most audiophiles prefer sinful pleasures! Not to be confused with Kiwi PureAudio, nor Chinese Puresound, the Chinese company makes Digital Products as well as Tube Amps (yes, that nice Ongaku-like amp is their own). They also sell Fostex Fullrange drivers so I presume that's what the lower box was. The fun thing was they also used the Japanese miniaturized Reproduction JBL Olympus on top of the Fullrange! The lovely (Stereo Sound Commission) reduction is limited edition. For those who can read Chinese, I have included the flyer at the bottom of this article.

Cayin Eggleston I don't know why so may use Eggleston (Line Magnetic Zhuhai too) but they are nothing special. Never heard any surprise with this brand (inefficient, clean but bland). In my humble opinion tube amps should not use Eggleston. The lower pic also shows Cayin's own bookshelves (inner pair, not heard).

Amari ESTI Blumenhofer Amari has been around for a long time. They are OEM for a few other brands. The TT I heard was the TechDas look-alike Blue one, with magnetic suspension. Around RMB 15,000, it is a ridiculous bargain and, were I to get into vinyl here, I'd have bought it on the spot! Scrutinize the top pic and see if you think the arm bears resemblance to nominally Taiwanese Zorin. The boss said they OEM arms for a company. He mentioned a Chinese name that eluded me (I'm good with English names, but not Chinese brand names). And I believe they OEM TTs for Hanns. Look at the all-encompassing range of TTs there! Oracle clone! LP12 look-alike! All VERY reasonably priced! The LP (available only if you buy a RMB 300 show VIP ticket) is shown because, unbelievably, it has a cut of Bruckner!!! Despsite analog, sound as a whole was OK but not special. Same with the Blumenhofer room in Part II.

If there's a first, there's bound to be a second, and so this is the second entry with an additional paragraph. Most interesting to me is Amari used Taiwanese ESTI Preamp (the company, also known as 38度C, has been around for a LONG time). For those who read Chinese, read this excellent portrait of ESTI boss, Dr. Tsai, an industry veteran 厚积薄发，匠心独具 ——蔡博士与ESTI音响的故事. More indictment of the current state of the industry can also be viewed in Taiwanese U-Audio, and I quote: "...據38度C表示，蔡博士感嘆目前Hi End精神淪喪，卻只有無恥的Hi-Price大行其道，因此經過長期的研發，運用新開發的低通濾波設計出Digital Station CD唱盤，他認為此機表現無敵，只要3萬多元的價格，可挑戰50萬元級同質進口產品，歡迎PK。有興趣的朋友，請洽38度C試聽..." I shall expound on this theme in my Postscript in Part V.

Soul Note Vienna Acoustics Well, bland, almost a red. I'm being kind. This is what I expect of current hi-end Japanese electronics, that even VA (a loudspeaker brand that I approve of; I had their wonderful Haydn Grand before) cannot rescue from themselves.

Falcon Lab Not to be confused with UK Falcon Acoustics, Japanese loudspeaker was on silent display during the SZ show. Driven by the so-called "Canadian" electronics, sound was OK but not special.

Advanced Audio Acoustics AAA 乐霸 This is a Taiwanese company that manufactures loudspeakers here. Said to be part of the Taiwanese James group (I think not related to the transformer manufacturer). They make 3/5A look-alikes (not really clones) that have received good Chinese press. The newest one is called 3/5A SE, distinguished by its back port!!!!! Heresy, right? Well, everyone wants a lower reach (Tecsun too). The top pic shows the SE version, which was what I heard first. I poked my head in on my return trip, and the larger SF look-alike 5/7 was playing. Generic electronics were playing. The various 3/5A's were priced very low, RMB 1800-2200, and business was brisk, and the lady was so busy that I could hardly talk to her. Given my personal interest in 3/5A clones I'd perhaps investigate more.

ELAC Musical Fidelity OK, no need to dwell on these brands commonly covered in Western press.

Cabasse and Retro Looking Cool Geneva . Silent Display. In the center, on a pedestal, are classic looking Swiss Geneva brand De-Con models, flanked by radios to the right. Not cheap.

Canton ASR I waited for the guy to finish his lecture (I hate those) and listened (the front ones; ceramic drives) for a while. OK, but in this cavernous space, battery powered ASR is not what I'd use, right? But it was OK. Canton is a really old brand. In HK Apliu St, you'd find models from way, way back. It's climbing its way back into the high end, with dubious success. 

Triangle ASR Trigon Average. With the high efficiency of Triangle, tube is better, 

Reproducer Analogue Rain Song 莱森 German Reproducer Active loudspeakers fronted by Chinese Analogue preamp (which imho pilfered the looks of an old Japanese Elekit product). TT was Chinese Rain Song.

Dingyin 鼎音 Line Magnetic Darth Vader like D'Appolito array. Average.

Kharma Orpheus Tech Das Wonder Labs Very expensive room. Phonoamp used was the Wonder Labs Audio. Designer William Tam, said to be famous HK designer (but not known to me), was there and I spoke briefly with him (he is credited with building up the Tidal loudspeaker, but I have no feeling for this brand, nor Kharma, nor Martens for that matter). I guess you have to give it to him, the Wonder Labs phonoamp is much cheaper than the other stuff.

Jiang Gong 江工 Baudio An interesting company. In the top pic, second from right, is engineer Jiang. I was shocked to see this Magnepan derived product. I asked him how it came about. He said, somehow, he repaired a pair of Maggies for a friend and fell in love with the sound. Man, a Herculean effort and certainly an idealist (declaration: I still own the Maggie 1.7). I admire that. Truth to tell, sound was too soft and I think power delivery was not quite enough. He also has a 3/5A clone that I did not get to hear. I intend to follow up with this fellow.

Eggleston VTL OK, but not as good as the HK classic combo of VTL/Rockport. I have no enthusiasm for Eggleston. 

Devialet Audio Physic Simple and very good. I've never been disappointed by both brands, solid performers.

Perlisten Canor Sikora This pair of Perlisten is smaller than that heard in SZ. Partnered by the same Czech Canor sound was better, no doubt because analog Polish Sikora was used.

Dynaudio ASR Acoustic Solid Again, if you ask me, mismatch. Sound was not bad, but you could get a lot more cheaper watts. Battery powered ASR is wasted on inefficient and impersonal Dynaudio. Despite analog playback.

Penaudio Atoll Hegel Decent.

DSDAC ATC OK, but no bananas. DSDAC is a Chinese company.

BMC Metaxas & Sins You have to pardon me. I forgot the name of this round horn loudspeakers (too many around). BMC is a brand that is always on my radar since their designer Carlos Candeias basically revolutionized the phonoamp world with his current-drive ultra-low impedance input AQVOX (which I own). The distributor also handles the Metaxas & Sins R2R in the top pic!

Shenzhen Audio Show II

Letter from Shenzhen (23-5): SIAV Audio Show, Part II

For Part I and Part III, roll up or down or click link.

Note: Coverage of the show follows no particular logic: Very good is Green; Good is Yellow; and Average is Red. Believe me, I'm very lenient! More so towards others than myself!

***

Horns Canor LampizatOr Sikora This can be termed the East European Tube Room. Slovakian Canor drove the Polish Horns loudspeaker. Horns is a new company to me, but I’ve heard of the others. Despite my reservation in general about plastic round horns, sound was surprisingly decent, smooth and musical (if you ask me, it sounds better than the similar looking Avantgarde). Looking at the size of the amps, I asked if they employed KT150. The sales took a while to remember and replied yes. Now, the most interesting thing to me was the tube thing on top of the rack. No, it’s not an amp, but it has as many tubes. It is Polish LampizatOr DAC! Many readers will be familiar with the name. Writing this article, I researched that this was the flagship Horizon DAC, selling in North America for USD 49,000. Wow, do you spend this kind of money by clicking buy and checking out your cart? Surely, though, it has contributed to the good sound. As I don’t see a CDP (rare for this show) I think files were played through Aurender. I didn’t get to hear the handsome Polish Sikora TT. This is one of the rare cases where 2 Poles managed to screw on the light bulb in my head (with assists from neighbors). Well, to clarify, this is a paraphrase on the old “Polish Jokes” that used to be prevalent in the US (haven’t heard them in a long time). Mind you, I love all things Polish (including Kielbasa) and would love to visit the country, especially to visit the sites that are in Kieslowski’s Ten Commandments and Double Life of Veronika.

Perlisten Canor Given my good impressions of the Canor’s, I was a bit surprised that they had failed to warm up the Perlisten. Indeed, as with so many things, this loudspeaker shows up what is wrong with the US (vs the old world above). Probably some would like the “accuracy” and “neutrality” but music should not sound frigid. Worse, there was also some grain on the top, which I’m sure did not come from the Canor’s. I do reckon the choice of an Esoteric CDP (usually kinda cold) is a mistake here. Doing some research, I see the loudspeaker company is into materials like Beryllium and carbon, both of which in my experience usually do more harm than good right (but when done right, as in the use of beryllium in the immortal vintageYamaha NS-1000). I also read that their loudspeakers have complicated crossovers, another minus in my book. So, Perlisten gets a red flag but Canor not responsible!

ATC Playback KR Audio When I walked in, I noticed the Special Edition of the ATC 100, much taller. Unfortunately, it was not playing, rather a smaller pair was on duty (I prefer the early ATCs; I loved my first gen 20). Digital duties were performed by US Playback Designs (which I suspect is defunct, as there is no recent news and their website is down). The Preamp is interesting. KR Audio P135 uses J-FET input, followed by 45 tube buffer and then transformer output. Not cheap (as with anything KR) at Euro 5800 for just a Line Preamp (ss phono board is optional). Amps were ATC’s own. Sound was decent enough, but small speakers don’t usually light my fire (a few exceptions exist, like LS3/5A or this show’s Ensemble Reference).

Tecsun I have long heard of this company because of their LS3/5A clone (model SP80A). The company is the pre-eminent radio manufacturer in China and possibly the world, though for a long time they have developed a full line of digital products and amps. The boss is a fan of the LS3/5A and he later collaborated with loudspeaker manufacturer Ho (何氏) to develop the SP80A. Most HK readers would have heard of Ho, as he had earlier developed a version of the LS3/5A himself. Well, now the loudspeaker line has fleshed out to include the large horn 1501. When I walked in, they were playing their newest SP60A (despite the name, about twice the volume of the SP80A) with their own electronics. This has a titanium dome tweeter seated in a wave guide, and the woofer is paper come with hard-edged corrugated surrounds (I totally approve). Sound was not bad at all. I asked to play the SP80A (front pair on wooden pedestals which are open in the back) and listened for a while until an irritating fellow sat down behind me and leveled all kinds of critical opinions at the manager, who was trying to ignore him. So I couldn’t say I really got an handle on their stuff. So the rating is provisional.

Impeto Boaacoustic This room is dominated by a white pair of the weird Impeto lacquered loudspeakers, driven by Impeto electronics.  Sound was alright. There is a booklet but the only thing I learned is it’s called Warrior-1 and is 8 ohm and 92db in sensitivity. The website only has a front page. The only Impeto products I could find were a few cables on Amazon. Nada, Nothing else. Searching “Impeto” returns a lot of “Impetigo”, a skin disease. Boaacoustic is a German cable brand that is at least honest in admission that high end cables are basically boa constrictors in look as well as sound effect.

KEF D’Agostino Simaudio Finally I got to hear the LS60. When I walked in, the Blade 2 was playing. Sound was decent driven by D’Agostino integrated. Source was Simaudio CDP. When there was no one else, I asked for the LS60, which they fed not by Bluetooth but by coaxial digital cable from the CDP. Sound was in the same vein, though necessarily proportionately smaller in scale. Nonetheless, not bad. I’d have liked to test out the BT (the raison d'etre of this product really), but I didn’t insist. Should have been yellow but I upped it for its simplicity and decency.

Weeput 小沛知音 This product puzzled me. Supposed to be for AV and Karaoke. It is too clumsy in size to be used on a desktop, and the screen is too small to be used on its own. Didn't really evaluate.

legendsound Pylon Falcon Lab legendsound is is the kind of company I detest. Its glossy booklet has "Canada" prominently featured, and it reprints many articles from Chinese press, of course all waxing lyrics. The inner page, like its website, is a joke in terms of English. You must read and you will laugh, Guaranteed! Just one example: "Fantasy CD drive plus DAC is a combination of a separate set." Now, that's jitter and oversampling in language, which I hope does not extend to its somewhat pricey digital products. Tell you what, these companies (registered or not in a western country) are almost certainly run by Chinese. That may not be a problem, but if you are proud of your products, why not show your face or name somewhere? One will not find any details on the owner, sales and designers of these companies. That said, sound with Polish Pylon loudspeakers (black) was not bad. I'd have loved to also hear the Japanese FalconLab (wood). No relationship to UK Falcon Acoustics. Small Italian Atomica bookshelves were also on silent display. So! Red for the cowards legendsound, and yellow for the innocent bystanders.

Ologe Unusual and small multi-national loudspeaker maker Ologe comes with flight case. Sound was pretty good. Equipment used was ad hoc: vintage TT, Lyngdorf, etc. And they were featuring Wonder Audio Labs phonoamp (not played), said to be designed by HK legend William Tam, but I'm sorry to say I don't know who he is! The sales was waxing lyrics, and so I asked him what this WT had designed before and he just could not answer me, but that maybe just his limitation. Maybe someone can educate me. I suddenly recall I have previously seen Ologe in HK shows on display. For the small size, a bonus upgrade from yellow.

Shanling Triangle Veteran Shanling still has a tube-buffered CDP, except it has gone from the first gen's WE2C51/396A/5670 to 12AX7. That brings back memories. I had one of those, and even after rolling in WE 2C51 I concluded that bypassing the tube buffer was the best sound! LOL! Sold it! Now, Shanling has branched into amps and other digi products. Sound with Triangle was not bad. Incidentally, Shanling had acquired French YBA long ago, and there's one on display, but it seems nothing much is happening on that front.