2024 Shanghai AV Show

Letter from Shenzhen (24-6): 2024 Shanghai AV Show

This Weekend is the Shanghai AV Show. There may be more than one audio shows in Shanghai but this one is pretty big and it looks like all major players are there. This report is by the Weixin Site 视听至前线. Declaration: all pics from them (click to enlarge). Those with WX can watch it on their Cellphones. Those without can peruse the links below:

Part I, Part II

It hardly matters if you don't know Chinese. The pictures speak for themselves, and you may find things to linger on. For me, it's just like a somewhat bigger Shenzhen Show. American readers will find many brands they don't know about. Enjoy.

I'd love to have this "desktop" Mini Maggies and Audio Hungary Tube Amp

Looks like a Klipsch Forte IV, but some kind of special edition?

HAVE Shenzhen Audio Show DYLPaudio 老彭 Stirling LS3/6

Click pics to enlarge. 

Letter from Shenzhen (23-11): HAVE 2023 Audio Show

So much has actually happened in 2023 that my mind got kinda jumbled up! Think about this: at the beginning of the year, China/SZ dropped Coronavirus Testing and began to "lie flat", then we had all the Chinese Audio Shows open up (I attended the SZ and GZ), then I spent the entire summer in the UK and US. It's a paradox that, at my age, the more happens, the less time flies.

And so when I received news on Wechat about a SZ Audio Show, I mistakenly thought it was the same one I attended a while ago. Has it been a year? Last one was organized by SIAV and I enjoyed it greatly. No info on the SIAV site. I felt strange, but I went nonetheless, on its first day, Friday, and I was stunned by the lack of attendance. I soon found out it was a different organizer. This one is named Shenzhen International High-End Audio Visual Expo (HAVE). Apparently, its 5th.

It seems HAVE emphatically got beat by the SIAV Show, which took place in late February, and on which I reported. This show was attended by only a handful of exhibitors who had appeared then, and occupied only 1 hotel floor and a few large rooms. There were NOT many interesting discoveries. See the list to the left.

So this report is a mostly a NON-report. I shall skip more detailed descriptions of exhibitors that had appeared in SIAV earlier this year and refer you to my earlier SIAV report. For even more info, you may want to consult my Guangzhou Show Report  (Tag: Show report - Guangzhou 2023)

Among the SIAV attendees that showed up were the great 薄小强, the excellent BT Showfeel, the reliable Tecsun, LALS, Mymei etc. If interested, please refer to my previous reports. Some others are in the pics below, not necessarily by merit.

But, as in real life, sometimes in Slim Pickings there emerge some "Finds". Life rewards the studious, at least I hope so! 

The most surprising is 东莞市黑胶音响技术有限公司 DYLPAUDIO TECHNICS CO.,LTD. Please peruse the website. This company does a huge amount of production and apparently is a BIG OEM manufacturer. MM cartridge that looks luxurious can be had for 10 bucks and ultra high end MCs for a couple of thousands maybe. Many of the cartridges displayed are eerily familiar looking. Some look like Audio Technica and some Ortofon 2M. The boss Mr Peng, 老彭, is a well-known figure, and someone has told me about him previously! I talked to him briefly and he was a nice guy! Apparently, many overseas people rely on him! This is a BIG find. If I can, I shall try to visit him! According to them, they don't attend shows often, so I count myself lucky.

My other surprise came from the Amp maker GoalBon 高班 room. The sound was decent, but I was struck by how nice the LS3/5As looked and sounded. It turned out they were the real UK Stirling, not Chinese replica. The EL34 amp was not cheap at >20K RMB, named LS35 and said to be designed to drive the LS35a, and unusually has an 11 ohm output. That was not what intrigued me. They had a pair of Stirling LS3/6 there! The SZ company is reachable by subway, so you can be sure I shall in due time pay them a visit to listen to the LS3/6!  

Different, but...

More from DYLPaudio. Cartridges from $10!

Stirling LS3/5A and LS3/6!

Unusual bass driver (also below), but I heard distortion

Mullard is now a speaker brand?

Large room, said French loudspeakers and unknown electronics said to be from HK.

Not shown an FU50 amp said to deliver 13 watts. I said to the guy, NO FXXKing way!

Of the HK dealers, only Roksan showed up. No one there.

Big Room with Chinese Mega loudspeakers and electronics. Sound OK.

Hong Kong High End Audio visual Show 2015 Part II

Hong Kong High End Audio visual Show 2015 Part II

Part I here.

Although it is a reflection of my own station in life, my continuing declining interest in audio shows is a sad commentary on state of the industry.

When things are priced so unrealistically, they invite ridicule when they perform less than satisfactorily, which is more often than not. Below are some general thoughts.

Worst Sound of Show
This dubious honor goes to Luxman electronics driving YG loudspeaker. For years on end, Luxman has been lousy, driving whatever loudspeakers, so I'll acquit YG here. Shocking to me was the completely unrecognizable voice of the Cantonese opera singer 任劍煇.

Trends

• "Lifestyle" products, which include earphones and headphone amps, continue to proliferate. I don't investigate these, as they are not my preferred lifestyle.

• LP is king. No true hi-end showing will do without a turntable, even as display. In the 80's people said LP is dead, but many things have come and go and the LP is still around. Even old LPs in lousy condition, especially worthless later "mono" LPs, fetch good prices at the show.

• CD is not dead (and I don't think it ever will be), but the same catalogue is being milked again and again and new gimmicks are everywhere. After K2, XR etc, there have been various "_Q" CD's. I believe the terrible CD played at Luxman was an "Ultimate" HQ CD sampler. Priced at over HKD200 (more overseas), it is a farce. Avoid it like the plague.

• CAS/Hi-Res is not doing as well as you think. Although ubiquitous, it is no longer fresh and I fail to see emphasis in this area. Also see below.

What I missed

• Meridian MQA If it is what it is said to be, I believe all other audio file formats and hardware shall perish. I'll love to see it succeed and all the CAS idiots do their CAS all over again!

• Analog Tape  This niche market is not covered. 

Basically, there is nothing much to write about.

Hong Kong High End Audio visual Show 2015 Part I

Top pic: Best of Show.
Hong Kong High End Audio visual Show 2015 Part I

Part II here.

This year my reporting shall maintain the form adopted last year. In Part I, I am posting the pics and brief comments.

Click pics to enlarge. In order, comments above the pics. To save your time, they are color-coded for sonic merit (Above Average (keep in mind I'm being VERY lenient), good to ok, bad to dreadful):

1. Devialet finally gets good sound from the mighty B&W Nautilus, no doubt SAM'ed. Even their lower end Phantom (with speakers) performed admirably in the vast free space outside the doll's house.

2. French and Swiss don't mix. Focal did not jell with Goldmund. The background lousy pic shows perfectly how the Focal felt, drooping and collapsing
 

3. Candidate for ugliest room of the show. Sound lackluster too. I was neither impressed by MSB nor Rosso Fiorentino. The TT is hideous looking too.

4. What do you expect from these people? But this year's Harbeth 40.1 and Sugden was a trifle better. Still...

5. Finally, reasonable sound from the revamped Audio Alchemy electronics driving PMC Twenty.26.

6. Lackluster showing from Karan electronics. I didn't even want to find out whether they were  driving ASI or the vintage AR's.

7. Kharma never did well at the show, not by YS Sound.

8. Vienna Acoustics was not well served by EMM Labs and Meitner.

9. Lumin could do better, but the B&W and Trigon did not jell.

10. Tidal was anything but in impression.

11. Zu sounds like Zu, not my favorite, but passable with Line Magnetic, which work better with others.

12. Silent display of Audio Valve, but my interest was on the new EAR products.

13. Surprisingly respectable showing from Taiwanese Lawrence loudspeakers driven by German AVM.

14. Silent display of small Swiss Boenicke; small but intricately horn loaded!

15. Vivid is always good, here partnered with Mark Levinson.

16. Better than last year's bigger sibling, but JBL still fails to show off its K2S9900. Again, no decent electronics.

17. Reasonable showing from Electrocompaniet's full system.

18. Hegel fails with Legacy.

19. Full set of Audio Note did not appeal.

20. This has always been one of the better sounding rooms (it is rectangular), and this year is no exception. Elac + Accustic Arts, neither my favorite, but...

21. Terrible looking Acoustic Signature TT. Peak Consult was lackluster with Burmester (what do you expect?)

22. Not as good as last year, but passable Dynaudio driven by Musical Fidelity.

23. Horrid sound from Luxman, as ALWAYS. From the YG, 任劍煇 was UNRECOGNIZABLE.

24. CH electronics barely managed passable result with Ocean Way loudspeakers.

25. Zellaton should sound better than driven by Convergent.

26. Crystal Cable/Siltech must be big money makers to continue to occupy a large room. Only passable performance.

27. With D'Agostino, it is the same, only passable.

28. MBL returns to form this year. Best sound of show.

29. Raidho finally sounds reasonable with Linn.

30. Rockport always managed a good showing.