Some Chinese brands are well known to U.S. audiophiles for their entry-level, high-value products. But the companies making these budget components also produce a much larger range of products for their domestic market.

Many of these items are quite ambitious and esoteric, and sold under a different name. For example, the company that builds the excellent Cayin products distributed in the U.S. by Acoustic Sounds is called Spark in China. You wouldn’t know it from the entry-level Cayin gear, but Spark makes a panoply of elaborate preamps, monoblock power amplifiers, and CD players.  

Similarly, the brand called Vincent in the U.S. (winner of our 2007 Power Amplifier of the Year Award, available through Audio Advisor) is made by a company called Sheng Ya. In its exhibit, Sheng Ya showed some stunning-looking monoblocks that produced a wonderful sound driving B&W 800D loudspeakers. 

Another example is Shanling, whose budget and mid-priced CD players are imported by Music Hall. Shanling makes a staggering number of models of CD players (in particular), preamps, power amplifiers, and integrated amps. Apparently, the importers believe that the U.S. market wants only budget Chinese-made gear.

Going around the show, talking with manufacturers (through the capable interpretation of my guide, Ping Gong of U.S. distributor aaa-audio), and hearing the sounds produced, it was apparent that the Chinese manufacturers are divided into two groups.

The first, which is by far the larger, is composed of electronics manufacturers who build hi-fi gear because there’s a market for it. The second group is made up of musically sensitive listeners who tweak their designs until they are happy with the sound.

It’s easy to tell the two groups apart by when walking into an exhibit room. The audiophile-oriented companies know how to set up a system and put on a compelling demo—and the others don’t. Consequently, the range of sound quality, from poor to great, is exceptionally wide at this show.

Next: High-Quality for Bottom Dollar

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