[gundam91]

I wrote a preliminary review of it a few weeks ago here. It's a pretty good headphone amp. It sells for somewhere around US$700 in US and US$300 in China. I got a friend of mine in Shanghai to purchase one for me. The site pointed out by Kenny12 has it cheaper, but my friend got it through an authorized dealer so it could be factory refitted to operate in 120v.

Opera Audio

They had the same website in Chinese, but I have not been able to open it for the past few days. You can find contacts in Beijing, and dealers all over China through their website. There's also a review on Positive Feedback. (Check out their product review links)

 

[ampgalore]

Who's been back to Shanghai lately? What is the audiophile crowd there like? Last time I was there was in 2000, DVDs were just starting to catch up. SACDs were nowhere to be seen, music VCDs were still reigning supreme (lord knows why, the sound quality were just atrocious).

So anyone care to fill in the gap?

 

[niubi]

haven't been to shanghai, but i recently spent a month in kunming and beijing. dvds have definitely far surpassed vcds by now in the marketplace. you can find just about anything you can imagine. i didn't buy many dvds actually, i am saving that for the future. i did buy a box set of pier paolo pasolini films. i mostly bought chinese rock cds (50+). didn't explore audiophile type places, except the audiophile cd shop i know in kunming which has been around for quite a long time. they also sell some gear.

i would like to organize a meet in china - once i move there and get settled. i am thinking maybe during spring festival if that is convenient (i figure a lot of people will want to take a vacation at that time and a meet might be appealing if its in a nice place like kunming).

 

[Wilson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by niubi i would like to organize a meet in china - once i move there and get settled. i am thinking maybe during spring festival if that is convenient (i figure a lot of people will want to take a vacation at that time and a meet might be appealing if its in a nice place like kunming).

It is an interesting suggestion to organize a meet in Kunming, but maybe difficult to get people to travel there for the headphone meet as the travel itself is so hectic during that time of the year. Travel in China is very hectic and crowded.

I have been travelling on business/work trips to Beijing, Shanghai, and ShenZhen. Interesting to see that more and more young people are wearing headphones on the streets, but not as often as in Seoul or Tokyo. Just last week I took a long(!) stroll from Tsinghua University to TianAnMan square in Beijing, and I am amazed how much Beijing has changed from 10 years ago.


Cheers,
W

 

[Wilson]

Talking about China and music and listening, you may want to check out the Song ZuYing's Sydney Concert on DVD. I got that last Christmas in Shanghai, and have played it often, I have even extracted the soundtracks from the DVD and resampled the 48KHz audio to 44.1KHz so that I could make a CD out of it. That was some spectacular performance and quite a satisfactory recording.


Enjoy,
W

 

[neueziel]

I was in Beijing this pass summer and I honestly enjoyed it. I however did not have any portables, or a good set of cans =(. Thankfully however I was able to use my friend's Muvo2 which he bought in Japan right before he went to China. Unfortunately I was using a cheap pair of sony headphones. So at that point I decided to go look for cans and boy did it take a while. I went to places like ZhongGuanCun, and JiShuiTan. The first place had some Sennheiser 4xx and maybe 5xx series. Prices wern't that great, HD497's were like 70 USD. So I left there and went to JiShuiTan where my friend told me he found some E888 for like 40 USD. There I picked up some Sennheiser MX500's since I didn't want to fork over 40 USD. There are lots of places in JiShuiTan that sell headphones (new and used), and portables. But ya Beijing is great, I've been seeing a lot of people w/MP3 players. As for you Wilson how did you walk from Tsinghua to TianAnMen, how many hours did that take lol?

 

[niubi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wilson Just last week I took a long(!) stroll from Tsinghua University to TianAnMan square in Beijing, and I am amazed how much Beijing has changed from 10 years ago.

indeed. for me - i was seeing the change after 7 years. i remember taking a long walk such as you described the day and night of the HK handover on 1997.7.7. this time (august) when i was in beijing after these seven years, i took the subway to wudaokou! can you imagine that. then when i got off, i didn't know where the hell i was.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wilson It is an interesting suggestion to organize a meet in Kunming, but maybe difficult to get people to travel there for the headphone meet as the travel itself is so hectic during that time of the year. Travel in China is very hectic and crowded.

that's true, not to mention that travel maybe more expensive at the time because of the holiday. i had a hell of a time getting back to beijing from kunming in 1997 after my chunjie vacation. deng xiaoping had died, so in addition to everyone heading back to beijing for school or work, people were going to beijing because of deng.

 

[Wilson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by neueziel But ya Beijing is great, I've been seeing a lot of people w/MP3 players. As for you Wilson how did you walk from Tsinghua to TianAnMen, how many hours did that take lol?

Neueziel, I took off after 10am and kept walking and walking, sometimes stopped to look at things a little. It was after 4pm when I was there, not too bad, and you can easily do it in this season. The most difficult (and dangerous!) thing was crossing the streets. Long walks like that gets me a feel for the city. Lots have changed, just about everything has changed.

Cheers,
W

 

[phantomore]

I am from South Korea, but live in shanghai! Awesome here!

 

[fritobugger]

Doesn't seem to be much interest in the Shanghai area.  PM me if there is any interest in a meet in Shanghai.

 

[LazerBear]

Resurrecting a very old thread.. did anything change in the last year or are there still basically 0 head-fiers in Shanghai? I'm here semi-permanently.