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How Can You Know Beautiful?

Kelli shared with me an interesting article from yesterday's New York Times. It's called "String Theory: New Approaches to Instrument Design." The article lets us know that there are a bunch of scientists and instrument makers out there trying to uncover the mysteries of acoustics. They're going absolutely bananas — tapping on wood, messing around with f-holes, playing with graphite... Some of these guys seem to think that the magic of violin making came to an end with Stradivari because of our reluctance to embrace new technologies and experiment with new materials.

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Road Song

Somehow the gods of travel, who usually enjoy watching me suffer, had one of their rare bouts of whimsey and decided to ruin future journeys by upgrading me to first class.

As in waiting in the President's Suite,with free copies of The Economist and a tawny port. As in fully reclinable seats bigger than my comfy chair at home. Hard not to love it—and I love those cloth napkins with the button hole in them.

My iPod's charge lasted the whole flight (yay G5!) and my seat-mate was charming, although the seats were so big, we had to shout a bit to conversate.

So the 16…

The Pearl River

The view outside my window. "What river is that?" I asked Ping Gong.

"The Pearl River."

"Like on the audiophile classic, The Pearl River Concerto?"

The stuff only record collectors know.

Ping Gong

This is Ping Gong, one of my hosts and my fellow traveler. At breakfast this morning, he explained to me how he became an audiophile. "It was the Cultural Revolution," he said. "We weren't allowed to study, so we played music and talked. I had a big Russian turntable—mono! And one speaker, of course.

"When things loosened up in the '70s, I got a mid-fi Japanese hi-fi, but it was stereo! And I began to build stuff to listen to."

Yup—not studying and listening to records, sounds like how I got into hi-fi. Except for that whole repressive government closing down the schools…

Just Your Everyday Daoist Christmas Display

China really likes Christmas. It makes for some odd bedfellows.

I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore

GuangZhou Hi-Fi 2006 was opened by the mayor of GuangZhou and other dignitaries, and included a pulchritudinous ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Matthew Zhou really knows how to throw a show.

Booth Babeage

This one's for Stephen Mejias. GuangZhou Hi-Fi 2006 is seriously into booth babes. I could almost do a series on that subject alone. You may talk among yourselves.

And what did I tell you about Christmas?

Big Mac

McIntosh was showing a "true 1080p high-def" projector. I said, "I didn't see this at CEDIA."

"That's because we're debuting it and then they'll show it at CES in January," Winky Tse explained.

The MDLP-1 will cost about $30,000 (USD), $10,000 extra for that optical anamorphic lens from ISCO.

I didn't rate a private showing, so I'll be back for the 2pm demo.

Some Stats

Over 10,000 products; seven floors of audio; "every manufacturer who matters from the US, Canada, Europe, China, Korea, Japan, and Kowloon;" and more than 30,000 people over four days.

Kowloon? I've got to find that one.

History Lesson

Antony Yim, marketing & product manager for B&W Group Asia Limited, used the 40th anniversary of B&W to give a history lesson that includes classic B&W products and a memorial wall.