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Listening Lab

Original's listening room is extraordinary. The reference system when I was there was Thiel CS 2.2s, a pair of Mark Levinson No. 29s, an XLH preamp, and an Original A9.2 CD player.

The soundfield was vast, with depth out the wazoo. I asked Du how much time he actually got to use the room, "Oh several hours a day. We use measurements, but the final proof is the sound."

Across the hall from the listening room was a test bench and construction station for those spur of the moment parts changes.

Original's Assembly Line

"Essentially, we build everything by hand. Some Chinese companies think almost think this approach is primitive, but it gives us a lot of quality control."

Burn-In Bench

Everything gets cooked before packing, as a final quality assurance measure.

When He Says "Hand-Made," He Means It

This is not the fastest way to heatshrink trannie leads, but this guy obviously takes his job seriously.

Naughty Fund

I spotted this box of money by the door. "What's that?" I asked, "The tea fund?"

"No," Linda Ling said. "It's the naughty fund. When someone breaks a rule like coming to work late, they have to pay in some small cash. When the box is full, we take everybody out for a celebration."

Mr. Hou

This is Hou Ying Zhong, of XLH.

His real job is creating theatrical and cinema sound systems, but high-end audio is his passion.

He's standing in front of his $50,000/pair AEF-1812 loudspeakers. That's "18," as in 18" woofer, and "12," as in "1+2=3, which is an auspicious number.

AEF-1812

Just the speaker.

XLH Factory Floor

Since high-end audio isn't how Mr. Hou makes his living, he has his real factory elsewhere in the building. This is just his audio playground.