Shop Floor
This is one of ETKG's shops. David Zhou has grown so large over the last 13 years that he has rented just about every available space in his area. Some garages have a single CNC station in them.
China 2006
Industrial Park
ETKG is located in what used to be a farming village near GuangZhou. Now it's considered to be in GuangZhou, although, as you can see, the streets retain their rural feel.
David Zheng
This is David Zheng of ETKG Co. Ltd. He manufactures the metal-work for most high-end Chinese brands, as well as many US, and European companies.
Some Things Are the Same All Over
We went to the "audio district" of GuangZhou—in China, all shops of similar character tend to group together, so the audio district is where all the hi-fi shops are. Actually, they're there twice: many store have display showrooms in the central mall and listening rooms ranked along a nearby alley.
Floobydust Is Also Universal
Down the street, we found a store running an active demo that had these strange devices flanking the loudspeakers. Seated on their own speaker stands, they had thin wires connecting on the positive inputs of both loudpseaker and super tweeter.
Sheng Ya Means Good Listening
Actually, I have no idea what Sheng Ya means, but at the Sheng Ya showroom, I felt right at home. There were audiophiles hanging out, listening, and, of course, yakking when we walked in. The sales guy was really into what he was doing and immediately began playing these interesting looking speakers made by Consonance.
The Used Audio Market
All the way across town from the audio market is the area where used equipment and parts are sold. Many small shops are specialists, such as this transformer kiosk. Not only can you buy thousands of transformers, but you can pick up plates and wire and roll your own.
Tubes Everywhere
Tube stores also predominate in the used audio market.
Wowsers
These were in my favorite store in the used audio market. One half of the floorspace was devoted to projectors, ranging from 8mm to big theatrical arc-lamp jobs; the other half to classic hi-fi, like this pair of RCA MI-12182As.
CT-1 AC Tester
Plug the CT-1 into an outlet and it will measure the THD+N noise carried on your line. You can plug headphones into the output to hear the noise pollution, or you can measure it with a test instrument. The CT-1 will also alert you to DC on your line.