China 2006

"We only do final assembly," Zou said. "I can't afford a larger staff, given Shanghai salaries, so we purchase the component parts from all over—the resistors are European, the circuit boards are the best, and we buy chassis parts from David Zheng at EKTG."

Modules awaiting attachment to the chassis. "It looks like kits."

That concludes the audio portion of my tour. I'm packed, and after toodling around Shanghai a little, I peddle off to Beijing for some culture, and then home.

The inside view of a Dussun X-500 power conditioner.

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.

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