China 2006

K. E. Lee's $8000/pair Calix Academy Jr. Phoenix loudspeakers are far smaller than the Phoenix">http://stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/861/">Phoenix Grand Signatures Paul Bolin reviewed, but tiny they ain't. Still, they looked a lot more manageable than those behemoths, which I helped JA wrestle into their shipping crates.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Wes will begin filing his reports soon.