Category: Chi-Fi news

Chinese Hi-Fi Brands and products that we found of quality, and match western taste

Read This Before Shopping Chi-Fi (1)

Grant Fidelity receive emails frequently from people all over the world, asking us about Chi-Fi (Chinese HiFi), who is reliable vendor and which brand is better etc etc..Well, I cannot answer all those questions about ‘other vendors’ and ‘other brands’ that Grant Fidelity don’t deal with, but below is my 15+ years of hands-on experience buying and selling Chi-Fi. Please note: They are MY personal guidelines for shopping Chi-Fi, as if I were a western consumer who doesn’t read or understand Chinese, but is intrigued by the Chi-Fi pricing and features read on internet. Rule #1: Know what you are buying. When you buy a piece of high fidelity tube audio equipment, you are NOT just buying a sum of ‘transformers / capacitors / resistors /faceplates /chassis / vacuum tubes’. You are buying a sum of ‘Proprietary audio design + manufacturing by assembling transformers / capacitors / resistors / faceplates / chassis / vacuum tubes + Pre-sale consultation + After-sale warranty + Repair service after warranty + Future resale value’. Let’s go one by one so you understand why Chi-Fi is cheaper than western brands: Pricing components Western Brand Chi-Fi Proprietary audio design Yes. Copy other people’s design is against IP law in the western world! Not necessarily, except very few brands. Many Chi-Fi brands ‘learnt’ some design from OEM for western brands, then transplanting those design ideas to their own products. Some were implemented well, others terribly wrong as they didn’t fully understand why such design was done in the first place. Design is a wholesome art, not just putting pieces together. Labor: assembling parts to final products Expensive, if produced in western countries, for complying with western labor & environmental laws. Much cheaper. Labor was much cheaper before, but not as much now. Environmental laws are often circumvented […]

Who is [Analog Sound™] by Line Magnetic (Foshan)?

[This post has been updated as of Jan 4th, 2021 to reflect business changes] In short, [Analog Sound™] is a sub-brand designed by ‘Line Magnetic Western Electric Replica Design Studio in Foshan’, but not owned by Line Magnetic company. It is operated and retailed entirely independent from [Line Magnetic®] brand. [Line Magnetic®] is no longer an unknown Chinese Hi-Fi brand name – over the past years, it has gained serious reputation worldwide with its tube amps. However, many in the western world are confused about the company structure – because it always had two separate operations, run by each of the two founding Zheng brothers, always completely independently. One operates from Zhuhai, a city adjacent to Macao (known as the oriental Vegas with luxury casinos) – We refer this one as ‘Line Magnetic Zhuhai – the Modern’ (LMZH); the other from Foshan, a city next to Guangzhou – we refer this one as ‘Line Magnetic Foshan – the Vintage (LMFS)’. Line Magnetic Zhuhai (LMZH) is an incorporated company, used to be operated by the younger brother of the two founding brothers, focusing on production of “modern” tube amps and their product models named as ‘LM-XXX’. The initial team were from Cayin (another Chi-Fi brand that is still around today). These LM amps are the popular reviewed ‘Line Magnetic tube amps’ that we see & read often in western media, dealers showroom etc. One of them, LM-518IA (a 845 SET tube amp) made to the front page of Stereophile magazine a couple of years ago, confirming their excellent sound and quality. Line Magnetic Foshan (LMFS) – more specifically, ‘Line Magnetic Western Electric Replica Design Studio’, (was a sole proprietorship and still is today), used to be operated by the older brother of the two founders, initially only focusing on Western Electric […]

Are you intrigued by Chinese HiFi speakers?

We from time to time receive inquiries about Chinese HiFi speakers, including for some so-called ‘vintage replica’ speakers. Below is the typical information we provide to the inquirer – it might help you better prepared for buying large expensive speakers but only find it somewhat disappointing after the HUGE shipment is delivered: “When a Chinese branded speaker is listed with the brand’s overseas distributor, we don’t sell it by a parallel channel to undermine the brand’s own dealers. We only arrange ‘factory direct’ orders with brands who wish for direct sales to North America, without compromising their existing dealers. For buying Chinese speakers, a few things to keep in mind:  1) Cabinets could be subject to humidity damage. North American homes typically have much lower humidity especially in the colder climates. 2) Chinese speakers’ tuning are done by Chinese designers – they tend to overemphasize high frequency and deliver not enough bass to western listeners’ taste, and frequency balancing is not the same as by western designers. This is my personal impression – not sure a certain speaker is an exception. 3) Grant Fidelity had toured many many Chinese audio dealer stores and factories along with professional live event sound engineer, and high end audio designer. Honestly none of these western sound pros were overly impressed by Chinese speaker ‘tuning’. I personally think this is due to listening habits differences and music genre differences between cultures – a raving review of Chinese speakers by Chinese audiophiles is not of the same merit to a western listener. A western buyer should keep this in mind when shopping for Chinese speakers.” Hope this helps your ChiFi adventure. These are entirely personal impression and listening is a very subjective matter. Please read this with a grain of salt :） Rachel@ Grant Fidelity