Audiophile Malls Asia: Highsun/Haiyin Plaza - Guangzhou, China. (And some thoughts about China and the global order.)

Last time, we talked about Seoul's Yongsan ETLand, so moving along in my Asia trip, let's check out another audiophile mall, this time in Southern China, in the city of Guangzhou. I've been in this city before (as per 2016 post) but not at this exact location, the Highsun/Haiyin (name used interchangeably) Plaza.

It looks like in the last 10 years, this place has really become quite concentrated with many audiophile stores.

We have mainly 4 floors of hi-fi stuff here.

The highest end luxury brands are represented through the sprawling first floor where you'll find brands like Focal, Wilson, Burmester, Magico, B&W and mbl. Higher up we see more music stores along with other showrooms and dealers worth checking out - I'll focus on one a little later.

Like I mentioned last time, since I'm just a tourist here in Asia, the intent is to do some "window shopping" with common courtesy. Again, like in Korea, I found that the shopkeepers were friendly and open even though I obviously dressed the part in T-shirt, shorts, with a camera in hand, of a tourist from N. America visiting a city where it's already over 30°C on many days this time of the year.

So let's start with checking out some of the store fronts to see what they have:

Nagra stack, Audio Note stuff. ELAC Vela 2.0 speakers I believe.

I'm not familiar with the German Physiks brand. Very metal and very heavy looking. 😉

Avantgarde obviously.

I saw Wilson audio speakers at a few of the dealers. Still not sure I'm a fan of the Wilson esthetic.

[While away, I see the company recently unveiled the Autobiography speaker for around US$800k, strongly drawing on the name recognition with Daryl Wilson taking over the role of prime philosophical and artistic hype-man from his dad David Wilson. Looks like their usual multi-way design where they hype the "mechanical time alignment". These are not time and phase coherent designs plus the large size of their high-end models mean you better have adequate space in the sound room for driver integration at the listening position.]

Plenty of bookshelf speakers available to try out if you're a serious buyer.

I noticed quite a bit of name recognition of the Burmester brand among non-audiophiles, by those interested in luxury car audio.

Highest end Focal Grande Utopia EM Evo - 4-way, 584 lbs, ~US$300k/pair.
The 15" woofer is a massive field-coil (electromagnetic EM) design.

All over Asia including Korea and China, I see that there are many "Focal Powered By Naim" stores, this being one of them. Recently both Focal and Naim acquired by Barco.

Ahh yes, old names like Tannoy also quite well known in Asia with their traditional-looking furniture design.

mbl 101 E MkII listed as ¥799k or around US$117k. Imported foreign brands obviously are not expected to be inexpensive in China.

Magico S5 MkIII - ¥704k or about US$104k. Again, I think higher than the list price in the US which is around $85-92k depending on finish. As usual, I expect some negotiating on the price... Maybe a good deal on that whole Magico-D'Agostino package - easily over ¥1.5M.

More Burmester for your viewing pleasure - about ¥1.2M (~US$190k) on that BC150 speaker. List price in the US is $180k/pair.

That Playback Designs SPA-8 (¥680k, US$100k) stereo amplifier (1600Wpc into 4Ω) is quite the monster weighing in at around 300lbs, sitting between the Pass XS300 monoblocks!

As in Korea, where available, I'll have a seat and listen to a demo they have playing.

Let's talk about demo rooms. Overall there's quite a variation depending on the showroom where you can sit for a listen but I would say this place is much superior compared to the clutter in Seoul.

Clearly a space like this is still suboptimal. At least there's space between speakers and listening position for proper speaker driver integration and we have about 3' behind the sofa. The bare floor can certainly use a bit of carpeting.

The Focal guys did a good job with room treatments.

In some stores like the one above, you can enjoy some Chinese hospitality with music and tea available.

Beyond the open storefronts mostly on the main floor, there are also some surprises if you go upstairs and want a more thorough audition of products they carry. For example, on one of the higher floors (I think the 3rd floor), LACO HiFi which is the China Mainland distributor for ATC among other brands, has a great set-up not immediately obvious until you enter the place. They have 4 good-sized audio rooms.

Hi-Fi room 1:

Nice-sounding JBL Synthesis S4700 3-way with 20mm titanium tweeter, 45mm (1.75") midrange titanium compression driver, and 15" pure-pulp cone woofer. Chantal Chamberland's "Syrup and Honey" (from album Temptation) was playing at the time. Good vocal presence creating the illusion that she was singing in the room, just standing in front of the speaker plane.

Hi-Fi room 2:

This room could use some floor absorption. Nice seating arrangement, spacious with lots of potential here.

Pass Labs XA200.8 mono Class-A amps, Oracle CD2500 player. Playback Designs "Edelweiss" MPS-X digital front end on the right I believe.

Excellent sound stage as well on these ATC SCM150ASLT loudspeakers. Good bass weight. A Jacky Cheung and Anita Mui duet was playing; despite the pop production, treble was not overly accentuated or harsh.

Hi-Fi room 3 (arranged like a living room with fireplace and art):

Again, I think they could use a thick rug over the wood flooring. The little ATC SCM11 did a good job with a more "audiophile" Chinese vocal track showing off the vocal signature and accompanied instruments (Zhao Peng's "Camellia" - 赵鹏 "山茶花"). Could be a good little speaker to pair with some subs to appreciate the lowest octave.

Room 4 - a multichannel room with Atmos height channels and quite a number of speakers in the wall - for example you can see the surround speaker behind the thin screen on the right:

I regret that I didn't spend more time in this room other than just a quick peek! I think they had a JVC projection system in here for movies. There's both a Starke Sound A7 (7-channel amp 480Wpc into 4Ω) as well as the A8 (8-channel amp, 320W into 4Ω) in the picture. I spotted some Storm Audio processors as well which I know the company carries.

Yes, I did hear one of the rooms playing Diana Krall (one of the live tracks off The Girl In The Other Room) while I was about to leave, thanking the young man who brought me around to show off their goods. 😉

What I saw here at Highsun/Haiyin Plaza was pretty much on par with Singapore's The Adelphi which I did not get a chance to visit this time due to other commitments while in the city (plus unfortunately my daughter got sick on the day I was hoping to take a short trip over). There's certainly enough here to enjoy a mini-audio show in an afternoon of wandering around the stores, sitting to have a listen, and chatting with the store people.

Like in Seoul, their English is very limited as I'm sure the vast majority of the sales would be to local audiophiles (many I'm sure with very deep pockets). 

Regarding music stores, here are a few I saw:

KEF Blade speakers, Jay's Audio CD transport, Naim streamer, Audionet Preamp, Chord SPM-5000 power amp.

Have you ever seen a music store use KEF Blade loudspeakers to demo music like the one above?! 😊

Among Chinese audiophiles, there are many audiophile-quality local vocalists, Western classical musicians, along with recordings of ethnic instruments (pipa, erhu, guzheng, ruan...) plus audiophile releases of local pop artists and bands. CDs, vinyl, SACDs of your choice. Lots for local audiophiles to draw from beyond Western music.

While there are all these cool equipment and music stores, it's not unusual to see expensive "snake-oilish" stuff represented in the audiophile market as well. Lots of expensive cable, connectors, stuff like that - all part of the audiophile hobby "culture" I suppose for many decades now.

Great margins to be made on this kind of stuff. I understand, it's difficult for companies and salespeople not to ignore the potential profits.

[Of course snake oil sales guys like this want us all to "ignore it". Yes, I understand that luxury products are not for everyone, but there is a moral stance to take against bullsh*t and bullsh*tters like him. Glad to see that he agrees price and performance often do not correlate at least.

IMO, the audiophile hobby should be clearly about high-fidelity, and telling lies based on fantasy isn't a great long-term winning strategy for any pursuit. He's just out to make his bucks as with all the others. While he has a right to fight for his beliefs, others have the right to call out the BS as well. It's necessary to keep guys like this angry 🤣 because they cannot tolerate truth that they perceive as eating into their profits. 

I also find it fascinating how he has issues with audiophile forums. I assume he must have been blacklisted over the years or something like that. The forums are the freest places to express one's views about audio. I've generally found audiophiles to be quite reasonable and knowledgeable when given the opportunity to have open and honest discussions. And if one is able to be reasonable in return, provide knowledge and have an altruistic spirit of sharing regardless of brand or price biases, there should be no problem. Guys who run into all kinds of troubles in the online forums I suspect usually are simply "problematic" individuals.

One more thing I noticed on OCD Hi-Fi Guy's YouTube channel where he measured a magnetic field and showed that it was affected by crystals (like quartz). Yup, some crystals are diamagnetic and other substances are paramagnetic (like Al, Mg, Li, FeO, etc.). So what? Pure copper is diamagnetic also; go use a sheet of copper instead of quartz for shielding. What's so "quantum" about this? 🤔]

Ohhh, look, Audio Reference Technology speaker cables for a mere ¥96k (US$14k).

All kinds of fancy brands. Ohhh... Swiss-made Goldmund accessories.

Luxury connectors from WBT; not exactly "snake oil" since I'm sure they work well (Class C product). Notice the certification as there are quite a few knock-offs out there.

Shakti "electromagnetic stabilizer" on top of a CD player already with metal chassis for shielding! More than likely Class A snake oil unless proven otherwise. 🤣

For the world-traveling audiophile who happens to be in Guangzhou, The Highsun/Haiyin Plaza is worth a visit as a "cultural" experience in some ways to see the toys and music that our fellow audiophiles in China have access to!

--------------------

As I put the finishing touches on this post, I'm finishing off my visit in Shanghai.

The futuristic skyline of Pudong, Shanghai. Even in 2013, this was the near-future skyline used in the AI-themed movie Her.

Indeed, things have changed since the last time I was here in China a decade ago. While there are serious systemic issues in this society when it comes to demographic trends (fertility rate 1.0/woman, better than Korea at 0.8!), young adult unemployment (16% 16-24 y.o. excluding students April 2026), and they're well into their housing depreciation phase with large amounts of tied up assets, this is still a society with excellent savings rate and strong traditional values that will help buffer against difficulties, plus enviable work ethic.

The rise of the Upper and Middle Classes has been remarkable and as much as some in the West complain or blame China for "ripping us off", this system is working for many in the country, lifting quality of life very substantially and very visibly. I'm not sure if in a world of cut-throat capitalist competition, one can call foul on "pragmatic realism" as practiced by all nations as they aim for prosperity. Safety has also improved very substantially in the last few decades within the country and young families I spoke to have been pleased by this. Personally, I've felt safer in these Chinese megacities wandering the streets even later at night than visits to NYC or San Francisco - while we will see poverty in large cities, the psychotic mentally ill, drug addicts shooting up in corners were nowhere to be seen.

National Centre for Performing Arts, Beijing.

Yes, there is strong propaganda in China. I went to watch a show at Beijing's National Centre for Performing Arts - The Eternal Wave - about a well-known Chinese "martyr" (Li Bai) for the Communist Party in Shanghai back in the 1940's. Phenomenal fusion performance employing a combination of modern dance, ballet, and martial arts moves as enjoyable as anything I've seen. As you can imagine, for this kind of story, nationalistic themes were everywhere. However, is this any different from the usual tools used for development of national identity and the consolidation of power around it? As a Canadian, I see no difference between this and American nationalism incorporating Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, or kids pledging allegiance to The Flag.

I won't speculate about which country is better or worse since there are always winners and losers when it comes to obtaining privilege as an "in-group" member vs. the marginalized in society. Many of the underprivileged in Western nations face indignity in the name of "freedom" which are as unjust as the issues against minority groups in China.

[Speaking of freedom, the "Great Firewall of China" has become stronger over the last decade. Thankfully, as a foreigner with an eSIM, I can access Google and edit my blog without issue, otherwise a VPN capable of eluding the China firewall is needed. Make sure to get your international eSIM or VPN installed before entering the country. Although prohibited, many in China do use a VPN so they know what's happening in the world.]

Parc Central mall, Guangzhou. Combined with the adjacent Grandview Mall, this shopping complex dwarfs almost anything I've seen in North America. Definitely a lot of domestic consumption for all kinds of goods from basic to luxury as you can imagine - including all those products at the audiophile mall!

Obvious changes since the 2020 pandemic for travelers include the ongoing transition into a cashless society. While you can still use paper money, most stores, especially the smaller establishments prefer the use of systems like AliPay or scan with "super apps" like WeChat. It could be a hassle to get around if you don't have these apps installed and linked to your payment system like Visa; use of foreign credit cards have been an issue in China for ages unless you go through systems like these.

Since Google's apps don't work in China (unless you have VPN, even then features like bus/subway schedules unavailable in Maps), be ready to download some of the local apps on your smartphone like AMap to get around. Their ride-hailing app DiDi also works very well and similar to Uber. Like in Korea, despite all the Iran war, Strait of Hormuz issues currently, the cost of transportation is easily still less than 25% of what I see in Canada by ride hailing and literally peanuts for the subway.

Huawei develops the OS in many of the EVs in China. Picture on the right is the interior of the Luxeed V9 (dark vehicle in left image).

Speaking of transportation, the EV car options are phenomenal in China. The styling and build on some of these models from BYD, Zeekr (Geely), NIO, XPeng, Chery, Xiaomi, Aito, etc. represent some very powerful integration of high tech computing, battery technology (NIO Power Swap stations are a great idea) with modern automotive engineering. No wonder European and American car manufacturers are scared and using tariffs to fend off this kind of competition (not good from a consumer perspective). Nobody can truly mass-manufacture products like this near the cost and quality of China. Companies like Tesla have half their worldwide vehicle production done in China. Even if not assembled there, significant number of parts are inevitably sourced from there.

A very cool vehicle I saw was the Li Auto MEGA minivan. I would have loved to have one of these when my kids were younger and we needed a larger ride for the family!

Speaking of Tesla, here's a mock-up of their
Optimus robot spotted in Guangzhou.

The future will be interesting. China, Korea, Japan and much of the other developed Asian countries are already in the process of rapid population declines. By 2060, China's population is projected to be about 15% less than today. By 2050-2060, even India likely will be in a state of population decline. Technologies like robotics necessarily will be needed for future manufacturing expansion and services, China knows this as they push for high-tech progress including AI, robotics, and energy diversification. Of course we in the West see this as competition, but much of this is also driven by forward-looking domestic necessities. While there are big risks, there is also power and wisdom when it comes to a government that provide a "steady hand" and continuity of vision (China's currently in their 15th Five Year Plan from 2026-2030). This is in stark contrast to the back-and-forth extremes between the Democratic and Republican administrations every 4 years with turmoil around the national budget, shutdowns, and the debt limit we have recently seen!

While so much has been developed, the "Old World" charms of China
still persist in the city centers (picture from Guangzhou, Yongqing Fang District).

With politics and world events as they are currently, the Chinese citizens I spoke to are almost all in agreement with the old saying from Napoleon: "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." - quote often misattributed to Sun Tzu. Which is what they're seeing with American politics today causing disarray among traditional Western allies. They seem pretty happy to play along (probably just like Xi here playing Trump's ego), entertained by the egomaniacal Dunning-Krugeresque stupidity of MAGA and Trump. This disarray is actually making China and many other nations (not currently at war or in the crosshairs of Washington, DC) "greater", at the expense of America's progressive identity and standing on the world stage.

For us Canadians, those Chinese EV's are starting to trickle in (only 6.1% tariffs on 49,000 vehicles this year), the increased oil prices have boosted our energy producers, tension with America has the potential for us to strengthen ties with Europe, and for the first time in my life, I've been able to visit China without a visa as a Canadian just as easily as going to USA or Americans visiting Canada. Never thought I'd ever see this! Warren Buffet has been quoted as saying "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it." I pondered about this while traveling through China and how this is relevant not just as individuals, but also how the "game" is played among nations.

Let's end with one of my favorite classical pieces - imbued with a little jazz and blues courtesy of George Gershwin; his Piano Concerto in F major. Here it is with Yuja Wang on piano and Michael Tilson Thomas conducting:

With that, I wish you all happy listening, audiophiles!