Hifi scene in Hong Kong

I was reading through the few threads in Review 33 and I can't help but realise that there are many small little groups existing in the forum. Some of the group exert more peer pressures then others, while some are more informative and liberal then others.

There are also audiophiles with motives of promoting certain amplifiers and tubes. There are instances also when quarrel and disgreement occurred thereby affecting the mood of the forum.

In the past, I have been very active in the forum. However, recently, I have been more "selective" in choosing the threads to participate to avoid stepping into the foot of certain members with "vested interest".

In term of the vintage hifi shopes, competition from ebay has made it very tough for business as well. Having travelled to the Greater China region ( Taiwan, China, Hong Kong) and South East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Brunei, Indonesia and Cambodia), Hong Kong has one of the largest collection and availability of vintage amplifiers. Even then, many shop keepers have feedback that buisness is only 30-40% compared to 5 years ago. Now, most of the attention is on the China market as the mainland Chinese ( the high income group) has most of the disposables income on vintage hifi. Moreover, with the MP3 and the mobile phone with MP3 function and many computer related internet based activities and multi media, the traditional "hifi" hobby is walking towards the sunset industry...unless the whole industry could attract teh attention of adult under 30 years of age into the hobby. Looking at the last Hifi show, nearly 80% of the peolple are age 35 years and above and the trend seems unlikely..

To make matter most, many of the shop keepers are not customer oriented and with a certain " attitude"! It is also real difficult to find a real Sifu for Hifi repair in HKG. Thus, my approach is to find full time Sifu who charges according to the level of work rather then depending on those who need you to beg or please in order to help.

Hifi as a hobby should be simple: enjoyment of music and fellow audiophiles should be friendly as a result of sharing of common hobby. However, the reality are far from that. Competition and hidden agenda seems to be quite rampant though.

Perhaps, one should just turn on the hifi and let music take away the stress and worry of the day. I have been listening to my WE 755a these few nights and I must agree that it is not the best speakers in the world as it lacks high and base musics. However, when coming to the mid and vocal part of the music, it is the Champion!

When I take a glance at all my CDs, almost 80% consist of vocal musics while the remaining 15% on light instruments and 5% on Orchestra music. Given such a ratio, I believe I have made the right decision to buy the Western Electric 755a. In addition to the vocal, the violin reproducton is so real that it makes 755a such a lovely pair of speakers to own..