The loss of Chinese Hi-Fi industry

GrantFidelity

Active Member
Today is the opening of our forum but it is also a very shocking day for me, as someone who is closely connected to the Chinese Hi-Fi industry through distribution for a few top Chinese brands which are known to North American as well.

Jungson Audio:

When a contact of mine in the USA asked me about rumor of Jungson Audio being bought out by other parties, I picked up the phone to chat with my contacts at Jungson to find out the truth. The news I got was devastating and shocking - although Jungson Audio has been business as usual for the past few months and even with me contacting them on daily basis, I didn't even notice any changes. However, today I has just been told that one of the founders of Jungson Audio, Mr. Huang Shuxiang, passed away 3 months ago in a highway car accident. He is not even 50 years old yet and full of ambition and talents.

On one of his business trip, Mr. Huang's vehicle was stopping for emergency repairs along the side of the highway but was struck by a coming truck, then his car hit himself while he was standing beside the vehicle waiting for help. Although signs had been put over 200 ft behind his vehicle, the truck still struck into his car and took his life. His long time business partner was driving up to pick him up when he phoned for help and they saw him and his vehicle on the highway. But while the helping party turned around on the highway to pick him up from the emergency stop, in less than 2 minutes his life has been taken by the coming truck. What a tragedy and loss. Life is fragile beyond my words can express.

Jungson Audio has been the most prestige Hi-Fi manufacturer in China since 1990s. Mr. Huang and his business partner started the company from nothing to today's the world's very few companies which produce full line of audio products from the wall out. I met Mr. Huang in last December and he and his business partner were so excited about their new premises and bringing the brand to North America with us. In 3 months, he has left all these behind and gone to heaven . What a loss! For those who don't know much about Jungson, here is a picture of their legendary metered line of amplifiers:

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Here is our dinner picture with Jungson's owners last December. The gentleman on the right is Mr. Huang. His employees said he never took a Saturday and Sunday off in the past few years, always work around the business and provide vision to the company. He started as a professor at a college teaching electronics engineering and then started Jungson with his business partner (then was his student) together in 1993.

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A true loss to Jungson Audio and even the entire Chinese audio industry, as no one has come even close to his vision, ambition and dedication to the love of audio. He was such a humble man, even his net worth could be millions, he dress and spoke like a nice next door neighbour guy.

TJ Full Music

Same day I phoned TJ Full Music to re-order my TJ 12AX7 tubes which were sold out during our July 4th sales event. I was expecting the cheerful voice of Mr. Liu Qiang, the Sales Manager and the son of the 76 years of old owner of TJ, to chat with me with his unique Beijinger's accent. I spent over 12 years in Beijing so the accent sound very heart-warming to me since I have been in Canada for 8 years. Shockingly, I was told by the 76-year-old father, founder of TJ Full Music, that Mr. Liu Qiang has passed away a month ago due to heart attack. His is just in his early 40s and left behind a young son under 10 years old and his wife. This is the 2nd shock I had in about less than a hour since I knew of Jungson's loss of its founder.

TJ Full Music, together with Shuguang, are China's two hi-fi vacuum tube manufacturers today. The company was set up by Mr. Liu (senior) 10 years ago through buying out Beijing Tube Factory's equipment and hire back many old technicians to rebuilt the equipment and has developed the well known Full Music mesh plate 300B tubes. Mr. Liu (senior) told me that although he is in his late 70s, he will continue to build TJ Full Music and finish his son's ambition and wishes. TJ Full Music has just expanded into its second facility last year and will bring out new 6SN7 and 6SL7 tubes this year.

I still remember Mr. Liu Qiang's laughter with us while I visited TJ Full Music. He is such a humorous and happy guy and his laughter will affect everyone around him and bring smiles to everyone's face. He will be truly missed by many people in the industry and by me, although I only met him once last December.

The gentleman to the right is the late Mr. Liu Qiang (junior). The one to the left is his father, Mr. Liu (senior) who founded TJ Full Music.

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May both of them rest in peace in heaven with great music they have brought to us through their amazing products. May their creation and legacy continue through the world of Hi-Fi without border.

Today is the saddest day of my life since my own mother passed away 12 years ago. It just struck me again that life is so short and full of unexpected. Do cherish those around you when you can, and keep the great music playing.....

- by Rachel @ Grant Fidelity, in memory of two talented music lovers, enterpreneurs and great friends.
 
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Mr. Huang's flagship Deity system, $110k, all Jungson from the wall plug out. I heard it, have never heard better. We haven't been able to afford to bring the entire system into NA yet, it needs an appropriate room. We will have the pre and power amps for CES, but now I feel we need to get the whole system over.

Mr. Liu Qiang's TJ FullMusic 300B/SE is IMO among the top 5 300B tubes ever made, with some even saying better than the original WE 300B. Here is the review of the 300B/SE tube: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Magazine/equipment/0109/tj_full_music_300b_carbon.htm

RIP gentlemen.

Ian
 

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Ian and Rachel, my condolences to you on the passing of your friends and business associates.
 
Very sad news, indeed. Peace and well wishes to you all in your time of mourning.
 
Sorry to hear of your loss, but I appreciate the photos and stories. Putting a face on the Chinese industry is something that rarely happens.

Evan
 
Very sad news, indeed. My condolences to you and to all who knew these people, and to all who may be affected by their passing. In some sense, all of us who love audio are affected, when anyone in the industry passes on.

R.I.P., Mr. Huang Shuxiang
R.I.P., Mr. Liu Qiang


And while it is under sad circumstances, Welcome to AK, GrantFidelity.
 
Very sad news! My condolences to their respective families and you for the loss of close business associates.
 
Thank you for everyone's condolences here. I will definitely pass on the message to their family. Jungson's new premises will be completed this year and I will do a special factory tour report on Jungson at a later time. Stay tuned.

If you are in search of great sounding equipment, check out Jungson's products created by Mr. Huang and give his beloved business a chance to be heard - so far we haven't been disappointed by any yet.

Some Jungson products review will be published in the next month or so by EnjoytheMusic.com and TNT-Audio.com. Stay tuned and thank you for all the audio media's support of Jungson products.
 
Something it has taken me some time to get used to, is that it Chinese nature not to take sole credit for your work. There isn't much, 'look ma, no hands'. mentality in China, which of course is the opposite of me and many from at least my generation. I'm sure that will change as the western culture continues to take its grip on the youth.

They also would rarely say that their product or work is better than someone else's, the common translation from Mr. Huang and Mr.Liu Jr. was that their products would compete and were unique from others. I of course don't have that problem and will say their products are better than most comparative products I have heard on the market.

Best?, not a chance, don't like the word unless looking at my line-up and suggesting a best possible solution. This isn't just me talking, Chinese audiophiles and competitive Chinese High-end manufactures confirm the strengths of Mr. Liu Jr. and Mr. Huang's products. Our RITA-880 (Mr. Huang's first officially launched tube amp design) won the 'Best Product Debut Award' from Soundstage last year, as Rachel mentioned 2 very positive reviews are coming out on Jungson's SS Integrated Amps, both reviewers being tube guys and their comments being that they could almost live without tubes with this gear.

Mr Liu Jr.'s TJ Full Music tubes have been well received by the audiophile community with their previous version 300B tubes winning some shoot-outs. The new 300B/SE is as good as any 300B ever made to production and distribution. Opera Consonance are good friends with TJ, only a half hour train ride away (at 340km/hr) and will help Mr Liu Sr. however they can during this transition stage. It is Mr. Liu Sr. that designs the tubes, Mr Liu Jr. was in charge of producing them. He was a lot wiser than many in the tube industry, he bought all the Beijing Tube Factory equipment when they folded and hired all the talent to make tubes and brought his father out of retirement, who likely has the longest current experience history in tubes, period. A very smart man Mr Liu Jr. and a lot of fun to do a factory tour with. The kind who's laugh fills the room and while quite well off, drives a beater, the only sign of wealth is apparent deep inside the factory when you see the clean rooms and all the extremely cool tube making gear or when it's time to pick up the food and drink bill.

Mr. Huang, was just a brilliant, honest and sweet man, I spent may days in his company with Rachel translating for hours. We discussed so many things about audio, his current goal was to build an inexpensive audiophile sound card for computers that would allow the poor to have great audio at very little cost. He completely embarrassed within minutes the GF design team including myself on a design issue with a GF amp that his engineering team could not figure out and our side couldn't understand why, within minutes of looking the design drawings while I was there Mr. Huang pointed out the problem, told everyone to do it this way and gave me the look only a professor can when you have screwed up. His achievements Rachel has touched on, but only touched on because she does not want to come across as promoting him on his death, again a Chinese tradition, that takes some getting used to from our side where we often dwell on accomplishments.

I will put it bluntly, he had very few peers in the audio industry, he could and did design anything and everything audio, from Power Cables to Speakers and everything in between, from affordable to very expensive. He built the gear, he built the factory, he was building a new multi-complex state of the art factory, he built his design team, he trained so many engineers, including his partner. He did all of this while just being a regular and sweet guy.

At 53 I am older than both Mr Liu Jr. (early 40's) and Mr. Huang (late 40's) . This is the saddest part, they had made it, they had so much to live for, they had so much more to offer. Their work is sounding great every day.

Cheers,
Ian
 
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