Introduction

Most people reading this article may not have heard of Leiyin Audio, however it is one of the largest retailers for personal audio in China. It started in 2006 in Shenzhen, and established channel sales and marketing throughout the entire country, as well as in the neighboring ones, over the next two years. In 2012, it created SHENZHENAUDIO, a global e-commerce platform that has provided me with a lot of review samples over the years. As of 2020, Leiyin Audio is ranked #1 in the country for number of audio sales, especially in the high-end sector. Knowing how big the Chinese market is, it is probably safe to assume this puts the company among the top sellers globally too. In fact, we've recently even seen Leiyin Audio participate in international shows such as CES, although there is one show in particular that it is most known for.


Leiyin Audio started the Shenzhen International Audio Show in 2007, just one year after the company itself was created. It's clearly been successful to warrant an annual presence, with 2024 hosting the 18th edition of the show. I was invited to attend the show last year, although timing wasn't great with my own travel plans elsewhere, and this year Leiyin Audio, via its SHENZHENAUDIO brand, upped the ante in inviting several international reviewers and influencers to join the nearly 100 domestic influencers, the over 200 participating brands, and an estimated attendance in the thousands over the three days this event is held. SHENZHENAUDIO reimbursed my travel expenses and arranged for accommodation in the city, but all they wanted was for me to attend the show and have a good time. Having been to multiple CES and Computex shows before, as well as a few audio-specific shows such as CanJam London, I thought I knew what to expect. Clearly things are taken to a different level altogether in China, and I figured I should explain how via a show report. I will also say right away that show impressions are best taken with a grain of salt, and thus I'm deliberately keeping them short.

Press Conferences

The show was held September 20-22, although the first morning was private for media only. We were chaperoned from the hotel to the venue in Upperhills Shenzhen, which seemed huge—when empty of attendees anyway. There was a dedicated stage which hosted press conferences in the morning and was used for other events thereafter, including lottery draws and cosplayer shows. Given this was really the first time this show has seen international media participating, there were some growing pains felt almost immediately. For one, all the press conferences were completely in Chinese (Mandarin) without any translations. Our points-of-contact at SHENZHENAUDIO did their best to do live translation over the WeChat group we were in, but suffice to say this could be done better going forward. I did provide some ideas for improvement and streamlining things further, so let's see how things go next year.

DUNU

First up was DUNU, which I then learned stood for Delicate, Unique & (n') Utmost... okay then! DUNU had three new products announced at the show, including the DK 3001 BD (Brain Dance, from the Cyberpunk 2077 tech) in-ear monitors. These use a 1 DD/4 BA/4 micro planar magnetic tribrid driver configuration, white shells in a cyberpunk-inspired aesthetic, a white cable to go with it, and offered a bass-first tuning with forward upper mids and generally relaxed treble. Then came DUNU's first entry to the over-ear headphones market with the planar magnetic, open-back Arashi. It's built like a tank, looks and feels great in the hands, and goes for a neutral-bright tonality that should appeal to many no doubt. It was paired with the v53 amplifier, created in collaboration with NiuNiu Audio (v being "niu" in the green alphabet and 53 for Beethoven's Waldstein—the Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53). The amplifier is excellent in its own right, although impossible to test at the show given the less-than-ideal conditions for an open-back set. DUNU rounded off its talk with a concept, the Concept R CD Player with a "retro meets future" design language. It's still being worked upon, but was a sign of things to come at the show.

Silent Angel

I had not heard of Silent Angel before this, which frankly could have been said about at least a quarter of the brands at the show. As it turns out, Silent Angel is known for audio network streamers, switches, and fully functional music servers. The brand talked briefly about its flagship products and mentioned how the audience wanted something more affordable, and thus we saw the launch of the SL1 server/network streamer. Please note that all the products launched at the show were accompanied by domestic market prices, wherever applicable, but that never converts directly when sold internationally—if at all. As such, I am refraining from mentioning prices here unless I have the USD value provided to me.

MOONDROP

MOONDROP is arguably the most famous of the brands distributed by Leiyin/SHENZHENAUDIO, and this was also the best presentation purely from a public speaking and charisma perspective. In a shorter time than some others, MOONDROP also managed to unveil a total of six new products! First up, the Concerto wired IEMs which uses xMEMS's Montara silicon driver paired with a 13 mm planar magnetic driver for a unique hybrid driver setup. It uses ddHifi's premium cable and terminations too, and uses a Type-C connector not only to provide the voltage bias needed for the MEMS driver but also allows for MOONDROP to use a DAC for DSP/EQ too. The Concerto goes for a fairly neutral tuning with an emphasized sub-bass boost, similar to the ThieAudio Monarch MK1 but more relaxed in the treble. It's up for sale on SHENZHENAUDIO for $330 already, although you may want to wait for reviews first. The MOCA joins MOONDROP's seemingly never-ending train of TWS product releases this year, slotting between the impressive $25 Space Travel, the $75 Ultrasonic, and the $80 Golden Ages. The MOCA, which comes in two colors, uses a 10 mm dynamic driver, has ANC, app support for features such as EQ, and more for $50.


The first MOONDROP product I reviewed was the KATO, and I still pull it out from time to time despite having first used it over three years ago. The KATO was then the latest entry in MOONDROP's K-series of single DD IEMs around the $200 price range, and clearly many wanted a successor to where the brand obliged with one final entry. The new Kadenz looks eerily similar to the matte shell version of the KATO, and uses a 10 mm ULT-Gen 2 dynamic driver that incorporates improvements from earlier models and introduces a new experimental TAC diamond-coated dome composite diaphragm. It ships with an analog cable in addition to an ECHO-B online interactive DSP USB-C decoding cable for DSP tuning. To my ears, the analog tuning sounded pretty much like the KATO, going for a more old-school tuning compared to newer IEMs that are gaining popularity today. I suspect there will be enough sales to justify the $190 asking price, especially knowing this is the last of the highly successful series. Then came not one, but two CD players, in the form of the DISCDREAM 2 and DISCDREAM 2 Ultra. The original DISCDREAM was launched not that long ago, but suffered badly from suppliers not being able to consistently provide chassis parts which matched colors. MOONDROP went with a different design, as evident by the chassis sporting multiple colors now, and uses plastic (DISCDREAM 2) as well as CNC-machined aluminium (DISCDREAM 2 Ultra), with the latter also sporting more powerful hardware inside. The DISCDREAM 2 portable CD player is already up for $150, with the DISCDREAM 2 Ultra costing $290.

MOONDROP also introduced its first set of speakers, and went the MTM (midwoofer-tweeter-midwoofer) route with an impressive flat tuning out of the box all the way down to the sub-bass. The new M4P-MTM is a professional grade passive monitoring speaker system which is larger than typical desktop speakers, and thus I feel they will be more likely to be used with speaker stands on the floor. Regardless, I appreciated MOONDROP having a quiet room to better test the speakers out, and the brand is currently taking feedback on whether the black or white color option is the way to go. It was paired with a MOONDROP x SMSL PA160 power amplifier capable of providing up to 160 W per channel and also having multiple EQ profiles, with one aiming to help address the sub-bass dip. You can of course pair this with your own subwoofers too, given the completely passive nature of the speakers. The M4P-MTM is likely to cost ~$900-1000 for a set of two speakers, and a combo with the PA160 amplifier is probably going to add $200-250 on top. This puts the M4P-MTM in a highly competitive market segment, and yet my limited time with the speakers has left me impressed already.

Shanling

Shanling was up next to wrap up the press conference session, and began with its anticipated M8T digital audio player (DAP). The M8T uses the more expensive M9's chassis and adds a set of two JAN6418 tubes for those who wanted to have a tube amplifier on the go. It is paired with a dual AKM AK4499EX+4191EQ DAC/transcoder setup, and also offers solid state amplification courtesy 2xOPA1612 + 2x ADI-AD8397 op-amps, providing up to 1125 mW per channel @32 Ω. The Shanling M8T DAP uses a Qualcomm 665 SoC, 6 GB RAM + 128 GB ROM, an XMOS XU316 USB audio bridge, and will cost ~$1600 when launched. I tried it briefly at the show and found the tube mode to work well with some songs, whereas the solid state mode was generally a safer choice. However, this is likely because I was using it with some IEMs that already were bassy and warm to begin with, so it is very likely going to change depending on what you plug into the DAP. Shanling also showed off the SM1.3 streamer transport and DAC, although this was already announced earlier this year. More interesting to me was Shanling's own entry to the over-ear headphones market with the HW600 open-back planar magnetic headphones. There was a demo unit at the show, but it always seemed in use, and I unfortunately did not get any time with it. I understand it goes for a warmer, more relaxed tuning. It is up for sale already at $1099, and I will aim to get one in for review if possible. Rounding off the presentation was a new set of portable speakers, the Shanling S0, which were not at the show. But we did see the new UA6 portable DAC/amp ($159) as well as the AE10 10 BA IEMs at the brand's booth, which again I unfortunately was not able to try in person. The following two pages will go over some of the other brands I visited at the show.