In red letters on the first page of Chinese audio manufacturer Audio-GD’s website are these words: Wisdom in mind, enthusiasm at heart.
I like this good-will greeting because it sets a mindful tone. I presume that sentiment was issued by one Mr. He Qinghua, because farther down the page, it states, “All Audio-GD’s products are designed and developed under the leadership of Mr. He Qinghua.” When I began my auditions, I took this salutation as an advisement, making it my plan to study Audio-GD’s Vacuum HE1 XLR line-level preamp with as much wisdom as I could muster and the enthusiasm of high expectations.
Some readers who read my praise for Audio-GD’s R7HE MK2 digital-to-analog converter, in Gramophone Dreams #66, may have dismissed that DAC as a cheap, made-in-China product without questioning their own viewpoint—without considering the R7HE DAC’s potential greatness.
I grew up in the ’60s and ’70s watching high school friends dismiss Japanese motorcycles, mocking their “primitive” two-strokeness, dissing their nation of origin, calling them “cheap Japanese junk” and posing for photos on their four-stroke Harleys, Triumphs, and BMWs. I remember how I trained my ears to identify the sound of each brand’s engine. Harley-Davidson owners were constantly bragging about their bike’s “deep-throated long-stroke sound.” Triumph and BMW owners were equally proud of their rides’ unique motor sound.
At the time, it seemed that every country’s motorcycles had their own national sound. I thought that none of those national motorcycle sounds was more singular and aggressively wild than the jackhammering two-stroke power delivery characteristic of Japan. (Before I liked single-ended triodes, I liked
