Surveying countries of origin for this hardware mix, the speakers, equipment rack and amplifier are all Korean, the DAP, USB bridge and DAC Chinese, the headphone amp next to my chair is from Taiwan. Even the pro-range Dynaudio sub is made in China. The preamp is American, the filter box British, the passive Furutech power distributor Japanese, the parallel passive power filter Dutch. Asia massively dominates Europe and the US in this assemblage. You can probably do the math on why.

Likewise for figuring out how twinned 5" drivers add up in compound driver surface to know that in Jun's lingo, this is a 7" rear-ported virtual coax – the VC suffix of the formal model name 'PlatiMon VC One' which I've not used because it's too long. Going forward I'll shorten this to VC. That could be shorthand too for Vic like Victoria; or possibly victory if the sound is as crisp as the optics. For more rudimentary math, if Jun calls this his VC One, is a VC Two already on the map?

As it turns out, my tongue-twisting opener did contain a kernel of truth: "PlatiMon equals Platinum plus Mon. We initially thought of a name starting with 'Mon' like a French word would. But inverting the sequence just sounded better. Our woofers are sourced from a German supplier, the AMT is Dayton's. None are stock. Jun modifies them to exploit the advantages of ferrite and neodymium [mid/woofer at far right].

Two MonAcoustic 2021 models in elite company.

"He initially considered Dayton's E150E-44 because it can be run down to 30Hz. Its low 83dB sensitivity just didn't fit. He was very mindful of proper bass but in the end settled on a different driver and 53Hz. Jun holds Per Skaaning's AudioTechnology 4H/6A77 drivers in very high regard so sourced very similar units from Germany then modified them to suit his own needs. As to the channel variation, it's actually the dissimilar lengths of the rear ports which sets the right/left assignation. These photos show how not only the port length differs but also the internal damping. Jun is very meticulous about how he combines different materials which all contribute to the final sonic signature. Also, PlatiMon is available in thee colors: black, silver and navy. The latter carries a $300 surcharge."

Whilst clocking some break-in miles, I thought back on two recent features I penned on ChiFi in general; and the emergence of ChüFi or Chinese ÜberFi. The first began with a question; jaded jaundice jammed up? Jaundice is my word for a mental and/or emotional disposition of animosity against or even hatred of goods made in China; and by extension its culture and peoples. It's a form of sniveling sniffling disease one might call sinositis. There are many aspects and layers to it and that article also syndicated on Darko.Audio attempted to touch upon a few. Now I wondered. Does anything like it exist for products made in South Korea; or by Asian extension, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore even Thailand?

From names like the now disbanded Emillé Labs to current Allnic Audio Labs, April Music, Astell&Kern, Aurender, Enleum, Hifi Rose, Hifistay, Metal Sound Design, Sanctus, Seawave Acoustics, Simon Audio, SOtM and Waversa Systems, the country has a number of well-received brands. Arguably none execute metal work as outrageously as MSD who are responsible for the industrial design of many Astell&Kern products and in the photo above also make the floorstanding speaker. Seawave below specialize in hornspeakers.

If we cast our eyes upon two of the three city states, Taiwan hosts Clones Audio, COS Engineering, Keces, Kenaz, LuKang Audio, MYSTJ and Usher. In Hong Kong Lumin Music loom large and KEF's HQ is stationed there. There must be equivalent brands from Singapore but I can't think of any. Is it because Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan aren't popular cheap-labor destinations like mainland China that products from them don't battle the same biases? Is it because they're not Communist?

However that complex picture parses out, it seemed appropriate to embed MonAcoustic in established fellow brands from a region that's clearly home to exciting very contemporary hifi offerings which dress impeccably in advanced metallurgy; or in the case of Seawave, curvaceous lacquers.