I made a beeline for the show to see what was happening and found Allen and his staff setting up their display. It was my first meeting with him and my immediate impression was of an unassuming man, down to earth but with great charisma and strong character. He was taking care in lining up the racks displaying his amplifiers, kneeling down and sighting along them to make sure they were all exactly in line. Mark Cheung was there as well, having brought Zu Druids to partner with Melody.


I met with Victor Chen, an old friend of Allen's who was to be our translator. Allen speaks very little English, making life interesting for foreign visitors. However, I could see that he and I were going to hit it off right away. He was not afraid to get his message across with facial expressions or gestures. I helped with positioning the Zu Druids and when everything was set up, we headed off for dinner. Again Allen chose well, a superb restaurant behind the hotel serving fish from live tanks.

The next three days of the show were very busy and there was a constant flow of people. Melody had a large suite to avoid overcrowding but exhibitors in the regular rooms had real problems. Luckily I am tall so I could see over the top of the crowds but for most, it would have been difficult to see the products, let alone hear them in any meaningful way.


Apart from the Melody room, I enjoyed the Sound Mechanics exhibit. They were displaying their range of racks and isolation products and also a pair of Hedlund hornspeakers with Lowther drivers. Now I bet you didn't know that they are manufacturing Hedlund horns in China. The sound was clean, clear and dynamic, with very little of the infamous Lowther shout. Sound Mechanics are Hong Kong based with a manufacturing plant in Guan Dong, a city between Shenzhen and Guangzhou. I was sufficiently impressed to negotiate to bring some of their Performance Series racks to Australia. While not cheap, they are extremely well engineered and finished and actually improve the sound rather than just keep your gear off the ground.


I liked the 47Lab room that was getting very good sound from a pair of small mini monitors they were launching. King's Audio from Hong Kong was also getting good sound from a pair of small speakers using electrostatic panels and two 4" dynamic drivers.


At the show's conclusion, I traveled with Victor back to Shenzhen by train. Allen had some meetings to attend and was coming a little later by car. The train was not as clean as the intercity express I had caught from Hong Kong but still okay. It was packed with people all sending SMS messages like crazy. China is caught in a cellphone frenzy. You can buy one anywhere, anytime. I was even offered one stuck in a traffic jam. A guy was walking up and down the stationary cars selling his wares including phones, car chargers and warning triangles.


The traffic in Shenzhen is pretty bad and everyone travels scarily close to each other. Surprisingly, I saw very few accidents. Pedestrians seem to avoid getting run over - which is amazing if you saw the conditions. The old Chinese vision of bicycles everywhere was not what I saw. There were cars, trucks and more cars.


Victor and I went to the hotel and I checked in and spent a little time getting the lay of the land. We then went to the Melody factory. It is situated at the edge of an industrial park in an economic development zone promoted by the government. I think the companies receive tax concessions and other incentives for setting up shop here. As you enter the park, the buildings deteriorate and crowd up.


As you drive further towards the edge of the estate, the buildings get newer and better maintained. Melody is right at the very edge of the estate which adjoins a national park which will not be developed and thus remain a green zone.


Hence the outlook [below] secured from both the factory and employees' dormitory is of lovely green trees and will stay that way. A large number of Melody employees live at the factory in an excellent dormitory which is very nicely laid out. Living and working at the factory is quite different from what we are used to but in these areas of China, it is quite common.


The Melody buildings are faced externally with ceramic mosaic tiles and the inside is very spacious, with nicely exposed brickwork which I found very attractive. Whilst I was present, two gentlemen from Russia were visiting to explore distributing Melody in their country.


One of them leaned over to me and whispered. Were the walls finished, he didn't think they could afford the plaster. I explained that this look was quite popular in Australia but could tell he wasn't convinced. They were very keen to inspect Melody's quality control procedures because Russian customers are very particular and knowledgeable. Sometimes a customer will pull a whole amplifier apart and measure all internal components to see if they meet the claimed specification. So these chaps claimed. [Melody administration next.]


Allen Wang showed us all the manufacturing operations. Unfortunately the employees were on their day off and so my photographs do not show busy workstations. However, there are about 80 hourly workers employed and 10 management people. In 2005, Melody shipped 10,000 amplifiers which Allen says makes them the second largest manufacturer of valve amplifiers in China, with Europe presently their biggest export market. [Board room with export model case next.]


Bare amplifier chassis arrive from an outside supplier fully drilled and pre-coated and ready for the in-house finish paint job. This is performed in a special area on the ground floor. After painting, the chassis, transformer covers and valve cages are wet and dry rubbed, then buffed to achieve the mirror finish.


This is a very time-consuming process but worth the effort. I have not seen another manufacturer finish their product to these lengths. Component parts arrive from outside suppliers and are checked for specs before being sorted into batches for insertion and assembly.

The transformers are all hand-wound with mechanical assistance. They are double C core designs that use copper wire from French and German manufacturers. It takes one experienced person around 4 hours to properly wind a single transformer. It could be done in less time but the quality would suffer. The heart of any good valve amplifier is the transformers. Toroidal transformers are eschewed because they sound inferior. [Transformer winding next.]

All transformers are potted into their cases and marked with the proper voltage - 120V, 220V, 230V, 240V.

While the potting compound is setting, the transformers are placed in a vacuum chamber to extract any air that may be trapped.

Each transformer is wound for a specific voltage. There are no universal transformers with multiple taps. They'd not sound as good. Customers in Australia contemplating buying amplifiers in the grey market should refrain. Most of these will be 230 volt versions intended for Hong Kong or Europe. These amplifiers will most likely experience shortened valve life or component failure over time. The Australian voltage specification is 240 volts +/- 10%. I have personally measured 260 volts at my wall, hence all amplifiers destined for Australia are specified with dedicated 240 volt mains transformers.

Whilst on the topic of the grey market, I should also mention that the new generation of Melody products are only available through authorized dealers or direct from Melody if your country presently lacks dealers. Grey market operators are generally selling old models which are second-hand or dems which they have picked up cheaply from disreputable sources. It is not worth the risk of paying thousands of dollars and having no support if a problem occurs. Some operators do offer a warranty but they know full well that for you to claim on it, you need to ship the item to them and pay shipping both ways which makes the whole proposition rather uneconomical. The US I- and M-Series models are identical to the European AstroBlack models except for mains voltage.
The point-to-point hand wired circuits in Melody amplifiers are assembled on sub boards and then installed in the main chassis. This simplifies assembly and facilitates easier servicing should a problem occur down the track. Completed amplifiers are burned in for at least 150 hours and then play-tested. Volume controls are stepped attenuators which unlike normal potentiometers sport precise channel-to-channel tracking and don't become scratchy over time. Melody uses quality parts by Mundorf, Jensen, Nichicon, Sovtek and so on in most of its models.

Sub assembly rack next.