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C.E.C. from Japan continues to make some of the finest CD drives on the planet. With belts.

Chario from Italy has that intangible design flair down pat.

Chord from the UK teamed with Focal's newest baby Utopia from France.

Compact is a speaker brand by Sendsound of China. Kudos to my support team who collected business cards and catalogues and even carried my bags. Without them, this I-take-no-stinkin'-notes warrior would have missed a lot.

Copland from Denmark proved that just because certain brands seem to vanish from press coverage where you live needn't mean they're no longer doing the business. Which in Guangzhou had surprising ramifications. To wit...

Counterpoint. "Now wait a minute," you demur. Hadn't Michael Elliott long since risen from the ashes to launch Aria Audio? Indeed. But it's not uncommon to have Chinese companies buy up assets and brand names to revive or reissue a Western marquee.

The new Counterpoint makes all of the above - the Signature Reference Audio CD Player CD12, the Magnum Opus Two preamp, the Magnum Opus 600 monos and the Vox Angelina hornspeakers. Not shown are the Nemaha 2.1 and Morton 6.1 monitors and the 3-model Hook speaker series.

DA&T was an unfamiliar Chinese brand of transistor gear made by Jfyxsh who, as it turns out, also build the valved Bewitch No.2A3. Of course what is the brand and what the maker can quickly get confusing, especially if you don't read Mandarin or Cantonese.

Dali's exhibit borrowed from the Chinese the-more-the-merrier custom which we'll witness in select Shenzhen hifi shop pix later. That the surrounding speakers turn passive radiators unless shorted out is simply grist for this mill.

This Dantax TA-80 integrated sat in a huge hall of a multi-line importer exhibit and the tube chimneys bear a passing resemblance to earlier Raysonic Audio models. But I forgot to get specifics so Google is your uncle.

Scale. The White Swan hotel had sufficient ball rooms to create numerous large-scale exhibit like this one between darTZeel from Switzerland and Vivid Audio from South Africa.

Densen from Denmark epitomizes clean sleek less-is-more design cues. "Life is too short for boring hifi" is their motto.

The Diatone P-610 is a very interesting, progressively actuated paper-cone widebander with leather surround that's based on a discontinued Mitsubishi design. The company making it is called Orgue Club USA which also makes the Archon A12 hornspeakers shown below. Before you click on the Diatone link, beware that my Internet security software issued the following warning: "This website at www.leyun-music.com has been reported as an attack site and has been blocked based on your security preferences. Attack sites try to install programs that steal private information, use your computer to attack others, or damage your system. Some attack sites intentionally distribute harmful software, but many are compromised without the knowledge or permission of their owners."

Another amp in my file of, cough, insufficient notes is this valve unit with an engraved Dreamwork logo or model name.

Dugood had this cute little wi-fi DAC.

Dussun appears to be one of the most serious transistor amp companies in China today. Check it out.

Their R10 reference preamp's bombshell construction certainly recalls Charles Hansen.

The former OEM tie-in with Red Rose Music is old hat by now. News to me was that, as per Daniel Weiss of Weiss Engineering fame, Mark Levinson the man was now living in Switzerland. "This country is becoming a high-ender destination" is how Daniel put it when realizing I too had moved here. But I think Mark got there first -:)