This article will be briefer than usual because as I write this, I’ve been home for less than 24 hours after visiting Beijing and Weifang, two cities in China. The outward journey took about 24 hours, but the trip home—delayed by bad weather that diverted our final flight—stretched to a grueling 34 hours. I’m not just jetlagged; I’m thoroughly exhausted and more than a little edgy. Still, the message I want to share feels too important to postpone—and I wanted to relay it with this trip fresh in my mind.
Author Doug Schneider with videographer Chris Chitaroni arriving home after a week traveling to, within, and from China
That message is about why we travel so much. The reason is simple: so we can better inform our audience. If you’re a regular reader of our network of websites or viewer of our YouTube channel, you know we make several trips a year, within North America and overseas. It’s not a new thing—it started almost 30 years ago.
When I founded the SoundStage! Network in 1995, it was common for members of the hi-fi press to travel to audio shows and to attend press junkets—company-sponsored events typically designed to showcase new products, usually held at the company’s headquarters. Audio journalists still travel to audio shows, but these junkets, once popular and sometimes extravagant, have mostly faded away. That’s fine by me. I attended one in our early years and a few more after that, but I never found them particularly useful. They often felt too scripted—like presentations built around exactly what the company wanted to show you, and nothing more.
I quickly discovered it was far more valuable—and more authentic—to simply drop by companies, often on my own, sometimes with a team member or two. I started doing that in 1997 when I first visited Paradigm, the Canadian speaker manufacturer. Back then, Paradigm didn’t yet own Anthem, MartinLogan, or GoldenEar like it does now, and its operations were scattered across three separate locations around Toronto. That made visiting Paradigm logistically challenging, but also insightful—it gave me a deeper understanding of how the company functioned behind the scenes. Today, Paradigm and its sister brands are centralized in one enormous facility in Mississauga, Ontario, just west of Toronto.
The Paradigm/Anthem/MartinLogan/GoldenEar factory, June 2025
I’ve been to Paradigm numerous times since then—probably four times a year on average for what is now approaching 30 years, including visits during the pandemic era. The result is a uniquely deep understanding not only of how the company works day to day, but of how it has evolved over time. And throughout those years I’ve passed along the relevant insights to our readers.
Shortly after first visiting Paradigm, I began regularly visiting other Canadian companies, including Simaudio, Bryston, Axiom Audio, the now-defunct Audio Products International (API), and probably a dozen others, some still in business, some not. I have an enduring memory from one of my early trips to API, which was sold to Klipsch in 2006. API owned the Energy, Mirage, Sound Dynamics, and Athena Technologies brands. During an early-2000s visit by me and other SoundStage! Network team members, API vice president Anthony Mosley told me he’d never seen media so eager to learn what goes on in companies, which he thought was a great thing. That was encouraging to hear—and indicated to me that we should continue on this path.
The Bowers & Wilkins factory, November 2022
My travels eventually extended to the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe. They have continued to this day, and I now feel confident saying I’ve visited more audio companies than any hi-fi journalist anywhere. As with Paradigm, I’ve eagerly shared what I’ve learned—first through articles, and now increasingly through video.
Companies have noticed the appeal of these in-depth, unscripted visits, which is why they’re usually happy to accommodate me, either alone or with a small group. Since we often make repeat visits over time, they no longer try to choreograph “curated” experiences. Instead, they let us explore factory floors and design labs. That’s how we get the real story.
Which brings me to China—and why I made my first visit there.
Goer Dynamics headquarters, July 2025
Earlier this year we traveled to Denmark to visit three companies: Raidho Acoustics, Lyngdorf Audio, and Dynaudio, which has its headquarters in the town of Skanderborg. During that visit, Julien Bergere, Dynaudio’s chief commercial officer, suggested that I and someone from our video crew travel to Weifang, China, to visit the headquarters of Goer Dynamics, a subsidiary of Goer Group, a massive Chinese company with roughly 30,000 employees in China and another 40,000 in Vietnam. Goer Dynamics is the host of Goer Group’s consumer brands, including Dynaudio, which the company acquired in 2014. More recently, Goer Dynamics purchased a minority stake in Gryphon Audio Designs, another Danish hi-fi brand. Sister-company Goertek is in charge of Goer Group’s OEM/ODM businesses in acoustics, optics, and microelectronics, and it works with many of the biggest tech brands in the USA, China, and Japan.
Julien’s suggestion intrigued me and our chief videographer, Chris Chitaroni, who accompanied me to China. Obviously, we wanted to see what Dynaudio was doing in Weifang. Our 2025 visit to Skanderborg was our second there—we’d first visited in 2016—so we were ready to explore deeper layers of their operation. We were also eager to learn more about Goer Group, its Goer Dynamics subsidiary, and how they relate to one another and to Dynaudio. Also, Julien, along with product-training manager Otto Jørgensen, who met up with us in Weifang, told us in Denmark that we wouldn’t believe our eyes when we saw the ultra-modern Chinese factory, so we certainly wanted to see if it lived up to their descriptions. Lastly, neither of us had ever been to mainland China—and we were genuinely excited to go.
Doug Schneider with Dynaudio’s Otto Jørgensen
To get there, we flew to Beijing on July 6, arrived July 7, stayed overnight, and then took a high-speed train to Weifang, where we stayed for three nights. That gave us two days to explore the Dynaudio-related operations within Goer Dynamics. These include a state-of-the-art factory where Dynaudio’s car-audio drivers are manufactured for various automakers (its sophistication exceeded the descriptions given by Julien and Otto); an experience center, which not only showcases Dynaudio products, but also an impressive array of devices Goer Group makes for other brands; and Lab2, the dedicated design facility for Dynaudio’s automotive sound systems. I learned that it’s called Lab2 because Denmark’s design area is called Lab1. I also learned that we were the first press members from anywhere to see these facilities in China. We were proud and surprised to hear that—and it once again confirmed that we are on the right path with these visits.
Dynaudio Lab2
After Weifang, we returned to Beijing for two more nights. That gave us a full day—not so much to sightsee, but to film a segment of Why Vinyl, a series we debuted earlier this year that explores why vinyl is still so popular today. We shot the episode at two fantastic record stores: Fruityshop and Indie Music. It will premiere on our YouTube channel on August 20. We flew home on July 13, but instead of arriving on the same day as we were supposed to, we arrived a day later because of the delays.
Chris preparing to shoot part of a Why Vinyl episode at Fruityshop in Beijing
I wish I could share more about our visit right now, but as I mentioned at the start, this isn’t the best time. Nor do I have more time this month, since I now need to catch up on other work. What I can say is that our experiences in China were unforgettable for Chris and me—and will be deeply valuable for our readers and viewers. This article and the Why Vinyl episode will be the first pieces of content from our trip, but they won’t be the last. I also hope this is the first of many trips we make to China—we enjoyed it so much that we’d be thrilled to return to learn more about the companies that operate there.
. . . Doug Schneider
das@soundstage.com
