Interview with Yao Hongbo, President of HiVi

    Raising the Swans of Electronic Technology "Olympic Games"

    In January 2005, in the United States, Las Vegas, known as the "Casino City", the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is also famous all over the world. On the third day of CES, the good news came that HiVi from China won the CES top audio champion in the 2005 CES G4TechTV "Best of CES Ultimate Audio Finalist" with its S600HT home theater system with its brand-new ribbon electro-acoustic technology. Group Three Grand Prize! This award made Swans once again become one of the top three top audio companies in the 2005 CES G4TechTV with its innovative electro-acoustic technology, and became the only international audio company that has twice won the top three in the Best of CES Finalist top audio championship group. Created the myth of China and even the world's audio companies.

Mr. Yao Hongbo (right), chairman of HiVi, and Frank Hale (left), chief designer of HiVi

    The roosters were all over the sky. Just after the Spring Festival this year, the editor of our website (www.ee007.com) was invited by HiVi to make a special visit to the headquarters of HiVi in Zhuhai. During the visit, we had the honor to meet Mr. Yao Hongbo, the chairman of HiVi, who accepted our interview very happily. During the interview, we conducted an exclusive interview with Mr. Yao on the issues that domestic consumers and media are generally concerned about.

Mr. Yao Hongbo, Chairman of HiVi

 Question:

    Starting from the Swans M200, the world has known China's multimedia speakers. Until today, a considerable number of multimedia speakers in China have been at the forefront of the world. Swans is the leader in the high-end multimedia market. Mr. Yao, can you give us a brief introduction to Swans today?

    Mr. Yao:

    HiVi is now headquartered in the United States, and we have an entire R&D and sales team in Los Angeles. We currently have two main production bases in China, namely the speaker unit production base in Zhongshan and the speaker production base in Panyu. In addition, we have hundreds of direct-operated specialty stores in China. In addition to specialty stores, we also have one or two thousand franchised agents. In Hong Kong, we have our own independent company - Hengo, which is responsible for the import and export of Swans products. So in general, Swans is a multinational enterprise that combines the superior resources of the United States with some domestic superior resources, that is, we combine the top design capabilities of the United States with the strong production capabilities of China.

    HiVi currently has more than 2,000 employees in China. The products produced by HiVi every year cover all electro-acoustic products, from speaker units to finished speakers and home theaters. Swans is developed from the manufacture of speaker units, and the reputation and reputation of Swans speakers are world-class. At present, many famous international companies purchase speakers from Swans for their speaker systems and various electronic products. Germany's most famous and the world's most expensive "Voice of Berlin" speaker flagship B99 uses the Swans speaker unit, they are proud to label their speakers as "Super Audio, Made in Germany", but in fact the core of the speaker The technology is in the hands of our Swans! As a speaker unit manufacturer, this is also the highest affirmation and award for our Swans.

    In the field of speakers, HiVi is also a world-class famous speaker manufacturer. At least we have broken a record. No one in the audio industry in the world can win the Best of CES Finalist Top Audio Champion Group Award twice, whether it is in ordinary home theater or HiFi audio, such an honor is unique. Especially in 2005 this year, CES merged all types of audio manufacturers, that is, all power amplifiers, fever speakers, professional speakers, car audio and other types of products were all merged into one Ultimate Audio super audio group, which won the CES award. The difficulty is too great. We have beaten respected companies like Dolby, so we feel very, very honored. It is not easy to be a Chinese.

    In terms of sales, the current Swans store adopts our own direct sales model, so it can quickly connect factories and consumers, thus expanding another space for Swans' sales channels. In the international market, it can be said that from the Americas to Europe; from Korea to Indonesia; from Brazil to Australia, there are our Swans agents and product footprints. Last year was the year with the highest export volume of Swans products in the history, and it was also the year when the sales structure of Swans international market was completely finalized. In Swans, agents from various countries visit every one or two weeks, so people of different skin colors, cultures, and races are often sitting at a dining table to eat, which is very interesting.

Question:

    It is said that Swans spent huge sums of money to build the largest professional electro-acoustic anechoic chamber in Asia. Mr. Yao, can you talk about the situation of the largest electro-acoustic anechoic chamber in Asia?

    Mr. Yao:

    This anechoic chamber has always been a dream of mine, and now I am very happy to realize this dream.

    As early as 1992, Swans introduced China's first PC-based American computerized electro-acoustic measurement system LMS, becoming the first speaker manufacturer in China to use computer for acoustic measurement. Afterwards, Swans successively purchased almost all the top electro-acoustic measurement equipment and software in the world, established a complete set of standard and standardized measurement procedures, and trained a group of professional testing teams.

    However, through a lot of practical use, our Swans engineers deeply felt the limitations of the computer electro-acoustic measurement system. The computer electro-acoustic measurement system must use Near Field Measurements near field and Ground in ordinary environments (non-anechoic room measurement). Plane Measurements geodetic method measures low frequency, Gated SPL Measurements measures medium and high frequency, and then connects them to obtain the full-band response of the electro-acoustic system. The error is greatly affected by the measurement environment, especially the low-frequency measurement error is larger, and for many Special and large speaker systems, sometimes simply not measurable. Without an ideal free-field environment, it is impossible to perform precise electroacoustic measurements effectively.

    So I decided to build an anechoic chamber, the best one that can accurately measure low frequencies. The volume of the anechoic chamber is not important, what is important is to measure accurate low frequency, and the necessary condition for accurate low frequency measurement is to have a large volume. In September 2004, Swans finally completed the largest professional electro-acoustic anechoic chamber in Asia after four years. This anechoic chamber is located in the speaker production base of Hiway Panyu. It is an independent building. It adopts double walls for sound insulation and rubber vibration isolation pads. There is no strong noise source and vibration source in the building. The net volume is calculated as The largest professional anechoic chamber for electro-acoustic measurement in China and even in Asia, and the largest anechoic chamber owned by independent electro-acoustic product manufacturers in the world, which is completely comparable to the national professional electro-acoustic chambers in the United States and Russia. The opening of Swans professional electro-acoustic anechoic chamber, the process of merging all kinds of complex electro-acoustic measurements through calculation is completed at one time, and the measurement results are accurate and fast, which provides a solid guarantee for Swans to better develop high-quality electro-acoustic products. This anechoic chamber is not only used in the daily development and quality management of Swans products, but also the professional electro-acoustic anechoic chamber of Swans provides free electro-acoustic measurement services for the national electronic product quality supervision department.

Question:

    Hivi's products, whether it is a home HiFi home theater or a multimedia speaker, have always given people a high-end and expensive feeling. However, at the end of last year, Swans launched several speaker products with relatively low prices and closer to ordinary consumers. Many friends have asked whether Swans will start to make lower-end products? Can you tell us about the basic positioning of Swans' multimedia products in 2005?

    Mr. Yao:

    First of all, I am against the simple positioning of products as high-end and low-end. For Swans, we do not have the concept of intentionally positioning ourselves at high-end. The reason why our products are expensive and the outside world thinks we are a high-end product is because of our cost. For example, for the same speaker unit, Swans always use the best components to make the best speakers, which causes the cost of Swans speakers to be very different from those of domestic manufacturers who use relatively cheap parts. The prices of the products remain high. For example, we have a tweeter. HiVi uses a German-made sound film. The German sound film is 10 times more expensive than the Taiwan sound film, and the Taiwan sound film is 3 times more expensive than the domestic sound film. So why do we use the most expensive German sound film for our products? Because after many years of research and comparison, we found that the sound of this model of German sound membrane is indeed the sweetest and smoothest, and it has been tested in the Swans audiophile system, and it can be said to be a piece of cake when used in multimedia. In addition to the sound film, the voice coil and magnetic circuit of our products, the overall design of the product, each of which has never been cost-effective. Swan uses the best materials and the best designs to make the best products, so it is impossible for it to sell at a very low price. But if you use the same material to compare, I am afraid that Swans has no competitors, otherwise Swans will not exist, and there is no reason to exist.

    You mentioned just now that Swans launched two relatively cheap 2.0 speaker products at the end of last year. This is the result of our market research and optimized design for the domestic market. But one thing I can be sure of, Swans will never sacrifice the sound quality of its products in exchange for market share. Therefore, Swans' products will use up all the materials in key places. You can take a look. For example, Swans put all the cost on the speakers. Why do they do this? Because the lower the price of the speaker, the more important the speaker unit is. That's because the electrical performance of a speaker is an order of magnitude lower than that of a power amplifier.

    The audio system is a series system, and its index is determined by the weakest link of the system. Usually, the small-signal electrical index is higher than the large-signal. The problem is that the large-signal power amplifier is an order of magnitude higher than the electro-acoustic conversion link (speaker unit), so many The manufacturer said how good the electronic circuits and components are, but even so, the signal can't make a good sound when it reaches the speaker, because the indicators of the electro-acoustic part of the speaker are far lower than the previous circuit indicators, such as the distortion degree, the circuit can easily be lower than 0.1% , but it is very rare for a speaker to be less than 1% above 100 Hz, and below 100 Hz, it is usually more than 10%, which is an order of magnitude difference! This is the fundamental reason why many domestic manufacturers use the so-called good electronic components but the sound is still not good - the money is spent in the wrong place.

    All audiophiles know that when buying a set of stereos, it is usually only by using a 5,000-yuan power amplifier with more than 20,000 speakers and speakers to make a good sound. This is the reason. Therefore, Hivi's products are expensive because of these reasons. It is expensive on the surface, but its price is not high in terms of cost performance. This is a concept of Swans, we are not doing expensive things, we are doing good things, making the best things regardless of the cost, and then setting the price in a reasonable range, this is Swans' market concept. 

Question:

    When Swans' first multimedia speaker M200 was born, when more friends learned about Swans from M200 and T200, everyone seemed to have some kind of expectation for Swans, which was beyond the expectations of other manufacturers. I wonder if you feel it, Mr. Yao? Do the domestic consumers and mass media's expectations for HiVi cause some pressure on you and HiVi?

    Mr. Yao:

    Stress is also motivation! Thanks to the vast number of enthusiasts and friends for their love for Swans over the years. We also hope that Swans will continue to develop new products that are better and more representative of Swans' characteristics in the future.

 Question:

    The relationship between media and manufacturers is like fish and water, and media needs manufacturers to exist. How do you think the media can be considered a qualified media when facing manufacturers? What are your requirements for the media?

    Mr. Yao:

    I first thought it was a mutual relationship. From the perspective of the market, it is fundamental for an enterprise to make its own products well and make the enterprise stronger. The media should provide services for readers, report the real situation to readers, and maintain a professional and neutral position, which is also very important for the long-term development of the media. Manufacturers and media, the two sides should be a cooperative relationship, but also a mutual constraint. We have also been in contact with a lot of media, and one thing that worries me is that the media itself needs to be strengthened in terms of professionalism. For example, if the media wants to conduct an electro-acoustic evaluation, they often need some basic hardware and software measurement facilities, and at least some conditions for accurate measurement of the electric and acoustics of the products under test. Instead of casually performing acoustic measurements in an ordinary room with an amateur-level or non-standard environment, such tests often cause large measurement errors, and the results of these errors will eventually cause some confusion. . For example, someone has such a point of view: "The frequency response curve of a speaker is good, but the sound is not necessarily good", I agree with this point. But some people say that "the frequency response curve of a good-sounding speaker is not necessarily smooth", which is absolutely wrong. If the frequency response curve of a speaker is not flat, it means that the direct sound you hear is wrong. Nice is also an inaccurate sound of a deceptive sound. If what you hear is not an accurate sound, no matter how good it is, it does not belong to that kind of sound in the true sense. In the audiophile audio industry, our experience is to evaluate this way. A really good audio must first be physically and accurately measured to meet a basic requirement, and then subject to a subjective listening evaluation.

    For professionalism, the requirements for the measurement environment and facilities are relatively strict. I don't know much about the current testing conditions in the domestic media, but according to my understanding, it may not be easy to do at present. In the current evaluation, not only the multimedia industry, but also the audiophile world is included, and it is also stuck in the entanglement of second-order measurement elements that are not very important to sound.

    For example, the current "frequency response" test: In fact, the frequency response of the speaker includes the axial direction and directivity. Most of the tests now only measure the axial direction, but not the direction, and lack the test of the horizontal and vertical directivity. Many people say that a good test may not necessarily sound good, and that has something to do with it. During the test, only one part was measured, and there was no comprehensive measurement. Even if the horizontal directivity and vertical directivity are measured, the sound power measurement and so on are still required. That is to say, the frequency response test is only part of the test, not the whole.

    In addition, there are many important indicators for testing speakers, such as distortion under high power, dynamics, speaker fatigue resistance, listening tolerance under high power sound pressure, and so on. At present, the entire commentary is limited by certain conditions and cannot perform in-depth measurements, but only superficial measurements. Such superficial measurements, which cannot accurately reflect the actual electro-acoustic performance, lead to inconsistencies between subjective evaluation results and objective measurement results. .

    So for domestic media, we very much welcome domestic media to cooperate with Swans. Our anechoic chamber is also open to the public, and we also help government departments to do some work in the inspection of export products. Due to the strict measurement results, we welcome major media to use our Asia's largest professional electro-acoustic anechoic chamber.

Question:

    As far as I know, Huiwei Group is still operating a liquor business, and the brand of liquor is quite famous in the industry, called Yuxiye. The more the wine is brewed, the more fragrant it is. Is this also true for making audio? At present, many manufacturers launch new products very fast, and this cycle is usually only two or three months. However, we always feel that Swans' product replacement cycle is very long. In many cases, a new generation of products will be launched in a year or even two years. Whether such a rigorous corporate style has a certain relationship with Swans' corporate culture.

    Mr. Yao:

    This is the case. Many people are very strange and ask me why Swans is always slow to launch products. I don't know if you have noticed one thing. In fact, many foreign companies are very similar to Swans. It is slow to launch products, but after launching products, they hope that there will be no major problems and it will be more perfect.

    We found that our Chinese counterparts have a problem, that is, they do it again, and then correct it if they are wrong. For example, our Duchy S400 speakers were tuned for 9 months just after tuning. The 9 months included time for continuous improvement of the speaker unit itself. For the average enterprise, after 9 months, it may be the time from product development to product decline. For Swans, 9 months is just a development period, so we try our best to solve possible problems in the product engineering development stage. This makes Hivi's products more durable, instead of having to listen to them for two days and then replace them, which will also waste consumers' money. For Swans products, users do not need to replace Swans speakers when changing computers. Listening to 10 years or using our speakers, this is what we hope most.

    Recently, the third generation of Swans S200 is about to come out. The power amplifier and speaker system have been completely upgraded. The third generation has forced the S200, which was originally positioned in the mid-range, to the high-end. It seems that the market has given Swans the positioning and The expectations are so great, haha.

    Author: It seems that the principle of this winemaking is the same as that of Hivi’s products. Only after repeated debugging can an excellent product be obtained; More classic and intriguing.

Question:

    The following question may be of interest to many friends. Many friends sigh when they talk about the profits of multimedia speakers, multimedia speakers are "profitable". As the chairman of the largest audio company in China, what do you think of the statement that multimedia speakers are "profitable"?

    Mr. Yao:

    I think the market is fair. If you want to think that the product is profiteering, then the customer will be the best judge. If he buys your product, it means that he does not think that you are profiteering. That's because your product attracts customers for some reason, so you can sell it. Now many people see that Swans is doing a good job in high-end multimedia, and also hope to enter this market. But they forgot one point. They didn't take the product seriously, and often just made the price and appearance, but didn't take seriously the weakest electro-acoustic link of the system. In this case, the product entered the market quickly and went too fast. fast situation. So a lot of things are determined by the market, and Hivi's products are not so simple because they use the best raw materials.

    Remember: Respect consumer intelligence and judgment.

    From the perspective of Swans itself: because the speaker unit has always been the speaker, Swans can optimize the entire system, and it will not modify its own concept according to the special needs of certain links. Therefore, Swans' products have been relatively stable in the market. Based on sound quality, speakers are used for listening, so sound quality is its basic requirement. Just like food must be delicious, Hivi's products have maintained this concept and pursuit for so many years: that is, my voice is good, I am looking for a good voice! Swans has been developing in recent years. Of course, multimedia is an emerging market for us, and we are very happy to be involved in this market.

Question:

    In everyone's eyes, HiVi is an innovative audio company, both in terms of technology and products. How do you understand corporate innovation? Is an innovative company a good company?

    Mr. Yao:

    It's not like that, a business that can make money is a good business. We have been nurtured by foreign corporate concepts for a long time, and our business philosophy is more inclined to Westerners, so we advocate innovation. There are several types of companies: first-class companies sell standards, second-class companies sell brands and technologies, and third-class companies sell sweat. In second-class enterprises, brands are also supported by comprehensive factors such as technology and market. Therefore, selling brands and technologies is actually selling something that others cannot do, that is, innovation! For so many years, Swans has been regarded as an elderly person in domestic enterprises. Why it can do better and win awards in a row explains the truth, and shows that the "root" of Swans' good at "innovation" has not changed, and it is still Continually strengthen. This innovative concept of Swans also makes us taste the sweetness, which also lays a very good foundation for the long-term healthy development of the company.

Question:

    Efficient and smooth distribution channels are the key factors that determine the success or failure of an enterprise. The current product sales of Swans exist in two forms: self-operated stores and agent authorized stores. Do you think there is some conflict in such a state of existence? Mr. Yao, how do you think we can truly achieve efficient and smooth channels?

    Mr. Yao:

    The conflict is manifested in the specific sale of a Swans speaker, or a certain pressure on both parties when the speaker is sold. But that's okay, it's good for consumers, consumers can make comparisons. Overall, this sales model is beneficial because it allows a brand's products to have more opportunities to reach consumers. Moreover, in the Swans store, we can let consumers know whether the sound quality and potential of a certain speaker are good or not because of a standardized placement and sound audition. But consumers can make choices when buying, which should be a good thing.

    Author: Thank you very much Mr. Yao for accepting our interview during his busy schedule.

    Hearty, professional and enthusiastic is the deepest impression left by Swans President Yao Hongbo in this interview. Swans Group's current achievements are inseparable from Swans' Yao Dashuai. I hope that HIVI Huiwei can go better and better under the leadership of President Yao, so that the world can taste the power of China's electro-acoustic industry!