The 19th Shenzhen International Audio Show, or SIAS 2025 for short, is a new audio show to me in a city that I have passed by but never spent any time in.
Shenzhen
Shenzhen is essentially the Chinese equivalent of the USA’s Silicon Valley.
Located on the border with Hong Kong, the city has experienced remarkable growth over the last two decades, becoming not only one of the largest and most modern cities in the country but also one of the most industrious.
Chances are, if you have bought something from Temu, Shopee, AliExpress, or even Amazon Marketplace, that product likely came from Shenzhen or nearby.
Heck, you only have to go to the city’s premier tech area, Huaqiangbei, to get a flavor of just what is on offer here from vast floors of phones, used and new cameras, hair dryers (yes, that’s a thing right now), PC and video gear.
Be prepared to haggle and consider bringing a Mandarin-speaking friend to secure the best price if you are in the market for some shopping.
SIAS 2025 In A Few Words
Of course, if it’s the latest and greatest audio gear you are after, then the SIAS 2025 was the place to be from August 15th to 17th. Located at the Shenzhen Exhibition and Convention Center in Futian, it hosted some of the latest portable and desktop audio gear from China and around the world.
It’s a huge show, bigger than CanJam Shanghai and one of the biggest outside of the Hong Kong AV show, with a stronger focus on portable audio than the HK equivalent.
Brilliantly organized by Shenzhen Audio, the SIAS 2025 booths are populated by many well-known brands such as HIFIMAN, FiiO, MOONDROP, SMSL, Cayin, Sony, Stax, HiBy, and iBasso, to name but a few.
Central themes for SIAS 2025 seemed to place a heavy focus on retro-styling, with tons of new portable CD players on offer, as well as a stronger emphasis on classic decoding platforms such as 1-Bit and R-2R.
We also had some big announcements, including new flagship headphones from MOONDROP, an incredibly cool retro-styled modular CD player console from DUNU’s expanding Concept line, the TOTL FiiO M27 DAP made its debut, and HiBY teased us with their high-end RS8 II DAP announcement due out later this year.
Beyond that, there was a plethora of interesting new headphone and IEM releases from TRN, AFUL, Unique Melody, LETSHUOER, SIVGA, Tangzu, and even more tube dongles to choose from Shanling and OXVA.
I honestly could not get around half of what was on offer, so apologies if I did not cover your favorite brand or gear.
iBasso Audio
This was the first stall of SIAS 2025 that I visited. iBasso had about everything they are currently offering at the store in the middle of the arena, plus some Anime models thrown in for some additional ‘Asian flavor’.
The star of the show for me was their new D17 portable DAC Amp. What has it got inside that beautiful chassis? It has dual DAC decoding, including 1-BIT and R-2R, as well as Korg NuTubes for balanced amplification output at up to 1.2W.
It also has a separate battery for the DAC and amplifier with a 24-step attenuator for analog volume control with independent digital volume adjustment.
It sounded super quiet using the PMG Audio Apx and the UM Multiverse Mentor IEMs I had brought to the show. No signs of noise, despite some loud show conditions, sounding very pure, natural, and expansive.
I will review this one, along with the new AMP17 card for the DX340, in due course, but for now, the D17 looks like it could well be a stiff competitor to the likes of the Cayin C9ii and even put the D16 Taipan in the shade.
One other surprise showing at SIAS 2025 was iBasso’s new desktop amplifier called the Kunlun (no global price yet). I could not get anywhere near it, though, with plenty queuing up to try it out.
What I can tell you is that the Kunlun is capable of up to 7.4W into a 32Ω, uses a linear PSU, is made of solid CNC’ed aluminum, and delivers balanced and single-ended outputs. I should be reviewing this when it comes out, so I will have more details on how it sounds by then.
FiiO
FiiO had a fairly extensive lineup at SIAS 2025, including some important announcements, which included their new flagship M27 and a higher-end portable CD player, the DM15.
The M27 is not due out until Sept/October, if memory serves me correctly, but they already had a few demo units at the booth for everyone to try out, and that is exactly what I did.
The TLDR is that it’s a big step up in resolution, sounding more reference-like and balanced in FR emphasis over the M17. I would still class the sound as neutral to natural, but it sounds more life-like than the older flagship.
It’s also a beast of a DAP, size-wise, with black and silver versions coming out. The form factor and overall look aren’t terribly different from the M17. FiiO has retained the same cyberpunk design language, with refinements in screen quality and a new volume dial design, to name but a few.
Inside, the M27 uses a dual ESS ES9039SPRO DAC, a Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6490 processor, 8GB of RAM, runs Android 13, with Bluetooth aptX lossless. It also offers optical and coaxial outputs and USB 3.0 connectivity.
It has a similar power system to the M17, so expect it to come with a desktop fan stand. When connected via DC, you can get up to 5W of balanced output power. I will drive most headphones with ease.
The DM15 CD player was also on display at SIAS 2025. I quite liked this little player. Clearly a step up in resolution over the DM13 with a richer control suit and a more analog sound quality courtesy of its 24-bit R-2R decoding capability. Like the M27, it also supports aptX Lossless Bluetooth transmission.
It’s more or less the same form factor as the DM13, but looks more refined in its machining and interface. There will also be a matching DM15 DAC version coming out shortly after, if that takes your fancy, though it was not on show at SIAS 2025.
The DM15 price is around $280 to $299 USD when launched, but do not quote me on that. Things can change fast these days. Whatever the price, we will be reviewing both the DM15 and the M27 when they come out on Headfonics.
Cayin
Cayin had three new noteworthy products on display at SIAS 2025. This included a new entry-level dongle, the RU3, a very cool-looking tube-based CD player called the CP6, and the recently announced HA-6AMK2 desktop tube amplifier.
I won’t say much on the HA-6AMK2 because the showroom was much too noisy to be able to do any serious reference listening, but visually, it’s got a refreshed tube guard similar to the Soul 170P aesthetics.
The PSU is now similarly split from the main amp to the HA-300MK2, and it is still EL34/KT88 compatible, but this time, no manual switching at the back is required.
From my brief listening, the sound is very natural to sweet-sounding, with no issues on the potential for bass bloat or a rubbery low-end whatsoever. I would have loved to compare this to my HA-300MK2 sitting in the office, as the staging performance on the HA-6AMK2 was also quite impressive.
I can only discuss what I saw regarding the new ‘tube’ CP6 CD player at SIAS 2025, as the ‘hidden’ unit shown to me was not available for demos.
However, it looks beautiful with a nice retro finish to the aluminum exterior, one which reminds me a little of the Concept C from DUNU. However, unlike the DUNU unit, the CP6 ideally retails for under $500, but again, do not quote me on that.
Its JAN6418 tube setup and quad CS43198 DAC internal setup seem pitched to directly compete with the Shanling EC Zero T, a player which we will also be reviewing very shortly.
HIFIMAN
The HIFIMAN SIAS 2025 stall was super busy for the entire 3 days. Unsurprising, since they have a whole new lineup of headphones, including the HE600, the Special Edition XV, the Ananda Unveiled, and the Audivina LE.
All of them were there, but due to the noise of the show, I won’t offer too much insight. I can say we will have all four reviews coming out in due course from Nihal and Louis, so stay tuned for that.
One noted observation is that the Special Edition XV surprised me with its modern, warm, and rich sound signature.
The previous Edition XS did have a nice bass tone, but this seems to take that thinking to the next level with equally embracing mids and highs. The XV design also looks classy for its $399 price point, so I get a feeling this one will sell very well indeed.
HiBy
I was delighted that Steve Lin, the product manager of HiBy, attended SIAS 2025. Whether directly or indirectly, Steve and I have worked with each other going back to around 2016 with his previous work on the excellent Fidue A91 Sirius.
I am not surprised HiBy snapped him up, such is his ‘nous’ for good tuning and excellent product design. The new design language for the R4 DAP and the new W4 are two excellent examples of mixing youthful, fresh designs with desirable features and good performance.
HiBy had many new products at SIAS 2025, including their new R6Pro II 2025 DAP, an upgraded version of the R6Pro II 2023 unit we previously reviewed, with more power under the hood by popular request.
The W4 is a close sibling to the R4 in terms of design language. This is a small DAC/Amp with BT capability and something similar to FiiO’s BTR17 in terms of use case scenarios, meaning you need a source unit alongside it, such as a smartphone in OTG or BT mode.
It looks fresh with a broad range of colors (the lime version in the picture above was my favorite). Price point is around $100 with a dual Cirrus Logic CS43198 DAC inside, a 1500mAh battery, and a Qualcomm QCC5181 BT5.4-capable chipset.
Their final announcement at SIAS 2025 got my spidey senses tingling: a new flagship to replace the RS8 DAP from 2022 called the RS8 II with HiBy’s signature Darwin architecture (presumably R-2R or 1-bit) and a Snapdragon 8 Gen2 8-core chipset processor.
Nothing more than that was announced, so as for how it sounds, looks, and how much it costs, we will have to wait and see until later in the year.
Click on page 2 below to read more of my SIAS 2025 Show report.
Click on page 3 below to read the final part of my SIAS 2025 Show report.
