My "trip report" from Shanghai last week:
I spent some time perusing the Opera gear in store. I didn't end up buying anything; the 220V gear means adding a step-up which I would really prefer to avoid. It adds cost and is detrimental to the sound. Try In (retailer) told me I can order a 110V model (Opera can supply a 110V) and it takes a week to get the unit. I was leaving a few days later, so it was impractical to order a unit and receive it this trip. The other thing that is a show-stopper is there is no headphone jack or line-outs on the Opera integrateds to add an external heapdhone amp. This is important to me cuz I would use the unit at work with my Senn 600's. They offer line-outs on their preamp but I'm looking for an integrated. The Opera Eric speakers at 4600RMB were interesting, seem like a damned fine transducer for the money.
I like some of the Cayin integrateds and they do have a headphone jack, but are 220V and cannot be ordered otherwise. At a negotiated price of 3100 RMB's for the 32 Watt Cayin integrated it still means tearing apart the power supply and retrofitting to 110V or going the step-up route, something I'd prefer to avoid. Didn't find any Shanling integrateds, mostly their low end solid state CDP's."
CAV likely stands for Cayin Audio Video? Just a guess. So... check out Cayin, Shanling, and Opera (Consannance). Great value but be aware of the voltage input issues if your friend intends on using the gear in North America.