richard allen ls 3/5a and spendor are the main speakers on duty
in malaysia, well before audiophiles heard of wiliam johnson (ARC), harry pearson (TAS) and jim winey (MAGNEPAN), all legends in their own rights, we have peter leong, the veteran audiophile.
in malaysia, chances are if you are a seasoned audiophile, you would have heard of the name peter leong. i have long been wanting to feature pete in my blog cos he does make an interesting story to me. pete finally relented, provided i don't feature his face in my blog. pete is a humble bloke, you see.
it must be more than 5 years ago when i first know pete. at that time, i advertised in the star's audiomart to sell my siltech, which i bought from ELPA (do they still exist in s'pore?) back in the late 80s. see, my fixation with silver started way way back in the 80s! pete was the first one who came to my house. i remember him being a tough bargain hunter. i sold both the siltechs to him, following by my REL strata 2 subwoofer. i didn't contact pete after that transaction.
fast forward to 2006. i reacquainted with pete 3 months ago when i bumped into him regularly in audiomatic in amcorp mall. one thing leads to another, and before long, we become pally. besides hifi, there is another thing that unite us - food, glorious food.
to write about pete, you must first be intrigued by his passion in hifi, fine food and women, the later i won't reveal much here. suffice to say that pete has more than 40 years in hifi, enough for you to write a book on him.
being an avid music lover, pete had his own band, called the strangers, even when he was a teenager in the 60s. strangers played in school parties and other fun outings. pete admitted that playing in the band was the cool factor that made him a chick magnet. i have no reasons to doubt pete’s popularity with women.
pete also made his own guitar amps. his first piece of hi-fi was the stereogram console, something like a turntable with attached console and speakers. pete remotely recalled that the brand was “PYE”. it played EP (extended play) records at 45 rpm. At his time, an EP only cost RM5 a piece. beatles and the shadows were the rage during those days and their LPs can be had for RM12 at popular music outlets like those found in Penang’s Campbell Street. just like any happenig teenager, pete’s happy days were spent attending dance parties and playing in the band at the local civic hall.
in the early 70s, pete bought his hi-fi from eastland trading. eastland carried brands like leak, harmon kardon and the solid-state phase linear, which was considered the krell of those era. a phase linear amp would cost RM5K++, hell lotsa money back then. coupled with JBL speakers, a basic “high-end” system would have set one back RM10K! with that kind of money, one can almost buy a house then!
according to pete, the hifi circle was small then because it was considered an expensive hobby. pete later owned lengendary amps like the mark levinson ML-2, ML-2 and ML-3, which didn’t change his life as much as his quad 2 and quad 22 tube amps. it was quad which led pete to become the tube aficionado today. in fact, some veteran audiophiles in malaysia called pete “the king of tubes”, a title that pete himself feel embarrassed to own up.
moved on to the 80s and pete fell in love with audio research (ARC) amps. it wasn’t too far-fetched to say that pete is the ARC pioneer in malaysia. back in those days, pertama audio was the dealer for ARC and pete was a regular customer of pertama. pete had owned such fabled pre amps such as ARC SP4, SP6, SP6B, SP8, SP10, SP11, SP14 and SP15. for power amp, he had owned ARC D70, classic 60, classic 30, classic 150 and VTM120. these are all classics in their time. pete has personally spoken to william z. johnson, the founder of ARC, during one of the CES in USA. pete told me that william’s all-time-favourite ARC amp is the dimunitive classic 30!
visiting pete’s house is an eye-opening experience. his collection of vintage hi-fi is awe-inspiring, to say the least. you are bound to find some esoteric vintage gear buried somewhere in this treasure throve he called his house. amongst pete's prized possessions are few unit of extremely rare tube testers (see pictures)that are out-of-production, and hundreds of vintage tubes of varied types and age. pete's workshop is impressive as well, complete with scopes and testing equipments which can make any DIYer green with envy.
i asked pete what equipment would make his desert-island gear, the kind that he would bring to a deserted island if ever there is such opportunity. pete pointed to his air tight ATM-1 power amp which he bought from japan and his treasured richard allen LS3/5a mini monitor speakers. he would also like to take his first sound passive pre along. of course, i know deep inside that pete would also bring along a woman with him, a complete necessity in an island.
does that mean pete does not appreciate modern hi-fi? pete reckoned that modern hifi has better parts/components and is more modern sounding, but he added that the lure of vintage hifi is akin to mum’s cooking, so familiar and so nostalgic. pete minces no words in telling me that he likes a certain kind of sound – warm, nostalgic, tubey, cosy, euphonic and intimate, so that practically rules out most of the solid state gear already!
pete’s parting shot is an advice his gave to budding audiophiles and novices: “use your own judgement; don’t be influenced by others; spend wisely and buy the music you like”. well said, pete, it may sound so simple but many audiophiles can still fail to appreciate this simple approach.
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I got to know this brand like 3 or 4 years ago when I was just starting out to venture seriously in this music loving hobby. Anywhere I came across, there seems to be someone raving and proclaiming Vimak to be one hell of a source. However, even then, the business was no longer in operation. It went busted..jpg)
With Jonathan Valin raving and praising the brand, how could I give EDGE a pass? I find myself agreeing mostly to Jonathan Valin, I guess he has the same taste as mine. Ops, or am I having the same taste as his?
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