stupendous (part II)

the flying cable

the extent crazy audiophile goes to have clean and direct electricity


if there is one word to describe my progress in the last 5 days, i can choose from either one of these cliches - stupendous (again!), exhilarating, astounding, earth-shattering, OMG (oh my god), shocking, out-of-this-world, jaw-dropping and many other such superlatives. or, maybe even with all these adjectives combined, it can't come close to what i experienced tonight with little john as a guest listener. (it is 3am in the morning; little john has just left reluctantly).

getting the LS26 is only half of the story told; the tip of the iceberg if you will. what escalated the performance of my system to gargantuan proportion is the installation of a dedicated 3-phase electricity in my house.

readers of this blog would have remembered many moons ago, i bitched, complained, whined, practically made a big fuss about the constant poor quality of the electricity in my house. not even the respectable richard gray 600S can rescue this calamity. my house being located at the last chain of the terrace row, is the recipient of the most polluted electricity. as a result, my system performs erratically, especially during 7pm-10pm, the time when everyone comes back from work and utilises all sorts of electrical appliances. i have borne with this frustrating problem for as long as i could remember. many a times, i switched on the system, listened to it for 5 minutes, feel disgusted and switched it off immediately. i finally stopped sitting on my butt and actioned on it last year to rectify it once and for all. and the super efficient TNB took bloody 7 months to process my application and get it done finally, only today. and by the way, if you see the photos above, you will know that my 3-phase is done differently. i practically "fly" the cables from the pole (which TNB planted) infront of my house, directly into my switch board. it takes the word "dedicated supply" to a new level!

big deal, i hear you say. many houses have 3-phase what. hey, you haven't heard my system tonight. little john was practically sitting still all night long (all 3 hours) listening to the inhaling and exhaling and superb vocal gymnastics of le mon (HK audiophile singer) and the exquisite cai qin signing her lao ge. he was completely speechless and mesmerised, lost for words. for a moment, i thought he was exorcised, or demonised. it was a magical night/morning.

the sound has acquired an eerie sense of quietness (far beyond what the richard gray can do); the soundstage goes deep, deep, deep; the highs get to a stratospheric level never before attained; the midband becomes pristine, crystalline and spooky; the black becomes blacker; the air and ambience become thicker....give me all the superlatives please, please, please.

if ever there was a milestone achievement in my 20 years in hifi, this is it.

i fucking can't sleep now :-)

postscript: the morning after
i woke up at 9am and played my system again. the sound is still great! i suppose for last night's stupendous performance to repeat, i will have to play after midnight where the electricity is the purest/cleanest, 3-phase notwithstanding. i am bracing myself for many night of aural orgasms to follow. oohh...aahh....ooh...ahh... stay tuned :-)