This is REAL!

Krell Transport and DAC - no upgrade plan on these as the owner does not play CDs much.

Krell Evo 2 Pre - the latest addition to the family, which bring so much refinement to MRA's raw power!

Krell MRA Power - raw muscles!

Grand Utopia on the left - huge!

Grand Utopia on the right - enormous!

Over the years, I have built up my belief that there could never be a setup capable in reproducing the live events. As I listened to more and more setups and attended more and more live events, it occurred to me that no setup could provide you the direct lifelike realism on par with listening to live events.

To newbies, I have convinced them many times that there’s no way any setup could mimic that real life events dynamic swing. When I attended the Fourplay performance in Dewan Philharmonics recently, I suffered from withdrawal syndrome that prevented me from touching my setup. That remained for at least a couple of days and I gave up hope in believing that there would ever be a setup able to give you that level of dynamism!

Just the week before I leave for SG, my perceptions changed. I was actually given the opportunity to pay a visit to our MY super hi-ender a visit. For years, I have heard about him. And I could only take a peep on his rigs from a HK website, how ironic is that?

Upon reaching the home of the owner, I knew I was in for a trip of my life! There were Krell CD transport, Krell processor, Clear Audio reference turntable, Krell Evo 2 pre, humongous pair of Krell MRA power amps and the gigantic JMLab Grand Utopias! For those MRA power amps, I swear I have never expected it to be that huge! And if that is not enough, there was another pair idling around! This is seriously hi-end setup and it literally blew me away!

We played both CDs and vinyls, however, it was with analogue that brought the best out of the setup! If you are still indulged in those prettier than life presentations of MBL and ARC, please wake yourself up. Do you have pinpoint localizations in real life events? Do you have tantalizing bloom? Do you go figure the center imaging? Forget about all those as those are false realism that we audiophiles are kidding ourselves into believing!

Have you ever attended any live musical events? As always, I have never failed to feel the excitement. Every one of them is like a journey where the musicians take you to joyrides. They never wait for you to recover from your exhilaration while you could analyze that bloom and texture. It’s all about effortlessness in bringing you waves after waves of musical vibration and the unforced dissipation of energy.

It is all about the transition from one energy form into another. From the movement of the musicians, to the vibrations of the instruments and finally to the sensations at our receiving end. It is a natural process just like God intended. The directness in the dynamic swing is so palpable and raw that no one would believe any human creation could recreate.

As I dig deeper into understanding how the live events sounded, I realized that this was actually IT. The sound that I was listening to right there and right then, this was as real as one could get! There was really no boundary as I was transported to the live events, I was no longer confined within the dimension and space of the room. I was greeted with a soundstage where the layering and depth, height and width were so seamlessly and naturally integrated. In a word, palpable!

At this performance level, the mentioning of highs, mids and lows is irrelevant. I just immersed myself in musical escapades and forget about the rest. If you want to impress me with how loud your 1812 can go, try harder, and try real hard!