how could this be possible?

just how could this be possible? ken, a bass freak and a lover of ass-kicking ATC speakers, praising, for the first time, my maggie's performance? it is like bon jovi telling karen carpenter that he likes her music.

i had a fabulous weekend. my story goes like this...

my closest hifi buddy, ken, has been on hifi sabbatical for the last 3 years due to work commitments. before that, we used to talk day and night about hifi, with him stationed in ipoh and me in kl. ken was the one who introduced me to high-end cables and for that i am eternally grateful to him.

ken knows his hifi like a guru and is one who doesn't mince his words - straight-talking, no-nonsense guy. in hifi preferences, we are also world apart yet we share common fundamental beliefs, that's why we click so well and respect each other. ken likes his hifi live, loud, and dynamic whereas i like my hifi tubey, classy and intoxicating. it is then easy to understand why ken loves ATC and behemoth solid-state amps like jeff rowland. for the record, he has never praised my system whole-heartedly, because he thinks my maggie can't do bass and is dynamically wanting.

but that was before yesterday, when he visited me for the first time in the last 12 months.

the first disc i played for him is rickie lee jone's "pop pop" and almost instantly, ken uttered, "i like this! you system has never sounded like this before?!". was it a question or a statement? he meant the highs and the mids. he thinks my highs used to sound glamorous, showy and a tad thin in the past. then i proceeded to play a lot of complex and juice-sucking, dynamic stuff - including my current fave, teddy robin goes to movie, the cd with 6 fabulous drummers on rotation - while blasting the volume way beyond 90db. ken kept mum for a few moments; the silence is deafening. he looked baffled as he uttered in total disbelief, "how could this be possible? this is maggie being pushed by only 120 watt of 6550 triode, furchristsake!"

i counted. he uttered the same sentence 3 times. i am not even sure he was talking to me or to himself.

then, almost as if he has regained he composure, he turned to me and said, "i have only ONE small gripe - and that's totally nit-picking - you vocalist's mouth is not as small as it used to be". i answered, non-chalant, "yes, i know, i haven't really bothered to tweak it yet". did i say ken is a man of few words when it comes to giving understated, positive assessment?

just how could this be possible? ken, a bass freak and a lover of ass-kicking ATC speakers, praising, for the first time, my maggie's performance? it is like bon jovi telling karen carpenter that he likes her music.

it is my time to regain my composure. i pointed to one small inconspicuous silver fascia black box at the back of my hifi rack and said to him, "you know why? it is all because of this."

and that small little silver-plated black box is called shunyata hydra 4.