[click to enlarge]

to know how developed hifi is in one country, just look at the kind of hifi-related jobs that get spinned off from the hobby.

philip leung in HK, an EE (electrical engineer) by training owns a business that deals with audiophile power system consulting. in a word, he goes around audiophiles' homes to advise and commission an audiophile-approved power management system for their hifi and av systems. this would include installation of premium-grade ELCB, fuses and cabling, power conditioner, earthing of ground cable, stand-alone power stations and the like.

philip has hands-on experience from working with major telcos and IT data centres in HK, which includes a stint in IBM hong kong as the head of data center. such credentials are justifiably more impressive than your normal chinese electrical contractors you find in malaysia.

i wonder if audiophile power system consultant will find a niche in a market like malaysia. if so, how much are you willing to pay for such a service? now i have given you some ideas to start a niche biz ;-)

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Call uncle soh if in Sg

Check

http://www.echoloft.com/hifi-forum/index.php?topic=2113.0

Anonymous said...

Is there an equivalent in Malaysia?

Anonymous said...

I think very difficult in Malaysia,

People use Hi-Fi to show off You cant see good power supply mah!!!

Anonymous said...

Dear Maggielurva,

I am an old man ,an I love Hi-fi very much.
I can tell you that I have wasted lots of money on hi-fi....I keep changing my amps,my speakers,my source ..One day I built a dedicated room,put really good power supply,got Richard gray for every elctronic souce and you know what?Every So called junk sound gloriuus in the system!!!!the cheapest amp,the cheapest speakers, Cheapest CD players>>

So to me These are the most important things in Hi-fi:
!]Good Power Supply

2]Good Cables and cords;simple..hi-fi need to change electronics energy to sound energy so the cables must be top grade..

3]good acoustic

everything else would be easy of you get the above right
3]

Anonymous said...

I personally think in Malaysia ,Multichannel home theatre is bigger than 2-channel

In trutht though a lot of people are not aware about what is needed to start in this hobby..

one of the best way is to demonstrate the better fidelity achieved in both pictures and sound when it come to
good clean ,power ..

Anonymous said...

I have been looking for one in ages111

The contractor just doesnt get what we need

Anonymous said...

maggie,

I find it amazing that Hi-Fi is so pravelent in HK

I feel things are more accesible and they generally get decent sound.And yup dealers there are knowladgeable.The folks in Audio Art Ipoh reminds me a lot like those folks in HK....
I also notice that a lot more people there understand what is needed to get good sound compare to us Malaysian .I mean look at the nombor of shops selling cables and accesories....
You know the sound that comes out in HK are always great .I mean ,they all live in really small space,hardly the best place to get good sound.

But r

Anonymous said...

I find it truly suprising that many audiophiles underestimate the value of good power management

I noticed that a lot more of the older audiophiles pay princely sum of dough to get the power supply right.
Could it be a lot of them uses tubes?Would clean power be as important if you uses Solid State?

Anonymous said...

This is My observationswith regards to this Topics;

1]TNB supply very corrupt ,inconsistent power.If you have a voltage meter you 'll know what I mean

2]The Shuckur and american plugs are much more superior to the UK plugs commonly used in Malaysia

3]A lot of Audiophiles are not aware the importance of good grounding.

4]Beware of bad power conditioners!!!!As far as I am concerned you are only save with Shunyata,Richard Gray or Audience.Be carefulWith A particular manufacturer who advertised a lot {I wont reveal the name here but I blew off almost 8k bcoz of their hype

5]clean your contact with good contact cleaner and contact enhancer at least once a month.You wouldnt know what you have been missing till you try these.If you use tube amp it becomes even more important esp at where the tubes are screwed in.I like Craig and Walker Audio]

CHEERS

Anonymous said...

To me it is only Shunyata Vs Richard Gray for power conditioner.

Shunyata Sound is more neutral,less show-off,More classy

Richard Gray gives glorius top-end and clean cymbals.If you use RG you MUST change the supplied cord with 20 amp High tension wire..not cheap but my god what an improvement......

maggielurva 愛美姬 said...

hafiz,

there is more than TNB's voltage fluctuations that meet the eyes. it is a complex thing and it depends on the power loading of your area. i dedicate 1-phase for my hifi, i have the shunyata hydra, i have my earth cable grounded etc etc and i have perfect 240-245V reading on my voltmeter and yet i can't play my system on certain nights and certain times (ie. it sounds bad especially on sunday nights!) my best sound is always after 2am and early in the morning till noon. and of course, the more sensitive your system is, the more you are susceptible to "imperfect" power supply. i don't know how TNB stands against other power companies in other countries in terms of providing "good" electricity.

hi rozario, fischer
i have documented at length in my previous posts the pros and cons of hydra vs richard gray. if you are tired of richard gray after a couple of years (like me), try the shunyata and you will be amazed how you will get a completely "different" sound. to fischer, the best power cord for the RGPC to me is actually harmonic technology PRO-AC11 - i have compared it with high tension wire, it wins hands-down!

loh,
yes, tube gear is more susceptible to bad electricity. it is still plaguing my system but i have learn to accept it now. so when it doesn't sound good, i just switch it off and do something else.

aboon,
you are always the funny man!

eric,
no, there is no such expert in malaysia. local electrical contractors have no inkling of what audiophiles want for their power supply.

ho,
HK is a paradise for hifi, no comparison! one reason why hifi doesn't flourish in malaysia is because we have low purchasing power caused by our currency vis-a-vis our earnings. this is an entirely different topic worth discussing on its own!

Anonymous said...

Is there a local dealer for Harmonic Tech In Malaysia?

If not will get it the next time I travel to Europe.

I went through your old post on the Shunyata Vs RG...superb piece!!!

Will buy the Harmonic Tech best on your recommendation..

Anonymous said...

I think The problem with TNB is that the copper wire that they use is very,very impure

Because of that the voltage might be stablew,but the Quality is lousy.This is a very well known phenomena in Hi-fi
There is a very well engineered Hi-end electronics from france call Neodio that uses ultra hi-end components to built the amps because the engineer was puzzelled with the inconsistent
sound that he get despite "perfect ' measurement..

Anonymous said...

hi Maggielurva,great site!!

I think more and more of the Ultra- Hiend brand s are resorting to batery as the preffered source of power ,especially for amp.

Makes more sense isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Hi Pierre,
I;ve heard the Neodio amp in france{Friend's house]

I thought it was A SET amp that my friend hide,but turn out it was a SS intergrated!!!I think it's a bit like LAvarrdin..[but very expensive]
From what I gather the power supply in France is not that much better than here,and Neodio has been designed to minimized the effect of 'dirty' power.I dont think iit is available anywherein Asia' though

Anonymous said...

Maggie,
Hi again ,so sorry to bother again../*
Julian raised a very important point about battery -powered amp and these fingers just feel itchy...

Battery power can offer can offer far superior performance at very low frequencies,espicially for power amp BUT unless ALL of the components are battery-powered,power line noise can still enter through the system,and CAN still affect the battery-powered components through the ground circuit...

Making the ground as good as possible is the key to prevent the noise from entering

Sorry to be a bore!!!

CHEERS!!!!!

maggielurva 愛美姬 said...

hi fischer,

there is a singapore dealer for harmonic technology (used to be golden ear in adelphi but i think they are no longer doing it). you can ask those forumers in www.echoloft.com

remember it is PRO-AC11 not AC10 (nicknamed "fantasy", single-crystal)which is not that great. it retails for about USD250 only. i got mine 2nd hand from echoloft forum for only USD100! this is the best-kept secret for users of richard gray ;-)

pierre,
i am so glad that you understand what i am driving home about. no many people can. mabye their systems are not high-res enough, i guess. some even accused me of not trying out ps audio power plant and jumped to conclusion that TNB's problem cannot be solved. not many know that perfect stable reading (i.e. 240V) doesn't mean good electricity. it is the "purity" that counts. i can safely tell you that 6 out of 10 nights (from 8pm to 12 midnight)my system doesn't sound good due to bad electricity and yet i have a very complete power management system.

i even called richard gray personally and related my problem to him but he has no solution to it :-(

Anonymous said...

HI,
I read you old post on hi fi tips.Superb!!!

May I suggest;
1]u write a booklet on hi fi ,I find your advise easier to understand than RH

2]expand more on your hi-fi tips.Why not start with tips on power management?

Take care,wish you a long prosperous life!!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow Maggie,
You have Really got it My Man..You have really understood Hi -Fi

PS power premier is crap.Cant beat Shunyata,RG and Audience

I am truly amazed with your level of understanding maggie,so proud you are a fellow Malaysian!!!

Anonymous said...

Interesting comment about the PPP. I am happy with my PPP and my Isotek Titan though.

Cheers

Norman Audio (Malaysia) said...

Fischer,
If you're into top-end power conditioning, you may also want to try MIT Oracle AC2. It has both power filtration & power factor correction. We have the last unit of New-in-Box 2007 model that we want to make way for the 2008 version. Some of the top hi-fi/AV systems in Malaysia are using this. Due to the parallel network circuitry, all components connected to the same power line will benefit from the AC2 power cord, not just the component that the AC2 is powering.

Ho,
As a distributor, for top-class systems we work closely with MIT to suggest the best possible power conditioning for the customer. This is no mere lip service as it can be complex at times. Adding more power filtration does not guarantee better sound.

As a matter of fact, Oracle AC2 customers have replaced many of the power conditioners/power cords mentioned in this thread.