i don't care what the reviewers said, i don't like this JB album. he is "not beautiful" anymore.
"back to bedlam" was outstanding, "all the lost souls" is literally lost on me.
at times, mr. blunt even sounds like barry gibbs.
in my years of listening to music, very few sophomore albums can outdo the originality and freshness of ideas of the debut album.
so i am wrong, my dealer actually finds the k-s emotion quite palatable. according to him, "it gives a different flavor from that of stage III concepts".
so what do i know? this reviewer is definitely not golden ear :-(
lucky you, kubala-sosna is most likely going to land in malaysia!
i have a love-hate relationship with antony michaelson's musical fidelity (mf). love it because my first mid-fi integrated amp was the mf a100 and it allowed me to peep into high-end in more ways than one. hate it because antony is shrewed man of way too many ideas. the company never stops changing and making new models at such a breakneck speed, most of the latest models have little lineage in terms of both looks, build and technology from its predecessors. the result is no protection of investment for its products and customers failing to catch up.
mf has always been value-for-money. there were still plenty of followers in malaysia for its early products such as the a1 integrated amplifier (the subject of this article). when i was operating a 2nd hand hifi business in 2004, i was shocked to realize just how many audiophiles are (still) playing mf a1!
the first a1 was released in 1985. it produced 20w of class A power. if you are new to this amp, (or its bigger sibling the a100, which i owned in 1988 when i was a budding audiophile in s'pore) - it produced a prodigious amount of heat! the top corrugated plate was so hot that you can practically fry an egg with it! that was the joke then. i am not sure if the reborn a1 is still as hot.
the original a1 sold a whopping 200,000 units worldwide and it propelled mf to overnight stardom. in fact, i dare to say that mf in the next 20 years never quite repeats this feat.
to know a1 is to love a1. the a1 is sweet, warm, full and exciting, all attributes of class A sound. partnered with the right speaker, it sang like no tomorrow. the new a1 has a remote control, an USB port, a LCD display, still with the same striking and unique looks. and unlike the old a1, it does not sound "muddy" when it is pushed to the limits.
GA (global availability) for a1 is mid-april 2008 and the retail price is 999 pound (roughly RM6,000), not exactly cheap. when has classic been cheap?
Enquiries:
mr. tony lee
LTB enterprise (subang jaya)
019-3388577
yes, my dealer is ordering a unit of audio magic stealth mini reference for my sole evaluation.
my reviewing job is stacking up. with my day job getting hectic and coinciding with the post-production work of my audiophile album and the publication of av xpress, i am left with little time for reviewing. but i am always enjoying everything that life has to offer. apologies to readers who are waiting eagerly :-(
i am equally eager to know if this little box can do magic as it claims.
if a woman's looks can sail a thousand ships, then her voice can probably move mountains. that's exactly how i feel in the studio tonight, after listening to a few tracks off the album.
tonight, we celebrate the completion of 2v1g's recording. after an arduous 6 months, we have finally cleared the first hurdle and it is definitely a major milestone.
the recording is made difficult because of the nature of one-take (without edit). every little off-pitch notes by the singer - no matter how insignificant - is amplified in a very stark manner due to the minimalist approach of using just one guitar and a voice. every mistake is discernible and that puts a lot of stress on our singers. there were times when the going got tough, i.e. when the singers were not in their best conditions, and we normally called it a day on a futile note.
as we listen to some of the best chosen tracks, my producer quipped that "we better don't listen too much, cos some of these ballads can make us grown men cry". he is spot-on, i could feel my body shiver in total emotional involvement when i listened to regine tai's "tempting hearts", one of my all-time-fave ballads. it is such a tear-jerking interpretation; like what today youngsters call - very "emo" stuff.
what follows next is final mixing by our recording engineer and mastering by keith yip, the audiophile guru from HK, also the ex-boss of audiophile singer susan wong.
my engineer has mixed a track and let me listen on my home reference system. i am very pleased as the recording, even without mastering, is definitely audiophile quality.
barring any unforseen circumstances, we would be launching 2V1G in mid-may 2008.
i am sweating in anticipation. this is gonna be real good.
siltech forbes lake signature series interconnect
i am a true believer of cryogenic treatment. to my ears, cables which are cryogenically treated always sound better. siltech - the grandpa of silver cables - has gone one step ahead with its new SATT (siltech advanced termal treatment) technology.... is it just hype or is it revolutionary?
this is the subject of my review.... watch this space!
one of my dealers plans to bring in the audio magic http://www.audio-magic.com/ range of power conditioners and he asks me to conduct a survey in this blog:
[1] what do you think of it, as compared to current (malaysian) favorites like richard gray and shunyata?
[2] what is the characteristics of the sound as compared to RGPC and shunyata (which i have documented here extensively)
[3] would you consider looking for an alternative power conditioner if you already have one?
[4] what would be the price you are willing to pay for the entry model?
knowing how popular this topic is, i am looking forward to lots of feedback from you!
the bananarama girls - sarah and karen, minus siobhan
i just came back from "the best of 80s" concert in genting. i couldn't help but feeling a wee bit melancholic. don't blame me.
the concert boasts of 80s acts like johnny hates jazz, paul young, limahl (from kajagoogoo), howard jones and bananarama. you know you are old when you know who these people are. majority of the audience were uncles and aunties in their 40s, 50s and even 60s. it was surprising to find some obviously young 20-somethings among the crowd.
just when we were (8 of us) about to bask in the glory of the past, we were rather shocked to discover how old and aged our favorite singers have become. paul young ("love of the common people", "every time you go away", "everything must change"), is definitely not young with his terribly broken vocal chord, trying hard to impress with his piercing voice. it was torturous for us to bear with his broken voice. at least, he has plenty of showmanship to make up for his poor voice. howard jones, the one-man synthesizer band, is much better tho' his hair has completely gone white. jonhny hates jazz ("shattered dreams", "i don't want to be a hero", "turn back the clock") is no longer the same with a different lead vocalist who is not half as good as the original man but their catchy tunes stuck in my head for the long time. listening to "turn back the clock", it almost moved me to tears with its lyrics "i wish i can turn back the clock, to a time when love was so much better....". gosh, these are achingly thoughtful lyrics for some of us.
so when bananarama, the british fun girl trio (who was once the darling of trio-producer team stock-aitken-waterman (SAW) pop factory in the 80s), appeared, i was bracing for the worse. when i was a student in the 80s, karen woodward - the prettiest bananarama girl - was my poster girl. from what i could see, karen still looked good on stage, while sarah dallin has definitely grown old and slightly fat. "they must be in the 40s now", i uttered to myself. the two middle-aged women still prance and dance a lot on the stage, complete with synchronized dance steps, exactly the same as they did in the 80s. listening to "love in the first degree", "i heard a rumour" and "venus", my goose bumps were all raised....
i wonder if they perform for a living or as a hobby. some of these 80s artistes are obviously way past their shelf life. it is a sad thing if at this age you still need to act young to please the equally aging crowd.
so it was a night of reminiscing and nostalgia, and some morbid thoughts (about aging). one of the my classmates, who went for the concert, cracked a rather funny but morbid joke. he said if the organizer were to organize a "best of the 60s" concert, there would be very few audience.... cos most of them are not around anymore.
i know, i know, it is not about hifi. i am helping a friend to promote his movie blog here. he is an avid movie buff (especially indie movies) with excellent taste and he writes artistically and concisely - his reviews are one one-paragraph long! very very cool.
i have also added it as a RSS feed on the right panel.
do check it out regularly if you are a movie buff!
http://1minutefilmreview.blogspot.com/
我们排除万难终于能将广告放在部落格上面！
在此，我们要向以下的赞助商家致上万分的感激！
it takes hell lot of programming to get the ads (on the right panel) working!
finally, presenting to you readers both the premium ads and the rotating ads from our advertisers!
please show you support by clicking on the ads ;-)
our utmost gratitude to the following advertisers:
[premium ads]
[1] c&o audiophile enterprise sdn bhd
[2] hi-way laser electronics
[3] audio matic sales and services sdn bhd
[4] audio note (m) sdn bhd
[standard rotating ads]
[1] audio art sdn bhd
[2] centre circle audio sdn bhd
[3] cj audio
[4] cmy audio visual sdn bhd
[5] future technology sdn bhd
[6] dong fong enterprise
[7] home audio design
[8] tong lee
at the same time, we would also like to announce that av xpress will be out next tuesday, 25th march 2008.
arriving tomorrow, the stage III concepts vacuum gold reference interconnect...
arrrgggh, life is good ;-)
how should i describe colbie caillat's music? words like "effervescent", "spirited", "laid-back", "relaxing vibe" come to mind. in fact, colbie's music is like malibu, the place where she hails from. yes, it sounds like living by the beach with warm summer breezes and endless sunny days. i feel rejuvenated listening to this album. it is the kind of music you can play while having a quiet party with cool friends.
there is nothing profound or deep about her acoustic folk-pop music, but her mature lyrics belie her tender age. while i won't call colbie a perfect tunesmith, her melodies have a strong hook and sing-along ability. i really dig the opener "oxygen", which to me is the best track in the album. it has a beguiling melody that keeps repeating in my mind. other notable tracks are "bubbly", "feelings show" and "battle".
the first half of the album is excellent whereas the second-half is just average.
surprisingly, my malaysian pressing sounds rather good in its recording. it is raw and edgy in the good sense and as usual you have to crank up the volume to appreciate its full glory.
this album is not ground-breaking or attempt to offer anything new, but it is immensely enjoyable and listenable.
Oh, btw, i like this album better than any jack johnson's albums i've heard. jack has a lot of boring songs!
music: 8 out of 10
sonics: 7 out of 10
i deliberated in writing this post. because there are quite a few kubala-sosna supporters here and i am afraid i am going to get hate mails from them ;-)
to save you from reading the conclusion, i would just say that while k-s emotion has many virtues that impressed me, it doesn't win my heart the way stage III magnus did.
before i continue, i want you to know that this is a competition of a very high level so whatever shortfalls i mentioned are most likely system-dependent as well as user-dependent.
i suspect that k-s emotion does not like my shunyata hydra at all (apologies: it would be too troublesome for me to unplug my shunyata and validate this guess). as you well know (since i have documented it so many times here), the hydra is characterized by a very thick and "analogue" midrange, which coincidentally is also the case with the k-s emotion. hence the resultant midrange is overly thick and bulky, to the extent of being a tad sluggish, compared to the very fast, though thinner, and agile stage III magnus.
but k-s emotion most impressive traits are its midrange density and the bass weight. this are two areas that it wins substantially over stage III magnus. this alone leads me to suspect that it is made up of composite metals, which should include silver and maybe, gold. definitely this is NOT a pure copper cable. another winning trait is how natural, emotive and musical the whole presentation is. i could feel that the singer is singing for me, just for me. i truly love this aspect of k-s emotion.
the highs is an area where stage III betters k-s. for that matter, i will now proclaim that stage III cables have the best highs in the business. whereas k-s's highs are natural, stage III's highs are INTOXICATING. you really have to listen to stage III cables when matched with triode and ribbon tweeters to understand what i am talking about. also, stage III has richer colors in its tonal palette (i don't mean coloration!); the timbre from stage III is much more enticing.
to make sure that i am not biased, i actually dragged my audiophile buddy along to make the judgement collectively. he too preferred stage III magnus over k-s emotion on many counts, especially when it comes to revelation of details and fast-paced, uptempo music where PRaT is required.
i would also like to postulate that based on these observations k-s emotion suits solid-state systems more than tubes.
in the end, it is a case of NATURALNESS Vs INTOXICATION.
my review may not be definitive so i am passing the cables over to my dealer for their critical evaluation. after all they are the one who's gonna decide.
[conclusion]
listening to the k-s emotion makes me realize areas where my stage III falls short. i would love to have the midrange density and bass weight, and i think i could only get the COMPLETE package in stage III vacuum gold reference, which remains my ultimate upgrade within the next 6 months, and the subject of my next review.
[post-script]
i consulted my dealer in singapore, who once evaluated k-s emotion before. they concur with my observations.
i went to watch colbie caillat's (pronounced as "kay-lay") showcase in the curve tonight. i must say i fell in love with her simple and melodic music which conjures up images of clear skies and warm breezes.
i have heard about colbie few months back but i thought she is just another teeny-popper. but tonight she impressed me with her music, mostly acoustic folk, light pop/jazz that is easy on the ears. she has a unique voice. she is definitely better than jack johnson, the male singer she is often compared to.
colbie reminds me a lot of singapore's tanya chua (cai jian ya), one of the most talented singer-songwriters in the chinese pop scene.
i am going to get her album tomorrow!
stage III magnus - a gem of an interconnect
for some time, i have been puzzled as to why the current-generation (circa 2007/2008) stage III magnus (my reference interconnect) doesn't sound as good as the older-generation (circa 2005/2006) magnus, which i bought for RM6000 (USD1,500) for 1.5m XLR.
now that my dealer has lost the distributorship for stage III concepts, i pushed them for an answer to my puzzle.
apparently, when stage III first released my version of magnus, 2nd ranked interconnect after the USD5K (RM20K) vacuum gold reference (VGR), they didn't know that magnus is so good and so close in performance to the VGR. my dealer admitted that the magnus has 70% of the VGR's performance, at 1/3 the price. they brought in only 4 pairs to malaysia and i was the lucky owner who bought 2 pairs.
the problem with stage III concepts is they keep evolving (changing models and changing configurations), while supposedly increasing performance. when they released the current version of magnus in 2007, i borrowed a pair from my dealer and tried out. i wouldn't say the new magnus wasn't good but its winning attributes are all gone. the new magnus is way too refined and "dainty" and the way it compacts images (everything shrinks and becomes smaller!) is not to my liking. i expressed my views to my dealer but they didn't make much comments then.
now, i confronted them and they too, admitted that the new magnus is falling short of the old magnus. my dealer actually sent back the old magnus (my version) to stage III and demanded that they reproduce the same magnus using the same specs and materials, for the malaysian market. what happened was really surprising - stage III confiscated the old magnus but agreed to refund money back to my dealer.
so, what does this all amount to?
i don't really know and i don't want to guess but i am elated that i am the owner of 2 pairs of outstanding interconnects that can compete with the best of the best even at the USD3K price point (like the AQ sky and kubala-sosna emotion, the subject of my next review) ;-)
kubala-sosna emotion speaker cable
i also hooked on the k-s emotion speaker cable to replace my AQ volcano DBS.
kubala-sosna emotion interconnect
for an interconnect that cost well over RM10K (for 1.5m), kubala-sosna's packaging is rather modest and unassuming.
my first impression is a positive one. despite joe kubala's refusal to reveal to me the material for the cables, i could guess that it may contain silver, because the highs do not lose out to my stage III concepts magnus (which is my gold standard in highs), my reference for RM10K-and-below interconnect.
i was shocked when i found out that k-s cables do not need breaking-in. in that case, i would immediately point to its rather controversial character of a SLIGHTLY bloated midrange (just slightly). if we use an analogy of a woman's body - albeit a little sexist - k-s emotion would make jessica alba looks like angelina jolie, which may or may not be a good thing. on the same token, it would make gywneth paltrow looks like jessica alba, which is definitely a good thing!
on my system, which is a jessica alba (i.e. perfect figure, neither lean nor overly-endowed), k-s emotion is too "full-bodied" for my liking. however, the emotional delivery is ABSOLUTELY top-notch and it is fantastically natural. i have never come across cable that is so good in conveying the emotions of the music. this virtue itself is worth extolling.
despite kubala-sosna's claim of no need for breaking-in (which i don't quite believe cos it sounds way better after 2 hours), i would cook it for 2 days before i assess it again.
ad for our marketing campaign [click to enlarge]
malaysians have made history by helping themselves to vote for the opposition parties last weekend. what a marvelous and heart-warming change of political scene.
one has to admit that the new and alternative media like blogs played a big part in being the catalyst to disseminate first-hand information which is not covered (and often barred) by the mainstream media.
we at desirable audio boutique are equally excited that finally malaysians have come of age to embrace the alternative media and make their collective voices heard.
to this end, we would endeavor to bring even more readers to this blog in the near future.
we are going to start our marketing campaign - one of which is advertising with nuffnang, the asia's blog advertising community - to bring in more young readers. admittedly, we don't have any budget but we would work around our constraints.
we are at a new dawn indeed.
Well this isn't ground-breaking news but did you know that car audio can sound as good or better than a similarly priced home audio setup or pretty close to an actual life performance if the foundations are looked upon and tweaks are employed?
For the past 10 years a crowd of well-wishers have thought that car audio will move along with the technologies found in Pro-Audio and AV applications, such as time-alignment (Delay), electronic crossovers (to filter off frequencies going to your speakers drivers), electronic EQs (parametric and graphic equalizers), little did they know that it caused the equipment to sound even worst than before. Yes, of course CD players sounded better and offered more convenience than the cassette deck but over time, cheaper and cheaper CD players were introduced, forcing to us a sound that is very digital and artificial. Thin, emotionless and boring is how I describe it, which makes us miss our analogue cassette deck at times. New players came with even cheaper components, plastic lens, puny non-discrete power supplies but a whole lot of features ITELU! (I tell you :P) Technology triumph over quality! Players now come with MP3, iPod ready, USB ready and one day, it will even make you drinks!
It is still a misconception that many people with car audio systems like loud, deep thumping bass or fancy blinking lights to impress the passengers. Fortunately, it is not true because there are also groups of audiophiles and music lovers in the car audio scene.
These are guys that go for pure decks, with no fancy dials,no built in amplification and features but a player that deliver the best reproduction possible from the media. Car audio cd players from makers like Mcintosh, Denon, Fujitsu Ten comes into mind. Some of the commercial brandnames like Clarion, Alpine and Pioneer have pure decks that are worth considering at their respective price points.
What is really holding back the performance of car audio to achieve similar pleasures that our 2ch home audio can produce lies in the basic foundation. Acoustic for one. Yes, the car is a more hostile environment for good sound but can it be remedied or cured? If in Japan, they can solve small room problems with tweaks, why can't we solve acoustic problems in the car?
Power supply is another flaw. In car audio, power delivery to your cd player and amplifiers can be a major hindrance to the actual potential. By changing equipment alone without addressing power management is probably one of the most common mistakes of installers in the industry. Beefing, conditioning, regulating, isolating etc. can help make cheaper setups outshine expensive ones.
Cables are important in car audio, although longer runs are really damaging to the pocket. Typical car audio cabling is simply insufficient. Imagine putting Monsters and Stingers in your audio path. My goodness, what is wrong with these guys. Even an entry level Transparent, VdH, XLO, Supra, Ixos is a much better choice and not suprising similarly priced compared to top-of-the-line car audio cables. Keep cables short by installing the amplifier under the front seats. Go to the extent of using good high-end silver cable if you have a spare from your home audio. Trust me, you will never want to take them out. 1.5 meter pair will be sufficient in most cases, if not 2m pair.
Finally, car audio speakers suffer mainly from crossover issues. Does that cheap little box that comes with your component speakers work? Oh yes, they do but they sound pretty crappy. They sound okay to me, some kid will say. Hey, kiddo we want good, excellent, marvelous, out of the world... and okay is not in my vocabulary. Does that high-end cd player or shiny amplifier with built in electronically controlled crossovers able to do a job of a purpose build custom passive network (crossover)? Hell, no! Are we all being taken for a ride by the manufacturers? No, but you've been taken via a short-cut with zero scenery.
So, the next time someone tells you it is a waste to invest in a car audio system, tell him/her to pay a visit to Audio Creations, a niche car audio dealer that did not sway along with the industry towards the no-where-land, but dedicates itself to bringing music to your automobile in the most interesting ways. It is by no means rocket-science.
Someone posted this in a local forum today. http://consumerist.com/362926/do-coat-hangers-sound-as-good-monster-cables. It claims that a home-made coat hanger interconnect sounds as good as an aftermarket Monster cable. Although I am not a fan of Monster cable and the character it gives, I find the extreme claim a little preposterous. After reading the article, there were comments left by some readers that they agree interconnects or RCA cables make very little significance in both home or car audio. Are they seriously deaf or did God not give them ears?
pioneer, as a brand, is known as a mass consumer electronic brand. its closest and most successful brush with two-channel audio was the pioneer A400 integrated amp many years ago, which was touted as the budget king of integrateds. can you believe that now pioneer wants to venture into high-end?
pioneer is the parent company of TAD (technical audio devices), a famous pro and home audio badge and as a result, it adopts many trickle-down technology from TAD's top-range speakers. the result is S-1 EX speaker - pioneer's latest assault with high-end.
andrew jones of TAD designed this pioneer beauty. under andrew's leadership, a multi-national team reconfigured the TAD beryllium technology into the 145 lb, three-way, USD$9000/pair pioneer S1-EX. it uses coincident tweeter-midrange array, with the midrange unit being magnesium cone.
stereophile has awarded the S-1 EX as "the speaker of the year". according to them, the pioneer floorstander sounds fast, dynamic, detailed and transparent. those who’ve admired the sound of the speakers from TAD, but could not afford them will find the pioneer a cheaper alternative, alto' RM49,000 is far from cheap.
for brand snobs who look down on pioneer as a serious audiophile badge, you are invited to hi-way laser to hear it yourself:
Hi-WAY LASER ELECTRONICS SDN BHD
11A, JALAN SS2/75,
47300 PETALING JAYA
MALAYSIA
+603.7873.8325
+6019.281.3399 (kenny sin)
http://www.hiwaylaser.com (map inside)
Guys, let's welcome the maiden review from my reviewer, T-Bone
alan tam, the godfather of hong kong cantopop, bulging tummy notwithstanding, is going to re-record his best-selling and legendary 1984 album "the origin of love" [愛的根源], complete with orchestra and chinese instrumentation and the title of this new album is a pompous "the best sound ever reborn".
"the origin of love" is without doubt the single most successful and influential album of its time, spawning many memorable hits and breaking into charts and winning countless awards for alan tam.
certainly a good news to younger audiophiles but to purist like me, why not leave a classic as it is and leave the perfect memories intact? besides alam tam today is not alan tam of 1984, especially his aged vocal chord. look at how disastrous air supply's audiophile album is (see under music review).
how to spot a rich audiophile
i am going to open a can or worms, so arguments/opinions are welcome.
you know, one thing you can't deny about audiophiles in malaysia, and this is not a generalization but a fact admitted by many local hifi dealers - that those who buy expensive high-end stuff are mainly chinese-educated. the biggest wilson, the biggest marten, the biggest audio research... most big things are owned by chinese-educated audiophiles.
why is that the chinese-educated ones (heck, some not even educated) are more willing to spend on hifi? do their money come easier than those english-educated ones? or, are most of them their own bosses hence they earn easy money? do they live life with a different philosophy? or are they simply more serious audiophiles?
are the english-educated ones more prudent on their spending? or because they are normally the middle-class and hence have less disposable income?
i want to do a mini research on this, and you input is appreciated.
come, voice out! (the good ones will get his opinion published in av xpress!)
disclaimer: i don't mean to comparmentalize audiophiles or insinuate chinese-educated audiophiles as i myself am chinese-educated.
the first time i "tasted" the forbidden apple, adam, short for advanced dynamic audio monitor, was in TIS recording, the HK audiophile label (with artistes like le mon and fong sum lui) started by chang and vili. as fans of TIS recording can attest, TIS's sound is one of extreme transparency, openness and sometimes, over-the-top high frequencies. in the right systems, TIS cds can sound a million dollar.
adam is german and it was founded in 1999 primarily as pro audio studio monitor brand. in only a few years, adam has established itself as one of the 3 world-leading manufacturers of professional monitors and this success prompted adam to advance to home audio. their famed tweeter, called the ART (advanced ribbon technology) tweeter has much to do with producing high frequencies that are well-extended, open, airy and precise, a criteria that today's audio engineers demand.
adam offers both active, semi-active and passive loudspeakers as they believe each option has its merits. featured here is the entry model, gamma, from the top-end series called tensor. gamma has both active and semi-active version, the active one equipped with a 250W amplifier that drives its proprietary hexacone woofer. gamme uses adam's new X-ART (extended ART) transducers for the mid and high frequencies, which results in even greater clarity, airiness and precision.
folks, let's face it. when it come to tweeter technology, you can have your beryllium, ceramic, diamond or whatnots but nothing can quite compete with ribbon for practicality, cost/performance ratio and sheer musicality.
adam has eaten the forbidden audio apple in audio matic in amcorp mall and eugene ngoh is there to offer more apples....
contact:
eugene ngoh (012-3222698)
audio matic sales and services
