It's late and I am very tired! I've just spent more than eight and a half hours at the KLIAV 2009. With this post, I hope to bring some of the events and demo highlights, which I felt were worth some of your time, if you've not gone to see the show yet, and planing to do so within the next 2 days.

1) The Franck Tchang presentation hosted by CMY on the 4th floor was an entertaining 90 minutes well spent. Franck's presentation is at once humorous, spontaneous and informative about the topic of room treatment and his Acoustic Systems tuning cups!(what else do you think it would be?) It's very informal, workshop like and certainly fun presentation. Well worth you time to check it out, even if you're not convinced or never have an interest in Franck's designs. Whilst you're there, check out the latest Dynaudio and Jeff Rowland gears all strung up with Siltech Emperor cables!

2) The Swedish Statement room sounds awesome! With some very fancy and effective room tune devices supplied by our dear friend, Joamonte! The horrible hotel room acoustics at JW Marriot KL, yes even the larger rooms at the 4th floor all have what my show buddy aptly described, "a certain mid range honk!" Joamonte's effort pays off big time, as there's the least of the said residue "honk" in the overall sound. Kodus to Jomoante, and Swedish Statement.

3) The Ayre, TAD room in the 4th Floor. The sound is at once dynamic, highly transparent and easy on the ear. If you were there this late afternoon, when the hotel's power supply was spiking all the 4th Floor displays, it would've sounded horrible. I heard the system in the morning just before lunch time, it sounded very good indeed.

4) The Bryston & PMC room of AV Designs. Most of the time, the place was dark to accommodate the AV demo, but when the chance crept up, I heard the full Bryston system, consisting of the BCD-1, the BP-26 pre amp and the 7BSST mono blocks, powering the new PMC PB1i speaker, and it sounded very nicely pleasant indeed. The sound had a warmly balanced tonality, was reasonably dynamic sounding and had big sound stage and life sized imaging!

5) The Creek Evolution line electronics powering Epos speakers, all connected by Straightwire cables, demo room by Acoustic Arts on the 8th Floor. For what is a sub budget RM$10k system, it had a certain rightness to it's rich, warm sound. The PRAT factor was very good too. It did not have the dynamic range and sonic transparency of the bigger, more costly systems, but still it's pretty decent sound for a budget system.

I'll have to put in a disclaimer on the above statements, that are purely my preferences, and perhaps due to the erratic and spiking power supply in the hotel, plus poor room acoustics will play a role to determine what you'll hear there and then. Finally, your preferences need not necessarily be the same as mine!

And lastly, there will be no pictures just yet, which will be posted later with our full "KLIAV 2009 Show Reports" later.

I hope you'll enjoy the show as much as I did!

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks Panzer....

Actually we still not very happy with the sound of 1st and 2nd day....those room treatment product reduced some ill acoustic effect of the room but also reveal the poor power (due to the "vintage" power socket in the ball room) and some weakness of the system set up....., with the help of their Ipoh dealer Audio Art who arrived on sat , and some friend of their boss,we take away the platform and BDR punk to reduce the height of the speaker, change the power socket into better grip type, also add in a RGPC on sat night after the show(work until 3 am... ), it really bring out more clarity and transient of the system, still not perfect to me as the tonal balance become a little lighter compare to the 1st and 2nd day (they shifted the speaker forward), but the overall result base on audience have being good..


Bring in so many acoustic stuff are tiring, we need to bring back those super heavy equipment and also very heavy diffuser and Bass trap after the show and only able to settle everything until 5 am in the morning, piew!....but nevertheless,a great learning experience for me!....

Joamonte

Unknown said...

Hi Joamonte,

Your white diffusors and bass traps really looked the part! The room had a fairy tale like feel upon walk in, as if a set from Alice in Wonderland.

Sound wise, I listened on Sat morning and requested Tsai Ching. Overall imaging was superb but when she reached the lower notes, there was some ringing. So if the balance shifted lighter this may be a good thing.

I can't help to think though if it was the Coltrane, instead of the C Supreme, that it would've been a better experience.

kiarch said...

I know exactly what you mean when you said "vintage" power scokets. To be frank, the sockets in all ballroom ( yours is Bintage 7) are worse than the hotel rooms. I know this because I was there in 2003, think its still the same socket, and perhaps fossilized by now!

This gives you a hint of what all exhibitors have to put up with, the time they have in setting up before crowds are let loose to flood the rooms expecting a revelation experiences, ready to analyse and pass their verdit on system without reservation. Suddenly, 'good enough' sounding is not enough especially when their expectency reign high; all hifi show is such.

Generally speaking, I like the show this year simply because most exhibitors tried their best to put up a good show. Swedish Statement room is one such example. Congrats!

Capernaum Creative Solutions Inc. said...

I think this year's KLIAV is one of the best I have visited.

I like most of the rooms with a few leaving a very good and permanent impression on me.

Qudos to all. And Congrats really, for an outstanding show.

mdmHan said...

I preferred the Ayre, TAD room, could it be the design of the driver, sound very coherence.

I’m very disappointed with the 1.2m Swedish Statement, and you called it awesome! I agreed that it’s difficult to set up the system right within short period but for that asking price, we want more.

WiKin said...

Hi Joamonte,
I solute you and your team to try your best to setup the room even though time is definately a factor. Many good home setups are achieved thru many many years of setup and fine tuning therefore it's understandable what you guys can achieve with just 3 days. Nevertheless it's not for the faint hearted. Nice meeting you (I'm the young guy we met in the CMY's resonator cup room on Sunday).

Ken said...

Hi Joamonte,
When I first heard the system, I was really tempted to pull the speakers out. The imaging was gloriously wide but not deep enough.
I also feel that there is too much acoustic stuff being used sucking quite a bit of the HF, IMO.

Panzer,
The AV Design room sounds great with the AV stuff but so-so with the hifi stuff.

Unknown said...

Sze Ern,

Thanks,I can assure you the Coltrane can never be better than the Coltrane Supreme if you compare them side by side..LOL!

Also just to let you and all other know the square diffuser used in the show are clearing at promotion price of RM 240 per boxes while stock last, the newer stock will be listed at least RM350....do let me know if you are interested , my email linyonghui@hotmail.com

kiarch,

Yes, the moment we change the socket at Sat midnight , we very regret why we didn't try to done that earlier...


mdmHan,

I am sorry to hear that we are unable move you with the system , me and quite a number of friends do impress by the sound (I almost couldn't listen back my system after listen to the Coltrane Supreme for 3 days, too many scale and dynamic are missing), it could
be the time you arrived the room, the different DJ who turn the volume too loud or too soft, the power overdraw during the peak hour, the music we selected...etc etc....but I hope you wouldn't not use an one time listening experience as final conclusion to the system.


WiKin,

Nice to meet you, I am glad we share the same view on the Dynaudio and Wilson Demo...haha!

Unknown said...

Ken,

On the 3rd day they do pull the speaker out and get very good layering and imaging,but IMHO unfortunately it also lost some stage wide and scale, less suitable for big scale classical.

Also, if you have hear the room without the diffuser you will notice the sound is even more like suffer from flu...the reason for slight muddy high in the 1st and 2nd day is due to the platform and BDR punk under the speaker make the speaker too high and loss grip to the floor, on 2nd day mid-night with enough man power, we take out those and like Cantonese said "天都光晒咯"...Haha

Joamonte

Ken said...

Joamonte,

If you pull the speakers and find some loss in the sound at any aspect, then you need to reassess the placement. I would be inclined to pull the speakers slightly nearer together to get a "thicker sound" to offset any loss.

I think it would be difficult to do at such a short time. I always feel the bigger the speaker, the more things you have to worry about.

Panzer said...

Joamonte,

No worries, I am easy to satisfy. Ha!Ha!

Guys, Like I said to each his/her own preferences. It's o.k. that we all like diferent things in hifi.

Also during the 3 days of the KLIAV, no doubt many of the sonics and my comments made after the first day visit is no longer valid, as the exhibitors continue to tweak till early hours of the morning for the following days of the show.

I am glad every one enjoyed the show to some extent, as it is still the only show we have locally! Let's give it all the support it needs.

Also, do look at my follow up posting on readers choice top 3 show demos. I am amazed by the variety of the fav listing.