Here's my top 3 favorite show babes at the KLIAV 2009. The Pioneer Twins, boy am I starting to feel like Hugh Heffner already???
I was in discussion with hifikaki yesterday, about our personal top 3 favourite demos at the just concluded KLIAV 2009. It turns out that we just couldn't agree with each other's top 3 choices.
To be fair I attended the show on Friday, 24th July, which is the first day, and almost all my listening impressions were formed on that day it self. Hifikaki attended the show on the Saturday, which is the second day of the show. Whilst I was also there on the second day, because I had missed out some photographs and some others had to be re-taken as I wasn't happy with them. I thought the overall sound quality of the show was better the second day round, based on the few systems I re-visited. This is normal, as the dealers were still busy tweaking in to the wee hours of the morning after every session of the first 2 days!
So being the curious fella, I want to know which are the top 3 favourite demos of our readers? Do they correspond with mine, or hifikaki's more? Or will the readers choice ultimately sideline both our preferences?
The sweet looking Sony girl next door. Hey! Did you guys remembered to ask for the Sony XA5400ES SACD/CP player?For the sake of not influencing our dear readers choices, I've temporarily decided to withheld posting both mine and hifikaki's top 3 favourite demos.
Readers whom attended the KLIAV 2009 show, are encouraged to post their top 3 favourite demos in the "Desirable Thoughts" section. I will tally the postings which is scheduled to end by midnight Friday, 31st July 2009. The compiled results will be reported along with the full show report, which will of course, disclose mine and hifikaki's top 3 favourite demos.
I feel this is an important exercise for both of us and you, our dear readers, whom may form purchase decisions based on our hifi products review. This way, our readers can measure their preferences, or at least know how far they are from ours.
Miss TAD, she's a photographer too! Note the camera? She took pictures of me too, and I hope I came out looking as good as she did here. Ha!Ha!I look forward to your "Desirable" response, and as they say, let the fun begin!
In the mean time, savour my other top 3 favourite demos.
19 comments:
Panzer, I vote CMY as having the best sound with the Dynaudio speakers in the starhill3. Franck Tchang's resonators sure work wonders. The second is the Pro-Ac room by CMY in the 7th floor. The 3rd. is Tropical Audio room.
I was visiting from Singapore and spent most of the Saturday there.
Let me start by pointing several observations.
1.Not many dealers paid enought attention to power supply.I didnt see any Hifi tuning Quantum Purifier for eg.During the last CES almost every room has one....
2.Not enought attention being paid on resonating controlling device...No Finite elemnte,HRS,Harmonix or other racks for eg.....unforgivable in my opinion.
3.Some of the salemen were just too arrogant;Norman audio and one of the CMY rooms for eg..
Now for my fav rooms....
.1.Kondo Audionote set ups.Beutiful music in its upmost purity,I was as always when listening to Kondosan's Design ;Close to tears....And the dealer has Alto Extremo,for so cheap too.....
2.Audio Perfectionist?Apple com feeding The Weiss Minerva via FIREWIRE.....can't remember the amp but who can forget Wilson's BEbesch sound,very impressive especially the infrasonic generatop...The Best subwoofer in the world by a fair distance....
3.Centrecircle...the Dealer ,Mr Nelson earned my enourmous respect for perfect system synergeny.Here is someone who knows how to tame the Esoteric sound.....He matched it beutifully.The Amphion certainly punch way above its weight.His room was far more enjoyable than the megabucks Macintosh room across........
Panzer,
Nice meeting with you again at KLIAV 2009. Were you really keen in acquiring the Moon LP5.3 phonostage or the enquiry was more the intro with folks of AVP Soundcraft? I had expressed my thoughts on the same subject you posted at my own blog at http://finetone.blogspot.com/2009/07/kliav-show-2009.html
YC,
I am actually keen to further improve my analog playback rig. I have the following phono stages in mind which I feel are suitable candidates:
1)Simaudio Moon 5.3 XLR
2)PS Audio GCPH
3)Pass Labs ONO(only available used by now)
But all will be done in due and good time. And things are rather prelimary at the moment.
Sirs, thanks for the nice comments about the Wilson Benesch speakers and Weiss Minerva DAC.
The Wilson Benesch Loudspeakers and Weiss Minerva DAC was presented by
RAVE Systems Sdn Bhd who are associates of Reference Audio, Singapore.
The Amp, Pre amp and CD Players were from Gryphon of Denmark. These were on demo by RAVE Systems at KLIAV 2009:
1. CD Player Gryphon Mikado Signature, 32bit 192kHz
2. Preamp Gryphon Mirage
3 Amplifier Gryphon Colosseum Stereo 160watts Pure Class-A
4. DAC Weiss Minerva & DAC2 Pro
5. Apple MacBook thru iTunes
6. Loudspeakers Wilson Benesch ACT c60 limited edition
7. Infrasonic Generator sub-subwoofer ;-) Wilson Benesch Torus
5. Cables Gryphon
Sirs, Guess I forgot the most important "component" in any hifi or music system - the music, what this whole affair is really about, actually...
1. As always, CDs on the Gryphon Mikado came from RAVE's Edwin's and Agnes' superb collection of very fine CDs that they sell...
2. Through the MacBook and Weiss Minerva, the music were all high-resolution .WAV and Apple lossless audio files in 24 bit x88.2kHz, x96kHz, x176.4kHz and 192kHz formats. They came from Linn Records, Reference Recordings, 2L Norway, Kent Poon Hong Kong, amongst others. A number of recordings were played in the original CD format at 16 bit x44.1kHz as well as up-sampled versions in 24 bit x176.4kHz.
Thanks and regards.
TK,
thanks for the clarifications.....indeed the music contents were simply outstanding,and so was the couple[agnes&Edwin]very charming,nice and you can sense someone whoare passionate about musics.
What I like about the Infrasonic generator is the fact that there is no boominess at all.The demo room was in fact fairly small.The basss that came out were so clean and nice,so refreshing from the slap on your face kind of bass that are ubiquitous in the other box design..
I was also impressed immensely when looking at the Minerva DAC,....FIREWIRE input capabality,once you see this you immediately know you are dealing with a class act,a true pro who understand about computer music reproductions...
Anyway,congrats to a brilliant show and my warmest regards to both Edwin and Agnes.A true gem of a hifi couple..
Guys,
Thanks for the reponse so far! But please, do put in your thoughts about the top 3 KLIAV demos.
TK,
Nice to meet you finally. I've heard so much about you thru Edwin. Thanks for stopping by our blog too.
my favorite demos would be...
1) Marten Coltrane Supreme speakers + Vitus Audio Electronics
2) McIntosh XRT1K Main Speaker + McIntosh Electronics
3) ATC SCM50L + Ayre Electronics
Last but not least, Franck Tchang's resonators...
Hi, I was supposed to meet Hifikaki in the show but we failed to do so. Too bad.
My Top 3 favorite demos are:
1.Audio Note AN-E/LX speaker with M2 Line preamp and Quest mono blocks. This was my first time to hear such powerful sound at 9 watt! In fact, i am tempted by M2 now...
2.TAD Reference 1 paired with Ayre KXR preamp and MXR mono blocks. To me, the TAD speaker is the most beautiful speaker in the show.
3.Actually i didn't have enough time to listen to some setups. Only these 2 above gave me more impressions. If i wanna list a third one, it'd be (Marten Coltrane Supreme speakers + Vitus Audio) and (Focus Audio FP90 + Densen mono blocks). Ever since the show, i started to pay attention to Densen products cos i am also a Focus Audio user. :)
In fact, i also like Naim's sound, but i was not so impressed by Naim + ProAc. Simaudio products are also good, but too bad they kept demo the bass of drum with German Physics when i was there. I was also looking forward to listen to Jadis demo but they only display Jadis Orchestra. Some other missing brands like Focal JMLab (especially the Utophia series), Magico, B&W, Verity Audio, etc.
All,
My Top 3
1. ATC SCM50 with Krell Electronics
2. PMC + Bryston stuff (for AV)
3. Kondo setup
My 1st vote to CMY demo Dynaudio C-4 & Jeff Rowland Criterion Preamp & 312 Power amp. Sound much better on sunday compare to 1st 2 days. My 2nd vote to AV World demo KEF & Mark combi. My 3rd vote to CMY demo Naim + Proac with the Naim hard disk player sound.
nibongese,
indeed it is a pity that we did not get to meet up because of timing. Anyway look forward to the next opportunity. :-)
Yes, guys do keep up with your rankings.
I aprreciate your feedback.
Hi all,
My best 3 demo :
1) CMY Dynaudio + JR + Franck Tchang room resonator.
2) Kondo
3) CMY Naim Audio + Proac
Here's mine;
1.RAVE audio-Weiss-Gryphon-Wilson Benesch
2.Swedish Statement-aespecially when they play classical
3.Macintosh-something magical about those big speakers
Guys,
One more hour or so to go! You last chance to vote for your top 3 fav demo at KLIAV 2009.
Thank you all for posting your top 3 fav demo in the KLIAV 2009.
The results will be out soon. Stay tuned.
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