Koffee With Franck Tchang.

That's Franck and his resonator products in the back ground wall.

I noticed many hifi brand ambassadors came to attend the KLIAV 2009 show along with their products. I spotted representatives for McIntosh, Jeff Linn for Telos, Hans Ole' Vitus for Vitus Audio, Justin Cohen for Sooloos Meridian, Andy Duffield of PMC(which I had tea time with, story to come) and Franck Tchang of Acoustic Systems. Some have also mentioned that a Japanese representative for Kondo came to set up the demo system, but I did not see him on demo when I attended the said room.

With the 2 days I attended the KLIAV show, I only managed to chat with 2 of the personalities over a cuppa, courtesy of the exhibitor's time and suitable arrangements. I did briefly chat with Justin of Sooloos Meridian, but that wasn't something I could post here about, not without his approval anyway.

So I start having Koffee with Franck Tchang.

Panzer: You're Asian, yet your company is established in France, why and how it become so?

Franck: I am Vietnamese by birth, by my 2nd birthday, my family moved to the United States where I grew up. I returned to Asia post graduate to work in Taiwan and Japan for a few years before finally moving on to Europe, where I finally choose and settled in Paris, France.

Panzer: Why Paris, France?

Franck: I enjoy the Parisian life style, it's a vibrant city that makes my creative juices flow. I do my audio stuff by day, and play music by night.

Panzer: You mean play in a band for gigs?

Franck: Yeah! absolutely.

Panzer: What instrument do your play?

Franck: I play the electric and acoustic guitar.

Panzer: So you actually used your "live" musical performance to benchmark your products and hifi?

Franck: Yes, there's no substitute for "live" music! We can only try to get closer somewhat in the reproduction of the musical event captured on a recording, by neutralising the room effect on your audio system.

Panzer: So your Resonator room tuning cups are inspired that way?

Franck: Yes, very much so.

Panzer: I understand from what I read, most room treatment devices need a certain minimum surface area vis a vis room area to work effectively. Your Resonator cups are so..... small, tiny even, by comparison! So how does it work?

Franck: I agree and you're right that when it comes to traditional room treatment methods, you need big surfaces to work effectively, and that always bring troubles to family harmony, if you know what I mean?

Panzer: The lady in the house doesn't agree with the home decor appearance of traditional room treatment?

Franck: Exactly, so that led me to think un-conventionally. I needed to do something discreet yet effective for the application. I looked around scientifically and physically, then realised that by using density to replace surface area volume, I actually could make a more effective room treatment device.

Panzer: Huh??? Care to elaborate?

Franck: You see, the Resonator cups come in various grades, the most cost effective being the basic resonator cup to the most expensive being the platinum resonator cup. The difference is in the materials used as indicated by the product name, and in between two just mentioned, there's the silver and gold resonator cups available too.

Panzer: How does the material used to make the resonator cups have a difference to the end result?

Franck: You see, the basic resonator is made of brass(Franck hands me a brass cup sample, after a quick look and feel, he takes the brass cup back and drops it on the glass surfaced table a couple of times) hear that? (as the cup dropping on the table produces a ringing chime like tone) Now (Franck hands me a platinum cup to look and feel). How did that compared to the earlier brass cup?

Panzer: It feels heavier and somewhat more substantial.

Franck: Exactly, you see, the different metals used to make the cups all have different density and weight for the exact same shape! (Franck now drops the platinum cup on the glass table surface for a couple of times) You hear that? Do you hear the difference in the ringing tone?

Panzer: The platinum cup seems to ring with much more clarity and possibly at a higher pitch and frequency level too.

Franck: That's right! That's a result of the different metals used. The platinum, is a purer,and higher density metal, in comparison to the basic brass cup. Hence the different response and effects different areas of the audio band frequency wise.

Panzer: WOW! That's really some clever science behind the resonator cups! Thanks for expanding my mind.

Franck: (finishes his cuppa) Time's up! I gotta get beck to work, there's another round of presentation to start in a few minutes.

Panzer: Good bye!

Franck: Bye! and we must meet up again soon.(He gets up and rushes back in to the hotel)

I personally find Franck to be a humorous fella and hugely entertaining, not to mention, enlightening at the same time. I thoroughly enjoyed spending my koffee time with him.

Well if you had missed his presentation during the KLIAV, let's hope the good guys at CMY does bring him back again sometime soon.