desirable audio boutique 欲望:音响

珍袖小巨人 [the tiny but mighty mini maggie]

2011-12-20T16:41:00.000+08:00

having left the hifi scene for close to 3 years now, i am still keeping a tap on the latest, most talked-about, most sensational hifi products in the market.

i am a strong proponent of this brand of speakers called "magneplanar", also affectionately known as "maggie". it belongs to a category of speakers called the planars and they are normally huge in size thus making it inconvenient for typical malaysian households.

to cut a long story short, save for a few die-hards like yours truly, maggie wasn't popular in malaysia in the past until some rave reviews from some authoritative gurus in the USA starting this year. all at once, maggie became a hot name in malaysian hifi with the release of a new generation of models. it won't be too far off to call maggie "the hifi speakers of 2011" or to call 2011 "the year of the maggie".

not ready to upgrade my current big maggie to the latest model, so i bought the smallest model of them all: the mini maggie. the reason for my eagerness to buy this speaker is also because it is a limited edition product and it is so cute and almost cuddly.

mini maggie is every inch a marvel of sound. even fresh from the box, it tells you that it will trash the competition at RM6k a pair. as it breaks in, it unravels a sound that is larger than its physical limit: pristine true ribbon highs, pure and uncoloured mids and a bottom that's tactile and bouncy. most precious of all, it is a seamless sound that is continuous and integrated, not like many mini monitors within this price range. it is, in every sense, a true high end bargain.

i may not dabble in hifi anymore because i enjoy live music (and making it) much much more nowadays but for moments when i need some pure unadulterated good sound, the mini maggie has become some sort of a new found joy for me.

for those with RM6K to spare for a pair of truly high-end speakers and those without the space in the house but wanted high end sound, this is for you. absolutely kick ass.

thank you for the music

2009-09-04T11:27:00.004+08:00

guys, the time has come to draw the curtains....

it has been a glorious 3.5 years blogging for desirable audio. i am proud to be the pioneer hifi blogger in this region. looking at the scene now, there are no less than 5 hifi blogs in malaysia! it is heartening to see that.

desirable audio has garnered its fair share of supporters and detractors over the years. for that, i thank you for your support and i am sure the new generation of hifi bloggers like panzer and hifikaki would emulate what i have done and do even better than me.

i am full time into music production now, you can follow my adventures in poppopmusic blog. again, i am proud i am a pioneer in the audiophile music production in malaysia... let's see if i can bring the malaysian flag to the international arena.

again, thank you for the music. may the spirits of good music live forever!

goodbye, farewell and amen.

alternatively yours - another great project is born

2009-08-30T09:13:00.003+08:00

it was funny, i was asking my singer for "songs for heartbreak" whether she could cover this
and she said "she can't relate to this kind of indie alternative music". i told her the song is by leonard cohen and covered by tones of other singers, including the late jeff buckley in this definitive version.

suddenly, it dawn on me that i could do an audiophile album for alternative music, in a minimalist style like what jeff buckley done in "hallelujah"! wow! that would be terminally cool!

all at once, these songs came to mind:

1) radiohead "high and dry"
2) the verve "the drugs don't work"
3) new order "bizarre love triangle"
4) the cure "friday i am in love" (katie melua did a jazzy version of it!)
5) jeff buckley "hallelujah"
6) coldplay "yellow"
7) damien rice "the blower's daugther"
8) jesus and mary chain "about you"
8) and many others of similar genre

and the greatest thing is - i have already a male singer in mind! this guy used to imitate robert smith (the lead singer of the cure) like no others and he is a great indie singer..... i am sure he would agree to do an album like this!

an alternative album recorded in an audiophile manner, this must be a breakthru!

candidate for "songs for heartbreak"

2009-08-27T22:26:00.003+08:00

check out my next candidate for the "songs for heartbreak" project...

she scores high in my "sonic checklist"... my only worry being that she is too "big" for sentimental ballads. she needs to subdue her power and dynamism and channel it into other departments like tenderness, sensitivity and delicacy.

i have full confidence in her!

listen to bondy

2009-08-25T23:20:00.003+08:00

you can listen here.

i have a funny feeling that bondy has heard of 2v1g's version of tempting heart (xin dong) ;-)

bad news for cd - an email from hong kong

2009-08-22T10:31:00.005+08:00

The audiophile music market has been slowly shrinking here for the last 10 years or so.

But since the outbreak of the financial tsunami, the market suddenly worsened at a much accelerated pace. Now the economy is getting better but CD sales doesn't pick up at all. People are talking about digital download will replace CD. But the problem is when you sell one download, the paid download copy will be freely distributed to friends and then friends of friends of the one who actually pays.

Who will bother to fill in his or her name and credit card no. to download when his or her friend can share a free copy which is exactly the same as any paid download one? Some audiophile labels are starting to sell 24 bit 96k wave files via the net. I believe they are in fact killing themselves. The 24 bit 96k wave file are of course better sounding thanh the commercial CD. But how can they recoup the money they spend in a brand new production? Of course there is no question of recouping the investment if it is old master. But sooner or later, download sales of old master will exhaust. If these labels invest in new recordings, they will not be able to recoup.

So much for the bad news, a few days ago, I received a test pressing of the HQCD version of Susan Wong's first CD and it sounds really beautiful, much much better than the normal CD or XRCD. I hope HQCD might bring some excitement to the CD market.

Keith Yip, Rock In Music

listen again

2009-08-21T22:54:00.004+08:00

bondy chiu hock-e strikes again! the follow-up to her successful debut "listen", this time it is called "listen, listen" will be out in late september!

i am certainly impressed with ms.chiu's fast-paced production. it shows that with money and dedication, one can churn out album after album... unlike yours truly who is still struggling with 2v1g's sophomore album :-(

the special edition of the album was on sale during this month's AV show in hong kong. this time bondy sings in mandarin.

watch out for it at you favourite record store!

yet another avenue for hifi

2009-08-19T09:21:00.003+08:00

i was introduced to veteran hifi reviewer from the star newspaper, lam seng fatt, yesterday and he too has a blog called hifi avenue ...

http://hi-fi-avenue.blogspot.com

since lam is a journalist, he brings the latest update from the local industry. of great interest to me is lam's interest on the hard disc players and its progress and evolution. readers who want to know more about this topic would definitely find great info from lam's blog.

so besides desirable audio, we now have hifi-unlimited and hifi-avenue! the more the merrier!

cai qin is not happy

2009-08-17T14:35:00.005+08:00

in a recent interview conducted in a hifi saloon in taiwan, in conjuction with her latest album release, cai qin, raised a few eyebrows about what she expects from audiophile recordings....

fact #1 - cai qin's real voice is not as thick and bassy as most audiophiles would believe

most audiphiles would tweak her sound until really "kao kao" (concentrated and thick-sounding) and think that's how cai qin sounds like. in real life, cai qin's voice is actually quite clear, precise and light. she sounds definitely younger than her age. so the next time you tune cai qin, don't make her sound like 70 year-old!

fact #2 - cai qin's doesn't think any of her albums so far are close to her real voice because no one album does sound the same. every time she listens to the monitor speakers in the studio, she always disagree with the sound.

cai qin is not being arrogant. her explanation is that every recording studio and the equipment it uses has its unique sound and all the engineers tend to beautify her voice to a certain degree.

fact #3 - which albums then is closest to cai qin's real voice?

cai qin tactfully answered that it must be the best-selling album because it is endorsed by most people.

i don't have any evidence of her sales, but i would hazard a guess - it must be "lao ge" album.

fact #4 - what's cai qin's definition of a good recording?

cai qin thinks a good recording must represent the era the recording is made. a 1960's recording must conjure up images of that era - the hairstyles, the clothes, the culture, the colors, the setup... all the visual cues that is related to that era. it is really up the the recording engineer's imagination to capture all these cues.

plenty of hifi

2009-08-15T14:09:00.003+08:00

there is a new hifi blog in town and it promises to offer you unlimited amount of hifi!

please visit hifi unlimited (http://hifi-unlimited.blogspot.com)

the names sound familiar; i am not sure who the bloggers are but they sure know their RCA from their XLR!

please support them!

not another over the rainbow

2009-08-13T09:16:00.001+08:00

one night while listening to selena jones' singing "still" (a lionel richie classic), i conceived another idea to produce a totally refreshing english audiophile album with a female voice.

as usual, i want to do it differently, especially on song selections. there are just too many "over the rainbow", "fly me to the moon", "the look of love" etc etc, songs that are played to death by audiophile female singers.

if i were to produce a audiophile female voice, i would definitely avoid the above mentioned classics. instead, i would choose some fresh songs that i cherish for the last 2 decades. songs like "just once" (quincy jones), "love so right" (bee gees, and i would do it like what david foster did for michael buble in "how do you mend a broken heart)... there are just too many that the ordinary audiophile producers and female vocalists won't touch.

but the greatest problem is finding the right female vocalist in malaysia. you know what's happening in philipines? the so-called audiophile labels are making tones of female voices cd by hiring 2nd-grade singers from the lounges, karaokes and what have you and dress them up with different names. the price of this kind of cd in philipines is only RM20. they are a dime a dozen; absolutely no quality control.

but for me, my female vocalist must be real good. definitely no wedding singers or pub singers. i am looking for someone semi-established who needs that extra dimension in her career. i have consulted a few industry people and they offered me names like atilia, elvira arul and ida mariana, all good singers in their own right. i am going to call them one by one and see if they are interested.

if it happens, you are going to get a real treat from pop pop music. you bet i won't produce another "over the rainbow". :-)

Anouncement: CMY Wants You!

2009-08-10T22:43:00.007+08:00

Are you young, energetic, and have a passion for AV and music?

Do you like to twiddle in state of the art hifi and AV products all day, and get paid for doing so too? Sounds like too good to be true? CMY has a proposal for your consideration.

In an expansion drive, CMY Audio Visual seeks extra Retail Sales Staff to be based in one of their Petaling Jaya showrooms. They hope to get, young, energetic individuals, whom have a passion for all things AV and music, plus would like to seek a career in the retail industry.

Perks of the job includes:
1) Playing with hifi and AV products all day.
2) Sales commission applicable.
3) Experience the retail industry.

However, the job also requires you to:
1) Work long hours as shopping centers retail from 10am to 10pm daily.
2) Work on public holidays.

If you'd like to try out for a career in hifi retail experience, here's your chance to do so with an established market leader.

If interested, please call John at Tel no: 016-2861000

Aonuncement: CMY Invites, Presentation by Wilfried Ehrenholz.

2009-08-06T18:49:00.005+08:00

I have being asked by CMY to invite all you Dynaudio fans out there to attend a presentation by Wilfried Ehrenholz , on Thursday, 3.00pm, 13th August 2009, at their Damansara Uptown Showroom(formerly known as the Naim center) in Petaling Jaya.

Even if you're just a little bit curious like me, please take the oppurtunity to hear what Mr Wilfried Ehrenholz, CEO of Dynaudio, and indusrty leader, has to say about his products and our hobby in general.

You may call CMY at 03-77272419 or 012-2873551(Chan) or 016-2861000(John) for RSVP.

You may also e-mail to admin@cmy.com.my for RSVP.

So mark your calenders and make it a point to be there.

See ya all there!

Tea Time With Andy Duffield.

2009-08-05T21:14:00.004+08:00

Andy Duffield(left), with my KLIAV show buddy Lin, the Terenganu PMC Club President(right). Lin has a pair of the original PMC LB1 and hopes to grab the pair of LB1 Signature out of AV Designs showroom soon! Readers eyeing the LB1 Signature better hurry before Lin grabs em! I guarantee the LB1 Siganture is a special breed indeed.

Andy Duffield is Sales Manager for PMC speakers. He came to the KLIAV accompanying the latest PMC PB1i and Fact 8 speakers on demo/display.

I had the opportunity to sip a cuppa with Andy during the show and learn more about the man, the company and the products.

Panzer: Hi! you've been to Malaysia before?

Andy: No, actually this is my first visit to Asia, after KLIAV, I'll be doing the Hong Kong and Taiwan shows next month. Any other Asian hifi events that I should be aware of?

Panzer: You should really check out the Guangzhou AV show in China, which is probably held during the later part of the year. It's possibly the largest event catering to the AV markets in the region.

Andy: O.K. I'll check with our partners in Hong Kong about that.

Panzer: So how did you get in the business of selling hifi speakers?

Andy: I've been working on the professional side of PMC for a long time, probably 8 years or so, very recently Peter(Peter Thomas, PMC founder and chief designer) had ask me to help out on the consumer side of things and so, here I am!

Panzer: Care to explain the latest rational behind the i series speakers? By the way i stands for "improved"?

Andy: Yes, i is for "improved" indeed! The i series upgrades happened mainly because as we gear up to comply with the newly regulated RoHS program(for those whom do not know, RoHS is a set of strict environmentally friendly guidelines, which all electronics sold within EC must comply to) , effectively enforced within the EC this year. With that objective, Peter set out the re-evaluate every component in the speaker manufacturing line to ensure compliance. Whilst at it our previous driver supplier, Vifa had moved their manufacturing operation out of Europe, which makes it less convenient for them to supply us the drivers that are custom ed to meet PMC specs, which are subjected to very tight tolerances in specifications. So we looked around and found SEAS, which is a reputable speaker driver manufacturer of the highest quality in Europe. The i series tweeter are built by SEAS to meet our very exact specifications.

Panzer: Ahh......SEAS!, I know their drivers sonic character very well. They tend to sound very clean, articulate but at the same time so..... analytical too!, which is not what I'd like in my hifi sound reproduction. However, my brief experience with the PMC GB1i speakers in my own system revealed the sonic character of a different kind. The high frequencies were still articulate, detailed, clean, and if I may add somewhat a little sweet too, which is good.

Andy: Exactly!, we do not take just any standard, off the shelf SEAS driver and plonk them in to a PMC box, whilst the drivers cosmetically and physically look similar, some of the materials used, like the voice coil windings, and the dome fabric process is somewhat different from the standard SEAS drivers. Which explains the difference you've heard between the standard SEAS tweeter and a PMC spec SEAS manufactured tweeter. They are made differently and therefore will sound different!

Panzer: What sort of a L/R tolerance in decibel spec does PMC applies to it consumer speaker lines?

Andy: Our in coming QC procedure makes sure each and every component that goes in to our speakers are checked to ensure they meet very tight tolerances in the 1st place, like for example, all our capacitors are 10% and our resistors are 1% spec, for use in the speaker's crossovers. The drivers are matched to very close tolerances before final speaker assembly. Peter personally listens to every pair of speakers manufactured, compared to the final R&D approved test pair, before they are boxed and shipped out of the factory.

Panzer: I heard that Peter has a huge collection of all the British speakers ever made worthy of vintage status?

Andy: Not only that, Peter has a museum in the PMC factory that is a collection of every speaker model that PMC was ever manufactured! It's usually the last pair of the production line.

Panzer: So, what hifi system do you have at home?

Andy: I've been privileged to work at PMC, where we are allowed to take speakers and amps from the R&D for home trials and report our findings. I personally do have a pair of the original PMC GB1s at home. They are powered by an old integrated amplifier and sourced by a Linn turntable.

Panzer: No Bryston amps for your own system?(PMC distributes Bryston electronics in the UK, just in case our readers didn't know)

Andy: Ohh... that too, I get to bring back various Bryston gears back home to evaluate. So there's really no hurry for me to purchase one right away, but if I really wanna upgrade my home audio system, when my kids are a little more grown up, I'd certainly be going with Bryston amps.

Panzer: PMC uses Bryston amps in their powered monitors and speakers too right?

Andy: Well, yes, we do get amplifier modules from Bryston for our powered monitors and speakers. Peter then strips away all the un-necessary bits off the modules, like the protection and non-audio related circuits, and in the process, he usually beefs up the power supply section too! The end result really does sound very different from a standard Bryston amp. That's why we call them "Bryston by PMC" amplifiers.

Panzer: Why launch PMC LB1 Signature re-issued in Tiger Eye wood finish, so soon after the original LB1 model just ended it's run about a year or two ago?

Andy: I am not really sure about the details of LB1 model, it was discontinued as I took on my present position. However, I do know that the PMC LB1 has had a very long production history and in some markets like Hong Kong and Japan, we keep getting request for them still. In response, Peter has incorporated our latest improvements in to the LB1 and uses parts ultra tight tolerances, plus that special Tiger Eye wood finish which is unique, finally each pair is especially match for L/R chanels. Peter performs all the QC and signs off on every "Signature" speaker himself, hence the designation.

Panzer: Well, thanks for spending tea time with me.

Andy: It's very nice to have met you too.

With that I concluded my quick chat with Andy Duffield of PMC speakers UK. Thanks to James of AV designs, for making the arrangements possible.

Koffee With Franck Tchang.

2009-08-04T22:58:00.008+08:00

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.

KLIAV 2009 Show Report. Final Part, & Readers Choice for Best Show Demo.

2009-08-02T12:13:00.043+08:00

Now, for the final part of the KLIAV 2009 show full report.

AVP Soundcraft, the new Simaudio representitive in town, show cased a full line of the flagship Moon series electronics powering a pair of German Physiks omnidirectional speakers. The sound was highly impressive to say the least. With lightning fast transient response, tight, solid bass and very airy highs, making sound staging very believable and convincing. Too bad the mids were a bit lean for vocals, and the music choice was rather limited to showcase the system's strengths. One of my personal top 3 fav demo.
Over the Simaudio Moon???

A closer look at the German Physiks speaker.

AV World, demonstrated a very tonally balanced, coherent beyond reproach sound, from a system, consisting of the lagendary Mark Levinson electronics and KEF Reference speakers. Cables are all Nordost and a Burmester Sine Wave Reconstruction PLC helps no doubt. These guys know some good, real world music choices too. A mighty fine demo. On static displays are B&K amplifiers and the full line of KEF speakers.
Great synergy from the ML and KEF combo! Noticed the Nordost Valhallas streching across?

The Burmester Perfect Sinewave Regenerator, very potent indeed!

More KEFs on display.

Not to be out done, A&L Audio also had a big demo room on the 4th floor, displaying their newly aquired Dali speaker line and VTL tube amps. Their main demo system consist of a 2 pc PS Audio Perfect Wave memory player, VTL 6.5 Signature pre amp and MB450MKII mono block power amps and a pair of Dali Helikon Euphonia MS5 speakers. The sound was big, powerfull, warm and dynamic. Also on static display were the full lines of Dali speakers and VTL tube amps. PS Audio power products were also featured here.
The latest Dali Euphonia MS5, and VTL tube amps!

PS Audio Perfectwave memory player with VTL 6.5 Signature pre amp.

Dalis in a row.

The ATS Marketing room featured their full range of locally made hifi supports, racks, speaker stands and isolation cone sets.

Wood support?

Or would you prefer acrylic?

The Ayre/TAD Ref 1 demo room, presented by Pioneer, is one of my top 3 fav demos. The sound was highly resolved, transparent and very coherent. Though some others had remarked that for a big system, the sound was rather small scale, but that's my point actually! How many big systems can portray sonic imeadiacy like a smaller system??? I also found that the highs tend to beam at certain frequencies from the speakers, but that's more of a set up issue, I guess. The system is made up of Ayre CX5e CD player, KX-R pre amp and MX-R mono blocks powering the TAD Ref 1 speakers.

AV Designs had some very impresive surround sound AV system on display, probably the best AV display of the show! They had devoted most of the show time for AV demo, which has short changed us stereo dudes a chance to hear the new PMC PB1i speakers powered by full Bryston electronics in it full musical glory. I did get a chance for a private audition and it was impresive. I was so musically awed by the sound, I had forgotten to take the pictures! Sorry James.
The new PMC Fact 8 speakers on silent display, no sound! James tells me this is PMC's new direction for the next generation of speakers.

I missed this Bryston setup, which was in my room just a few days before the show.

The naked Torus Power PLC, it shows that you're not paying for a box full of air!

Next up is the Kondo demo room, displaying the full Kondo Japanese set up. Many remarked that it did heavenly vocals and organically beautifull music. I personally think this set up is more for conoisuers whom are very seriously well endowed!(think $$$...........)

I've heard that you could buy a prestigeous condo in Kuala Lumpur for a full Kondo set price!

More condos, err..... Kondo on display.

The Sooloos Meridian room was show casing more of the user friendly interface in the Sooloos music server, feeding low level signals straight in to a pair of Meridian DSP powered speakers.

The Sooloos Meridian music server, the future of music sources?

Another room featuring music servers is the Norman Audio demo room featuring a pair of Avalon Acoustic NP Evolution Series 1.0 speakers power by an intergrated amp. Crystal cables were on display too.
The Avalon Evolution NP 1.0 speaker.

The jewel like Crystal cable, for the feminist in an audiophile?

Auralex sound treatment products made it's KLIAV debut courtesy of Acoustic Innovations.

Lastly, my personal top 3 fav demo at the KLIAV is also the most expensive, the Swedish Statement main demo on the 4th floor, cost a whopping RM$1.2 million! The sound is understated, refined and highly transparent. It's strength is more in micro dynamism rather than macro dynamism. Most say that I had eye-fi ed rather than hifi ed. But my point is, irregardless of price, it's still the single most impressive system on display(I am talking sound wise!) Most have failled to factor in the point of diminishing returns at this level of high end audio. Frankly, the sonic diference between an RM$500k system and of those costing more than a million is somtimes not that much either! Never expect to double the returns for the double of your $$$ investments, well at least that's the way it is with high end audio. Anyway, this is where the big boys play! This system had plenty of room treatment help from our dear friend Joamonte, whom spent more than 3 sleepness nights tweaking the system.

See the great amount of room treatment efforts by Joamonte?

The very refined Vitus Audio electronics, the high end aura is certainly there!

Look at your RM1.2 millions worth of high end audio.

And lastly but surely, here are the following results of our Readers Choice for Best Show Demo.

1st place, total of 4 votes = Swedish Statement, featuring Marten Design Coltrane Supreme & Vitus Audio electronics. (Panzer, 1 vote)

Joint 2nd place, total of 3 votes each =

a) CMY, Dynaudio Confidence C4 & Jeff Rowland electronics with Acoustic System accesories.

b) CMY, ProAc & Naim electronics with RGPC power supply.

c) Kondo, full Kondo system.

d) Ong Radio, full McIntosh system. (Hifikaki, 1 vote)

Joint 3rd place, total of 2 votes each =

a) Rave System, Wilson Benesch C-60 & Gryphon plus Weiss electronics.

b) Norman Audio/Hi Way Laser, ATC SCM50A & Ayre electronics.

c) Audionote, full Audionote system. (Hifikaki, 1 vote)

d) Pioneer, TAD Ref 1 & Ayre electronics. (Panzer, 1 vote)

Others that made the survey with 1 vote each =

a) Tropical Audio, Harbeth & Quad electronics.

b) Centre Circle Audio, Amphion, Pathos and Esoteric, with JPS cables.

c) AV Designs, PMC & Bryston electronics.

d) AV World, KEF Reference & Mark Levinson electronics with Burmester power supply.

e) CMY, Dynaudio Confidence C1 & Jeff Rowland electronics with Siltech cables. (Hifikaki, 1 vote)

f) AVP Soundcraft, German Physiks & Simaudio electronics. (Panzer, 1 vote)

g) A&L Audio, Focus Audio FS88 & Densen electronics.

All tallies are taken from those votes presented by our readers, taken from an earlier survey. Also tallied in to account is Hifikaki's and my own top 3 fav demo choice.

Hifikaki's top 3 fav demo choice:

1) Audionote, full Audionote system.

2) Ong Radio, full Mcintosh system.

3) CMY, Dynaudio Confidence C1 & Jeff Rowland electronics with Siltech cables.

Panzer's top 3 fav demo choice:

1) Swedish Statement, Coltrane Supreme & Vitus Audio electronics.

2) Pioneer, TAD Ref 1 & Ayre electronics.

3) AVP Soundcraft, German Physics & Simaudio electronics.

Congrats to all the those exhibitors mentioned above, your extra care in setting up efforts have made a strong imppression on the KLIAV 2009 show goers and our readers. My special congrats to the Swedish Statement team for an extra ordinary strong showing.

In summary, I thought the show would be a subdued affair, with the economic crisis in full swing and wanning stereo interest, as indicated by demographics. But as the show ended, most dealers actually reported higher interest, with more quality enquiries than before, which indicates a healthier stereo market. We can only speculate the show attendence traffic, once 3 DOTS Events, the show's organizers release their statistics.

Once again, I throughly enjoyed the show.

Here's looking forward to another KLIAV show next year!

KLIAV 2009 Show Report. Part 2.

2009-08-01T10:53:00.042+08:00

Let's continue with the KLIAV show report.

Electrades show cased the Sugden electronics and Spendor speaker combo in two systems, first the Sugden Masterclass series with Spendor S5e speakers which was making nice, warm, cuddly, if undistinguished music.

Sugden Masterclass!

Electrades also showcased the Sugden A21 series electronics with the Spendor SA1 speakers, which were in "silent mode" when I got there. I've always loved the Sugden A21 amps.

The Sugden A21 SE amp, middle rack.

The Norman Audio/Hi-Way Laser demo room featured Krell Evolution electronics driving the big, bad, ATC SCM50A SL speakers. Ken's favourite demo room!

Krell + ATC, not your average combo, but stil sounds excellent according to Ken.

SQC Audio from Singapore demoed this Canadian made, weird bomb like room tune contraption, called Sonic Enhancer, to be placed on top of speakers, or any where you deemed gives you the best sound! An enthusiastic uncle from Hong Kong demo-ed the 4 in 1 contraption, where you can split the unit in to 4 pcs spreading it's properties all over the room, or for maximum fire power, just stack all the 4 pcs together on top of your speaker. I heard some sound changes during the demo, but I could not ascertain if the sound changed for the better or worse. The demo was done using all DIY electronics!, the said uncle's handiwork. A breath of fresh air, perhaps?

Big bomb, small bomb!, you can split this device in to 4 pcs and used it where ever you like the sound best! Very versatile.

My good ghost from the past caught up with me in the form of car audio boys, K.K. Lau and Extro Aim, a new company set up to market Micro Precision drivers for both car and home audio uses! The top of the line Z series feature speaker cones hand made from clam shells and other organic materials by Mr Thomas Hoffman in Germany. Even the speaker surround rubber is joint using organic latex sap, harvested from Christmas pine trees! It's also claimed to be "Probably the best sounding speaker in the world". Yeah, Probably!

This Micro Precision Z series drivers and x-over cost an extravagant RM$16k!

Alpine head units as source with tube car audio power amps.

K.K. Lau can custom build your speaker cabinets, to use at home, should you be bored with car audio one day! Nice piano black finishing too!

Next up, is another claim to be "The best loudspeaker in the world, period!" room, yeah! you've guessed it. It's the YG Acoustic speaker demo room. Partnered with Audio Space Reference grade tube amps and Jungson Chinese made flagship CD player, the sound was very smooth and lush. But based on the said demo, YG's advert copy writer's claim will just have to wait to be proven in another more convincing demo. By the way, no one sells YG Acoustic speakers in Malaysia just yet, and they are inviting any interested parties to come forward to represent them.

Jungson flagship CD player, looks more like a space craft to me!

The best speakers in the world, period! Maybe, but certainly not here, in KLIAV 2009!

A&L Audio demo-ed the Focus Audio FS88 driven by Densen electronics, and cables by Audioquest.

Tropical Audio demo-ed the Quad/Harbeth again!, as did every other year. This time it's the Harbeth Super HL5 to take center stage. Sam Chan is the antithesis of the typical audiophile in us. He throws caution to the wind, by using computer grade UPS for power supply and un balanced speaker wire length between the two chanels. Plus, I spotted a hasty speaker wire joint job going to the right speaker!!! All this, and yet, so many have praised this room for it's natural and engaging sound! I personally disagree though, but that's just me!

Vintage 80's Quad gear!

More Harbeths on static display.

CMY demo-ed the very balanced, yet big sounding Dynaudio Confidence C1 with Jeff Rowland electronics on one of the smaller rooms upstairs. Cables by Siltech and power supply by RGPC. One of Hifikaki's top 3 fav demos. He likes the overall fatigue free, organic sound with big solid bass coming from the small Dynaudio C1s. I couldn't agree more!
The Jeff Rowland Capri and the 501D mono blocks. Did you know they're class D amps??? They sure don't sound like it.

Another CMY demo is the Prima Luna tube amps, CD player with Usher Tiny Dancer pairing.

Yet, more CMY demos, this time it's the Naim/ProAc partnership.

C&O Enterprise made it's maiden appearance in KLIAV with Telos tweak guru, Jeff Linn, on hand to answer all your questions and doubts(if you have any) about his products. Also on demo were Onix speakers and electronics with all cables and accessories by Telos(who else?), which many remarked about the "Nice" sound.
Telos tweak guru! Jeff Linn, too bad I don't speak mandarin well.

Telos cable lift, Jeff offered me some for a test drive later.

Onix amp and CD player, making some very pleasant sounds.

JAS Audio room demo-ed their full range of electronic, speakers and Zion isolation bearings, which my hifi buddy bought a set, found it so....... good, he went back to the show again on the second day hoping to get another set, only to be disappointed, that all the Zion stock that they brought in for the show was sold out! He swears by the Zion 4 in 1 bearings now, and intends to order another set from Hong Kong.
Jas Orsa, the bookshelf was on play when I heard this room, sounds very nice indeed, must be those Zion bearings???

JAS Array 2.1 amp, using 845 and 300B tubes combo.

JAS Musica 1.2 CD player with tube inside, note the center window. Also my favourite Tong Lee CD, Dialougue II

Zion 4 in 1 bearings, my hifi buddy just couldn't get enough of them

More show reports to come later!

KLIAV 2009 Show Report, Part 1.

2009-07-31T22:42:00.030+08:00

I attended the KLIAV Show on Friday, 24th July, which was the first day of the show. And here are some of the exhibitors featured on part one of my complete show report.

First up the Audio Note demo room, was serving some sweet, luscious vocals and very organic music in rather near field setting. Hifikaki's top 3 fav demo, citing musicality for top score. However, I have some reservations that this system is dedicated more towards simple, and smaller scale music.

Can you see how close we're sitting to the speakers! Top photo left bottom corner.

Next up is the Rave System demo room, home of Gryphon, Wilson Benesch and Weiss DAC. Music was pipe through an Apple laptop using loss less and WAV files amongst others. The Wilson Benesch Torus sub was on demo with the full carbon built C-60 Limited Edition floor standing speakers. The sound was refined, well balanced and the bass is room filling, in control, yet, no over hang despite the small demo room.

Weiss DAC and the Gryphon Diablo amp.
Note the Wilson Benesch C-60 speakers with the Torus sub in the back ground?

The rather transparent, if cool and analytical sounding mini Swedish Statement demo room, with the Baldelius Embla memory player as source, Saga pre amp and Ymer power amp powering Marten Bird speakers. This system's got so much more potential.
Yawn!Yawn!

Center Circle Audio featured the rather low key Esoteric x-05 SACD/CD player, Pathos Logos intergrated amp and Amphion Argon2 speaker, said to be rather good sounding.
Esoteric, Pathos and Notingham Analog.

Amphion Argon2

Ong Radio demo-ed the full set McIntosh gear, with the latest XRT1 speakers alone, rumored to be costing a cool RM$160k. One of Hifikakis top 3 fav! He likes the thrilling dynamics and musical scale derived from the system.

The full big Mc set up! note the 1.2KW power amp's full bright panel meter?

Acoustic Arts demo-ed the Creek electronics with Epos speaker synergy to the max! The best real world budget system demo, anytime, anywhere! Total system cost excluding cables and accessories, less than RM$10k. This system did all the fundamental hifi things right and most of all, utterly musical and enjoyable to listen too. This proves you do not need big budget for good sound. The system however, had some help from the Walker Velociraptor Quantum PLC and all Straightwire cables, which together, cost more than the basic system!

The Creek/Epos synergy is real!

Hidden help! The Walker Audio Velociraptor PLC and the Straightwire Maestro II speaker cable.(silver jacket, just below the fore ground)

Woo Kee Hong had static displays, which is disappointing to say the least, but had the full Marantz and Denon range on display, including the 30th Anniversary KI Pearls, my dream SA7-S1 SACD/CD player and a very curious looking modern production of the Rogers Ls 3/5A, BBC mini monitor. The new production LS 3/5A cost a whooping RM$16K plus! My good friend Jo, whom has many, many pairs of the said speaker in his private collection, must be grinning from ear to ear! His investments in to the demure little speaker seems to be a better bet than the KLSE stock market.

My dream machine! Would Woo Kee Hong let my test drive this baby in the near future???

Jo Ki, lunch on you, my friend, your investments are paying off BIG time!

Asia Sound Equipment also choose the "Silence is Golden" route! Rega turn tables on all their full colour glory and irresistible price offer too! Also on offer is the full range of Xindak cables. Where are the Focal JM Lab speakers???

Xindak cables galore on offer!
Micheal and the colourful Rega turn tables. Where's the Utopia?

Perfect Hifi disappointed me when they choose to leave Audio Research on static display! Meaning, I did not get to hear the Reference 5 pre amp and CD8 Reference in action. However, they more than make up for it by showing the DCS Scarlatti 3 piece stack plus Pass Labs amplification and the very latest Wilson Sasha! My friend, Mr. Wilson Wong was drooling all over his next potential upgrade purchase! One word best describes this system's sound, smooth! Some say a little too smooth!
Wilson Wong, you can stop drooling now!
RM$250k worth of musicality???

Perfect Hifi also demo-ed a second system in the same room, the Accapella Musica Horns driven by some sweet Wavac 300B tube jobbies and Reimyo transport/DAC source.

Mickey ears!

Wavac 300B amps.

I'll let you in on a little secret, these unassuming Sonus Faber Toy Tower speakers are one of the best RM$8.6k money can buy! They are simply stunning! My friend bought a pair at the show and was floored, the moment he hooked it up on Monday morning. I heard highly transparent qualities, well defined bass, warm mid range and a slightly sweet treble coming straight out of the box, from this very unassuming l'll package. Once the drivers runs in, you can bet it'll only get better with time.

This SF Toy Tower floored both my friend and me when he brought home! It's damm good!

The CMY flagship demo room, where Franck Tchang of Acoustic Systems held his presentation of the Resonator Cups. The flagship Dynaudio Confidence C4 speakers driven by top flight Jeff Rowland amplification are front runners to our readers choice top 3 fav demo poll!

The system has the help of the RGPC Isogray system (what out for Hifikaki's review coming soon!) and top range Siltech Royal series cables, plus not to mention, 11 of those tiny l'll resonator cups and other Acoustic Systems products.

The latest Jeff Rowland Criterion pre amp. Yummy!!!

More show reports to come, stay tuned!

Vocal Encounters, Dave Brubeck.

2009-07-29T22:36:00.004+08:00

I am a sucker for any thing Dave Brubeck, and Vocal Encounters is no exception. This remastered CD, sounds reasonably clean and have good audiophile definition. As with most recordings from the 50's and 60's, if your system is up to mark, the vocal presence is full in density and very palpable. There's still some analog tape hiss noticeable depending from track to track, but did not prevent me from enjoying the music, most importantly.

The tracks feature guest vocalist, like Carmen McRae, Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennet, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, amongst other leading some of Dave's favourite jazz improvising compositions.

For me at least, Louis Armstrong and Carmen McRae were the most outstanding of the vocals blending in to Dave's compositions. Both voices have great texture and melodious nature.

My favourite tracks from this CD are:

Track 2, Summer Song

Track 3, My Melancholy Baby

Track 4, It's a Raggy Waltz

Track 5, The Real Ambassador

Track 6, My One Bad Habit

Track 7, Because All Men Are Brothers

Track 10, Cultural Exchange

Track 12, Ain't Misbahavin'

Track 13, They Say I Look Like God

Track 18, Take Five

If you're in to Jazz Vocals or just plain Dave Brubeck Quartet fan, this one's worth your exploration.

Get Your Soulution At Audio Image.

2009-07-28T16:45:00.005+08:00

The Soulution 710 power amp and 720 pre amp kombi. Now on DEMO!

Folks, the long awaited Soulution amps are finally here and on demo at Audio Image. I heard fom the grape wine a kombi pair(that's what Soulution calls it's pre power pairs in German speaking Switzerland), arrived some time in May, but was sold even before I got to hear it a week later! Adrian says that pair was pre-booked by a customer.

The current pair on demo are the 710 power amp and the 720 pre amp kombi. Go audition before it's sold too!(things move pretty fast at Audio Image)

Soulution is sold by Audio Image, Tel: 03-79563077

KLIAV 2009 Top 3 Favourite Demos, Readers Choice.

2009-07-27T22:04:00.008+08:00

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.

KLIAV 2009 Highlights, Day 1.

2009-07-24T23:37:00.007+08:00

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!

KLIAV 2009 Count Down. 1 Day To Go!

2009-07-23T22:05:00.003+08:00

The KLIAV 2009 Show is going to start tomorrow. The event is not only for us audiophiles to gawk or listen at the latest and greatest gears only. We mostly take the oppurtunity to meet up old friends and perhaps gain new ones too, by working the audiophile social network.

Some of us would also take the oppurtunity to grab some of the hifi bargains on offer during the show, especially the last day!

And lastly, most of us will not go home empty handed from a hifi show, there's always an LP or CD at least, to tempt our hard earned $$$ somehow.

But most importantly, is remember to have fun!

Here's hoping for a productive KLIAV show to all participating dealers and friends, and a for us visitors, to have a great time.

Be there or be square!

Swedish Statement At KLIAV 2009.

2009-07-22T19:34:00.006+08:00

The Marten Coltrane Supreme with the Baldelius Ymer power amp.

Folks, do watch out for the ultra high end gears on demo at the Swedish Statement room at the KLIAV 2009!

I was told that the flagship Coltrane Supreme speakers would be on demo, powered by possibly, no less than 2 pairs of Vitus Audio SM-101 class A mono blocks and SL-010 pre amp.

Vitus Audio SM-101 class A mono blocks.

Also likely to be on demo is the Bladelius Embla CD/Memory player and the Vitus Audio SCD-010 CD player.

Bladelius Embla CD/Memory player.

Vitus Audio SCD-010 CD player, it's a top loader too!

Don't miss the chance to audition this superbly ultra high end set up!

Living With Bryston BCD-1 CD Player & The Full Bryston Experience! AV Designs At KLIAV 2009.

2009-07-21T23:31:00.016+08:00

The full Bryston set up. Factory matched synergy can be found here!

This is the last instalment of the "Living with Bryston" series of articles. With the insertion of the Bryston BCD-1 CD player in to the system, now, consisting of the BP-26 pre amp and 4BSST2 power amp pumping my Audio Physic Spark speakers. The Torus Power RM8A does whole system power supply services here as usual, and cables consist of my usual JPS Inwall, AOR Ref 3 and PS Audio Power Plus power cord. Inter connects are my usual Audioquest Sky and Cardas Golden Presence XLRs and the speaker cable this time round is a pair of latest Siltech G7 330L Classic series(review to come).

With the Bryston BCD-1 CD player in the system, replacing my trusty Marantz CD7. The synergy of the full Bryston system is finally materialised. To start with, noise floor is exceedingly low, no hiss or what so ever is heard coming out of the tweeters at idle on normal listening volume. I find the Bryston BCD-1's tonal balance to be very business like neutral, compared to the much warmer balanced Marantz CD7. There's no euphonic mid range bloom, bass is amongst the tightest and goes extends much lower comparatively. The highs may seem a bit forward at first, but on closer analysis, it's rather extended, and non smearing or splashy. Like the Bryston BP-26 pre amp, I also noticed a similar slight high lighting of the high mids, whilst this may seemingly make the vocal's mouth seemed more "in focus" and smaller, I did find it somethimes bordering on sharpness, especially when playing with Chinese audiophile CDs with lots of recorded vocal sibilance(usually female voices). I must stress however, that this is the Bryston's signature truthfulness at work here! Since the full Bryston experience, and amongst the high end gears featured here lately, there seems to be different versions of neutrality, even if they can all be "technically" considered neutral!
From the top. The Bryston BCD-1 and BP-26 pre amp plus the cosmetically matching MPS-2 power supply unit.

The full Bryston set up majors on macro, micro dynamics and bass slam. The pace is always on cue, never hurried nor slowed down. Piano tracks showcases attack, sustain and decay elements clearly. While sound stage is more than full width of my listening room, and some what deep, there's also a typical solid state like dryness, i.e. lack of audiophile "air" within the sound stage, thus never quite fully convincing, or 3D enough in presentation.

However, all the above sonic signature were improved, with the addition of the Elite Acoustic MSI levitating isolation devices(see my last review of them, last week). The mid range now have a little bloom to help further flesh out the vocalist body and density. The slightly dry sound stage, now has "air" separating each instrument within the sound stage, making the layering and stage depth perception more convincing. The musical flows more freely than before. The tweak bring's the full Bryston system closer in audio performance to the 3 times more expensive Bladelius system recently auditioned.
Brothers in arms! The Bryston 4BSST2 with the Torus Power RM8A in the back.

If there's a particular Bryston piece of the three that I, particularly felt carried more performance weight would be the 4BSST2 power amp. I think that if one should build a high end system around it, even with upgrades to the rest of the system, be it source, pre amp or speakers, the 4BSST2 would still remain very much relevant, without calling too much attention to it's limits. In short the 4BSST2 punches way above it's product price range.

The CD tray on the BCD-1 really needs to be improved upon. Note, product warranty is only 5 years for the CDP.

And if there's one thing I think can be improved upon within the full Bryston system, it would be the BCD-1's CD tray! For a player costing RM$11.9k, the said CD tray slides in and out with so much mechanical free play and noise, that I would feel , it's out of place compared to the ownership pride that comes with the rest of the Bryston gear.

The useful BCD-1 remote.

And lastly the BCD-1's all aluminium remote deserves a special mention, the feel is good in the hands, and when listening in the dark, a first press on any button triggers the "cool" green back lighting, whilst the buttons are just of the right size for my big fat fingers! The remote also controls the BP-26 pre amp's basic volume and mute functions, which is handy in an all Bryston system context.

Presto! The night back lighting on the remote. Cool!

I must stress that sonic performance wise, the full Bryston experience is indeed very much greater than the sum of it's very decent parts. Now, that's synergy matched from the factory!

I'll miss returning this full Bryston set to AV Designs for the KLIAV demo. However, I think you should drop by AV Designs booth to check out the full Bryston system on demo, with the 7BSST mono blocks, driving the latest PMC PB1i speakers. Whilst you're there, do check out their outrageously high quality AV installs too.

The PMC PB1i speakers on demo at KLIAV 2009.

And lastly, I wish to thank James, for enriching my audio journey.

Centre Circle Audio At KLIAV 2009

2009-07-21T09:00:00.001+08:00

Centre Circle Audio will be exhibiting with the many trusty brands in its stable.

The electronics will include Esoteric - very likely the X-05, sibling to Panzer's favourite X-03; Pathos - famous for their hybrid equipment, such as the to-be-displayed Logos, one of my my fave integrated amp; and loudspeakers from Amphion - the Argon2 Anniversary. The system will be strung together with cables from JPS Labs and Purist Audio Design. Powerline conditioners from Isotek will also make their appearance.

Let's see whether Centre Circle Audio's choice of a more real-world, honest-to-goodness system will captivate you!

Acoustic treatment products from Auralex will also be on display, both in Centre Circle Audio's main room and at a booth set up by its sister company, Acoustic Innovations.

Alas, I was told that the new Egglestonworks speaker models would be arriving too late for the show. CCA is also close to sealing the distributorship for a new electronics line. There will probably be a private launch event when these arrive on our shores.

CMY Audio & Visual Invites, A Rendevouz With Franck Tchang, At The KLIAV 2009.

2009-07-20T22:35:00.005+08:00

CMY Audio & Visual is inviting those who are curious(like me), or interested to know more about the Acoustic System Resonators to attend a presentation by Franck Tchang, the designer and founder of Acoustic System Resonators product.

Please feel free to attend any one of the presentation scheduled on the 24th and 25th July.

1st Show 12.30pm - 1.30pm

2nd Show 2.30pm - 3.30pm

3rd Show 4.30pm - 5.30pm

See ya!

Perfect Hi Fi At KLIAV 2009.

2009-07-19T17:24:00.014+08:00

The new Wilson Audio Shasha in Canary Yellow.

Now, we already know that Perfect Hi Fi will certainly be a feature at the KLIAV 2009 show, being one of the biggest hifi distributors in the country. But what we did not know is their planned goodies at the exhibition!

First up, Wilson Audio's new Watt Puppy 8 successor, the Shasha will be on show.

Next up is the latest Audio Research Reference 5 line stage pre amp(apparently, all the ARC Ref 5 pre amp allocated stocks for Malaysia has been temporarily sold out, and there's a waiting list for it if you want to buy one today!), and the Reference 8 CD player!, along the rest of the ARC range.

Finally, the Pass Labs local representation issue has been settled, with Perfect Hi Fi exhibiting the latest XP series pre amps and the not so new X-600.5 mono blocks.

Pass Labs XP-10 pre amp.

Pass Labs XP-20 pre amp, Hifikaki's dream may soon come true on this one!

Pass Labs X-600.5 mono blocks.

Other usual Perfect Hi Fi brands like Transparent cables, Sonus Faber speakers and Audio Analogue tube electronics will be making an appearance too.

By the way, Andy, the young energetic boss of Perfect Hi Fi tells me they've just landed Nordost cables and power products as part of their growing stable of brands. Though he's are not sure if the stocks will arrive in time for the show.

Congrats to Perfect Hi Fi!

This KLIAV 2009 show is indeed getting more exciting than I previously thought.

Dynaudio To Reveal New Speaker At KLIAV 2009?

2009-07-19T00:14:00.004+08:00

The veal will be taken off soon at the KLIAV show?

Here's a little teaser from Dynaudio www. Could this new speaker be revealed at the KLIAV Show? Go find out at the CMY room/lounge during the show.

Home of The Gryphon - RAVE Systems' Exhibits At KLIAV 2009

2009-07-18T20:08:00.004+08:00

Catch these mythical beasts at the KLIAV 2009!

RAVE Systems are planning to show off their recent imports from the house of The Gryphon:

The Mikado Signature cd player

The Mirage preamp

The Colosseum poweramp

Doing the honour at the end of the audio chain is another high end brand from RAVE Systems - Wison Benesch.

The C60 Loudspeakers

If we are lucky, we'll also catch The Torus Infrasonic Sonic Generator (that is what Wilson Benesch call its subwoofer, cool!)

KLIAV 2009 Count Down. 1 Week to go!

2009-07-17T21:34:00.005+08:00

Just to remind our dear readers to mark your calenders. The KLIAV 2009 Show starts from 10.30 am, next Friday morning, the 24th and runs for 3 days til the 26th July 2009, at the JW Marriot Hotel Kuala Lumpur.

We'll be posting sneek peeks to new product launches, hifi personalities(there's a few big names coming, I hear?) and special events taking place during the show.

If you've not made plans to attend the show, there's still time to reconsider doing so.

Let the count down begin!

Tall Tales, Elite Acoustic Magnet Shock Isolator.

2009-07-16T22:11:00.017+08:00

The Elit Acoustic MSI packaging, including the cable elevator's.

Taiwan has been on a hifi roll call lately. First up was the excellent tweaks and cable products from Telos, which are already too well featured here. Now come Elite Acoustic, hot on the heels of Telos, with their range of levitation devices, quite similar to those German made Clear audio Magix. The Elite Acoustic MSI are patented(though it doesn't say which country) and Taiwan made. Finishing is rather good, but the method of implementation of the opposing magnets are clearly not as free floating as the Clear audio's equivalent product.

As per our earlier feature in which the Elite Acoustic MSI cable lift(elevator) challenged the universally proven Shunyata Darkfield, it is now the turn of the MSI for hifi equipment.

There are 3 MSI models available depending on weight of equipment range. The range are listed below for your reference:

MSI-250 load range 0.5 - 2.5kg each, price RM$189/pc

MSI-500 load range 1 - 5kg each, price RM$289/pc

MSI-1000 load range 3 - 10kg each, price RM$310/pc

However, Chan of Sound Precision advocates trial and error in setting up the MSI with the equipment to support, and finally finishing up by ensuring a level levitation. For me this is done by placing my Audio Physic spirit level in the center of the supported equipment.

Final set up is to ensure a level equipment levitation.

Once leveled, we're ready to roll with the sound. I must say that inserting the light weight MSI-250 below my Rega P25 turn table made it less venerable to knocks on the supporting shelf. The "thud" feedback sound as I knocked the shelf supporting the turn table became less obvious. However the sound took on a slightly strident note, with a slight highlighting of the high mids, which with certain Chinese recorded LP, became some what irritating. It totally turned me off from playing with the Rega P25. To be fair, my analog rig is far from optimally set up and should not be used as a reference of any kind, but I was just wondering what the MSI would do for the Rega?

The Rega P25 turn table levitated.

Next up I placed 3 pcs of medium MSI-500 below the Bryston BCD-1(follow up review to come) and surprisingly elevated up the already business like sound by another notch or two. I found that with the MSI supporting the Bryston CD player, the sound became more free flowing, more musical and adds a little more spatial and dimensional sense to the sound stage.

The Bryston BCD-1 levitated too!

I then further added 3 more pcs of Elite Acoustic MSI-250 below the Bryston BP-26 audio box and the power supply box in the rack below, i.e. I used 6 small pcs of MSI-250 in total for the pre amp and power supply box. I find the mids now take on a certain bloom, that seems to remind me of my Pass Labs and Marantz combo sonic signature. Female vocals can now sound sultry, and less academic when singing. I am beginning to like what the MSI is doing to the Bryston combo.

The Bryston BP-26 getting the same treatment on both the audio and power supply box.

Lastly, I used 4 pcs large MSI-1000 for levitating the Bryston 4BSST2. When I turn on some orchestral music, like the CD tittled "For Sentimental Reasons", by Linda Ronstadt featuring Nelson Riddle and his orchestra, I was gobsmacked!!! The sound stage now have depth of field, and the layering of the orchestra members within the sound stage was easily perceived. Each instrument within the sound stage had it's own space, rather than bunched up together, seemingly elbowing each other. The solid state like dryness noticed earlier is now gone too, replaced with what feels like morning dew rich fresh air!

The Bryston 4BSST2 also floated.

With the whole Bryston system levitated with Elite Acoustic MSI, the performance transformation was quite startling indeed. It's as if the already fine sounding Bryston system was suddenly punching well above it's weight, not to mention price range too, very nearly approaching those sonic references set by the Bladelius and Marantz combo I experienced last month.

A closer look at the Elite Acoustic MSI-1000 doing it's job.

Now, if you're thinking about getting Bryston gear make sure you get the Elite Acoustic MSI to go with them. They are a sonic match made in heaven! As for other gears compatibility, my usual caveat stands, try before you buy!

And yeah! I am still living with the Brsytons, so no chance to try the Elite Acoustic MSI with my usual set of gears just yet.

Elite Acoustic is sold by Sound Precision, contact Mr Chan, tel: 019-3825937

Save the Best for Last - Bryston's BCD-1 CD Player

2009-07-15T00:01:00.004+08:00

Wow, write-ups on Bryston sure come fast and furious on this blog. :-) Well, with this BCD-1 cd player, I am now on my last iteration of Bryston's gears.

I got a of deja vu listening to the Bryston BCD-1 CD Player that Panzer passed to me for a few weeks. Its sonic virtues were so similar to my experience with Bryston's own BP-26 preamp that on occasions I could not differentiate whether I had the pre-amp or the cd player in my system. I did not have the chance to try out a complete Bryston system though, the Bryston pre-power combo went back to Panzer when the cd player arrived. That pleasure is now all Panzer's, let's await his report on this. :-)

The BCD-1 was a slim cd player, in both width and depth, which made positioning easy and straightforward. The display window was a little too small for me, which made reading difficult from, say, more than 3-4m away. The disc tray moved fast but a little noisily, a departure from the slow-motion and relatively quiet operations that I was used to from other makes, though that, of course, would have no effect on the final sound quality. The remote control though was a chunky affair, I loved the feel and the thoughtful back lit feature which made its usage in the dark easy.

Again, the BCD-1 gave the impression of a well engineered and sturdily built piece of gear, pretty much in line with the exemplary build quality of the BP-26 pre-amp and the 4BSST2 power amp from the same stable. They did not feel fragile or delicate, one really did not have to treat them with kid's gloves.

The BCD-1 had what I would call a modern sound. The BCD-1 impressed not just with what it did, but also with what it did not do. The part that immediately gotten my attention was the bass. The BCD-1's bass was all about solidity and impact, there was no added warmth and definitely no flabbiness. Bass notes were well defined and nicely delineated from one another rather than meshing together. Moving further up, the midrange was true and clear, again, the BCD-1 did not add anything to it, there was no hints of romantic tint for example. At the top, the highs were extended, open and crystal clear, it did not sound 'sweet' nor was it smoothened out. Overall, the BCD-1 conjured up terms such as 'accuracy', 'neutrality', 'honesty' in my head again and again throughout my listening sessions.

Coincidentally, like Panzer with the BP-26 pre-amp, I also experimented with a trio of finite elemente ceraballs under the cd player, they expanded the soundstage in all dimensions and at the same time improved the image focus, so it was a worthy addition.

I could not resist comparing the BCD-1 to the memory of the E.A.R. Yoshino Acute cd player I listened to a while ago. These twp players were operating on the opposite end of each other. The Acute did its darnedest to make every cd as enjoyable as it could, regardless of the music and the recording quality, and in the process probably told a few white lies. The BCD-1, on the other hand, did its darnedest to tell you the complete sonic picture without holding anything back, you got the beauties and the blemishes too! Which one you would go for depends on your priority - whether you like sweet talk or straight talk.

I am glad to have made Bryston's acquaintance over the last few months. It has taught me much about truthfulness in music reproduction. Bryston is a marque that pretty much has my high respect.

Living With Bryston BP-26 Pre Amp.

2009-07-14T17:45:00.011+08:00

The two box Bryston BP26 pre amp.

The Bryston BP-26 pre amp is a two box design, and comes with a remote, that only controls volume and mute. This approach is laudable as the move to take away the A/C transformers and power supply board in to another chassis does have theoretical sonic benefits, such as less interference from the A/C transformer's RFI/EMI leakages, and humming amongst others. The main audio only circuit is built in to another chassis, connecting to the power supply chassis via a DIN like terminated umbilical cord. James of AV Designs advices to pay as much placement attention to the power supply box as to the audio circuit box, to yield the best sonic results. I'll come back to that latter.

The Bryston BP-26, is a thoroughly modern pre amp designed front panel layout neatly with fairly conventional 3 large knobs face plate. The three large knobs controls the following. One on the left for source input, another for balance left/right and the last one on the right is for volume. There are also toggle switches for tape/monitor(if you're still in to cassettes), stereo/mono(good for testing imaging when setting up speakers), a mute switch, and lastly my friend, KM's favorite switch, the signal phase invert.

The back panel, with 2 pairs XLR imput(left), and many RCA inputs, and outputs plus 1 pair XLR output.

The pre amp is sounds pretty quiet when no music is played and volume turned up to normal listening levels, exhibiting none of that back ground hash or white noise, or just plain tweeter hiss, which is good. A quiet back ground normally means a more transparent pre amp. The sonic presentation of the BP-26 is slightly on the warm side of neutral. The highs are very tidily extended(i.e. non splashy), if a little dry. The mids have a degree of body to it, perhaps there's a slight high lighting of the presence range and bass lines are well defined, extends very low subjectively and always tuneful. This pre amp presents sound stage in a little more laid back fashion if compared to my resident Pass Labs X2.5. I initially found the Bryston BP-26 pre amp's transparency to lose out a little on the minute details in the music, compared to the Pass unit. But then I was placing the audio box on FE Ceraballs, whilst the power supply units rested on spikes. I later bought another set of FE Ceraballs to try out, based on the advise by James. And true enough, placing the power supply box on to FE Ceraballs instead of spikes, worked wonders to the pre amps's level of sonic transparency, can now rival the Pass Labs unit.

With the level of transparency improved, the Bryston pre amp pretty much functions like a straight wire with gain, and gain there's plenty. I find that I rarely venture past the 10 o'clock position of the volume knob.

The Bryston BP-26 on my FE Spider like rack. Note the FE Ceraballs Spider for both audio and power supply box.

The BP-26 pre amp also seemed to have better synergy with the Bryston 4BSST2(as it should be, coming from the same factory) compared to the Pass Aleph power amp(the sound became overripe, too warm and dynamics suffered as a result). The BP-26 also seemed out of it's depth when matched to the Bladelius Ymer power amp(but that's just not fair to the Bryston either, because the Pass X2.5 also behaved the similarly). What I am trying to point out is, unlike the Bryston 4BSST2 which did not short change a more expensive component like the Audio Research Reference 3 pre when partnered, the BP-26 is probably best matched with Bryston power amps, although I do not discount that there are other more suitable candidates available out there.

If you have an existing Bryston power amp already and wanna update your pre amp, then the BP-26 is certainly a no-brainer, and fitting choice, however if you have a non- Bryston power amp and unsure of sonic compatibility, yet some how love the Bryston BP-26's classical looks and modern full functionality, then my advise is to try before you buy, as always.

Bryston is sold by AV Designs, contact James, tel: 016-3280237

Sony's SACD Swan Song? Sony XA5400ES SACD/CD Player.

2009-07-13T21:34:00.016+08:00

The Sony XA5400ES SACD/CD Player.

This Sony SACD/CD player caused a stir in the Internet forums and amongst SACD based audio community as a giant killer, when launched sometime late last year, 2008. It was rumoured to be Sony's last SACD player made ever. My friend PS, whom is so entrenched in to SACD just had to get hold of this player, no matter what! He spent the last few months knocking on Sony Malaysia and Singapore's door, begging them to sell him one. No one in the organisation gave him two hoots! Finally, poor PS had no choice but to get a 230V spec unit imported from Germany, with the help of the Internet. The irony of it all? The Sony XA5400ES is indeed proudly made in Malaysia! It would seem to me Sony Manufacturing Malaysia Boleh!, but Sony Marketing Malaysia Tak Boleh???

The Sony stting proudly on my hifi rack.

It seems that whilst Sony engineers are still highly competent, their marketing team have somewhat been too busy marketing mobile phones, Vaio lap tops and LCD Bravia screens amongst other things. Audio products seems to be all but forgotten when compared to the more glitzy tech products in the Sony catalogue. My personal call to Sony Malaysia, WAKE UP!!! The XA5400 SACD/CD player trully deserves your attention, and by refusing to sell it, you are doing disservice to all the SACD and CD music lovers in the country, not to mention, your bottom line. I don't think I need to remind you of your dismal overall financial results for the last operating business year? I also don't think Sony founder, Akio Morita would be a very happy man if he was still alive today.

The Sony's ultra smooth tray mechanism. Almost as smooth as the Esoteric X-03

O.K. enough of my ranting of Sony and the dysfunctional Marketing Dept. Let's see if the XA5400ES is truly all hype? First up, it seems to be built on the existing platform of the former top model XA9000ES, to save cost, which is no bad thing. Despite that, the fit and finishing quality from the Sony Malaysian plant is first rate, based on the sample PS bought. The design is typically Japanese business like and very ergonomically friendly. There's a lack of audio jewellery that makes past Sony ES series components so desirable, like full copper plated chassis, full aluminium face plate, gold plated RCA and XLR(which I used all the time during the review) output jacks. Weighing 11kgs, the player can be describe as solid medium built rather than battleship quality. The CD tray mechanism operation smoothness is second to only the much, very much more expensive Esoteric X-03, and makes almost all other high end expensive CD player seemingly shameful by comparison.

The back panel of RCA & XLR analogue ouput jacks. The Sony XA5400ES does multi chanel too, but only via it's HDMI output.

The sound of the Sony XA5400ES is truly impressive. It always portrays a musical sound stage and imaging in such a convincing manner, with the much prized high end "air" or space between instruments, making stage depth layering very easy to perceive. The tonal balance is very close to my resident Marantz CD7 in flavour too. Invitingly lush, warm, smooth and full bodied best describes it's tonal balance. This was confirmed as I was switching between Pass Labs and Bryston amplifications. When partnered with the Pass Labs combo, the sound was as described above. With the Bryston gear the lush, warm, smoothness was still apparent, but the sound also gained a certain level of dynamics and transient excitement. But should the Sony XA5400ES be compared to the Marantz CD7 or the Bryston BCD-1, both are very much more expensive by the way, two areas of deficiency did start to show. First is the area of very low level details in the music, like as in when I play my favorite Tube Hifi Violin CD, I found that many of the subtle breathing and bowing techniques recorded, were simply glossed over by the Sony, comparing to the Marantz. When compared to the Bryston, the Sony's handling of macro dynamic and transient swings is not as great at the contrasting ends of band width extremes. However, the Sony did excelled at portraying micro dynamics instead.

There are no sonic nasties presented by the Sony XA5400ES either, the highs are never grainy or harsh, mids never shouty, and bass is articulate, detailed and always tuneful. The best part about the Sony is that it possesses a level of musicality and cohererence in musical presentation, never before attain able at this price point. It may be the PRAT factor, but music always flowed freely and somehow manages to communicated that emotional massage of the musical performance very effectively. I had no trouble connecting "emotionally" with this player at all, and when buying source components, this is especially important!

The complete back panel view.

Unlike previous generation SACD players, which always tend to short change CD play musically to show case SACD's format superiority. Those days are over, as people now days tend to buy a CD player performance first, and if it plays SACD too, then considered a bonus. That's the market trend, and the XA5400ES does not short change the CD play back at all, I am happy to report. The Sony just plays both formats with the best ability it can. Other than being a little more analogue like sounding and slightly better low level resolution retrieval when playing SACD software, I enjoyed the CD format's musical performance just as much. Also gone are the days when a player takes ages to recognise if you've put in a CD or SACD in to the tray. The Sony mostly took no more than 20 seconds at worst to sort if self out automatically, although the user is allowed to override with manual format selection.

The standard Sony remote supplied. No fancy remote this time for the XA5400ES.

Depending on how Sony Malaysia work it's costing, should it be available in the local market, the player would likely to retail for between RM$5 - 7k(my guestimate, based on it's UK retail price), which is really cheap for an ES series component. The Sony XA5400ES would certainly be THE ultimate CD/SACD player to get for those in the midst of setting a hifi system costing between RM$15-20k budget range, or those seeking to up grade from that good ol' Marantz CD63. Trust me, it's that good, and I here by confirm that all the Internet and overseas buzz about this player is not hype. Not at all.

Dear readers, please do yourself and all other music lovers a favour at this coming KLIAV show, go to the Sony exhibition room(which is big I am told, so you can't miss it!), and ask for the Sony XA5400ES SACD/CD player. Hopefully, that will jolt the local marketing guys out of their comfy slumber and make this wonderfully musical player available in the local market. For not, us Malaysian audiophiles and music lovers on a budget would be musically poorer.

And finally, PS, you've made the right decision, and I am glad you've decided to stay your course of purchase, The Sony XA5400ES is a mighty fine buy indeed.

Sony Malaysia enquiry contact, tel: 1-300-88-1233

Take Your Room Out Of The Sonic Equation.

2009-07-12T22:13:00.016+08:00

An earlier view of Joamonte's hifi system and room, sans diffuser panels.

My dear friends, this is a feat I'll dare anyone to do!

Place a big, big speaker in a small, small, room. Then plonk in the best hifi electronic equipments, cables and accessories that money can buy. What will result?

Your guess is as good as mine actually, but I think you get the idea. You see, the room is actually THE most important component in your hifi system. Well, that means those who set up their hifi systems in lounge or halls need not read further. He!He!

Jokes aside, the speaker to room interaction is a very real concern, especially when playing in the high end hifi pond. Small rooms are best matched with equally small speakers and bigger rooms can accommodate bigger speakers. That's what logic dictates if one does not want his/her hifi to fight with the room. However, there are just some people bent on challenging the laws of physics, just like your's truly, tried to challenge the room a few years ago, by using a big speaker, but ended up losing the battle, humiliated and surrendered, by down grading to a pair of smaller speakers.

Personally, I just love full range speakers. The bigger the better. There are some smart people whom manages to marry bookshelf speakers with sub woofers successfully. But that's another story for another day.

The Marten Coltrane, note the diffuser panels on the side wall.

Today, I wish to share Joamonte's gallantly heroic, and triumphant(phew!!!) story, of his personal hifi battle with the small room. I'll start with his room size, which measures 10 x 13ft. He uses the biggest and meanest speaker from Marten Design, the Coltrane, which is probably more suitable for use in a room twice the size! But we are in Singapore, where real estate is top dollar priced. What do you do? Acoustically treating the room is one way around it.

Jeff Rowland Model 8 power amp. See the cables with the wooden collar? Those are Jorma Design stuff.

Joamonte's room acoustic treatment is the most comprehensive that I have come across. All 4 sides of the room is purposely rebuilt using dry wall method. What's it you asked? That means all 4 walls are rebuilt inwards, by first lining a layer of rock wool, amongst other materials, then further covered with wooden surfacing. All four sides of the room is also covered with absorption and diffusion panels, custom made for the application frequencies in which they have to combat. And lastly 2 bass boom busting device is used to absorb those pesky low frequency room modes, at the to back corners from the listening throne.

Another look at the Marten Coltrane, and the purpose built dry wall behind.

How does Joamonte knows what to do and how to address each specific room problem? He first starts with a room measuring sweep, by using a purpose specific software loaded laptop, signal generator and a calibrated mic, placed on the stereo sweet spot. He also measures the room in a few other points to get a more complete sonic picture of the room. The software then plots various frequency response, waterfall and time decay charts of the measured room.

Look Ken! Telos and Cardas caps gallore, pasted all over the ARC Ref 3 pre amp un used inputs and outputs.

Hifi racks by Sound Mechanics. Joamonte, where's your phono stage for the turn table? He! He!

Armed with the charts, Joamonte can then decide, based on his extensive experience on the subject of room acoustic treatment, a series or combo of absorption, diffusion and bass boom busting devices at his disposal, to aid room to speaker interface with success.

Audionet G2 CD player. The Audio Art 20th Anniversary CD is great stuff to strut your system to the max.

The said Marten Design Coltrane speakers is powered by a Jeff Rowland Model 8 power amp, which pumps out 250W per chanel. Pre amp is none other than the famed Audio Research Reference 3(my reference pre amp too!) and the musical source is an Audionet G2 CD player. All cables are Jorma Design supplied, although I did spotted a lone Audioquest Columbia 48V DBS interconnect amongst them. Power conditioning is done via PS Audio UPC200 and Sine power outlets. Telos and Cardas RCA and XLR caps are used twaek the sound of the sytem further.

The snake den??? No, just cables.

The sound, of the room? At first entrance, I thought I went in to a black hole! The room had an eerie silent quality about it. To top it off Joamonte has a habit of switching all the lights off, leaving only the bright green function display of the Reference 3 pre amp and the expansive front sound stage(when music is playing), serving as a visual cue of directional sense.

With the room darkened as above and music playing, the sense of being in an enclose space, and the speakers totally disappear. In fact, the whole hifi system disappeared too, leaving only the music, that realistic sensation of a sound stage and the performance of the musical event in front of you. The famous M&K Flamenco test track, so familiar to me, took on a whole new lease of stage life, with the dance performers literally thumping their feet on a wooden stage floor, and the sensation of the dancers moving about within the stage is as real as it gets! The system and room also excels in lightning fast transient response, with orchestral recordings, the room lights up on a crescendo peak one second, and as the music goes in a quiet passage the next, the room turns musically dark that very next second too! This is scary stuff. Needless to say, micro and macro dynamics response is just as amazing too. Visceral impact is amongst the best I've experienced too, from any hifi system.

The ceiling is treated with absorption and diffuser panels too.

The high frequencies have a liveliness feel to it, like the drum stick hitting high hats on a jazz track, every hit is just very slightly different in intensity and the resultant decay. The mids are breathy and have excellent body density. The bass, is the best part, being lightning fast, never overhangs, but could extend a little lower. Kick drums hits like chest thumping hard, just like in a concert, and bass guitar is full, but never fat.

More side wall diffser panels of a diferent sort(left) and the bass boom buster device in the back.

In fact, there's almost nothing to fault in this system, except, that it's so true to source, when playing poorly recorded stuff, you're made aware of the limitations of the recording. The sound of the room is highly tweak able too. Joamonte demonstrated to me that by removing a few diffuser panels, the room/system sound changed. It now sounds more like what I normally heard, like my audio buddy Wong's acoustically room(see my posting dated 27/12/2008, tittled Steel Fist In Velvet Glove). A little more well damped, and less lively. Joamonte tells me that this more the typical audiophile preferred sound. More controlled, if some what less dynamic sounding. Another point I noticed is that whilst music is played at full concert volume levels in the room, there's not a bit sound could be heard out side the room!

Joamonte has clearly succeeded in taking the room out of his sonic equation. How about you?

What are your odds of succeeding without a pro's help?

Living With Bryston. An Alternative Audio Journey, Final Stage.

2009-07-11T23:26:00.006+08:00

The Bryston BCD-1, finally!

Finally, I have the Bryston BCD-1 CD player joining me, along with the rest of the Bryston gear, mainly the BP-26 pre amp and the 4BSST2(read squared) power amp.

Hifikaki has been hogging the BCD-1 over the past 3 weeks or so and finally gave in to my pestering for him to hand it over. Do expect a full review of the Brsyton BCD-1 CD player from, him soon.

Perhaps that should be telling enough, how much he loved the sound of the Bryston CD player???

I'll report on the experience of Living with full Bryston electronics soon.

An Homage To The Most Beautiful!

2009-07-08T21:59:00.020+08:00

The cozy environment, comfy sofa, and lastly, beautiful sound too! Could life get any better than this?

Tony is Joamonte's neighbour. His hifi system is one of the most beautiful sounding and looking that I've come across.

The source, a Sheu Analogue turn table. Nice!

The system is set up along the longer side of the lounge of his home. It starts with an Audio Technica Reference MC cartridge mounted on a Sheu Analog turntable. The phono stage, pre amp and power amp is the Pass Labs X-ONO, X-1 and X-600 mono blocks respectively. The final system main component the the very beautifully handcrafted Italian Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage. There's also a PS Audio Power Plant 600 to supply clean re-generated power to all the components except the mono block power amps. All system cabling is supplied by Analysis Plus.

The Pass Labs X-ONO, X-1 with their respective power supplies and a PS Audio Power Plant 600 re - generator at the bottom for clean power, only for this stack.

The system is arranged to look so artistically symmetrical, yet without the usual audiophile like room look. The environment is very cozy, softly lighted and certainly sets one in to the mood of musical pleasure. I think any lady boss would approve of this system, set up the way it is.

The audio rack is just as beautiful, and fits in to the decor nicely!

Good Hifi Feng Shui! Golden elephants guarding the power mono blocks, Pass X-600!

Now, the greatest reward, the sound from this all analog only(yep! that Tony is one hell of a extreme guy) system just as beautiful as the lounge decor it self. Yes, you read right there's no CD player in the system! The sonic virtues are invitingly warm, lush, smooth yet never mushy. The highs are superbly delicate and extended. The mids have a certain body density when expressing vocals, especially female voices, they just sound so..... alluring! The bass extends very low, no over hang, and always ready for the next note! In other words, the Pass X-600 mono blocks are in full control of the Stradivari Homage, yet never forcefully so, but always natural and organic by nature. The Sheu Analog turntable is extremely quite, with the Pass X-ONO phono stage and X-1 pre amp meticulously preserving the venerable low level signal with kid gloves. This system is very transparent, and highly true to source, as in the recording it self.

A standing Homage! The Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage.

The famed trade marked harp "string" speaker grille. Just for the top echelon Sonus Faber works of art.

I sat in the designer lounge, transfixed by the beautiful sounding music, for just two hours, it just didn't seem like I've had enough music just yet.

The lounge's center piece, Millennium Falcon from Star Wars! Tony somewhat reminds me of Hans Solo. But seriously speaking, the Millennium Falcon is actually a form of room tune. He!He!

This is one system, I can clearly aspire to, one day! Tony, you've done a fantastic job, by merging engaging sound and cozy ambient to relax and immerse one self into music.

The satellite dish for I-pod! Not really, just a decor plate for the B&W speaker I-dock.

By the way, Tony is also in to digitally stored music, via an Apple I-pod and a B&W speaker I-dock. This is mostly used to provide mood and ambient music to the lounge when he has non-audiophile visitors, and when he is not in the mood for audiophilia paranoia.

Beethoven's Hifi?

2009-07-06T18:15:00.017+08:00

The very cozy room for Beethoven's, oops... Mr Tan's hifi.

I was visiting our southern neighbour, Singapore recently, and had Joamonte to thank for showing me to some of his hifi friends. I'll feature some of their systems here in the next few posting.

The Clear audio Stradivari mounted Master Solution turn table! I am begining to love those Clear audio analog rigs.

Goldmund phono stage sitting on an X-shape metal platform which was custom made by a friend.

This is the system of Mr Tan, whose equipment list looks like this. It starts Audiomecca Mephisto II.X CD player, but used as a transport feeding a Enlightened Audio Design(EAD) DAC, on the digital front. The analog rig consist of a Clear audio Stradivari cartridge mounted on a Master Solution turntable. The very low level signal then passes thru a Goldmund phono stage, to be amplified to line input level. A Jeff Rowland Consummate pre amp sits in the center of the system as source switch and volume control. The pre amp output is the routed to a Behringher pro electronic x-over to split the output to high pass and low pass to feed the respective Jeff Rowland mono block power amps(there are 2 pairs of mono block power amps in this system). Why so many power amps? Because it is required to feed an active speaker system. The Audio Artistry Beethoven is a 4 piece speaker system. With 2 open baffle panels to play the high passed mid range and high frequencies and a pair of matching sub woofers to reproduce the lowest of low passed notes. Mr Tan felt the highs of the system isn't extended enough, and has employed a pair of additional super tweeters, placed on top of the Beethoven's open baffles. I spotted some Cardas interconnects amongst the cables used in the system.

Audiomecca Mephisto II.X CD player, used as a transport.

The two piece Enlightened Audio Design DAC and power supply unit(bottom).

The whole system is located within a room measuring about 13 x 15 feet, which is well damped by thick curtains on three sides(no wonder Mr Tan feels there's not enough highs! he!he!).

The two piece Jeff Rowland Consummate pre amp and power supply(bottom).

The Behringer pro use electronic x-over, which Mr Tan favours over the original unit supplied by Audio Artistry for use with the Beethoven speaker system.

Listening to this system play large symphonic orchestra is a pleasurable experience. This is especially so, via the analog front end rig. The big tympani drums are realistically reproduced within the sound stage of the orchestra. The horns have that golden brassy tone, with just enough bite, yet ever so gentle on the ears. The system has grandness to it's portrayal of large orchestral symphonic works. It also excels at reproducing Chinese orchestra works. Instruments like the err hu, pei pa and gu zheng sounds rich, delicate and truth to timbre. The sound remains highly composed, even during the most dynamic of transients in the music play back.When playing female vocals like Tsai Ching(see, I am not the only one listening to her!), her emotions can still be felt. Many big systems just don't do that too well. May be it's that open baffle magic doing it's thing.

Pretty maids in a row, not! These are Jeff Rowland mono block muscle amps!

One side of the Beethoven with it's dedicated sub woofer(behind) in tow and the additional super tweeter on top.

I think Beethoven would approve of this system reproducing his symphonies in the grandest manner.

A 300W Brute....Not! - The Bryston 4BSST2 Poweramp

2009-07-05T09:27:00.001+08:00

Though the Bryston 4BSST2 poweramp put out 300w per channel, it was no brute. In fact I would describe it as civilized.

Lest my descriptions above conjured up an image of softness, slowness, or lacklustreness, I must assure you that these descriptions did not apply the Bryston at all. In fact, the Bryston was dead neutral, true to the tradition also exhibited by its sibling, the BP26 preamp which I wrote about earlier. The 4BSST2's power allowed it to be totally unfazed by anything and always demonstrated a good grip and control on the proceedings. It was not indifferent nor was it playing things over-excitedly, it just did the stuff it was asked to do.

The 4BSST2 exerted total control on my Egglestonworks The Nine loudspeakers at all listening levels. In my admittedly smallish listening room, I could not get the 4BSST2 to misbehave one bit. The loudspeakers could take the wattage punishment from the 4BSST2, but my ears gave up way earlier, and at this point, my room was literally shaking already.

I think at my highest tolerable listening level, the 4BSST2 was not even breaking a sweat, there was no strain, not one hint of distortion, the sound continued to be clean and controlled. I felt the amp was just cruising along, gleefully waiting for me to up the volume control some more.

In stereo, the 4BSST2 put out 300w per side. Bridged, it put out a mind-boggling 900w

On the other side of the spectrum, playing quieter music, the 'it was no brute' part held true too. I could throw a string quartet (Beethoven String Quartets Op18 No.6 and Op59 No.1 "Razumovsky" Cleveland Quartet; Telarc CD-80229) at it or simple music of a voice and a guitar (Sara K. "Don't I know you from somwehre?" Stockfisch SFR35760555.2), there wasn't any harshness or aggressiveness. Its quality of control, focus, detail, accuracy continued to shine through. The Bryston was equally good at handling the macro and micro things.

I have no complaint about the BP26 preamp and poweramp combo's frequency extension, which was fully extended on the both ends. The slight highlight at the upper mid I experienced on the BP26 preamp before was there. I believe the 4BSST2 also had a bit of its own as this characteristic was also heard when it was partnered with my Pass Labs X2.5. With my Egglestonsworks' silk dome tweeter, this highlight gave a heightened awareness of details. But the flip side of the coin was that, I believe, if one has an unruly tweeter, the Bryston would expose it for what it was too. See, the Brystons were honest, they'd not cover things up for you.
Read Panzer's write up on the Bryston combo for a more in depth analysis, my experience pretty much pull at the same direction.

This combo really took the neutrality, detail, control, accuracy creed to the max!

Elevated Tales, Shunyata Darkfield vs Elite Acoustic MSI.

2009-07-03T22:48:00.016+08:00

Elite Acoustic MSI on the left, and Shunyata Darkfield on the right. Let the games begin!

Until the arrival of the Shunyata Darkfield, I was a cable elevator skeptic. However, with Shunyata in the game for cable elevators, being company whose products are non voodoo science by nature(well at least their "white paper" theories seemed plausible), I figured they must be up to something good. And since I had one product on hand, which coincidentally Sound Precision brought about their latest product, Elite Acoustic MSI, amongst which include a cable elevator.

Since Hifikaki already post earlier about the Shunyata Darkfield in detail, I'll do a little explaining on the Elite Acoustic MSI(Magnetic Shock Isolator). It's elevated by means of two opposing magnets of the same polarity facing each other, not unlike the Clear audio Magix 2 reviewed on 4th March 2009. I must confess that however, the Clear audio Magix 2 is more well thought out in execution and better built. Another area of concern is the Elite Acoustic MSI is non-shielded, which means if you put 2 of the cables elevators close to each other, they'll wanna stick together! Does that also means another possible source of stray magnetic interference?

However I am happy to report that none of those concerns affected the subjective sonic reproduction out come as far as my ears are concerned. So are we ready to start the cable elevator shoot out?

Shunyata Darkfield, lifting Cardas Golden Presence interconnect.

First up, I'll mostly concur to Hifikaki's observation about the sonic observation of the Shunyata Darkfield. I found that placing the Darkfield under speaker cables to give most gentle of intrusions, meaning, it's sonic effect on speaker cables are most minimal compared to, say the power cords and interconnects, in the order of severity. I also found that you can't use too many pieces of Darkfield in your system either! I started with 4 pcs under my Straight wire Maestro II speaker cable, which made the back ground very silent, dark and brought about a new level of imaging focus to the overall sonic picture. I later added one piece at a time, to various power cords and interconnects, as I had a box to play with. With each piece added, the sound was getting darker, and the imaging focus seemed sharper in contrast. It was until the 9th piece, when I noticed the sound coming from the system took on a certain hardness in the high mids. At this point the whole sound stage also took on a rather constricted quality, like as if all the instruments are tied up with strings, just as in a puppet staged musical event. That, I did not like.

I also noticed that during it's time with me, some cables, like the Siltech G5 LS88 Classic speaker cable, did not respond well to the Darkfield. With only 4 pcs of Darkfield supporting both the left and right chanel speaker cables, the sound was already edgy and bright. I just couldn't wait to take the Dark field off! In the end, I found with just 3 pcs under my Cardas Golden Presence interconnect(4 meter in length connecting my pre to power amps) and a piece of Darkfield supporting my JPS Inwall power cord connecting from the Torus Power to my power amps, the sound was most well balanced between the background silence, darkness, and imaging focus.

Elite Acoustic MSI(Magnetic Shock Isolator) supporting the same Cardas Golden Presence interconnect.

Next, I replaced the Shunyata Darkfield with the Elite Acoustic MSI. Just like the I discovered earlier with the Darkfield, you can't use too many of these stuff. I also found the MSI to be weight sensitive, the heavier the cable the more effective it is. To achieve this, one can use less MSIs on a given cable length, that means like if I had use 4 pcs Darkfield earlier, I can now use only 3 pcs of MSIs to support the same cable. Once you dialed in the correct amount of MSIs to use on each cable, now you're rolling.

As per my experience with the Darkfield, 3 pcs of MSIs under the same Cardas Golden Presence interconnect gave excellent results. The MSIs never darkened the back ground like the Darkfields did. Instead, it fills the back ground with audiophile air, if a little hazy translucent like quality(I am trying my best to describe the sonic effect heard in lay man's term, hopefully it makes sense to you as an audiophile). Whatever it is, it's not white noise either. With the MSI, I feel the vocals and voices are projected with more density. This makes voices sound more complete and real, with chest and lungs. However, as you add more and more pcs of MSI, you'd find that the vocal imaging projected a little further and further forward in to the room, making the voice a little detached from the musical instruments in the back ground! I also subjectively found the MSIs more PRAT friendly to the tempo of the music, comparatively to the Darkfield.

In summary, the two cable elevators work in different sonic directions. I would say if your system is looking for a little more back ground silence, better imaging focus, the Darkfield is the more suitable candidate. Should your system crave for a little more audiophile "air" and dimensionality, with increased vocal density projection, then the MSI is a treat. At RM$100/pc, the Shunyata Darkfield is no doubt, the better value option. However, if it clicks with your system, as it did with mine, at RM$256/pc the Elite Acoustic MSI is my preferred cable elevator device, in the context of my system and musical preference.

In the end, your system and musical preference will ultimately sway your purchase decision. Like all tweaks of this nature, try before you buy is the order of the day.

Shunyata is sold by Valve & Vinyl, contact Mr Ng, tel:016-3302049

Elite Acoustic is sold by Sound Precision, contact Mr Chan, tel:019-3825937

Reference Redifened! Bladelius Saga Pre and Ymer Power Amps.

2009-06-29T23:06:00.028+08:00

The Bladelius Saga Pre amp. Built on the same deep chassis platform as the Embla CD player.

The MONSTROUSITY called Bladelius Ymer! Watch out for the really sharp edges and corners!

I know I am supposed to live with the Bryston for a little while. But when a full set Bladelius came calling, courtesy of Audiomatic, my knees grew weak and accepted the offer in no time. Ahhh..... I am such am audio slut!

Both the Bladelius Saga and Ymer are top drawer stuff. The Saga pre amp costing RM$32K and the 300W class A/B Ymer power amp will set you back by RM$49K. These are clearly some of the most expensive components to have ever graced my audio cave.

My hifi rack, the FE spider clone struggled to contain the Saga, which is much deeper than most other equipment.

The Bladelius Saga is a full feature pre amp with 3 balanced, 6 single ended inputs and 2 balanced plus 2 single ended outputs. There's also a tape loop provided. You may also adjust the input level of each source individually, so that they all match in volume output, which ever your source is. I found this feature to be very useful to tweak the sound of the system, as it effects the perceived stage depth or forwardness somewhat, depending on setting allocated for each source. I found my self setting the Marantz CDP input to 0(zero) input level, and setting the phono stage input level to -1. I also found I prefered the -1 setting with the Bladelius Embla CDP. You can also individually label each input by name.

The back end of the Saga, input on the left and outputs on the right. Note the RS232 jack, so that you can connect to a PC or laptop for future software up grades, if available.

The Ymer power amp is monster sized, weighing close to 60kgs and no grab handles are provided for the job of lifting it from the box in to place, on my amp rack. Even with 2 person on the job, the satin smooth aluminium finish of the chassis casing is slippery from the hand. The corners are sharp as knife, as I had my hand and fingers cut whilst moving it in to place. Removable grab handles is a nice idea if Bladelius wants to retain the nice, fuss free look of the power amp. A peek on the inside reveals this is a dual mono design in the truest of sense! There are 2 large identical power supply trannies inside, each supplying power to a bank of storage caps, then to the left and right channels with their dedicated heat sinks, all packed inside the casing. The only thing the dual mono channels share is the chassis mounted IEC power input socket, and the all aluminium casing.

The Ymer needs two amp racks to support it, as it is so........ long!

I first mated the Saga to my Marantz CD7 at the front and the Ymer power amp further down the chain, then lastly, my faith full pair of Audio Physic Spark doing speaker duty. My usual array of AQ Sky, Cardas Golden Presence interconnects are used with 2 pairs of speaker cables being used in the session. First being the JPS Super Conductor 3, and later the Siltech Classic G5 LS88 speaker cable. All my usual power arrangements are used including the Torus Power RM8A PIU(Power Isolation Unit).

I loved the sound of the system comprising the Marantz CD7, AQ Sky interconnect, Saga pre amp, Cardas Golden Presence interconnect, Ymer power amp, JPS Super Conductor 3 speaker cables and the Audio Physic Spark speakers. The sound was reproduction was the most realistic ever heard in my audio cave. At this level of sonic excellence, I no longer think about the highs, mids and lows, nor do I think about the staging and imaging. I did not think about scrutinising the sound at all! I've never heard instruments like violin and piano reproduced with such beautifully woody harmonics and truth of timbre. Playing techniques and each violinist's breath could be heard clearly and distinctly. When playing vocals, the alive and breathing qualities are very apparent too. Guitars have that convincing "twang" to it, followed by the woody resonance of the body. Bass string instrument, had texture, fret board finger work all apparent and the strings bounces with each note tune fully. Drums had stick attack, skin texture and that hollow reverb that follows. Cymbal work is always realistic, yet never calling attention to itself, but has that dimensional quality(a.k.a. audiophile "air"), that projects it right at the back of the stage, but still each detail easily heard and followed.

The back end of the Ymer power amp. I love the non shorting WBT Nextgen speaker terminals. I think they are the best!

The amazing part is the stage does appear much bigger than my room. When listening in the dark at night, that room less sensation can be a little hair raising at times. The system was super silent. No tweeter hiss, back ground noise, white noise, nor any nasties were heard.

I started listening with Telarc's Round Up CD, featuring Erich Kunzer conducting Boston Pops Orchestra. This famous wild west themed CD has being heard a billion times, yet played thru the Bladelius combo, the presentation is wholly refreshing. The opening cattle scene track, the whole cattle field was portrayed on to the speaker's back and side walls, like a huge semi curved canvas(like the screen of some THX equiped cenimas) of a cattle scene art work, realizing depth of field by the various cattle "moo....ing" placement and cowboy riding horses back and forth and the final round up! To me this is just un real. The only thing that diference this from reality is the missing smell of fresh grass and cow dung! By the time I got to track 3 of the Round Up CD, The Magnificient Seven theme, I call it the Marlboro track(it was used in the famous cowboy advertisement campaign by the Marlboro cigarete brand), I was getting goose bumps all over, due to the uncanny resemblence of the experience comparable to sitting on row M of the the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas. The gorgeous, majestic tone of the orchestra coming full on in a Crescendo just made me flip over and over again. I was virtually breathless at the end of that track.

My other significant half, whom is always indifferent to whatever sounds my audio cave makes, suddenly decided to come in one day, when I was playing the very familiar Tube HiFi Violin CD, featuring Wilhem Dennigen on the Guarneri del Gesu 1735 violin with piano backing in the background. She exclaimed that the sound of the violin and the piano was a if in reality, performed right before her! When the track Air, from Suite no.5 was played, a popular wedding tune, she was moved to tears. She's my Dewan Filharmonik Petronas concert partner, and she knows classical music way better than me. She said "now, that's the first time I hear your hifi do the violin and piano tone right!" That statement coming from her, is testament to the highest fidelity of the Bladelius Saga and Ymer combo!

I then proceeded to replace the Marantz CD7 with the Bladelius Embla Basic. While the Embla Basic, was just as detailed and as transparent as the Marantz, it some how sounded a little on the lean, "cool" side of neutral, tonality wise. The Embla certainly had lower noise floor and better dynamics, but somehow portrays music with a little mechanicalness. Strange indeed, as I would have taught being made from the same factory, I would expect better synergy from the Embla than the Marantz CD player. I can only deduce that the Bladelius Saga and Ymer combo was revealing enough to let the Marantz strut it's stuff to the max.

However as usual, coming from such highly transparent equipment, the Saga and Ymer combo will always reveal your system's weak link, if there was one. I wondered if the system would sound as good without the help of the Torus Power? I was shock that the overall system transparency, delicate resolution, and musicality performance parameters dropped a notch or two, sans the Torus Power, with everything plugged direct to wall supply. This proves you must have good power for the Bladelius combo to perform to their very best. Next, as the dead line of the JPS Super Conductor 3 speaker cable came along, which I substituted with the Siltech Classic G5 LS88. Again I noticed a drop in overall performance. The highs were still nice and tidy, the mids are still breathy but have less density, body mass perhaps? However the bass became a little lean and less punchy overall. Dynamics and transient peaks were more subdued than before.

I was surprised, that the Audio Physic Spark speakers, remained unfazed by all the grand equipment it had to support and manages to reveal all the changes noted above. In short, it was up to the task.

The same remote set as the Embla CD player is provided, but operating the Saga is less daunting as almost all comands are direct button accessed. Not menu navigational screen prompted, like the Embla.

In the right audio system configuration, as I found out from my above experience, the Bladelius Saga and Ymer are capable of truly exceptional and absolutely life like musical performance, which more than fully justifies their asking prices. Can I dare say that "they're a steal comparing with some of the more established big brands"?

I think I may have grown silk ears by now, because my high end reference, has just being redifined!

I don't really want to return them, just yet.

Bladelius is sold by Audiomatic, contact Eugene, tel: 012-3222698

Future Forward! Bladelius Embla Basic CD Player.

2009-06-27T23:26:00.019+08:00

The Bladelius Embla Basic CD player.

Ladies and gentleman, this is what the future of audiophile quality CD players looks like! Well at least that's what I think any way. Mike Bladelius(product designer and owner of Bladelius) would very much agree with me on this too! He!He!

Here, we not only have a CD player in the traditional sense, but also included in the feature count is a silent replay system. What's a silent replay system? you ask.

The front panel menu display, when backing up CDs to flash memory card. Note the no. of corrected jitter errors!

It's a feature that allows you to back up all your CDs in to the Bladelius Embla's flash memory card. In Basic guise as the review sample provided(recommended retail price is RM$26K+), it is estimated to store up to the equivalent of 60 bit perfect CDs in full resolution, and jitter corrected. This mode of playback is said to reproduce better sound quality, more efficiently, as the transport jitter error is taken out of the playback system, due to the flash memory card having no moving parts at all. You may install additional flash memory cards latter at cost. That means you can potentially store your whole CD library in to the Embla. Now isn't technology great???

A fully loaded, full featured Bladelius Embla Premium, which is expected to cost you more than RM$45K!, is said to be in the works. You get front panel touch screen navigation and a back lit touch screen, hand held remote control plus 2 extra digital filter options.

Allison Kraus, Forget About It CD was backed up in to the flash memory card, note that the CD cover was uploaded from the internet, via the RS232 port connected to a computer.

I got this when I backed up a non English TOC CD. No picture too!

I can tell you straight and now, that the Embla Basic is not, that basic after all! It's got over sampling on/off option, sampling frequency option, 44.1, 48, 96 and 192 kHz are available. Also on offer is a digitally operated phase switch, for those really concerned about this sort of thing. There are also USB, Bluetooth and a host of other inputs available for you to stream music in to the Embla's flash memory card for storage, or replayed via your high end audio system.

There are just too many options and features available to mention here, otherwise, I'd start to sound like a product brochure. For full feature listing of the Bladelius Embla, check it out here: http://www.bladelius.com/embla_released.html

Now we get to the important part, the sound! The Bladelius Embla, when playing with the 192kHz up sampling setting used, does remind me very much of the Esoteric X-03 reviewed last month. Only in checking the Embla's spec on the above link, I found out that it uses a Teac transport! However, I cannot confirm is it's of the VRDS variety.

When playing CDs the conventional way, the noise floor is vanishingly low, the overall presentation is very clean, very tidy. Transparency is first rate, as it plays out all the information that is embedded on the CD, nothing is added or subtracted. If it's a poorly recorded pop or rock recording, you'll know it. If it's a lush sounding classical recording, it'll sound like that too. This is about the most uncoloured, true to source CD player I've ever experienced in my system.

I found my self mostly using 44.1kHz oversampling setting for most pop and rock recordings, for a little more immediacy in the music's presentation, and 192kHz up sampling setting for classical and jazz recordings, for better presentation of hall ambiance or studio spatial cues and a little bit more audiophile "air".

But what couldn't prepare me for next to come was that, when a CD is backed up( the Embla will ask you if it should back up each time it detects a new, previously unplayed CD or other source is inserted), and jitter corrected, then stored in to the Embla's flash memory card. When replaying from the flash memory card, the music took on a slightly more focus imaging, better separation between instruments within the sound stage and more organic flow in it's presentation. You can say that I preferred the sound when played back via the flash memory. However, I must state that tonally, the Embla lies in the slightly lean, "cool" side of neutral, which makes partnering it with warmer or musical sounding amps and speakers essential. But that's just my musical preference, yours may differ.

Doesn't the Embla look nice on my audio rack?

However, I do have a few operational quibbles about the Bladelius Embla.

First is the CD slot, which I find that it scratches both the top and bottom surface of my CDs a bit when inserting or ejecting in a hurry. You'll need to exercise care when inserting or ejecting CDs. Bladelius could take cue from in car CD receivers, which has foam lined CD slots.

Next, for the price of RM$26K+, I'd expect the remote to be at least back lit. The remote is well built and heavy aluminium in feel, which is good. But then, as the remote is capable of controlling a full Bladelius system, it has many, many small rounded, black buttons, with even smaller black labelling fonts. It's an absolute nightmare to operate initially. Only after a few days of practice and familiarity, the task of operating the remote became less daunting.

See what I mean about the well built remote control??? What makes it more frustrating is that the Embla Basic is a two button only machine!!! You only have "Standby" and "Eject" button on the front fascia. Every thing else is done via the remote.

Lastly, during it's time in my system, the Embla's software did hanged a few times, usually when changing between replaying from flash memory to inserting CD for replay. Also noted is that it's software does not recognise non English CD TOCs(table of contents). Eugene of Audiomatic tells me that Bladelius is aware of the issue. A new version of the software that addresses the issue will be available for upgrade soon. The new version of upgraded software can be up loaded to older Embla players via it's RS232 port connected to a computer with Internet link.

As far as I know for now, there are no other high end CD players with this concept of backing up your CDs for storage and replaying via it's internal flash memory card(and sounding better too!), just yet. However, I am also very sure that the competition is out there watching the success of the Embla with great interest. Surely the competition does not want to be left behind either. I am also wondering with great interest, when that happens, at what entry price level would this concept be available in the not too distant future?

If the price tag does not seem too daunting for you now(high end price tags are always daunting, aren't they?), and like Mike Bladelius's idea as much as I do, then wait no more!

You can, buy the "Future Forward" today!

Bladelius is sold by Audiomatic, contact Eugene, tel: 012-3222698

wow, wow, wow

2009-06-25T22:47:00.001+08:00

once in a while, a voice comes along that completely knocks you off. such is the lure of zee avi (formerly kokokaina) that many international labels got interested once they heard the voice of zee in her youtube videos. and who would imagine a young malaysia could pull off this kind of feat?

young zee is already gigging all over in US. really, artiste like zee is too good for malaysia; she needs overseas exposures and she deserves overseas success. and knowing the tendency of malaysians to overlook homegrown talents, her move (to overseas) is indeed a very smart one.

it is not difficult to understand why foreign labels were interested in zee. her voice reminds one of divas of past like billy holiday; her tone is oh-so-rich and honeyed; her phrasing and intonation belies her young age; there is so much honesty and more than a hint of insecurity and fragility in her voice. she certainly has more texture, more emotions and more depth than joanna wang and recent singers who tread along the same genre of easy-listening.

the music here is light-folk and whimsical, sometimes reflective, a bit dark but nothing too heavy. at 23, zee's has got plenty of depth in her compositions, indicating her influences and musical depth and knowledge. it is quite amazing that brushfire records allows zee to showcase all her original compositions instead of asking some composers to write for her. this spirits of originality and creative freedom is worth applauding.

my faves are "first of the gang to die" and malay number "kantoi". zee's voice has a way to bring you back to some place far away and some time far far back. the music is wistful, pensive and latently melancholic. she has her way of story telling. it is as if she has been through a lot in her life.

as a debut, it is certainly great but it nevertheless has room for improvement, notably in her compositions. with more life experiences, we are going to see a more mature zee in the near future.

as a malaysian, i am already proud of zee avi. you should too.

[background of zee avi]

Zee Avi (born Izyan Alirahman, also known as KokoKaina). Zee Avi is just 23 but she’s an old soul. A huge talent in a petite frame bringing a universal message from the unlikely birthplace of Borneo, an ancient island east of Malaysia which remains an untouched, natural paradise, an apt description of her songs.

How Avi came to record her debut album in L.A., the first joint release from Ian Montone’s Monotone Label and Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records, is a true 21st century tale of the way the Internet has transformed the music business and shrunk the globe in the process.

Born in the tiny town of Miri in Sarawak on the island of Borneo, Zee grew up near the South China Sea in a liberal, encouraging household where her father owned an energy consultancy. “I was bred to be a lawyer,” she says, but music was in her blood. Her father’s father sang and played double-bass, accordion, violin and guitar in bands.

At age 12, Zee moved from Borneo to Kuala Lumpur where she has been based since. At 17, Zee started locking herself in a room for hours on end to learn to play guitar. Guitar took a back seat for 4 years while she was studying fashion design in London. When she returned to Kuala Lumpur, she picked the instrument back up and began writing songs and performing with a band.

Zee began recording her songs on a webcam and posting them on YouTube for a friend to hear. “I remember getting so excited when there was one new comment from some random person I didn’t know… One read ‘I’m lost for words - I shall favorite it and ponder if that’s OK,’ ” which was written by Kris Rowley, a U.K. singer-songwriter with a YouTube following under the name Zzzzzzzzap. He began posting her videos on his site, which began a viral snowball effect.

The day before her 22nd birthday, Zee posted what she intended to be “my last video,” a holiday song, “No Christmas for Me.” By the time she checked her e-mail Avi had almost 3,000 messages including a slew of label offers. One email came from Ian Montone, who had been shown the YouTube clip by Raconteurs’ drummer, Patrick Keeler, prompting Montone to get in touch and offer to release her music on the Monotone Label.

Before she knew it Zee was on a plane to L.A. to record her debut with producer Robert Carranza at Brushfire’s Solar Powered Plastic Plant. “No Christmas for Me” was then featured on the holiday charity album, This Warm December, A Brushfire Holiday, Vol. 1.

With an eclectic pool of influences that range from such eccentrics as Cat Power, Regina Spektor, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Jolie Holland, Daniel Johnston and Chris Garneau, to jazz greats Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, to classics like Velvet Underground and Led Zeppelin, this self-described “rock lover at heart” captures the dark, bittersweet qualities of romance with a crack left open for hope and optimism.

From the sensuous scat singing on “Honey Bee” to the sultry break-up song, “Is This the End,” recalling the existential longing of Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is,” Zee is hopeful of finding love, but equally aware of lurking heartache.

The songs on Zee Avi’s debut are about an outsider’s desire to belong and the tentative hope of moving on, filled with regret and loss, but boasting an impish, worldly wise sensibility.

“I tend to be a loner,” she nods. ” ‘Honey Bee’ is about a romance between two nonconformists who are different from the rest of the hive, and are trying to avoid the pressure to be like everybody else.”

“Just You and Me,” the first song she wrote on ukulele, has a ‘20s New Orleans swing jazz vibe.

“I get my melodic feel from the simplicity of classic jazz, people singing what they felt with straightforward lyrics and not too many harmonies,” Zee says. “Just a lot of honesty. I’m a girl of simple pleasures.

The elemental acoustic guitar of “Story of…” is enhanced with an Eno-like ambience that add to its shimmering quality, while “Poppy” is autobiographical “with a little bit of poetic license” that looks back at the demise of a two-year relationship.

“My stuff is pretty dark,” Zee admits. “Most of my songs are about the reality side of romance, outlets to vent my emotions.”

While her live experience amounts to playing gigs in Kuala Lumpur, Zee appeared this January on From the Basement, the U.K. TV webcast/broadcast that has featured Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Damien Rice, the White Stripes and the Shins. From the Basement will also air on the U.S.‘s IFC Channel.

From Malaysia to Los Angeles, Zee Avi is enjoying the ride and ready to take on passengers. “I’m still pinching myself” she gushes. “My parents always told me it’s important to keep yourself grounded. I’m thankful, but at the same time, I just want to jump through the roof. It’s been a pretty amazing journey, getting to work with some really wonderful people, a blessing, really.”

Zee Avi’s Monotone/Brushfire Records debut returns that blessing…and then some.

Monotone Records is owned by Ian Montone, whose Monotone, Inc. manages the White Stripes, M.I.A., The Shins, Vampire Weekend, the Raconteurs, Against Me!, Cold War Kids, Crookers, among others.

Brushfire Records is owned by Jack Johnson and his manager Emmett Malloy and is home to artists like Rogue Wave, Matt Costa, Neil Halstead, Money Mark, G. Love, Mason Jennings, ALO and Zach Gill.

A Trusty Companion - Bryston's BP26 Pre-amp with MPS2 Power Supply

2009-06-23T20:49:00.006+08:00

There are friends who are 'yang' - loud, slap you hard on your back, irreverent; there are friends who are 'ying' - brooding, a little fragile, probably moody. And there are friends who are 'balanced' - always there for you, cheering along when you are up, and stay with you when you are down. The object in this write-up is the third kind, it is a friend in hifi that you can count on.

I seem to get all the pass-me-down from Panzer. :-) So, true to tradition, the Bryston BP26 / 4BSST2 pair ended up at my place for a couple of weeks while he was busy with other things.

Throughout my years' in the hifi hobby, I never owned an amp more powerful than 100w (I don't know why, probably it is the issue with my wallet). So with the 300w per side Bryston 4BSST2, I jumped at the chance, I would love to hear what a high power amp could bring to the table in my own system.

The stable mate of the 4BSST2, the BP26 pre-amp also came along for the ride. I decided to go one by one. The pre-amp would go into the system first, then the power amp. I have just completed step 1, so this write-up focuses only on the pre-amp.

The Bryston BP26 Pre-amp and MPS2 Power Supply

The BP26 is a great example of a thoroughly modern pre-amp. It is built like a tank, has all the connections that one would need (2 balanced inputs, 5 unbalanced inputs, 1 tape loop, 1 balanced output and 2 unbalanced outputs), Bryston also, in their wisdom, added some additional features that, to me, upped the value-for-money quotient for their ware - there are a headphone out, balance control, mute, and a rarely seen phase inversion switch. So this Bryston offers greater conveniences compared to those strip-down pre-amps out there, some can't even do much more than source selection and volume control.

The MPS2 power supply comes with 4 outlets, so you can power other Bryston gears with it. It connects to the main body via an umbilical cord cable. Built into a same size chassis as the pre-amp, both looked dandy stacked on each other. And that is how I installed them on the top of my equipment rack.

Mated to my Pass Labs XA-60 monoblocks, the BP-26 offered up a sound that was quite refined and smooth. This was an excellent level of performance for me, this refinement was better than my resident Pass Labs X2.5, and reminded me, to an extent, of that offered by Pass Labs' much more expensive XP-20 pre-amp (RM30k, compared to the BP26's RM16k), which I listened to a while ago.

The BP-26 also offered up excellent details. There was a slight heightening of clarity apparent towards the upper mid regions and higher (upper range of vocal, guitar plucks, violin strings), giving the sound a little sunlit quality and letting the details coming through. The sound was neither bright nor cold in any stretch of the imagination. The BP-26 also emphasized the main event (vocal, main instruments) more than the ambiance and surroundings. It is my nit to pick, after comparing to my X2.5, to wish for a tad better resolution of low level information. These traits though made the main musical details that much easier to follow.

There was no mechanical feel to the BP-26's music reproduction. The sound flowed. There were no etching, no edginess, unless it was in the recording. Do not expect the BP-26 to romanticise or beautify the music for you though. The BP-26 is an honest guy, its no non-sense demeanor will just pass on the signal as it is.

With these traits, you would be in cloud nine if you were more intellectually oriented in your music listening. Every word and every note in the music were portrayed clearly for the ears and the mind to savour. I could not ask for more in this respect, listening through to the music with the BP-26 was easy.

The control that the BP26 exerted was clear to hear on the 'Poem of Chinese Drum' track that I mentioned earlier in my E.A.R. Acute cd player post. At certain parts, the music was not only loud, but also complex and fast. the BP26 was unfazed, it segregated the threads clearly and cleanly, things do not get overblown, and each drum beat was presented in a tactile manner. The BP26 was evenhanded, it did not go weak at the knees, nor did it charge hard at the listener.

The rear view

The BP26 had no tendency to offend. There was no primadonna behaviour in its operations nor in its sound. It stayed true to the musical signal. And with its 20 year warranty it will do this year after year, presenting your music to you.

I don't think one can ask for a more dependable and trusty piece of gear than this.

Bryston is sold by AV Designs, contact James Tan, tel: 016-3280237

Rave Systems.

2009-06-21T22:16:00.021+08:00

The new shop front display.

The cosy main audio demo area.

Remember the ol' City Square building? For many years, it used to be the hifi mecca of Kuala Lumpur. However, as of late last year, the building was scheduled for demolition works, to make way for presumably a bigger, more prominent and probably more lucrative(rental returns wise) building project. All the hifi and audio stores have left the building and went their separate ways. As we try to trace where some of them had moved to, we found Rave Systems, and it's owner unker Edwin Tan and his rather chatty Mrs. It's new location is Lot1.4, Level 1, PNB Darby Park. No.10 Jalan Binjai, 50450 Kuala Lumpur. If you need assistance in finding the place, you can call the following tel. no. 03-21632818 or 012-3241745.

Jadis equipment and Herron Audio phono stage, also Jennifer Warnes latest re-issue of "The Hunter" LP, only 8000 copies pressed for worldwide sale.

More Jadis tube amp galore.

For those who do not know what Rave Systems sells, here goes. They represent some of the biggest brands in hi-end, like Jadis, Wilson Benesch, Herron Audio, Gryphon, Rega, EAR Yoshino, Almarro and Weiss. Rave also carries some really good value for money audio brands, like Stello, April Music, NAD, Ho's and Musical Interface amongst others. You can also find some DIY oddities, built to very high standards of course, being offered here.

Wilson Benesch's high tech Trinity speakers, with matching stands.

The Torus Infrasonic Generator sub, made from carbon fibre material to match the above Trinity speakers.

Wilson Benesch Full Circle turn table with matching carbon fibre A.C.T 0.5 tone arm.

Rave Systems is also a place for you to find out about the latest audiophile music. They stock most of the best audiophile music tittles in CD or LP. If you can't find it there, they can always bring any tittle you want on special order basis.

The music business corner.

Ho's LS3/5A BBC inspired monitor and matching bass extender.

Sonus Faber??? No, Musical Interface speakers! With matching stands.

Stello CD transport and DAC, endorsed by Mark Levinson. Great sound at very reasonable prices.

The decoration of the new show room has a very cosy feel, yet light and airy in ambiance. You can while away there for hours, while unker Edwin plays you some of his favourite music thru any one of his many finely tuned demo systems.

The Gryphon Diablo integrated amp.

And matching carpet!

I spent a few hours and some money there on an LP and CD over the weekend. If you're still looking for Rave Systems and wondering what happened to them since the City Square days, well wonder no more! Go pay them a visit!

Go pay Rave Systems, and unker Edwin Tan a visit!

birthday bash and mini concert @ home studio

2009-06-21T19:47:00.005+08:00

my concept of turning my home studio into a mini concert venue actually turned out superbly on the night of my birthday!

a couple of my hifi dealers actually came that night and commented that both the acoustics and the sound from the system were great, and of course, everyone had a whale of a time enjoying the mini concert.

many have suggested to make it into a venue for press conferences, meet-the-fans sessions and live gigs....

this is really cool ;-)

Hail the KING!

2009-06-20T23:33:00.026+08:00

Look here Fluffy! Good Dog! Now isn't he adorable?

What does this cute li'll pooch has to do with hifi? Let me introduce, for this li'll pooch named Fluffy, must be one of the most qualified audiophile dog in Malaysia, and if not, the world! Fluffy's owner is called "the hifi KING" amongst audiophile circles in his home town in Borneo island. And yes, he's a very good friend of Dr. Brian too. Like Dr. Brian, Philip(hifi King's name) also has and extensive collection of LS3/5A BBC style monitors, some old style Tannoy Yorkminsters, a few pairs of Apogee panel speakers and JBL 43xx type studio monitors plus many other interesting audio bits and pieces all over his home.

Jadis Orchestra with KT88 tube mono block power amp(where's the other side?) and Musical Fidelity A1 classic class A integrated amp spotted!

An extra pair of vintage Marantz 9B mono blocks, just in case! An Onkyo AV processor amp seen too.

Big Apogee, small Apogee! I think the big one's a Diva and the small one's a Stage.

You see Fluffy accompanies Philip on every night's listening session for hours, from start to finish! Fluffy sits on his own dedicated rocking chair, right next to Philip's very own hifi throne!

Hands Up! The Clear audio Master Reference awaiting play.

Denon D103R cartridge, with just 0.25mv output, you better need a high gain, low noise phono stage.

Philip's main, and currently plugged in hifi system consist of the following gears. The twin source system is digitally fronted by a Jadis JD 3 CD player. A Clear audio Master Reference turntable, mounted with tangential tracking arm and a Denon D103R cartridge representing the analog front. A mighty fine looking Koetsu cartridge just arrived the day I visited and will certainly be fitted soon. The signal from the MC cartridge is sent to a Herron Audio phono stage.

The Clear audio Master Reference "In Play!"

Herron Audio phono stage.

As with Dr. Brian, Philip is a big fan of the Marantz 7 pre amp, however, this is a limited edition re-issued unit made in year 1999. The signal coming out of the pre amp is then split by an electronic cross over, supplied for used with the top dog Maggie 20.1 planar speakers. The high frequency ribbons are powered by a pair of vintage Marantz 9B mono block power while the bass panels are power by a pair of Krell mono blocks rated for 600 watts!

Marantz 7 re-issue circa 1999.

Marantz 9B mono block power for the Maggie's ribbon.

600W Krell mono block power for the Maggie's bass panel.

I see many exotic cables connecting the system, including some MIT MA series! All equipment sits on dedicated audio grade shelves. The shelves then sit on sand boxes for the ultimate isolation/damping solution! Various Qi and Walker cones are used to tweak the system too. Clean power is supplied to the front end components via 2 units of Nordost Thor PLCs. The audio room measures roughly 25 x 38 ft. A very big room indeed!

Magnaplanar MG 20.1 top of the range planar speakers. It looks a whole lot bigger in real life!

2 units of Nordost Thor PLCs supplying clean power to front end.

I truly love the sound of this big boy system! It's got life size scale to sound stage and imaging presentation. When Tsai Ching sings, she's standing right there before you, backing musical instruments like double bass and piano panning to the left and right, plus drum set behind her, making it all very convincing! There's no need to resort to the imagination, every CD, or LP played, more so LP is truly life like, accompanied by that lightly honeyed golden tonal colour. High frequencies has that fade in to thin air decay quality, mids are dense, rich and full bodied and the bass control is just so very effortless! The bass extends really low too. Now who says Maggies are bass shy?

Note the sand boxes??? Can you recognise the Convergent Audio Technologies SL1 in the center?

In the areas of macro and more so, micro dynamics this system let's the listener feel each life size guitar and double bass note pluck and hands/fingers moving across fret boards, all so very clearly presented in the most organic fashion. I bet the post listening experience of this system will likely result in perspective altering of mind set. I don't know how much more convincing high end audio needs to get for you?

Ahh..... the system to Sonic Nirvana???

For me however, just a chance to listen to this system is worth paying "a KING's ransom!" I think secretly, Fluffy agrees with me, you lucky dog!

Again I apologise for the poor photography outcome! Please believe me when I said that I've tried to get better results. I really did tried.

A Doctor's Remedy.

2009-06-18T21:56:00.018+08:00

The system is set up in a cosy well laid out room measuring about 11 x 15 ft.

Have you ever wondered what doctors do when they get home, after a hard day's work of saving lives? Well this particular doctor, returns home to music via this wonderfully set up hifi system.

The Linn LP12, note the missing cone on the bottom right? Only three cones were used at 3 corners. That's a KI method of setting up an LP12!

Dr. Brian, is stationed on the Borneo side of Malaysia, which yours truly visited recently.

Dr. Brian is an ardent under study of Joseph Ki's(L/S3/5A guru, whose system was featured in our 1st March 2009 home visit titled "This Is Music!") method of hifi system setting up. Our dear Dr. has his own tweak up his sleeves too as you'll note later!

The Phonomena phono stage. Note the Walker cone footers used for damping the top panel.

The twin source set up, first of which an analog source is fronted by a Linn LP12 turn table fitted with Shure MXR-V15 MM cartridge, followed by a Phonomena phono stage to amplify the low level signal to pre amp acceptance level. Next on the digital front, a CEC TL-1 belt driven transport, feeds the P-1A Digital Correction Engine plus P-3A DAC made by Perpetual Technologies via co-ax cable. Both the Perpetual Technologies units are powered by Monolithic Sound P3 power supply unit.

The belt drive CEC TL-1 flag ship CD transport.

Perpetual Technologies P-1A and P-3A plus Monolithic Sound P3 power supply unit.

The pre amp is the centre piece of the system, and a original Marantz 7C tube pre amp is used. This is an American unit(and in mint condition!) that runs on an audio grade modified 240V-110V step down converter. The power amps are a pair of Antique Sound Labs AQ1006 - 845 (DT) tube mono blocks producing 22 watts. The speakers are the legendary Rogers LS3/5A Gold Tag, coupled to the matching Rogers AB1 bass extenders, and a REL Strata sub, hidden just behind the sofa seating position, for the ultimate low frequency rumble! Like the revered Jo Ki, Dr Brian also has a collection of the BBC designated LS 3/5A speakers.

The centre piece, an original Marantz 7C tube pre amp.

Antique Sound Labs AQ1006-845(DT) for that glorious tube sound.

I am so.... jealous that I hereby declare that these are truly greedy folks! I beg you folks, please don't deprive us newbies and other music lovers off the magic of LS3/5A, by amassing a larger and larger collection? Ha!Ha!

The highly prized Rogers Gold Tag, and parnering Rogers AB1 bass extenders( goes down to 55Hz only) set up with the KI method.

Did I digress? Just a little, my bad. The whole set up is housed in an acoustically treated room, which is very tastefully decorated. Now, folks, that's how you enjoy! Great sound, in a comfortable environment. All equipment sits on Tong Lee's version of Mana clones, and the cables used in the system are mostly custom DIYed supplied from the US. There are also a variety of cones utilised to fine tune the system sound too.

Dr.'s own tweak! Cables hanging on ceiling attached fishing lines, so that the cables do not touch the floor! A very practical alternative to the Shunyata Darkfield Elevators indeed!

The REL Srata sub woofer, takes care of the low rumbles placed directly behind the throne. However, you can't really tell there's a sub in the system! The bass seems to come integrated from the front stage, it leaves the listener wondering how on earth can the LS3/5A plus AB1 do that! How's that for an exceptionally well tuned sub? Remember, the lowest bass notes are more felt than heard.

The sound is immediate, lush, warm and some what controlled. However, all the virtues is not achieved at the expense of transparency. Those who say the Marantz 7 pre are not transparent enough, probably hasn't heard the real thing yet! as there are countless DIYed Marantz 7 clones out there, mostly getting close to that warmness, and some goes to the extent of over cooking it too, but can never achieve the same level of transparency of the original. The whole system seems to be set up for easy listening, with a very relaxed presentation, of an airy and laid back sound stage with dense imaging qualities. A great system to de-stress.

Another look at the glow of the 845 tube! Aren't they mesmerising?

I noted to the dear Dr. that inclusion of the Torus Power RM8A will bring his system performance to another level, as experienced and probably equally advocated by Jo Ki the man himself too.

Ya hear that Dr.? Ha!Ha!

Never mind me, just enjoy the music!

nostalgic gem

2009-06-16T21:26:00.002+08:00

something exciting is happening in HK cantopop scene....

realizing commercial k-song (karaoke songs) is nearing its death, many producers are considering asking songwriters from the 80s to come out from their retirement and contribute to the dwindling music industry. early 80s to early 90s were the golden era of cantopop; we have seen many superstars in the likes of leslie cheung, danny chan, alan tam and jacky cheung emerged during that period of boom. their records used to sell by the millions. and seriously, cantopop then was so much better than the cantopop you hear today.

if you are a close observer of hk cantopop scene, you would realize that favourite k-song singers like miriam yeung and joey yeung are already going downhill and past their prime. new breed of singers like kay tse, hins cheung and even eason chan are starting to command their own destiny by "singing only the songs they like" with as little compromise as possible. this is indeed heartening. major labels letting their key artistes decide their own destiny? it can only happen to big artistes like kay, eason and hins, i suppose. still, i applaud these bold artistes and their spirits.

along this return to nostalgia, we have already seen how successful william so wing hong's latest outing is, now we have another gem in hins cheung's "love and living" [張敬軒:感情生活].

truth be told, i have never ever been a fan of hins cheung and i don't even own a single cd of his. but this album, you don't only buy one, you have to buy a few copies and give it to your friends as presents!

the cast of illustrious composers from the 80s include anthony lun (who got his fame from his close partnership with sandy lam), chui yatt kan (who got his fame from his major contribution to danny chan's career) and of course, the unmistakable "moustached music man" george lam chi cheung.

the result: it is almost like danny chan (pak keung) and alan tam being reborn.... what a fabulously nostalgic trip back to the glorious 80s! who cares about hins' vocal ability when the music is so great. at times, hins sounds so much like danny chan that had me quivering with delight!

the whole album is great but i have to single out track 3, track 4, track 7, track 8, track 9 as the outstanding ones. in particular, track 4 made my cry; such a melodious gem from great composer christopher chak.

if you stopped buying cantopop since alan tam's heyday, if you stopped buying cantopop albums because you think they are crappy.... you have to buy this album to regain your faith.

the glorious 80s era are back!

p/s heard that hins cheung is going to invite joseph ku (ku kar fei) to write for his next album... can you beat that?

The Force Is Strong On The Dark Side!

2009-06-16T19:00:00.003+08:00

That I went to ask V&V Audio for the Shunyata Dark Field Cable Elevator for trial was actually Panzer's idea. So this last Saturday when we met up, I took down the 4 pieces I had and passed on to him for a listen.
Later, I listened to my system without the Dark Fields. It sounded all right, almost indistinguishable from when the Dark Fields were around. So I thought, no big deal, I knew the Dark Field's effect was minor, though positive, anyway.

I listened to my system again Saturday night, then a couple more times on Sunday. Hey, what happened? I did not enjoy the music as much as before, there was a slight loss of coherence (but it did not become incoherent), there was some mechanical-ness in the music re-production while previously the music was more fluid. I also had to strain somewhat to distinguish minor details that I knew were there, because I heard them quite clearly the last few days. I was less relaxed listening.

All these were the areas that the Dark Fields improved upon. In my last post I said that their effects were small. I still think they were small, but what I did not realize was how critical they were. It was like that few drops of soy sauce that made a dish complete; or like that putt that put the golf ball into the hole after you have driven it for 400 yards.

Then, Panzer texted me about the Dark Fields in his system, he said, "The system... with the dark field elevators reached a whole new level of Sophistication! It brought the whole musical emotional intent to the fore. The slight dryness noticed yesterday totally gone. I want (the Shunyata Dark Field). Ha! Ha!".

So there he went with me to the Dark Side too.

I went back to V&V Audio and requested more Shunyata Dark Field Cable Elevators (an entire box of 12 pieces in fact) for Panzer and myself to check out.

Putting 4 back into my system brought back the smile a couple of hours later. I'd pass the rest on to Panzer, he wanted more so he could try them on his interconnects and powercord too. Let's see how his journey would turn out.

I have a conjecture based on my experience - it may not be possible to do quick A-B comparisons with the Shunyata Dark Field. When I first put them on, I needed to wait a day for them to bloom; when I took them off, I thought everything still sounded ok only to hear things progressively changed over a day plus. IF the Dark Field is really doing what it is suppose to do, this makes sense, as, I believe, draining static electricity and having static to build-up do take time (though I am not sure in our high humidity and carpet-less environment how severe the problem would be).

Topics on tweaks like this are likely to polarize opinions. However, the most important is one's own listening experience. So if you are interested, try them out in your own system to decide (remember to let them sit for a day or two under your cables first).

Ok, now where is that light sabre to complete my cross over? :-)

List price for the Shunyata Dark Field Cable Elevator is RM100 per piece.
Shunyata is carried by V&V Audio - 016-3302049 Mr. Ng.

Living With Bryston 4BSST2(read squared) Power Amp.

2009-06-15T21:07:00.008+08:00

The Bryston 4BSST2, hunk of an amp.

It's been nearly a month now since the muscular Bryston 4BSST2 power amp came in to my audio life. Here's the story so far.

The class A/B amp, rated at 2 x 300W @ 8 ohms and 2 x 500W @ 4 ohms, I must say that the Bryston was sometimes just a little too much for my baby Audio Physic Spark(rated at 89db sensitivity) to handle. I have to watch my habit of turning the volume on real.. loud. Thank fully, so far the l'll Audio Physic complains by starting to distort, so I had to turn the volume down. The Bryston is capable of driving much more demanding speaker loads, that I am very sure. The amp never runs hot at all, just moderately warm to touch, even after an extremely long session of loud music being played.

The Bryston 4BSST2 came in to the system as a direct replacement of my Pass Aleph 0. I hook up all the necessary cables, i.e. power cord(from the Torus Power of course!), interconnects and speaker cables. Select the input switches to XLR and input voltage to 2V. According to the manual, this means the Bryston will only have 23db gain instead of 29db. Still it's a healthy 3db more gain compared to my Pass Aleph.

The instant I switch on the Bryston, it was already apparent, that without music playing, and CD player set to pause, and the volume on my Pass X2.5 set to normal listening volume of 13, the noise floor was totally silent, with out the usual slight hiss.... that usually comes from the speaker's tweeters.
Every Bryston leaves the factory with a test certificate, indicating Bryston runs very tight tolerances betwwen the left and right chanels.

I play a CD, and it was readily apparent in to the first song, that 2 areas the Bryston already surpassed the Pass Aleph. First noticed was the level of transparency, the preservation of low level resolution is way beyond, what the Aleph is capable of. The second thing was refinement of high frequencies. I previously thought the Aleph to be pretty decent in this regard, but the Bryston just sound so... tidy at the highs! High hats never sounds splashy or veers in to white noise territory. Just highly extended but at the expense of some audiophile air.

While the mids are not as seductively rich as the Pass Aleph, it does manage to sound very uncoloured and open. In fact, I would call it dead neutral. Bass grip is excellent and bass lines are always super tight. The Bryston also subjectively seem to send bass extension just a little deeper in to the low end.

The busy looking back end! With switches for input type and sensitivity. There are also switches for you to run the 4BSST2 in bridged mono, if you need more power, but you need to buy a pair!

The Bryston 4BSST2 is an extremely honest power amp, and will reveal recording or ancillary equipment weaknesses. Put in a poorly recorded pop/rock CD, and it'll punish your ears with an excessively bright high mids. Play a lushly recorded classical CD and the Bryston sounds rich, tidy and slightly euphonic. It has this chameleon like ability to respond to different recordings. Certain Chinese audiophile CDs can sound very good, but also very indifferent, i.e. non-musical.

In it's time with me so far, I've been changing many equipments in my system chain, and with each change, the effect is almost instantly known. If the auxiliary gear matches the Bryston's synergy, the results will show itself normally within a few songs. I went from the Pass X2.5 to the Bryston BP26 pre amp, and as expected with the same manufacturer pairing, the synergy between the pre and power amp improved tremendously. Gone is the edginess in the high mids. I strongly suspect the Bryston BP26 pre amp to be of the more forgiving of the two pre amps. With the Bryston BP26 pre in partner, the Bryston 4BSST2 took on a more civilised sound. Highs are still as pristine and clear, but have the impression of "set a little further back the sound stage", giving the stage better layers in between the vocal up front, and the backing musical instruments behind.

However, it was the arrival of the Audio Research Reference 3 pre amp(one of my current fav), courtesy of a friend whom left it in my care for 2 days, that proved to the best matched to the Bryston 4BSST2, or perhaps the 4BSST2 was just showing the superiority of the ARC Ref 3 against the other 2 cheaper rivals? The highs now have immediacy and audiophile air that tubes are so prized for. Voices now have that lush golden tone, especially well recorded audiophile recordings. The bass lines now though took on a slightly elastic quality, that makes double basses and bass guitar sound that bit more realistic. The Bryston's ability of not being the performance dead weight, in the company of far more expensive gear, marks it as outstandingly good value. Why? if you have to ask, that means you can upgrade around the Bryston and will not be short changed for sound peformance, in short, it'll serve in your system for a long, long time! This proved to be the most satisfying combo so far. In fact this combo was so good, it made me forget about the missing Pass Aleph!

I love the chunky covered speaker termnals, to protect from accidental shorts! In case you have stubbornly stiff cables like the JPS Super Conductor 3!

Also during it's time with me, the Bryston 4BSST2 went thru another 2 pairs of speaker cables. With each upgrade of cable, the improvements were readily apparent too. From the Starightwire Maestro II to the Siltech G5 LS88 Classic to the JPS Super Conductor 3, the various sonic contribution of the cable to the sound was notable. With the Siltech, the highs were tidy, refined, if the overall tonal was a little lean. With the JPS Super Conductor 3, that refinement and tidiness remained, but the over presentation had more weight, scale and drama.

The sonic best combo was the Marantz CD7, Audioquest Sky, ARC Ref 3, Cardas Golden Presence, Bryston 4BSST2, JPS Super Conductor 3 and the Audio Physic Spark.

To summarise the overall performance of the Bryston 4BSST2, it's tonality is dead neutral, with a slightly lean presentation(unless partnered to tube pre). It exerts iron fisted control on the speakers due to it's high damping factor. The level of transparency is frightening and can be considered a double edge sword, because it'll always tell you the unvarnished truth, and in this case, the truth can sometimes be unpleasant too.

Another look at the hunk!

Personally, I'd like to see the Bryston let it's hair down a bit sometimes just for fun. As it stands, it's a real serious audiophile power amp, and if you value "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" in your musical listening experience, this amp is right up your alley.

Coupled with THE BEST product warranty in the high end audio business, for the asking price of RM$18K, and the power it has to drive virtually most speaker loads, makes it really good value for money indeed.

Aren't we audiophiles in Malaysia lucky to be spoilt for choices?

Bryston is sold by AV Designs, contact James Tan, tel: 016-3280237

your EAR, not mine

2009-06-14T15:19:00.004+08:00

i understand that hifikaki went gaga over the EAR acute cd player. knowing that he has just recently acquired his meridian g08.2, his declaration of love for EAR speaks a lot of this player. curious, i asked him to deliver the player to me for a quick review, despite my busy schedule.

my first impression of EAR acute is how organic this player is. this player makes other contenders sound "plasticky" and "fake"; music comes out as a whole and not in a disintegrated manner like many lesser players. it is also very very involving; it just draws you into the music without making you wanting to analyze.

this "organicity" and "wholeness" are the most-prized virtues of EAR. next comes the mids: the mids are warm, meaty, nuanced and textured than most solid-state cdps. it has an intimacy that just is involving. it is also colourful, possessing a color palette towards the golden yellowish hue. the acute's bass is not tight, fast nor snappy, but having plenty of texture. if you musical tastes veer towards pop/rock or any heavier, the EAR acute may not be your cup of teh tarik. another notable virtue is the depth of the soundstage, it goes really deep.

now, i know you want to know this - how does it stack against the formidable meridian g08.2?

let's just say that the EAR is british sound at its heart and the meridian is a british who grew up in the US of A. the meridian, while sounding organic too, does sound a bit solid-state-y compared to EAR but that's about the only area that i think the meridian loses out. in the context of my hybrid (SS + tube) system, the EAR's tubiness and mild-mannerism prove too much of a good thing. so think twice before you partner EAR with tube power or pre. to me, EAR acute is for solid-state systems.

the meridian also overwhelms the EAR in terms of PrAT, bass quantity, speed and timing and the all-important aliveness. in fact, the "new" meridian sound has departed so much from its romantic lineage of the past; it now has "balls" that can kick a few arses.

so, in conclusion, EAR acute is beautifully organic and involving. it gives a deep soundstage with plenty of air and ambience. it is tailored for classical music, jazz and vocals but definitely not for pop/rock or music which demands a large measure of rhythm and timing.

eventho' it doesn't quite wow me but i am sure it appeals to many who value its virtues.

Dabbling In The Dark Side - Shunyata's Dark Field Cable Elevator

2009-06-14T09:00:00.009+08:00

The Shunyata Dark Field is a support used to lift a cable off the floor. Shunyata says that the Dark Field will drain away static electricity build-up and also control vibration in the cable (aah..... that vibration / resonance control thingy again). It is made of foam-like materials, but of a rather hard variety. Shunyata does not reveal the exact material make-up on its website though.

I took home 4 pieces from V&V Audio, Shunyata's local distributor, to try out. I was told that while the Dark Field's effect could be heard immediately, it needed some time to 'run-in' for the full effect to come through, especially if a lot of pieces were used. Honestly, I took it with a pinch of salt initially. :-)

I put the Dark Fields under my speaker cables, they felt quite sturdy in use. I chose the speaker cables because all the other cables - interconnects and powercords, were too crammed together for me to get the Dark Fields in. I had only 2 pieces of Dark Fields per cable, I placed them closer to the speaker end, as such not the entire speaker cable's length was elevated.

The Shunyata Dark Field under my speaker cable

In the first hours of listening, I could hear that the Dark Field Cable Elevators did have an effect on the sound. These initial effects could be described as having a more 'saturated colour' for the sound, while shaving a bit off the highs. Though these changes were not night and day, I could not agree to them entirely, it did not sound natural to me. So I decided to let the Dark Fields sit over night.

The next morning, I listened again. The first effect that I caught was from Jennifer Warnes' "Famous Blue Raincoat" track (Famous blue raincoat 20th Anniversary Edition 826663-10490), there were fewer of the ear-poking moments I got with the trumpet on this track in my system, however the trumpet still retained the requisite bite, which was good. The next effect that I caught was that minute details became better defined and more apparent. Only later on did I find that background noise also receded, each music note was heard coming off from a quieter background. I also thought that the sound had a little more bloom added to it, though I can't be sure whether it was the effect of the Dark Field, or the effect from my Shunyata Hydra 8 coming off more due the lower noise floor.

The overall feeling was that it was slightly more relaxed for me to listen to music.

While these changes could be described as small or subtle, I thought they were quite beneficial at the end of day.

I do not know how cumulative the effect will be if one were to go beyond 4 pieces. I don't plan to add more as I am already satisfied with the effect I got. Conceivably, the sound may become darker with more, just like what their name says :-). However, since that is not the direction I need for my system, I decided not to go down that way.

Tweaks such as this would be system independent, so one needs to experiment with their placement and especially the quantity used. I'd advise that the Dark Field Cable Elevators be added incrementally into the system and the owner going back and forth to find the eventual balance.

This quartet will stay in my system.
Looks like more and more tweaks are being added to my hifi now. Yes, I am going over to the Dark Side! :-)

List price for the Shunyata Dark Field Cable Elevator is RM100 per piece.
Shunyata is carried by V&V Audio - 016-3302049 Mr. Ng.

Vitus Audio, Now in Malaysia!

2009-06-13T08:24:00.006+08:00

Vitus Audio SS-101 Integrated power amp. 50Watts of Class A smoothness!

I seen the Vitus Audio products in hifi mags, they seemed well built and look like something that'll sound special. Full balanced class A amplifier designs are my kinda thing. It's come to Malaysia now courtesy of Audiomatic in Amcorp Mall.

Vitus Audio SC-010CD player, with built in linestage.

On demo is the SCD-010 CD player and the SS-101 integrated stereo amplifier. You may ask that if I have missed out on a pre amp? No, the pre amp is not required as the CD player has a built in line stage! You can also read about the products and Hans-Ole-Vitus, the brand's designer, on http://www.vitusaudio.com/

Do make an appointment for a demo to avoid disapointment.

Vitus Audio is sold by Audiomatic, contact Eugene, tel:012-3222698

John Player Special! JPS Super Conductor 3 Speaker Cable.

2009-06-13T01:01:00.017+08:00

JPS = John Player Special, remember the JPS sponsored Tyrell F1 winning team from the 70's?

After knowing that I've being smitten by the JPS Aluminata power cord, but couldn't quite afford it just yet, Nelson Chia, Center Circle Audio boss, asked me to try out their JPS Super Conductor 3 speaker cable. "It's cheaper!" he said that with the 40% discount still applies to the final 2 pairs available. At RM$13.5K list price, the JPS Super Conductor 3 is the most expensive speaker cable to graze my system! Heck, it's even more expensive than my pair of Audio Physic Spark speakers. My friends are already giggling on the theme of "the tire is more expensive than the car"! So how does it sound?

In one word, "SUPERB!" The JPS SC3 is a supremely transparent speaker cable, almost top dog JPS Aluminata level transparent(vis a vis the JPS Aluminata powercord I played with in May)! What separates the top dog from the JPS SC3 is the finer level of nounces and subtleties in the musical passages are more well presented by the more expensive cable. I feel the overall level of performance capable in comparison to the JPS Aluminata is about 10% or perhaps 15% max.

The JPS Super Conductor 3 review sample came terminated with high quality WBT spades.

The band width of this speaker cable is widest I come across. So wide, it's probably showcasing the extremes of what my system is capable of, the lows and highs extension that is.

This speaker cable has no tonal balance or should I say imbalances to show, the highs, mids and lows are so evenly represented on it's tonal palette. There's very little character to speak of in fact, it's almost chameleon like in behavior when used with different power amplifiers, driving my pair of above mentioned speakers. There's a few things that are consistent in the JPS SC3's performance. The highs are always fully extended yet somehow never hint at brightness. The mids are always weighty, and vocals presented in full scale. The bass, always tight and tuneful. The bass will extend as deep as the equipment in the system will allow.

The overall sonic presentation of the JPS SC3 is extremely coherent. If the system can portray staging and and imaging well, the JPS SC3 will give you the widest, deepest most realistically room less sound stage possible, with all the audiophile air to breath too! Imaging is dense and solidly believable. It presents all the very minute sonic cues, harmonic subtleties and low level information is the most organic fashion, never letting the listener feel overwhelmed or distracted by it all, even when all is happening at the same time.

In it's 2 weeks with my system, I've partnered it with a number of systems. The first was the arrival of the Bryston 4BSST2, which proved to be a better match with the JPS SC3 than my usual Straightwire Maestro II and a pair of Siltech G5 LS-88 on loan. However, the Bryston was a poor match to the Pass X2.5 pre amp and it showed easily, via the JPS SC3.

The speaker end of cable. Why does it have to be so..... stiff?

It's been a really crazy two weeks for me, as a friend asked me to help him replace the aging 6H30 tubes in his Audio Research Reference 3 pre amp while he was away for 2 days. Fresh tubes installed, and for that 2 days, with my Marantz CD7 front end, Audioquest Sky interconnect, ARC Ref 3 pre amp, Cardas Golden Presence interconnect, Bryston 4BSST2 power amp, JPS Super Conductor 3 speaker cable and Audio Physic Spark as my system chain, proved to be the most enjoyable time I've had for a while now since the temporary departure of the Pass Alephs. That combo made me forget about missing my Pass Alephs if only for just 2 days!

As if my audio life couldn't get any better, the Bladelius Saga and Ymer pre/power combo arrived for a timely review! Now with the JPS Super Conductor 3 in tow, the sound took on a whole new different dimension! If the earlier system combo made me just forget about my Pass Alephs, the newly arrived Bladelius combo in the system proved that when hifi is so good!, it ceases to exist, and only the music remains! I totally forgotten about the hifi! I played disc after disc for hours, never feeling fatigue or tired. I just kept addictively wanting more music!

I can't reveal further about the findings of the above two system combo's sound, as I still have to do the Bryston and Bladelius combo in their own respective reviews to come soon.

What I am trying to say is that the JPS Super Conductor 3 is so sonically neutral, it can very easily fit in to many a system combo and still come out showing all the system's glorious qualities. If the system sounds awful after inserting the JPS Super Conductor 3, don't blame it, it's just the messenger telling you, there's something not right and you'll need to investigate the cause, take remedy action.

Panzer dreaming of another early X'mas present? I luv ya Santa, can ya hear me??? he,he!......

I only have 2 grieves about the JPS Super Conductor 3, first of all it's a little too stiff for easy handling. It stubbornly sticks out in to any directions it deems fit! You cannot bend the JPS SC3 too much, or you'll end up snapping it, your musical joy will be ruined and that's a guarantee! The said stiffness also puts a lot of pressure on to the WBT spade terminations at both ends. Even the spades are at risk of detachment if you can't accommodate the bending angle just enough. Also, older amps and speakers with very closely mounted terminations will be at risk of shorting if the JPS exerts too much pressure at the terminations, causing them to turn, even after they are securely fastened. I am very careful to check for turned terminations(resulting in positive/negative contact) before switching on power amps, otherwise I risk not only shorting amps that do not belong to me, but my speaker cone drivers or tweeters may pop too!

The other grieve is the price or the timing! I know, I know, good things are never cheap. Listed at RM$13.5K, factor in the 40% promotional discount, it's still cost RM$8.1K to acquire the JPS Super Conductor 3. That, for now is something I still can't afford until I finished paying off the Torus Power purchased earlier. Now, if only Center Circle Audio will do another JPS cable promotion in a few months time? That'll be perfect timing!

If you've got a thing for the JPS Super Conductor 3 speaker cables, hurry!
Only 2 pairs left with the 40% promotional offer.

JPS Cables are sold by Center Circle Audio, tel: 03-77282686

Ear Tonic - the E.A.R. Yoshino Acute CD Player

2009-06-09T00:13:00.007+08:00

Two day after I had the E.A.R. Yoshino Acute CD player in my system, Panzer called me and asked, a little anxiously,"so how is it?"

"It is the most detailed and yet the most musical cd player I have listened to in my system!" I told him, and that was the truth.

Ok, now that the cat is out of the bag, you can skip the rest and go straight to the end to find out where you can get this E.A.R.. :-)

I have Panzer to thank for digging up such a gem and letting me listen to it first, while he was being distracted by Bryston's gears.

Yep, the Acute cd player was excellently musical, which was quite something. During its more than 2 weeks tenure in my system, it never failed to play music to my ears. Every genre I threw at it, vocals, jazz, classical, pop, it spewed them out as recognizable and enjoyable music. Could it be the pair of tubes in the Acute's innards that were doing this? Well, the E.A.R. Yoshino Acute did imbue music with a thin, but pervasive, layer of warmth and a slight golden glow, characteristics regularly cited as the attractiveness of tubed electronics. It just made music sound more, er...., like music.

The Acute was musical all right, but not sugary sweet, which could be attractive in the short term, but boring in the long. Its presentation was done not by grabbing the listener's attention or by dazzling you with certain aspects of its performance. Instead, the Acute just let the musical event unfold in front of you. It may not be love a first sight, but give it a few more hours or a few days, it would just lure you in with its spell.

The Acute let the music do the talking, and not the cd player itself doing the talking, if you know what I mean. Listening with the Acute was enjoyable and musically satisfying.

So did the E.A.R. Yoshino Acute do all this by covering up flaws in the recordings, smoothing out all the nitty gritties on the CDs? No. It was transparent and detailed. The sonic canvas has excellent density, and there was none of that thin, analytical tendency that pass for some of today's high fidelity. Its colour palette was rather rich and vivid too. Again, I could use a visual analogy - what the Acute brought to table was not unlike the difference between Blu-ray and standard DVD. I saw once a demo of a panoramic medieval battle scene contrasted between Blu-ray and DVD, the DVD version was able to give a sense of grandeur from the clip, but when it was put to the Blu-ray version side-by-side, it was awful. On the Blu-ray disc, you could see the individual soldiers that made up the army, you could see the myriad colours and designs of their flags and their uniforms. The DVD could convey the 'forest', but the Blu-ray gave you the 'forest' and the 'trees' too. The Acute was like Blu-ray.

To hear the EAR Yoshino Acute's first rate detail retrieval capability, one does not have to go far from the 2v1g disc (my references are track 4 "tempting hearts" and track 8 "don't want to be alone"). The soundstage that the Acute threw up was positively dripping with air, ambiance and even noise from the recording venue and possibly from the recording equipment. All this information was coupled with the main performance of the vocals and the guitar into a musical whole. The soundstage it painted was detached from the speakers, the ambiance was so thick (in a good sense) that I'd swear it almost enveloped the entire room and not confined just to the stage in front. The Acute presented each track as a total musical event, an excellent achievement that cannot be said of every piece of high-end frontend, in my opinion.

A day after I told Panzer about my first impression of the Acute, I thought I caught a weakness of the player, I told Panzer that I wished it had a little more slam, more attack and dynamics to convey the excitement I was looking for in some music. Wrong! It was just a matter of me learning about Acute's presentation. After living with the Acute for a while, I realized that it just presented the recording as it was. If the music was soft, slow, atmospheric then it was presented as soft, slow, atmospheric; If the music called for excitement and dynamics, the Acute would just explode at the appropriate moments (the sound that is, not the machine itself :-) ).

I recently acquired a Chinese classical music cd, "The Dreams of Chinese Butterfly" (Rock/Marco Polo GDI8206) (the title is a literal translation from 中國蝴蝶夢, but a real awkward one - do butterflies have dreams and do western ones have different kind? :-) It actually refers to a fable where a pair of young lovers, torn apart by circumstances, died and turned into a pair of butterfiles, a chinese parallel to Romeo and Juliet). The recording quality was acceptably good, but there was a track that was excellently played and recorded, it was called "Poem of Chinese Drum". The Acute tracked the flow, swell and ebb of the drums excellently, it had speed and carried a tune. The drum beats had nuances and really had slam at the required moments - they were tight, fast and could hit you in your chest. At the same time, the Acute retained its strength in portraying excellent harmonics, ambiance and decay.

Big, bad-ass dynamics and subtle nuances were not mutually exclusive for the E.A.R. Yoshino Acute, really.

See, I have nothing negative to talk about the Acute's performance. However, I did not mean to say that it is the best in every aspect of cd music reproduction, simply because I have not heard every possible cd player in my system. But in the face of such musically whole performance, it is just not right, and really moot, I believe, to de-construct its sound and nit-pick in each area. But if you have to know, I found its highs crystal clear and extended, the mids true and natural, the bass well controlled and tight.

However, nit-pick on the player itself I would. The version of the Acute cd player listened to here has a shiny chrome fascia and gold buttons, I believe many would consider the look luxurious or jewel like and fall in love with it. For me, it was just a little too 'bling-bling' for my taste (though E.A.R. has a more subdued silver fascia version). The other was the remote control, it was a black plastic type. I have no problem with that, but strangely it did not provide direct track access for tracks numbered 10 or above. It did not have a button that switch the input into 2-digit mode, and pressing 2 numbers in quick succession (ala Marantz) resulted only in the second number being read.

I am not done talking about the Acute yet. Did I tell you that it has a analogue volume control? I tested the player at various volume settings while hooked up to my preamp. At full setting, the gain was a little too high for my pre-amp, such that at my normal volume setting was too loud, but too soft one notch down. I found the best range in between 3 and 4 o'clock on the Acute, at this setting I have a more usable volume range with my pre-amp and the sound also acquired a slight gentleness which I found more attractive. At the 12 o'clock setting on the Acute, even turning the volume up on my pre-amp to compensate, the sound was compressed and bass lost definition though.

At the tail end of the listening period, I hooked the player up directly to my monoblocks, eschewing the pre-amp in between. If you have a one-source set up, this is a plausible configuration. However, it was inconvenient, because the Acute's volume could not be controlled via its remote. For me, setting Acute's volume pot at 11 o'clock was loud enough, attesting to the amount of gain you could have from the cd player - E.A.R. quoted 5v.

How about the sound quality? The sound gained greater nuances and subtlety. Additionally, timbre accuracy improved - listen to good vocal recordings, I found that voices sounded surprisingly more live and real. The entire presentation took on a certain cultured quality (not softness though) to it too (the British sound quality?). However, I thought I needed to trade off a little bit of speed, attack and incisiveness for these gains, there was also slightly less control at crescendos (the American quality?).

If I were the Acute's owner, I probably would have my Pass Labs X2.5 pre-amp in the chain, not least for the convenience of remote control and multiple sources, but once in a while I'd hook the cd player directly to the monoblocks just to enjoy the purer sound.

Well, if I have not already spent my money on a new cd player, the E.A.R. Yoshino Acute would be one mighty serious contender.

On second thought, probably not. Instead I suspect it would be the ultimate winner.

List price for the E.A.R. Yoshino Acute CD Player's is RM16,800.
E.A.R. Yoshino is carried by R.A.V.E Systems - 03-2163 2818; 012-324 1745; 012-324 2434

Magic In a Box! Quantum Physics Noise Disruptor, A Follow up.

2009-06-08T22:22:00.010+08:00

The curiosity is killing me! What's in tha box?

Since I have moved on to the Bryston pre and power amps, I have found them to be more responsive to the Quantum Physics Noise Disruptor(QPND for short) tweak. Also based on Mike's advice about the better placement possibilities on the Torus Power, I agreed to do a follow up on this very subjective tweak.

The IEC poistion on Torus Power as recomended by Mike!

I'll start with placing on the Torus Power, this time, I put the QPND on the top of the IEC input, instead of in the center of the doughnut tranny. This position, as recommended by Mike, seems to make the noise floor(what ever's left of it!) subjectively lower, if just a little. Nothing much had changed to other areas of sonic performance.

The Bryston swings with the Audio Magic QPND too!

I then proceeded to try placing the QPND on top of the Bryston 4BSST2's doughnut tranny, which is clearly visible through the ventilation slots on the top plate. It is in this position, this took on a slightly more notice able difference. Sibilant sounding recordings were less an ear full, the QPND in this position reduced most of the vocal sibilant by a fair bit on Shirley's Red CD(an ABC International release). However, I must stressed that the QPND did not completely remove the sometimes sonically irritating artifact. The overall musical presentation became more coherent and the kick drums seemingly have better definition than before, contributing to a steadier flow of musical rhythm and pace. I also found the bass lines easier to follow.

Again, I must stress that in my rather flip-flop experience of the QPND, the sonic differences noted were very subtle. But I admit to have more limited audiophile ear's capabilities than most, and in this case I am no better for it. Again, in tweaks of this nature, my advise is to try before you buy.

Audio Magic is sold by Audio Creations, contact Mike, tel: 012-3315669

Living With Bryston. An Alternative Audio Journey, Stage 2.

2009-06-07T21:53:00.005+08:00

It's been a little more than a week since the Bryston 4BSST2 power amp came in to my life, replacing my much loved Pass Aleph 0 mono blocks. Last night another addition came in the form of the Bryston C series, BP26 line stage pre amp, replacing my own Pass X-2.5 pre amp.

I know that I have not done my part on the 4BSST2 yet, but things have became slightly more complicated than originally planned. So with a little more time, I should be able to report more accurately on the Bryston combo.

The Bryston BP26 line stage pre amp retails for RM$15.8k and comes in 2 box configuration. The pre amp it self in one box, and the power supply section in another, linked together via a DIN like terminated patch cord supplied.

The build quality of both pre and power amps are fantastic, with very simple styling and industrial like smooth finishing. I just love the idea of the 20 year warranty offered by Bryston! Why can't all other high end audio companies offer this?

Thank you for your patience.

Bryston is sold by AV Designs, contact James Tan, tel: 016-3280237

Anouncement! Desireable Thoughts.

2009-06-07T09:39:00.004+08:00

This is an anouncement.

From today onwards, only readers with gmail accounts can post their comment or remark on the Desireable Thoughts section. If you've already registered and have an gmail account, then you may continue posting as usual.

Should you not yet have a gmail account, but wish to post comments and remarks as before on the Desireable Thoughts section, please go register yourself and start an account with gmail.

Now that you've followed this, here's a little eye candy reward!

Now that you've got gmail, the lady here looks so... satisfied.

Dust Off, Furutech Select SK-II Electrostatic Brush.

2009-06-07T00:30:00.012+08:00

Furutech Select SK-II Electrostatic brush, made from "finest of hard to find goat's hair!" Now I am wondering Hmmm........

The contents and the packaging. The Tsai Ching LP does NOT come with it!

When an LP sticks to the platter felt mat when you lift it up after playing, means it is statically charged, very dangerous scenario as the lifted felt mat could get caught with the stylus tip and break it, an especially pain full experience if you've got an expensive cartridge installed! The static charge can manifest itself in the next play in the form of clicks and pops. One effective way to kill the static charge is using the Milty static gun. Furutech proposes another way, in the form of the Select SK-II brush. Apparently made from "finest of hard to find goat's hair" as quoted from packaging. The brush bristles are soft and feel nice to touch.

Now, that's how you do it! I can be a hand model too! How's that for an alternative career choice?

It's the most effective brush I've come across so far. LPs that previously lifted the felt mat after playing doesn't do so anymore after a brush before play. Post Furutech Select SK-II brushed LPs sound very quiet, without the clicks and pops, if there were stubborn dirts, it's very certainly lessened(the clicks and pops that is). It also claims to do the same on CDs. Do CDs get static charged as it spins inside the player? I don't know, nor can I verify the phenomenon. However, I did try the SK-II brush on some old dusty CDs, and it works by very completely removing the dust from CD's play surface, which is the non-label side, just in case you're wondering.

It's supposed to work on CDs too!

The Furutech SK-II brush selling price is RM$590 each. I know, it's obscene amount of $$$ to pay for a brush. I have an Allstop Antistatic brush, bought a few years ago for less than RM$100 a piece. By comparison, the Allstop does a half decent job of removing the static charge on LPs. As to the value of the brush, I would leave to the eyes of the beholder, personally I know two owners of reference level LP playing system already bought the Furutech SK-II brushes. For them it's small money to pay for peace of mind, knowing that they have one less reason to worry about snapping off the stylus tip on their very expensive cartridge. If you have to ask how much does their cartridge cost? I would say about the same price of a brand new Perodua Viva!(Malaysian made entry level 0.66ltr engined car!) Just to put things in to perspective and whom might buy them.

Furutech is sold by Audiomatic, contact Eugene, tel: 012-3222698

Noon Smilin'

2009-06-04T22:18:00.005+08:00

What's a pretty gal like you doing sitting on a couch?

This CD is a 2006 JVC Victor release. "Oh no, not another audiophile CD?" I hear you asked? Actually, it is. Ha!Ha!

I first heard this CD in a recent home visit, and her voice reminded me of someone I used to know a lot. I spent the last few nights dreaming about her voice and how she renders 500 Miles. For me it's just mind blowing. Just in case you're wondering, 500 Miles is my favourite "karaoke" tune, He!He!

For me, this CD has 6 tracks so right but got some of the other songs so wrong, or should I say made me feel indifferent. The six tracks that haunts me are:
1)Smile
2)Don't let me be lonely tonight
3)Love letters
4)500 miles
5)Superstar
6)Bonus track in Japanese

For when the arrangements are right, I felt she could almost embrace me with the mellow, golden tone of her voice. The musician ship is good, and as expected coming from JVC Victor, the recording is superb.

However, as with so many other Japanese singing English songs, pronunciation error is sometimes noted, but Noon does it better than many in this respect.

Come to think of it, if you've got a thing for 2V1G, produced by Musictoxin, I think you'll quite like Noon too.

Power Bars, Three of a Kind. Furutech e- TP60 vs Sine SA-6 vs Wireworld Electrifier.

2009-06-03T21:13:00.013+08:00

From top: Wireworld Electrifier, Sine SA-6 and lastly, Furutech e-TP60. Which is my choice?

Do power bars have sonic characteristics? Or do they all sound the same? I wanted to find out if spending more $$$ in this area will improve the system's sound? Or are we just paying more for better brand name and cosmetics? I got 3 contenders, ranging from RM$300 - $1,800 to put to test.

Wireworld Electrifier. Basic build but very decent quality for the price.

First up, I must make clear that the Wireworld Electrifier is a starter kit to get you up and going or if your kind self or your system is not demanding, then can serve it's distributor role rather well. It comes with a basic looking plastic body shell and has 1 input, then splits to 6 copper outputs. It's actually OEM to Wireworld's spec by Wonpro. I find the sound(if there's a sound with distributors) to be very neutral, tidy and for the money asked(RM$300 or so when available), decent. Note that the Electrifier has since 2003 been superseded by Wireworld Tundra, which is still current model, I think.

Furutech e-TP60. Well built and nicely presented. Sound is neutral, with clean and tidy highs.

The Furutech e-TP60 has much better build quality, as it should for selling at RM$1320 a piece. It has a nice aluminium curved top face plate and matt black finished bottom portion for that sleek look. Like the Wireworld, it features 1 input the splits to 6 gold plated outputs. On the inside, Furutech employs a special sheet compound shielding formula 303 developed by the 3M company. Furutech claims the use of this non contact, i.e. to the duplex output sockets can effectively shield the box from harmful stray EMI/RFI radiation. The sound of the Furutech, when used in place of the Wireworld, is even tonality, with cleaner and tidier high frequencies. The Furutech also seemed subjectively to have lower noise floor. All other areas of sonic performance almost identical or very slightly better then the Wireworld. The contact points of the Furutech is much more superior to the Wireworld.

Sine SA-6. The heavy weight champ! Build to last and sounds great too! Review sample came in silver.

Lastly, the Sine SA-6 is the heavy weight of the group, with solid 5mm aluminium plates built all round and very nicely bolted together with counter sunk screws. The Sine offers the same 1 input splits to 6 cryo treated outputs. The cables used to connect the duplex outputs are audio grade silver type. The box seems to be filled with some kind of bead compound, which would either functions as internal resonant damping or just for sheilding stray EMI/RFI radiation. The contacts are gold plated and are as tight as the Furutech's. The sound of the Sine is really something else. At first the highs seemed like rolling off prematurely, but on closer analysis, is actually more airy and perhaps sound like it's set a little further back in to the sound stage. This creates a more believable illusion of stage depth. The vocals are set a little behind the speakers, vis a vis the Wireworld and Furutech which puts the vocal in line between the speakers, if a little closer to the listener. Bass is more robust, and easy to follow. Image density is full, and has the fade to black quality, against the Wireworld and Furutech's stronger image outlined presentation. Noise floor is the lowest of the 3 auditioned too. Price of the Sine is comparatively highest of the trio at RM$1,800 a piece.

I used both the Furutech and the Sine to substitute my existing Wireworld power bar, taking clean, isolated power from the Torus Power, then splitting to six outputs for all my front end needs, i.e. CDP player, pre amp, turn table and phono stage. All 3 power bars do not contain any sort of filters inside, but the difference they made to the system's sound is very notice able indeed. The Sine being the most effective, followed by the Furutech in 2nd place, and lastly the Wireworld. I guess the old adage "You get what you pay for" still applies here! This preview is compiled using the Bryston 4BSST2 in place of my Pass Alephs.

Furutech is sold by Audiomatic, contact Eugene, tel: 012-3222698

Sine is sold by Hi-Way Laser, contact Kenny Sin, tel: 019-2813399

Living With Bryston. An Alternative Audio Journey.

2009-05-31T12:28:00.011+08:00

Bryston 4BSST2, a hunk of power amp, rated 2 x 300W @ 8ohms load and 2 x 500W @ 4ohms load.

I was sipping tea with hifikaki, he asked a hyperbolic question. What if the day came when we could no longer buy another Pass Labs gear, for what ever the reason?

I had no answer then, but it turns out that James of AV Designs was thinking along similar lines. He certainly knows our boundless love and passion for Pass Labs!

Another hifi friend made a comment recently that he did not quite agree with my review of Esoteric X-03 SACD/CD player. He is of the view that my euphonious and sympathetic sounding Alephs were beautifying the final result of the Esoteric, sort of giving it a musical hand so to speak.

James than proposed that I try to live with a full Bryston system for an infinite period of time. I agreed, and suggested we slot in the Bryston gear piece by piece starting with gorgeously new 4BSST2(squared, not 2) power amp which just arrived his showroom. I will experience what a new Bryston owner would do so first hand.

We will be slotting in a Bryston BP26 pre amp sometime later, to be followed by the multi award winning Bryston BCD1 CD player. This way, I can, tell our readers my experience on each component's sound on their own merits. All these will finally accumulate in a final, full Bryston system review, and my experience of living with an alternative to the Pass Labs.

In the meantime starting today, all reviews of other hifi auxiliary components will be done with the Bryston 4BSST2 power amp in my system, and all results will reflect the capabilities and sonic signature of the said amp.

A full review of the Bryston 4BSST2 will be coming up soon. Stay tuned.

Bryston is sold by AV Designs, contact James Tan, tel: 016-3280237

Magic In a Box! Audio Magic Pulse Gen ZX, Quantum Physics Noise Disruptor.

2009-05-30T17:05:00.019+08:00

Audio Magic Pulse Gen ZX.

The Pulse Gen ZX as shown, meant to be installed inside your audio equipment.

I picked up 2 of this plastic little box, very light weight have a few holes drilled out around the sides and two wires, coloured black and green sticking out. I asked Mike about the cost of each, he quoted RM$1,500 each plus RM$100 if you want Audio Creations to install it for you. Other wise, you may opt to save yourself a hundred little ones to DIY install yourself, which is a perfectly simple option, if you're used to holding the soldering iron like me. A word of caution though, installing the Pulse Gen ZX voids your equipment warranty. So if you have recently purchased equipment, do spare a thought on the matter.

The Pulse Gen ZX is meant to be installed in to your equipment's IEC power cord input, on the inside of the box. That usually means opening the top cover and accessing to the IEC terminal from the inside of the box. The black wire from the Pulse Gen ZX is to be soldered on to the "Live" pin and the green wire is for the "Neutral" pin. Be very careful not to mix it up as the Pulse Gen ZX doesn't work, if soldered in reverse. The Pulse Gen ZX only works as per specified polarity connection. A sticky velcro is provided for you to mount the unit anywhere suitable inside your equipment's box.

You can also hook up to a plug top and use it for anywhere in your system's power supply. You're encouraged to be cretive in placing anywhere and using as many as you wish!

You may also hook up the Pulse Gen ZX to a plug top, like I did in this case a BS rated 13amp plug. Wiring instructions are exactly the same as above. This is actually the easiest way to enjoy the Pulse Gen ZX. Now if you can't even wire up a plug top, I suggest you get Mike to do it for you safely! You can then mix and match the Pulse Gen ZX in any variety of location(i.e., from PLCs, any unused wall socket on the same line with your hifi, and any unused distributor sockets) with multiples, and try till you get the best sound! The manual warns of a certain "addictive effect", as you add more and more units of Pulse Gen ZX. As I only have 2 units, my addiction is very much limited!

A closer look at the polarity, black wire for "Live" and green wire for "Neutral".

What's inside the little black box? you ask. From my limited measuring abilities using a multimeter, indicates the presence of a diode or two, resistors and capacitors. It's very likely to include a small regulation chip of some sort, as the unit gets pretty hot when functioning, prove of active circuitry at work inside the lill' black box. If after 10 minutes or so of plugging unit in to power supply or IEC socket, and unit stays cool, means you've got the polarity connection wrong!

Marantz CD7 outboard, temporary install.

First, I tried wiring a Pulse Gen ZX to my Marantz CD7 player. For this case, as it was meant to be a temporary installation, I used crocodile clips to hook up the IEC instead of opening up the who player. I made sure I did not "short" the "Live" and the "Neutral" pin together, other wise there would be no review possible! As I fired up the CD player, everything worked as per normal, then I load up a disc to play some music. The first thing I noticed was a quieter back ground and lower noise floor. The highs have a little bit more "air" and the mids have room to bloom a little more than usual, and the bass seemed to went a notch lower too. When playing vocal music the voice seems to have more density to the body. So far so good.

Crocodile clips "temp" install at CD player IEC terminal.

I then removed the Pulse Gen ZX from my CD player and used them to tweak my Torus Power RM8A and Wireworld Electrifier distributor block. I plug one Pulse Gen ZX on to an unused outlet at the Torus Power RM8A, listen for a short while, not really impressive, but you could more or less sense the same as described improvements as in the case of the CD player, if only to a lesser degree. I then add the second Pulse Gen ZX in to an unused outlet at the Wireworld Electrifier and felt like the result was better than before.

I tried another configuration, which is to leave the Pulse Gen ZX in the Wireworld Electrifier, un hook the distributor block from the Torus Power and plug it straight from wall, meaning all my sources and pre amps are now essentially only filtered by the Pulse Gen ZX. The results were again similar to above. But then I took out the final remaining Pulse Gen ZX from the Wireworld distributor, meaning there's now no power filter what so ever for my source and pre amps. The sound took a turn for the worse. Noise was clearly audible from the speaker tweeters(a high frequency hiss), vocals, now took on a rather sibilant high note and the density observed earlier is no more! This proves the Pulse Gen ZX really does work very well on it's own.

I then re-plug the Pulse Gen ZX in to the Wireworld distributor and added the other remaining Pulse Gen ZX in to an unused wall plug, however the Torus Power is still off line at this point, ahh..... musical bliss again. Based on my experience with the Pulse Gen ZX in the context of my system, it certainly works best when hooked up directly inside the hifi equipment. And should you not already splurged on a dedicated power line conditioner like I have, I am sure that you'll find the Pulse Gen ZX to provide your system with a very high performance lift!

With a PLC already in the system, I believe the results from the Pulse Gen ZX would be diminished, due to the PLC already doing it's work. Adding the Pulse Gen ZX in this case may not help very much further. Should you buy a few Audio Magic Pulse Gen ZX, or just a full power line conditioner with the same money? That's something only you can decide for yourself.

Audio Magic Quantum Physic Noise Disruptor.

Big Disruptor and small Disruptor.

Here is a simple black plastic box, seemed to contained some loose bits inside. All four sides of the box is tightly seal to prevent tampering. The user manual clearly states that "Opening up of the box will result in permanent and irreversible damage" to unit. I do not know, and unable to find out, what is the "magic" ingredient in the box. So much for curiosity!

Quantum Physic Noise Disruptor placed on top the big, big tranny in the Torus Power.

The product is supposed to be placed on top the your equipment where the power supply transformer resides. When the Quantum Physic Noise Disruptor is placed, on the top panel where the transformer is, it should result in lower noise floor. I started by placing on the biggest transformer in the system which is the Torus Power, but resulted in no audible difference. I proceeded to place the Quantum Physic on my CD player and my Pass Labs X2.5 pre amp. Again, I heard no audible difference! I felt perturbed, and decided to bring the Quantum Physics to hifikaki's system for a try.

Again, when placed on top of his Shunyata Hydra 8 PLC, again we both heard no difference! When put on top of his Copland CD player, again nada, zilch, no difference heard! We proceed to place on his Pass Labs X-2.5 pre amp, I heard no difference, but hifikaki thought there was a small improvement in terms of noise floor and a fuller mid range. However, at this point, even himself became doubtful.

Placed on top of the Pass Labs X-2.5 pre amp tranny, did not hear a diference, if at all!

I then sent the Quantum Physic Noise Disruptor to a friend to play with for 3 days. His system consist of Torus Power, Marantz CD17 KI, Audio Analog Pucini integrated amplifier and Rogers LS 5/9 speakers. When I met up with him 3 days later, he ask where can he buy this Quantum Physic from? He reported when the Quantum Physic is placed on top of various equipment in his hifi chain, he heard improved focus in sound staging. Music became more precise and easy to follow. Transparency at low volumes improved too. He also noted better bass impact, transient and definition. He also reported a slight compromise in the fact that when he played music loud, he did detect some hardness setting in, and mild saturation in the musical presentation. I am in no position to prove him wrong or otherwise, as I did not get the opportunity to listen to his system at the time, but I have a lot of faith in his ears. He certainly knows what he heard.

I told Mike of Audio Creations about our perplexing findings, he reply was that, he's "not amused!". He said that he'd been warned by the manufacturer, i.e Audio Magic that "the Quantum Physic doesn't quite work with Pass Labs gear!"

But it does seem to work with other manufacturer's equipment as proven in my friend's system. I would suggest you try before you buy. There are two sizes available for the Quantum Physic Noise Disruptor. A smaller unit cost RM$285/unit and the larger unit I tried cost RM$800/unit.

Audio Magic is sold by Audio Creations. Contact Mike, tel: 012-3315669

Z is for Zap - MIT's Z-Strip AC Power Conditioner

2009-05-29T20:40:00.004+08:00

Let me tell you a story of this little box from MIT.

Panzer collected the MIT Z-Strip AC Power Conditioner from Hi-Way Laser and it ended up in my system a week ago.

After the initial 2 day run-in period, the Z-Strip's characteristics came out to play. It painted a dark and quiet background for music to emerge from. The transparency it helped to create was rather amazing, coupled to its soundstaging capability, the images of vocalists and instruments were well defined and very clearly placed on the soundstage, so clearly placed that I'd swear I could almost 'see' them. The soundstage size was not exceptionally large, but it was well formed and adequately sized (or, rather, I'd say realistically sized). It felt intimate, the performers were placed in the space in front of the listener and gave quite a bit of that 'they are in the room' sensation. This was borne out pretty well, for example, on A-Tao's Hakka cd (阿陶的歌-離開台灣八百米) track 4 "What am I to do?" where the multiple back-and-fore-ground voices were spread on the front stage, nicely layered and each distinct in its acoustic space.

The Z-Strip's soundscape was seamless from top to bottom. The highs were clean, polished, and a little shinier that what I got in my system previously, a positive trait. There was no brightness and glare anywhere to be found. The highs also had a measure of (but did not equal to, of course) that silvery tone I heard from the Torus RM8A which so impressed me a while ago, and not the rose-tinted-but-can-be-oh-so-seductive view of my Shunyata Hydra 8. Both versions were attractive, but I dare say that the former is more neutral and accurate.

The mids showed good body. Slightly rounded, it stood just a mite proud of the rest of the spectrum but not forward in any sense. Its definition and articulation made every sung note, female or male, easy to follow. The articulation heard in the voices also attested to the transparency of the Z-Strip. I really could not stop listening to well recorded vocals. Instead of playing selected tracks, which was my normal audiophile habit, I found myself listening through the entire cd - Rickie Lee Jones' 'Pop Pop', 2v1g, Damien Rice's 'O' and, of course, the A-Tao cd I mentioned earlier.

Bass had speed and solidity, it was slightly leaner and more compact than what I was used to. This could be a good thing for my system, as there were fewer of those incidents of overblown bass throughout my listening sessions. It was also tuneful and quite bouncy - a good example comes from the drum beats at the end of track 1 'Spring Water' on A-Tao's cd again, they indeed came off galloping (good pace) and much better defined (good resolution). Though if I nit pick I'd ask for just a little more slam.

The Z-Strip must be pretty adapt at 'Z'apping away the nasties in the power supply given the results I got out of it.

I have an ergonomics complaint though. Due to the size of the box, all the power outlets are placed on top, which means that using American plugs and thicker powercords, you need to allow some clearance above. I found the bottom shelf of my finite elemente rack a bit tight vertical-wise, I believe MIT meant for the Z-Strip to be placed on the floor.

This little box is smaller than a loaf of bread. Take a look at the photo below which contrasts it to the size of a CD.

It employs multiple parallel filters and provides protection against voltage spike and surge. It also does power factor correction which MIT says reduces transmission loss and improves voltage regulation - if you are more technically inclined and want to know more about power factor correction, I suggest you google for it.

The Z-Strip is rated for 1800w, and comes with 8 outlets - 2 of them dedicated to digital equipment. MIT claims that the Z-Strip is not current-limiting, and during my listening session I did not hear anything that would prove otherwise. I used the Z-Strip to power my entire rig, including my Pass Labs monoblocks, the biggest power consumers in my system. It all added up to about 800w power consumption. But then again I may not require transient power draw from the MIT, as my amplifiers are class A which draw a constant current.

The Z-Strip responded to powercord changes. I used my Shunyata Python Helix 15Amp to hook it to the wall. I did a double take hearing the sound quality coming out of the Z-Strip, and this performance was repeated for 3 nights in a row - so it was no fluke. I did wonder whether it was the Python or the Z-Strip, so I swapped the Python out with a generic powercord. What I got was a more sibilant and slightly less focused sound, the background also gotten a little noisier, but amazingly, it did not veer far way from the qualities that I noted earlier, I was enjoying the music regardless. You'd probably be rewarded by using as best a powercord as you can find, MIT recommends its own Z-cord, Z-Cord II or Oracle Z-Cord III.

Contrasting the sound between the Z-Strip and my Shunyata Hydra 8 (I emphasize that this is a contrast, not a good-bad comparison), I found that the Z-Strip has a little less air and bloom, but on the other hand, it was also less diffused, with the imaging more tightly focused and more solidly placed. The Z-Strip sounded neutral, while the Hydra was slightly more colourful. You pick your own poison.

Let me tell you what the Z-Strip made me do with its wonderful performance - I was scratching my head, as my Hydra 8, at twice the price when it was available, did not eclipse the Z-Strip (nor was it the other way round). This prompted me to go borrow a Shunyata Anaconda 20A powercord to test out, just to see whether I can put more distance between it and the Z-Strip. Panzer was no help at all, he mentioned to me a few times that the Z-Strip has a bigger brother - the Z-Powerbar, now he wanted to get his hands on that one to try out too.

This little guy from MIT has given me audiophile nervosa! I am impressed.

The MIT Z Strip AC Powerline Conditioner is listed at RM5,545.

MIT is available from Hi-Way Laser 03-7873.8325; 019-281.3399 .

Simon Says!

2009-05-27T18:44:00.007+08:00

I apologise for the lack of activities here in the last few days. I was busy at work and busy transporting my self to various concert venues and recording studios since my last post. I now know why Maggielurva doesn't write here of late, he's busy enjoying himself with his hifi system!

Simon says: What a beauty! Panzer replies: I am absolutely in love!

Over the last couple of months since I started blogging here, some of our readers and friends may have formed an opinion, or two about me, my music, my sonic preferences and my hifi. Simon, whom is a rather famous name in it self is used to represent all these opinions, and where possible, I wish to set the record straight should they be contradictory to my believes and practices.

1) Simon says: These days, anyone with a half decent hifi system and access to Internet via the computer can call them selves an audio reviewer. Panzer is one such example!

Panzer replies: Agreed! and why not?

2) Simon says: Panzer's not a "Golden Ear"

Panzer replies: Agreed, and what a blessing it is!, that I am not a "Golden Ear". I personally know a few "Golden Ear"s whom can never enjoy their music, because every single piece of equipment(even those costing 5 or 6 figures!) is never good enough for them. I am in the opinion that these tormented souls are cursed.

3) Simon says: Panzer's equipment is not good enough!

Panzer replies: Agreed! If my system is so good, and I am so satisfied, would I still go around looking for better things to try? It's all in the up grading process. And this blog has caught me on the up ward move. Coming from a lower level, most equipment more expensive than my own can often sound very good indeed!

4) Simon says: Everything Panzer review also sound nice! This guy has no standards?

Panzer replies: Our readers only see the things we write about. There are those that we played with and decided not to. Are they bad equipment? No. In this day and age of CAD(computer aided design)/CAM(computer aided manufacturing) processes, there are really very few bad apples on sale in the market(discounting certain China made products). Some of the big brands we played with, just could not synergistically match our system on sonic character, i.e. non-complementary, that is. Hence we feel it's not fair to the equipment with respect to the manufacturers. That's all.

5) Simon says: Panzer only listen's to Tsai Chin's Lou Ge!

Panzer replies: Tsai Chin's Lou Ge is indeed one of my favourite CD, and until recently LP! But I am genre blind. I listen to all good music, and willing to explore out of my comfort zone from time to time. I just used Tsai Chin's Lou Ge as an example more often because it's musical and sonic performance quality is well known amongst all audiophiles in Asia, and probably the world.

6) Simon says: Panzer doesn't like DIYers!

Panzer replies: I love to DIY. I just dislike people whom make claims like, "my RM$2K DIY amp killed the Krell and left it for dust!" I've heard many making this type of claims before, and often, when the pudding is heard, it's not proof of the eating! Many a times too, even the pudding you cannot see or smell! That's really disappointing. I really respect DIYers, whom can bench test and benchmark their "pride and joy", against the high end establishment, and can show proof of their work. I have so far only met 2 such individuals. These are truly rare gems in the DIY world.

7) Simon says: What kind of sound does Panzer likes?

Panzer replies: I love the sound that glorifies music! The kind of sound that puts hifi in a position to represent the musical source's artistic expressions. I must be touched/moved by the music I hear. I want to feel all the emotional intent of the song. In short, I love beautiful sound as opposed to neutral sound, or some would say the truth! Audiophile aspirations can come second. A system may have some flaws from an audiophile perspective, I am o.k. with that.

8) Simon says: Panzer everything also want to review!

Panzer replies: Well, pretty much most things! Guilty as charged!

9) Simon says: Panzer is salesman for Torus Power! Got commission?

Panzer replies: I do not accept commissions from any individual or dealers. I do get some discount for the stuff that I buy. However, I think nobody ever pays sticker prices for hi fi any way, right? Especially in Malaysia, where if you don't haggle over price, you've probably not lived here long enough! I do accept invitations for "healthy" drinks and sumptious meals though.

10) Simon says: Every home visit Panzer writes about sounds like this and like that! Does Panzer actually likes what he heard?

Panzer replies: Every system, I think, is a work in progress. Audiophiles are a breed that is never satisfied with what they have, so their system as in their musical journey is ever evolving. My home visits are a snapshot of that system and the owner's hifi ideals at that very moment. Many a times, the very next day, new equipment comes in too. It really doesn't matter if I liked what I heard, what's more important, is that the system owner featured, likes what he hears. This way, we may share each other's system here with pride and joy! You can also think of our features here are a sort of time/progress marker for your system(if featured) with various follow up threads, every now and then.

With this I hope to debunk some of the myths or opinions formed.

Transported!

2009-05-23T00:12:00.008+08:00

This was happening in my room last night. Cool!

I thought I'd take a break from hifi last night. I also wondered if, after all my hifi improvements, does my system, just ticks all the right audiophile boxes? or does it still have the pizzas to rock?

One of my all time favorite bands, Queen is always a good test! So I sat down and put in the Queen Greatest Hits CD in to my Marantz CD7 player. I have bought this CD 20 years ago and have listened to it more than a millionth times by now. I know all the songs by heart.

Queen Greatest Hits CD.

But last night, something magical took place, I was transported back in to the studios when the songs were recorded, for the very first time in a few years, no leap of faith was required. I finished the CD in no time, I reach for Queen Greatest Hits II, plonk it in to the CDP press play, and returned to the studio with Queen.

Queen Greatest Hits II.

The older Greatest Hits was more convincing in the illusion, despite the louder tape hiss! The rather cleaner sounding Greatest Hits II was clearer and had more definition, i.e. more hiss free, but proved just as fun. In the end the music took over, I played at near concert loud levels! yet my system never sounded noisy, staging and imaging was stable and it was never strained. Many a times when a system is pushed to the limits, harshness, staging and imaging disintegration sets in.

By the end of 2 hours, I was pretty tired, not from listening to music, but participating in music. Like I said, I knew all these songs by heart. I sang along side Freddie Mercury, played air guitar with Brian May, plucked bass lines with John Deacon , and jammed drums with Roger Taylor! I did a four things in rotation, as and when, what came naturally. No wonder I was tired.

It is rare days like this, when all the effort, money and time spent on improving the hifi pays off handsomely. For 2 hours, I was transported in to a musical event, and away from reality.

Bottom line is "My system still rocks!" and that, is a good feeling.

Now if only they were more days like this? Perhaps I am just in a good mood as weekend comes around again.