The main entrance.

Or AV Designs as I always called it, is located at M-W-1, Mezzanine Floor, West Wing, Rohas Perkasa, No.9, Jln P. Ramlee, 50450 Kuala Lumpur. It's a cozy place for me and some hifi cum AV buddies to hang out, or perhaps, watch a movie or two.

Various items on display and wall of literatures.

You see, AV Designs specialises in custom install of high end home entertainment systems. They can, for a fee of course, design any given room in your residence, office or place of business where AV presentation is paramount and re packaged it with designer inspired ambiance, yet practical home theatre or music room, or even presentation lounge, which ever fancies you. You may specify professional room treatment elements and ambiance lighting systems to be incorporated in to the design. Their show room also show cases their unique room designs!

At the show room, they have 3 AV rooms fitted for various budget levels, all tastefully appointed and fitted with room tune elements. For music show case, they've devoted the main lounge areas to demo hifi systems of various price points.

JBL Synthesis and Stewart! Beware, very poisonous, enter at your own risk!

The main high end AV demo room, which is THX certified, is probably one of the best ever installed in South East Asia. If you think those THX equip ed cinemas are impressive, you ain't experienced the full potential of THX just yet, not until you step in to this room! The movie soundtracks experience is mind blowing real! Equipment list in this room includes Esoteric multi format player, Lexicon processors, Bryston amps and JBL K2 Synthesis series speakers/subwoofers all round. Visuals are taken care with the use of Sony VPL-VW200 SXRD projector and a Stewart screen measuring 123 inches!

The tastefully decor ed THX equip ed room, do you know there's a sand trap in here for acoustical treatment purpose? Why? You ask? there are 4 x 18 inches JBL sub woofers(excluding those from the main speakers) here to shake your chair and rattle your balls! That's why!


Equipment galleria, powering the THX sensations, look at all the amplifier power, what a thrill ride!

The second AV demo room fitted with medium range budget in mind, is less visceral overall, but just as exciting! It also fitted with the latest Panamorph anamorphic lens for 2.35 format projection. This new devise, turns any existing projector equiped the V-Strech feature to cinema scope screen ratio. The visuals are stunning, to say the least. Colours are vivid, no bleaching and the sense of panoramic depth has to be seen to believed! The equipment list in this room is less elaborate as they consist of a Pioneer LX series Blue Ray player and surround processor amp unit, driving PMC speakers all round, with a JVC DiLA projector attached with the Panamorph lens, projecting on to a 2.35 Screen Research screen.

Look at that sense of depth, projected on the the screen. Breath taking!


The colours are so vivid, I am in AV nirvana? The result of the Panamorph lens in use. Awesome!

The third AV demo room caters to more budget conscious set up. Having said that, the level of sound and visual reproduction is still pretty much first rate! The equipment in this room includes Marantz, Pioneer and Denon electronics, powering Tannoy lifestyle speakers set, with a lower end projector in used with, what else? a Stewart screen!

One of the reason why AV Designs installed systems have such excellent visuals is that they calibrate all picture devices, be it a plasma/LCD screen or projector system to ISF Certified Standards. I believe they are one of the very few around. What does the calibration do to the picture? It actually calibrates your screen or display to the same standards used by the film and broadcasting industry, so that your screen shows you exactly what the film producers intended and saw for them selves in the studio.

The ISF practitioner's certificate.

And finally, we come to the audio demo lounge area, where Torus Power supplies, Bryston electronics are matched to PMC loud speakers, all hooked up via Wireworld and AOR Reference 003 cables. The results are just simply stunning sound from showroom conditions.

The main music demo, what a beast of a system. Bryston BCD1 CD player, BP26 Pre amp, 28BSST mono blocks powering PMC EB1i speakers(behind). This system does sound staging very well and alive. It totally rocks too! Note the Torus Power RM2A(between the mono blocks) and RM16A, partially hidden behind the left mono block.

There are other smaller demos around the lounge area to savour.

Should you're thinking about starting or upgrading an AV system, James Tan of AV Designs is one fella you should consult first, if it's high end AV quality you're after!

Should you are interested to find out more about Bryston, PMC, Torus Power and Abbey Road Cables amongst other products, James is also your man!

For appointment to AV Designs, contact James Tan, tel: 03-21712828

little kc, maggielurva, jeff lin, jo ki

[sorry for the bad photography... i am still learning to use my new panasonic lumix!]

i had spent the last two days witnessing how jeff lin, the telos guru, tweaked my system and jo's system, and i must say, the lessons learned are far more worthy than tweaking alone in closed doors all by myself for the next 5 years.

the reason why i didn't blog immediately is, the whole experience actually set me thinking about my hifi philosophy and belief in all my 20+ years of dabbling in his hobby. i won't say jeff lin totally threw my belief out of the window or make me doubt my own self but i must say, meeting him and sharing together with jo ki give me another dimension and deeper insight into resonance control and balancing. i am more like a thinking hifi man now than before. let me share with you what i mean.

you see, all along, i view hifi from a holistic viewpoint - as a whole, it must convey music and that means the system must have the correct tonality, fluidity, freedom, balanced spectrum of sound, emotional contents etc. etc. and most of these elements cannot be measured. to me, it is more art than science. i am never a technical man who goes and measure how deep/wide my soundstage is, how much is the separation between the vocalist and the guitar...those things don't matter that much to me. as long as i could perceive a well-defined soundstage, i am happy. so i create a term for those audiophiles like me, i call them TAMA, short for Tone and Musicality Advocators.

then i slowly get to know and understand jo ki, master ken and now jeff lin and his followers like little kc. this camp of audiophiles is what i would now call SSTA, short for Soundstage Sculpting and Technical Advocators. these audiophiles puts top priority on soundstage definition, layering, imaging and they are always technical about their pursuit. they always use various forms of tweaks to achieve these desired results.

mind you, i am not saying that SSTA doesn't have TAMA characteristics or vice versa, so don't get me wrong.

my enlightenment comes from gradually appreciating SSTA's mentality and their requirements in hifi, and learning SSTA's way of playing hifi, as i believe TAMA combined with SSTA would make the perfect hifi. TAMA + SSTA is the perfect amalgamation of "softness" married with "hardness", emotions married with technicalities, which is what good hifi should be.

now, onto jeff's visit and what he did to my system.....

after listening to my system or less than 2 minutes, jeff commented that my sound was skewed more to the highs. what he wanted to do was to shift the spectrum downwards to enhance the mids and lows while maintaining the highs. he also wanted to correct the pitch of the singer, which he thinks was not right.


jeff basically did 6 things to my system, in this order:

1. torque the 4 bolts on the bottom of my mana table
2. torque the 4 bolts on the bottom of my mana soundframe which my hydra 8 sits on
3. torque the 4 screws on top of my meridian g08.2
4. torque all the screws on my maggie 3.6 (this was done by little kc)
5. tried out the telos banana pins on the hydra 8 - this is like the RCA male cap but with the pin shaped like banana plug
6. tried out the new reference telos power cord on my meridian g08.2
7. tried out the telos titanium cones (set of 3) on the meridian g08.2

step 1) & 2) were done using a special spanar torque, which, accordingly to jeff, cost much more than the tohnichi torque driver that ck gnoh and hifikaki bought.

step 1) brought about tremendous improvements in terms of focus, imaging and coherence. suddenly images snapped into focus and the noise floor also went down a notch. even separation and layering improved in such a way the the musicians are no longer sitting on the same vertical plane. they are "pulled" further apart! this is simply marvelous.

step 2) went further to enhance what is already good. now, we could hear the throaty voice of the vocalists. the vocalist's diction is clearer and the whole pitch is more correctly defined. we can follow the vocalist better. can you imagine this - it is only by tightening the screws on the platform for my hydra 8!

step 3) was great too. now the images are very compact and real, without the "hairy" outlines before. guitar plucking is more rhythmic and dynamic contrast is more discernible. there is a tendency to crank up the volume to fully appreciate the dynamic contrast of the music. at this stage, i thought it was already great, anything more would probably upset the balance.

step 4) brought about negative results. the sound suddenly lost the delicacy and became more forward and blown up. i didn't make any comment on this but jo seemed to know my feelings when we exchanged glances.

step 5) & 6) proved to be too much of the good thing, resulting in a sound which is less natural, eventho' the soundstage was even better defined with better separation and layering.

i must say i am greatly shocked by the extent of improvement from step 1) to 3). you can dump another RM10K on your hardware (cables, amps) and still can't achieve this level of improvement. i am so grateful to jeff for "putting money in my pocket"! i suppose i would never leave my mana rack un-torqued for the rest of my hifi life!

the whole exercize got me thinking for the last two nights about balancing. i fully endorse the SSTA's school of thoughts but i maintain the belief that one cannot go too far. i told jo that i am a changed man forever because i am now willing to incorporate SSTA's techniques into my journey.

remember how i reported about ceraball's pros and cons in my previous posts? today i got the cerapucs (2 sets) and i put them under my monoblock. they seem to work better than ceraballs in that they won't roll off the highs. i observe an immediate improvement on the separation and layering of the soundstage but as reported by hifikaki, all FE ceraballs or cerapucs or cerabases need breaking-in to sound good. so i would leave them for a few days before i report on them again.

jeff's visit and sharing with jo ki have enligtened me. from now on, i would work to retain the strengths of my system, while learning the strengths of these SSTAs.

balancing is too easy a word to utter but to do it 100%, is almost an impossible act. that's the goal i have set for myself.

in all my 20+ years of hifi, i haven't seen a tweak as ground-breaking, impactful and life-changing as the torque screwdriver. .

ck had his audio physics speakers fully torque-ed and the whole desirable audio team went to listen tonight. my god, the improvement is nothing short of astounding. a 20% quantum leap in performance from just RM600 investment on the tohnichi torque screwdriver. if this is not ground-breaking, i don't know what is.

in the past, i have made several comments on ck's system which he didn't take seriously. tonight, i hope he understands what i meant.

the best part about audiophile fellowship is the sharing. nothing beats the joy of seeing your fellow audiophile achieved audio enlightenment, and being able to communicate with you. i am a very critical listener and a lot of times, my comments or constructive criticism - if i am generous enough to make them la (as most times, i just keep quiet) - were taken in the negative way.

i hope this gigantic tweak has elevated ck to another league in audiophile ladder (a ladder of endless pursuit of perfection or imperfection!). i hope with this gigantic improvement, ck would be able to share with me on a much much deeper level. like-minded sharing is the ultimate joy of this hobby that we love so much.

i was told that some veteran dealers/audiophiles knew about this tweak long ago but seldom share it with others. at desirable audio, we believe in the generosity in sharing. because as more people attain good sound, there will be more contentment. with more contentment, there will be more fellowship and sharing. with more fellowship, there will be more goodwill and positive upgrades. with more positive upgrades, the hifi economy will improve. it is a win-win-win situation for you, your friend(s) and the dealer.

heartiest congrats to you, ck gnoh.

lately, i have been labeled by my hifi friends as the hifi madman, simply because of my intention to move house.

weeks of bad AC problems have rendered my system unplayable, even after 2am in the morning when everyone should be soundly asleep, it doesn't sound good. plagued with such misery, i have thought of biting the bullet and moving out from this area altogether. i don't think i am insane but many of my hifi friends do think so, except wong tatt yew, my dealer friend, who empathizes with me as he had been thru this path at the peak of his hifi fever. one even "scolded" me for such ludicrous idea. he said, "there is more to life than hifi".

this miserable episode has given me much audiophilia nervosa. i begin to enter the gate of audio hell where my only obsession is to gauge whether the AC quality is good for playing. i play the same old few tracks repeatedly, day in day out, night in night out, to gauge the sound. i lose my music. i suffer silently. no one understands me.

then one bright idea came this morning at 3am. it suddenly dawned on me that i have using the red-colored phase (of my 3-phase) for more than 2 years now. it used to be the most stable (with minimal voltage fluctuations throughout the day) and best-sounding, could it be that it has been overloaded or redistributed by TNB (our national power company)? without hesitation, i sms-ed my electrician at 3am and summoned him to come in the morning.

it took my audiophile-trained electrician less than 5 minutes to change the red-colored phase to yellow-colored phase (the remaining one is blue-colored) and i immediately switched on my system.... lo and behold, it comes alive! that is the true sound of my system! i jumped up in elation and punched my fist in the air! yeah! yeah! yeah! that's the way i like it! (a-hak, a-hak)

the recent furutech IEC plug upgrade, the new meridian g08.2, the new hydra 8 (read later part of this post) all combined to push the previous sound boundary to another level. it is my all-time-best sound i have ever attained. another milestone. marvelous!

the moral of the story is - one must think out-of-the-box in solving critical hifi problems. i have been so obsessed with other issues that i lost sight of the fundamental suspect. it would have saved me so much pain and agony had i realized this simple trouble-shooting skill. i just documented this tip into my hifi trouble-shooting checklist, which i refer to from time to time.

i would urge all users who have 3-phase electricity in their house to periodically listen to each phase and pick the best phase for their hifi. one could never understand how TNB loads and re-distributes each phase from time to time. ultimately, use your ears as the judge. please ask a qualified electrician to do the switching for you.

i am smiling again, so happy that i have gotten back my sound, after 3 months of suffering.


[hydra demystified]

i loaned master ken my shunyata hydra 4 last week. while he was sufficiently enamored, he commented that the hydra's main drawback of slightly duller highs (as compared to his RGPC) prevented him to consider further, and he is not willing to "tweak" it like i did.

readers here should know how much i and hifikaki adore the hydra. to maximize hydra's potential, one has to use good interconnects (silver preferred) to compensate for the highs, which is hydra's only weak point. hydra's seductiveness in the midrange, immense musicality and superb naturalness eand how it retains the full tonal colors of the original sound are what kept both of us enchanted for so long. so far, no PLC can come close in these critical areas.

recently, in tiny dot singapore, i observed many hydras being sold in echoloft. many have converted to acoustic revive apparently. it will be interesting if i can get hold of an acoustic revive PLC and do a shoot-out. i will check with happy audio visual. i will leave my dissection on PLCs for another day but watch out or a PLC "party" coming soon!

i got hold of a hydra 6 from a friend, doubting that it can be any different from hydra 4. voila!, it is actually much better than the 4! there are more details, more energy, a bigger soundstage and even lower noise floor. hifikaki explained that because the 6 uses 3 duplexes (which has a filter on its own) as compared to 4's 2 duplexes only. in fact, he think hydra 8 is even better because i has 4 duplexes!

without hesitation and as a reward for myself for solving the AC problems - at least for now - i upgraded my hydra 4 to hydra 8. this must be the quickest buying decision i have ever made!

the hydra 8 is superbly large-scale, weightier and more expansive and dynamic than either the hydra 6 or hydra 4. it is a worthwhile investment again.

i think it is time to savor my music without getting anal and mental.

this is the uncanny madman signing off with a evil grin - yes, i am mad but i am true to my hifi and my music!

please click on the above description of asp gryphon and read, word by word, what louis fuente said about his own crown jewel.

it sounds like the typical marketing blitz but if you, like me, have experienced the performance enormity of this cable then you would agree, word by word, what louis said about his cable.

"spatial presentation like nothing you have ever heard with a completely palpable, lifelike soundscape. literally an open window into your music as well as the the full potential of your system".

what brilliant words, what succinct accuracy!

what we have here is a low-key super-genius designer who is so uncompromising and perfectionist in his pursuit of excellence that if ever he goes mass-market or mainstream, he would lose every single bit of this brilliance and be submerged in the sea of mediocrity plaguing many mass-market cable manufacturers today.

i am at a loss of words, at how stage III concepts ASP gryphon, changed my perspectives in hifi. i am forever indebted to louis fuente, who opened my ears and my heart to what is possible with audiophile cables.

this is a definitive product worthy of an oscar award in hifi.

p/s my pair of asp gryphon is the first pair in asia ;-)

p/s next we will discuss the merits of kubala-sosna emotion, despite the loss

It was supposed to be just a cordial chat with Maggielurva about contributing to his blog and AVXpress, but instead it turned into a hifi epiphany for me. It was an experience that shook me to the core as far as hifi is conerned (ok, a bit dramatic here 'lah', but honestly that was how I felt). From the first track played, I had goosebumps aplenty, and throughout the listening session, I was grinning ear to ear like a silly kid. Maggielurva was the witness, he was there too. The object of desire in this case was none other than his own hifi system. You see, I was lucky enough to be invited for a listen at his place after our chat.

He played me a lot of vocal music that night, as vocal music is the easiest way to evaluate a system since everyone is familiar with the human voice. The palpability and the realism of the vocal, the sheen and richness in the treble, the layering of the soundstage, and, most importantly, the musical enjoyment that this system conjured up would be forever etched in my memory. What galled me was that I probably have the same level of investment (read:$$$) in my setup compared to his (except on cables :-) ), but I could not equal this kind of performance level.

I sure have a lot more to learn. This level of system performance is now my aspiration, which I expect to strive long and hard to approach, let alone achieve, with my current setup in the months to come. And he said the electricity quality issue he faced meant that his system was only performing at around 80% (I shudder to think how 100% will sound like, but he promised to invite me to listen again when that day comes).

Maggielurva was also kind enough to give me a sneak preview of his 2V1G CD. What I can say is that all the hype is true. Whether you are an audiophile or a music lover, you ought to do yourself a favour, get a copy when it comes out. I'm putting my money where my mouth is, I have pre-ordered 5 copies from him to share with my family and friends. The musical arrangement was tasteful and varied, the guitar playing was excellent, and the singers' performance exceeded that from many of the current crop of HK and Taiwanese pop singers. I can’t wait to get a copy to play on my own system.

The greatest regret of the night for me was that I did not take any photos (damn!), but here is one from maggielurva's older post of his system. Tasty!

just how could this be possible? ken, a bass freak and a lover of ass-kicking ATC speakers, praising, for the first time, my maggie's performance? it is like bon jovi telling karen carpenter that he likes her music.

i had a fabulous weekend. my story goes like this...

my closest hifi buddy, ken, has been on hifi sabbatical for the last 3 years due to work commitments. before that, we used to talk day and night about hifi, with him stationed in ipoh and me in kl. ken was the one who introduced me to high-end cables and for that i am eternally grateful to him.

ken knows his hifi like a guru and is one who doesn't mince his words - straight-talking, no-nonsense guy. in hifi preferences, we are also world apart yet we share common fundamental beliefs, that's why we click so well and respect each other. ken likes his hifi live, loud, and dynamic whereas i like my hifi tubey, classy and intoxicating. it is then easy to understand why ken loves ATC and behemoth solid-state amps like jeff rowland. for the record, he has never praised my system whole-heartedly, because he thinks my maggie can't do bass and is dynamically wanting.

but that was before yesterday, when he visited me for the first time in the last 12 months.

the first disc i played for him is rickie lee jone's "pop pop" and almost instantly, ken uttered, "i like this! you system has never sounded like this before?!". was it a question or a statement? he meant the highs and the mids. he thinks my highs used to sound glamorous, showy and a tad thin in the past. then i proceeded to play a lot of complex and juice-sucking, dynamic stuff - including my current fave, teddy robin goes to movie, the cd with 6 fabulous drummers on rotation - while blasting the volume way beyond 90db. ken kept mum for a few moments; the silence is deafening. he looked baffled as he uttered in total disbelief, "how could this be possible? this is maggie being pushed by only 120 watt of 6550 triode, furchristsake!"

i counted. he uttered the same sentence 3 times. i am not even sure he was talking to me or to himself.

then, almost as if he has regained he composure, he turned to me and said, "i have only ONE small gripe - and that's totally nit-picking - you vocalist's mouth is not as small as it used to be". i answered, non-chalant, "yes, i know, i haven't really bothered to tweak it yet". did i say ken is a man of few words when it comes to giving understated, positive assessment?

just how could this be possible? ken, a bass freak and a lover of ass-kicking ATC speakers, praising, for the first time, my maggie's performance? it is like bon jovi telling karen carpenter that he likes her music.

it is my time to regain my composure. i pointed to one small inconspicuous silver fascia black box at the back of my hifi rack and said to him, "you know why? it is all because of this."

and that small little silver-plated black box is called shunyata hydra 4.

these wonderful "pills" have done magical things on my preamp and cd player! (and soon power amps)

depending on your system, the positive effect is far deep-reaching than changing an interconnect or power cord.

believe it or not :-)

It’s all too peaceful, so calm and quiet. No big bang, no big scream, just so quiet.

This is where I was blessed with the wise wisdom of enlightenment.

So simple, anything better than this is just beautification.

Excessiveness that can be ignored, that can be reduced to reveal the ever more truthfulness.

It’s all about perfect transformation, from potential to energy and back to calmness again.

When a setup is able to convey such perfect timing and speed, everything is just so beautiful, so cohesive and so complete in the ONE-ness.

Every music instrument has got their own minimal energy requirement to make them sing, further variations on forces applied to them is how the musicians convey the emotions and soul to us.

If the setup is able to give you the energy emancipation point, the single point where it all started, then you’ll get a realism never before experienced. This would give you the core of any instruments, the body, the soul and the emotions of every single piece of instruments!

Then the harmonic textures set in, the moment where the notes linger on, sustaining enough momentum to move you and shaken you with inner ripple of emotions and sensations.

The decays just let the experience sips in, reaching deep within your cells, your bones and your mind. It sends the chills down your spine, and then you know you have been touched!

The one and only one altruism purpose, to be touched by music, can only be achieved by the unrelenting chase to perfection. But it has never occurred to me that it happened to me just that simply!

I am indeed blessed!

How could I be so careless to have missed this room?!

So far, of all the rooms I have heard, for so many years, this is the best! And it's not even half done!

Muahahahaha...

How long have I been not writing? 3 months? I am not sure as I was living a soulless life like a walking zombie! My audiophile friends know this, and noticed my lack of enthusiast towards life. How far can a fallen audiophile try to get good sound? Those who know can just say, PATHETIC! Anyway, that would be part of a series which I would share later, the insights to how I come to the decision of having this new combo in SG.

Eugene is a genuine dealer, never pushy and imposing. Gee, Eugene and genuine does rhyme! I came to know him because of Stealth Audio Cables, and I ended up being one of the first, if not the first, to buy Stealth in MY. Since the start of his business, he has been carrying Bladelius and Marten Design, 2 of the 5 brands in what better known as Swedish Statement now.

I do drop by the shop on and off to “blow water”. I would sometimes listen to stuff represented by Eugene, but he was never insisting in promoting his stuff. I guess he would rather let you discover for yourself than to tell you what to buy. Hence, I was never aware of the gem I ended up getting in front of me all this while. I could only briefly remember asking Leslie to go listen to Thor as I found it to be full of potential. Since I was not looking for a second love back then, it passed me by. It was an early sign, nonetheless.

I admit, I am anal about ARC tube sound, proudly claiming my fixation over them to anyone. I have to stress ARC over here as people could relate to tube sound, but they were lost when I stress about the wide extensions and high resolution traits I wanted. Am I lost or confused, as tube sound is euphonic and mid centric? Not that after I put ARC in the picture. They are the different tube company, exploiting the full potential of tube’s organic and grainless presentation, while giving you the resolution and extensions of solid state. I am not saying the traits are exclusive to the said implementations, but certain traits are easier to attain in the respective tube or solid state implementations.

Hey, have I just wrapped up the traits of Thor? It is indeed organic, grainless, hi resolution and it gives great extensions! But NO, it is more than that! It is a shame I could only relate what I heard 2 years back now. You know what my feeling and shock were the moment I heard this babe in an unassuming whitish (sorry for my over fixation over ARC) grey outfit?

一部可以令膽機同好尖叫的石機！

A solid state amp that could sweep the feet off the floor, feet of tube lovers, mind you!

I have heard serious stuff, serious stuff that were seriously setup, representing the best in their own rights! But you need that moment, that blink moment that tells you “this is it!” You know it when you hear it! And I got it with a few brands and ended up buying them, of course only if my wallet allows.

For something over the price tag of SGD 6400, it should be high resolution and giving great extensions. For something this price, it better be, coz forking out 6K is not anyone would do on a daily basis. But what is so special about this when any other 6K stuff is able to give high resolution and great extensions? I found part of the answers the moment Cindy unpacked and put the Thor to play. Organic and grainless, for something that is fresh out of box!

Fast forward to 2 weeks later, I discovered even more on the better run-in Thor! Has it ever occurred to you that a great performer, a great teacher, or a great component for our context, would silent the audiences when they started doing their stuff?! The moment I hit play, I was floored; it has the magic of silencing my doubt, shutting down all my auxiliary senses, heightening my mental awareness by letting me taking in the best of what is playing at the moment! This is the BLINK moment; the moment you know THIS IS IT!

This amp is special, although it is a solid state amp, I could have mistaken it for tube if it wasn’t for its ample power and clean, taut and defined bass. The highs really captivated me, they were substantial and rich. They shimmer with silky smooth delicacy and slowly dithered in thin air in an elegant manner. It is a trait easier to attain from Maggies driven by ARC Classic series power amp, my ProAc and lower powered ARC Classic 60 can do so albeit at lesser weight. Yes, I heard you regress yours is smooth also, but I don’t think yours is vivacious and colorful! Muahahaha, call me proud!

I ain’t no bass freak and having been living with bookshelves for so long, I would not be the person to turn to if you want to know better about bass. Nonetheless, I have heard how this little gem handled huge Charios and JM Labs. Hold on, there is something that makes this gem standing out against the rest! The way this amp handled power is in such composed and gentlemanly manner. Many people argued with loud voices at virtually shouting level, this gem is likened to a well learnt gentleman, putting forth good sense of wisdom and rationale, sending the rest to shame! In other words, power is put to good use only when asked for, in kung fu, we call this “yin” power!

Wait wait wait, do you think it’s easy to impress tube heads without the mid being put to test?! To fork out 6K for a tube amp make perfect sense for tube heads, but for a tube head to fork out 6K on a solid state make a solid case on how good this gem is! Many solid state amps worth its salt are able to give that refined, smooth, delicate and grainless vocals. But Thor tops them up with the right amount of bloom, moist and liquidity that makes vocal so emotional and full of expressions! Top flight MBL coupled with flying as high YG Acoustics is able to do so also, but they play at the state of the art league!

I am getting mine coming July, when are you getting yours?!

SOLID!

Krell Transport and DAC - no upgrade plan on these as the owner does not play CDs much.

Krell Evo 2 Pre - the latest addition to the family, which bring so much refinement to MRA's raw power!

Krell MRA Power - raw muscles!

Grand Utopia on the left - huge!

Grand Utopia on the right - enormous!

Over the years, I have built up my belief that there could never be a setup capable in reproducing the live events. As I listened to more and more setups and attended more and more live events, it occurred to me that no setup could provide you the direct lifelike realism on par with listening to live events.

To newbies, I have convinced them many times that there’s no way any setup could mimic that real life events dynamic swing. When I attended the Fourplay performance in Dewan Philharmonics recently, I suffered from withdrawal syndrome that prevented me from touching my setup. That remained for at least a couple of days and I gave up hope in believing that there would ever be a setup able to give you that level of dynamism!

Just the week before I leave for SG, my perceptions changed. I was actually given the opportunity to pay a visit to our MY super hi-ender a visit. For years, I have heard about him. And I could only take a peep on his rigs from a HK website, how ironic is that?

Upon reaching the home of the owner, I knew I was in for a trip of my life! There were Krell CD transport, Krell processor, Clear Audio reference turntable, Krell Evo 2 pre, humongous pair of Krell MRA power amps and the gigantic JMLab Grand Utopias! For those MRA power amps, I swear I have never expected it to be that huge! And if that is not enough, there was another pair idling around! This is seriously hi-end setup and it literally blew me away!

We played both CDs and vinyls, however, it was with analogue that brought the best out of the setup! If you are still indulged in those prettier than life presentations of MBL and ARC, please wake yourself up. Do you have pinpoint localizations in real life events? Do you have tantalizing bloom? Do you go figure the center imaging? Forget about all those as those are false realism that we audiophiles are kidding ourselves into believing!

Have you ever attended any live musical events? As always, I have never failed to feel the excitement. Every one of them is like a journey where the musicians take you to joyrides. They never wait for you to recover from your exhilaration while you could analyze that bloom and texture. It’s all about effortlessness in bringing you waves after waves of musical vibration and the unforced dissipation of energy.

It is all about the transition from one energy form into another. From the movement of the musicians, to the vibrations of the instruments and finally to the sensations at our receiving end. It is a natural process just like God intended. The directness in the dynamic swing is so palpable and raw that no one would believe any human creation could recreate.

As I dig deeper into understanding how the live events sounded, I realized that this was actually IT. The sound that I was listening to right there and right then, this was as real as one could get! There was really no boundary as I was transported to the live events, I was no longer confined within the dimension and space of the room. I was greeted with a soundstage where the layering and depth, height and width were so seamlessly and naturally integrated. In a word, palpable!

At this performance level, the mentioning of highs, mids and lows is irrelevant. I just immersed myself in musical escapades and forget about the rest. If you want to impress me with how loud your 1812 can go, try harder, and try real hard!

"the edge of our pants were a-flapping by the thunderous bass; our hearts pounding in unison with the pulsating drum beats; our faces were red; our bodies sweating profusely; we were gasping for breath ... the whole 1812 climaxes with orgasmic delights!"

such is the exhilarating experience of listening to ben tan's super-duper system - arguably malaysia's most high-end setup - comprising of the HUMONGOUS and GARGANTUAN krell MRA monoblock driving the jm lab grande utopia....

follow little kc's audiophilia expedition into the study of exotic insects.... watch this space!

it has been more than a decade since i last acquianted with norwegian hifi marque, electrocompaniet. if my memory served me right, it was one of those good-value-for-money high-end gear in the late 80s/early 90s. i myself had owned an EC power amp before, the model of which i have well forgotten but it was a very warm and musical amp, sans all the solid-state nasties of those era.

fast forward to the new millennium, electrocompaniet ran into financial crises that culminated in autumn 2004 with new owners and new management. the new owners want to expand electrocompaniet into a major performer in the international high-end Hi-Fi market, specializing in amplifiers, CD-players, and equipment, both for 2 channel and multi-channel system. looking at the two impressive products today (the ECI-3 integrated amp and EMC-1 CD player) i have no doubt that they have come a long way in achieveing these goals. black is still EC's perennial fave colour!

the build quality of both the EC amp and cd player are absolutely top-notch. the black coloured chasis makes it all the more sexier and mysterious. i especially like the top-loading mechanism of the EMC-1 CD player - so classy and precise, like a piece of audio jewelry.

the essence of the modern EC sound is just like what i remembered of yesteryear - warm, sweet and tube-like. the overriding keyword here is sweetness. the tonal quality is so sweet that i swear that i was listening to a tube amp. partnered with RM60K rockport mira speakers, the resultant sound is classy, detailed and very un-solid-state-like.

oh, do check out their website http://www.electrocompaniet.com/. if a manufacturer is serious about its products, it is shown in their website. EC's website is so classy and cool.

i would admit - if a system's tonal colour is not up to my liking, i will lose interest very fast. which is why i am keeping my aged ARC in spite of the lure of newer models like the reference 210 (which can do better hi-fi stunts such as soundstaging and bass) because, frankly, my classic 120 has the best tonal colour amongst all the generations of ARC amps, despite its obvious shortcomings as an old tube amp with old parts. there is something intricately enchanting about the triode sound which is very hard to describe unless you play triode yourself.

getting to appreciate tonal colour, or timbre, takes years. many audiophiles still don't get it after years in the hobby. i don't want to sound elitist but if you are after tonal colour, then you have to play tubes. push-pull triode or single-ended triode. period.

being a 100% tonal guy, i didn't get to listen to an ongaku until now. paiseh. never mind that it is an older gen of ongaku.

never a audio note proponent, i find the ongaku totally refreshing. it doesn't sound like a typical SET! driving avantgarde duo horn speakers, the sound is vibrant, vivacious and totally engaging. there is so much beauty in the tonal aspects. gorgeous tone. in fact, in terms of purity, it beats my classic 120. i hear you laughing. comparing a RM20K amp with a RM200K amp. look, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, ok.

i have been invited to listen to the latest ongaku driving the humougous avantgarde trio with basshorn. until then, i can't quite forget my first encounter with ongaku.