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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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!

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

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

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

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

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.