let's cut to the chase - if you are not ready for the shock, don't audition the torus. it is going to change your paradigm about accuracy and high definition, among others.

let me state that i am auditioning the torus with the highly annoying US-to-UK convertors, which i dread, so the torus' performance here is a compromised one.

the best disc to illustrate torus' strengths is none other than 2v1g. a lot of people have told me that they can't differentiate winnie from regine, or vice versa. once you listen to how the torus separates the two voices, you would then realize that the two ladies are world apart in tone and expression. many PLCs, including my hydra 8, didn't do a good job in making these two voices distinctive and unique. this aspect of torus gets my highest praise - this is high-definition of the highest order. in fact, get any disc with many voices and see how torus separates each and every one of them and give them their own character.

another winning aspect of torus is its accuracy. tonally, the torus is on the cool side of neutral, very much like audio magic stealth reference, without the sizzle. this accuracy lends a superb realism to voices in terms of diction and pitching. whether it is rickie lee jones or 2v1g or cai qin, you could hear every word coming from the singer's mouth with shocking clarity, diction and correct pitching. no other PLC comes close in this aspect. hifikaki was uuh-ing and aah-ing when he heard the 2v1g cd being played thru torus.



how does it compare to hydra 8 in other areas? well, you know me, i always love analogy. pitting the two is like comparing a girlfriend/mistress to a wife. hydra 8 is flirtatious, seductive, desirable and colorful, always obliging (and could occasionally tell a lie or two just to please you), the perfect girlfriend. torus is the wife, ever faithful, honest, reliable, compassionate and does her duty quietly. the hydra dresses up the music with make-up whereas the torus does not believe in cosmetics. true, the torus does not have the hydra's femme fatale kind of seductiveness, neither does it have the voluptuousness of body and harmonic richness of the hydra but it plays music with so much conviction that you would think that is how real music should sound like. music thru the hydra 8 is like looking thru the world with a technicolor glasses; with torus, the glasses is perfectly clear, perfectly spec-ed and albeit a bit unglamorous.

the torus' major strengths lie in its honesty, definition and accuracy. if you prize these criteria with top priority then this is simply the best PLC there is. but torus is not perfect. in achieving this astounding level of accuracy and definition, it does come across as a bit thin, solid-state-y, dry and careful/cautious. of course, i am not discounting the fact that i am using a generic 15A power cord and the terrible US-to-UK adapters.

some married men never stop having girlfriends till old age because they are bored with their wives at early stage. some married men keep girlfriend(s) at the early stage of their marriage because it is exciting but ultimately when they are tired and old, they go home to the warmth of their wives. some men, once they get married, would never consider extra-marital affairs because their wives are the best. some men don't even get married and just content of having girlfriends.

which kind of man are you?

a lot of visitors to my house always wonder why i didn't use any tweaks. they always suggest that i should start using some to bring my system to another level. but they don't know that my biggest tweak is my mana table and mana soundframe which have been serving me very well for more than 7 years now and i swear by them.

many audiophiles, especially the younger ones (those who went into this hobby in the last 5 years) don't know about mana being a top-notch equipment support maker from UK. mana is expensive to start with and we don't have a local dealer. the funny thing about mana is that it doesn't like anything on top on it, which means to say it doesn't work well with other tweaks like cones and resonance controls.

tonight both panzer and ck witnessed how the ceraballs failed in my system. they don't work on either my preamp and cdp. the resultant sound is a taming of energy and musical flow, curtailing of air, slowing down of rhythm and compacting of images. the singer with ceraballs on sounded sedated, as if she has had a full meal and too lazy to sing, eventho' her image is more focused and sharper, the later being the only advantage. incidentally we tried a track which is full of energy, zing and PRaT and the ceraballs slowed down everything. we tried to turn the ceraballs up and down but the overall effect is still negative.

well, as i have said, my system is well balanced and it doesn't need much tweaking.

que cera cera, whatever will be, will be.


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Top: FE Resonator.
Under: Cera Ball, Cera Puck & Cera Base.

Hifikaki had been poisoned by the FE Cera products, that we all know. He wants me to test it out to see if I feel the same. Ever so kind, he passed them all, the Cera Balls, Pucks and Resonator to me just before the CNY holidays to play with.

It been a few days that I've been playing with the Cera stuff plus Resonator, and can form my 2nd opinion of them.

First the FE Cera Balls, in my short, honest opinion, every hifi system, irregardless of price range, should at least have set of these sitting below the source components. If your budget allows, have a set below every component! Even though they're not exactly cheap, they're so good, they'd out last your component upgrades till the end of your hifi journey!(If there's an end to it all?)

Every component I put them under, from my friend's modest Marantz CD63SE to my own Marantz CD7, seems to wrought out very positive results, especially more so with budget to mid end equipment! With the Cera balls under the CDP, you can expect to get an overall the tightening up of rough edges in the sound, yet give mids, i.e. vocals, more density and "natural" presence within the sound stage. The bass also benefits from the tidying up, by sounding fuller, yet each note more distinct. Splashy highs are mostly subdued overall(if it's there, it'll still be there somehow, but only much less heard!).

Cera Balls unders my Rega, spot them?

Here's my surprising find, with the Cera Balls under budget CD and turntables(if my humble Rega P25 qualifies as one), you get the most bang for buck sound wise! Whilst placed under my own Marantz CD7, the result were merely a whiff of subtle the improvement found on the budget machines mentioned earlier! That said, you also can't expect a Marantz CD63SE with Cera Balls, to sonically out class the CD7 sans the Cera balls. You just can't turn sows ear in to silk purse!

Next up is the FE Cera Pucks, which works very much just like the Cera Balls, but on heavier equipment, like power amps and so on. I had no chance to try them under my mono blocks with only a set of 4 pcs. But opportunity presented itself when I got the back breaking heavy Isotek Titan power line conditioner for review. From my experience with the Isotek Sigmas, I knew the Titan would benefit from some kind of an after market feet or equipment stand. With the Isotek Titan sitting on the four Cera Pucks, the result were pretty much the same as I got from the Cera Balls under source equipments, but only more! There was much less back ground hash heard with the Cera Pucks placed under the Isotek Titan PLC.

Cera Pucks under Isotek Titan.

Lastly, the FE Resonator. I find that the resonator did absolutely nothing to the sound when placed on top of my CDP, pre-amp or phono stage! Strange, I thought I must have done it wrong! I checked the manual again, and follow the instructions carefully one more time, but the results were the same! I heard absolutely no difference to the sound coming out from my system, with or without the Resonator!

Then I remembered what a hifi buddy told me on an earlier listening session of my system. He told me that he had heard some metal ringing qualities in my system(yes, his ears are that sensitive!), and he had proceeded to check the top plate of every hifi equipment that I had by feeling it with his hands as we played the system aloud. He picked out the Isotek Sigmas's top plate as the culprit! Then asked me to do something about it. I haven't the opportunity to get around to it.

Resonator on top panel of Isotek Sigmas, note: instruction says you can't place Resonator dead center for good effect!(I tried that too!)

So the Resonator was put a top the Isotek Sigmas(see picture on top) and now, finally, I heard an overall smoother high mids. The high hats though previously non splashy and never edgy, now gained just very slightly more refinement and "air". I must stressed that the improvement is very subtle, and not easily distinguished. My very own opinion formed of the Resonator is that, unless you've got equipment with rather thin, undamped steel plates as top panel, I don't think it will do much if placed on most high end equipment with 5/8 inch thick aluminum top panels.

Did I get poisoned? Well, I am lining up to get my self some Cerra Balls!

Finite Elemente is sold by Audio Image, tel: 03-79563077


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hey, i am back! after a week of frantic order taking, i can finally go back to my hifi and music! bliss at last ;-)

hifi kaki just brought over the audionet art g2 and i didn't wait long to open it up and give it a test run.

if audionet g2 is bmw then my meridian g08 is at most a honda accord because the audionet overwhelms it in terms of dynamics, PRaT and bass quality/quantity! well, audionet is twice the price of meridian, you might argue but we are talking about two top contenders in their respective price range.

playing teddy robin cd immediately tells me that the audionet has more oomph and drive. the drummers seems more driven and motivated and the music just unleashed onto the listener effortlessly and naturally. even teddy robin seems more eager to please.

but things took a turn when i played my quirky dennis nieh jazz cd (a lot of people don't like this cd because of dennis' singing but it sounded superb in my system). true, the audionet has the same presence and palpability that the meridian is famous for but it somehow presents dennis in a more sober and no-nonsense mood. or to put it in another way, meridian's presentation is more sentimental, more touching, more organic and more musical and it makes dennis' baritone sexier. the magnetism of dennis' gorgeous tone is more pronounced in the meridian than in the audionet.

other that this aspect of musical flow, organic-ness and humanity, it is not too exaggerating to say that the audionet thrashes the meridian quite completely.

i hope master ken's wife is not reading this. sometimes, wifey has a natural habit to peek into hubby's favourite bookmarks in his laptop to see if he is up to something naughty. oh, btw, malaysia's ISPs have banned youporn and moantube - two most popular and highly accessible porn sites in the net - so many of us naughty adults would be deprived of some excitement other than hifi during their free times.

anyway, i was talking about ken's wife. if she does read this blog, then in all likelihood, she won't allow her hubby to befriend me anymore because i am such a bad influence. master ken is totally sold on the pass labs x350.5 and he is thinking hard on how to cook up a story to spend that RM38K on a piece of heavy metal, nice piece of metal that is, that makes sweet sound.

i had the good fortune to listen to the pass labs in ken's setup today and witnessed the way it drives the insatiable ATC SCM100. god, the x350.5 tames the beast with an iron-fist and sure-footedness that the juice-sucking ATC is finally satiated like a lustful nympho that has finally met her most capable lover. it makes his beloved jeff rowland 8 looks like a puny little amp. the highs, the upper-mids, the bass, they all shine through brilliantly - this is the hallmark of a thoroughly modern and high-end sound. in comparison, the rowland 8 sounds dated and under-defined.

"it is time to upgrade", i told master ken mercilessly. he nodded but his face is expressionless. i guess it is the money. it is no small sum of money yeah.

well, readers, can you help master ken to cook up stories to spend the RM38K?

bugger, i am still thinking of the well-fed nympho ;-)