monster amp on transit

thanks to nelson chia of centre circle, we get to review the super-heavy, hernia-inducing pass labs x350.5 stereo power amp.

it took 3 of us - hifi kaki, master ken and myself - to lug this behemoth from centre circle onto ken's car. i am just of average build, but ken and hifi kaki are big fellas! i think the x350.5 bugger weighs at least 50kgs.

i told ken that the x350.5 is gonna whack his aging jeff rowland 8 in terms of resolution & bass. ken argued that the improvements are not going to be drastic, which i beg to differ.

i hope ken is going to give you his initial listening impressions.

when a country is progressing at such a phenomenal speed, there are bound to be many greedy and unethical businessmen whose sole intention is to make some quick bucks. it is happening in hifi business too; in china, no less. i think china has the most "overnight-millionaires" in the world.

foreign hifi manufacturers who intend to set up factories or plants in china must first enlist the help of a "runner" or an "agent", someone (a foreigner also) who has been stationed long enough in china to know the contacts and geography of all those local plants. because logistics are such nightmare in china (some factories don't even have proper roads), coupled with the fact that factories relocate frequently, first-time manufacturers who want to make inroads into china are always daunted by the complexity of the whole exercise. these agents have full knowledge of the modus operandi of setting up a business in china and they make good money by providing consultancy and introducing the manufacturers to the right chinese contacs.

chinese businessmen are known to be unscrupulous. they can promise you one thing and break the promise the next day - it all boils down to money and who has more money to offer to them. many chinese manufacturers can manufacture/copy/duplicate any product you want, make some false claims about the product, give them a new badge and market them as a entirely new product. a case in point - if the product is cryogenically treated at -196 degree, they are willing to claim it as "-300 degree" just to fool the gullible audiophiles into believing that it is better. or, they can repackage some really cheap product by giving it better aesthetics (e.g better chassis) and sell it as a more upmarket product.

in short, in the name of making more money, they can leave their scruples at home. it does not help that hifi is such a subjective hobby that leaves a lot of room for exploitation and that many audiophiles are not discerning enough to differentiate a genuine product from a bogus one. or in certain cases, the audiophile may be aware but he has limited budget for US or european or japanese stuff. well, it is really a economics 101's demand-and-supply issue.

it is true that china-made products have improved by leaps and bounds and are getting competitive vis-a-vis the rest of the world. but the chinese businessmen's poor ethics, lack of conscience and professionalism leave much to be desired. in these regards, they are still lagging behind their western counterparts.

This is the 3^rd write up in a series about my hifi system.

I am now working very hard :-) on the review of the Siltech Forbes Lake interconnects for AVXpress. Having the Forbes Lake in the system gave me some new appreciation of my system’s capability, especially the loudspeakers –The EgglestonWorks NINE.

EgglestonWorks is quite a low profile company, you don’t see their products or adverts in the hifi magazines a lot, this is further exacerbated by their products’ long life span and rare new product introduction (well, if there is nothing new, there is no ‘news’ to report, is there?). But I believe that is actually good for us audiophiles. If a long-life-span product can stay competitive with those that change every 2-3 years, that means the product is done right at the beginning, so there is no need to incorporate ‘upgrades’ to the design on an ongoing basis, right?

If you look at the ingredients that EgglestonWorks uses, you will see the same drivers and cabinet design used in the entire product line. The difference is in the scale - the same Dynaudio tweeter and Morel mid-woofer are used in every model, the difference is in the number used; all the cabinets have the familiar ‘darth vader’ shape at the top, the difference is in their sizes. This similarity actually also translates into the speakers’ performance – they have remarkably consistent sound quality from one model to another (I have heard Fontaine II, Rosa, Nine and Andra II in demos), again the difference is in the scale of the sound (bigger soundstage, deeper bass, denser images etc.)

What attracted me to EgglestonWorks is the organic way they produce my kind of music – classical, jazz and vocals. The sound is seamless – the top to bottom integration, to my ears, is excellent, no one spectrum stands out in particular. They also present good body and tonality to the sound. When I listen to jazz for example, I’d think to myself that the double bass sounds so good, it has rhythm, is taut and goes low; when the saxophone comes on, I’d then go, ‘wow, what sexy tone this thing has’; and then the cymbal work has my attention, and I’d be impressed, ‘hmmm… this is rich and smooth…’.

(The Siltech Forbes Lake brought this quality out even more – bass, mid, treble all gain in stature, music flows from one note to another like liquid. But that is the story for the Siltech review)

The other attraction is that they are not afraid to be played loud. One can almost sense as if the loudspeakers are gleefully lapping up every orchestra crescendo or every thwack on a drum track for lunch, with no hint of breakup or distortion at all.

But they are no brute. Matched to my Pass Labs XA60, the NINEs have a slightly warmish tonality, which makes music sound natural. Not that they are totally forgiving, but this quality together with the amps make some badly recorded CDs more bearable.

One thing I do not treat the Egglestons right currently is the space I provide them with. They need bigger space than my current room. The soundstage’s dimensions are restricted and the images are slightly congested.

Looking at the bright side, what this means is that I can get even more performance out of them once I get a bigger room – so I foresee they will stay with me for many more years to come, and I have no complaint about that.

the review panel comprising of hifi kaki (left), master ken (middle, the fattest) and maggielurva (right, the most handsome)

for the next issue of av xpress (to coincide with KLIAV 2008), i am going to do hardware reviews in a very different and entertaining way. the review team will comprise of myself, hifi kaki and master ken. each of us will give our opinions - as usual, keeping to our short and sweet style (and no BS)- despite our individual biases, inclinations, aspirations, tastes, philosophies and beliefs in hifi. i remember perfect pitch (the sun's pull-out in the late 90s) used to do it this way, with jeffrey tan (the no-BS editor) making sidebar remarks for every review that his staff did.

and we are gonna have a 3-way dialogue a la stereo sound of japan. it is gonna be fun! maybe i can post the dialogue online here!

it is gonna be fair too since each of us is vastly different in the kind of things we look for in hifi. and for your readers, you can rest assured that you get to read a balanced review.

so far, items lined-up for the next issue: (there may be more coming)
[1] audio magic stealth mini reference power line conditioner (audio creations)
[2] siltech S.A.T.T. forbes lake interconnect (CMY audio and visual)
[3] esoteric sa60 universal player (dong fong audio)
[4] crytal cones (audio art)

we hope you like this new direction!

now, this is going to send hifi kaki to seventh heaven!

delicate, classy, silky-smooth, the esoteric sa60 universal player makes my meridian g08 sound like a rough machine. it is not recommended for prolonged listening because you may risk taking out your fixed deposit and invest on this gorgeous player.

over to you, my lucky reviewer ;-)

knowing how few of you are interested in chinese audiophile stuff, i will make my future reviews even shorter and sweeter. but i insist of recommending good chinese albums when i hear one.

i previewed dennis nieh's can't help falling in love last month. the cd came last week from hk, and true to taiwan's audio art review about the excellent quality of bass, the is an audiophile's delight if you love really low and bassy tone. of course, your system has to have good definition in the lows to appreciate dennis' fantastic baritone. it is exactly because of this low notes, i discovered my maggie's mylar has actually gotten loosened - need my technician to apply the 3M glue for the first time. this is the perennial problem with magneplanar. their glue doesn't seem to last for more than 5 years.

please don't waste your time playing this cd in car stereo or mp3 portable, you won't be able to appreciate the bass.

dennis' quirky rendition apart (he chose really low keys to sing), the recording alone is worth your money. btw, the label is "better music", the same label that produced can qin's jin pian zhe #1 and #2.


this is a qualified recommendation, only if you can take dennis' way of singing jazz and take a liking of his magnetic voice.

music: 7/10
sonics: 9/10

Today, an amazing thing happened in my household....

Well, I think many married audiophiles have the experience where their better halves tell them that they listen to their music too loudly, or where they feel the music played on your system is ear-pokingly bad that they will leave the room once the system comes on, right? (many say the fairer sex have better or more sensitive hearing, I agree)

But today, my lovely wife sat beside me and we listened to more than one hour of music on my hifi system, she told me she enjoyed the music and she even commented on how good the sound quality was. Nothing had changed actually - I played the same CDs at the same volume level as before, we sat in the same place, I had the same system components - except one thing: I inserted the Siltech Signature Series G6 Forbes Lake SATT interconnects into my system.

Their 1m length did not allow me to put them between my CD player and preamp without having to rearrange my equipment, so I put them between my preamp and monoblocks, just to get an initial impression. When the music started, we could not stop! I played one track after another and we had a very enjoyable time. We played a variety of music – jazz vocals, some virtuoso violin music and some drum tracks (my wife never ever sat through a dynamic drum track with me, this is a first).

I’ll comment more on the Forbes Lake’s sound quality in the full review for AVXpress after my extended listening sessions later. It is suffice to say now that my initial impression is that they improved my system’s musicality, heightened its resolution, made the bottom more articulate, and smoothened the highs without slowing the music down or dulling it. There are many other sound aspects I would like to comment on, but I should not let the cat out of the bag too early, especially not before I have a full handle on their performance, so I beg your patience. :-)

I’ll do some run-in on them for the next few days, and start some serious listening, I expect to hear more improvement. I’ll also compare their performance between pre-power and between CD-pre.

I absolutely look forward to this ‘chore’.

Lucky me! Maggielurva delivered to my place the most expensive pair of interconnects that I have ever had my hands on, at RM20k a pair. They are to be my first review assignment for AVXpress.

The interconnects are Siltech’s Forbes Lake. They are from Siltech’s Signature Series G6 with S.A.T.T. (Siltech Advanced Thermal Treatment), the top most cable range in Siltech’s stable.

I have not started the listening sessions with the Siltechs yet, that pleasure can be left to the coming weekend. However, the first impression of these cables has been very good. Reading about them revealed that they are made from solid silver strands with gold injection (no wonder they cost so much!). The construction is impeccable, they look and feel solid, a testament to the engineering and care that have gone into their manufacture.

I’ll update my progress with the Siltech in the coming days here, stay tuned.

humility is a rare attribute among audiophiles. in my 20 years of playing hifi, i can count by 5 fingers audiophiles who qualify in this criteria. a lot of audiohiles cannot go far because their egos are stopping them from improving. god has been especially kind to me this year. he granted me a reviewer and a friend who is not only humble, earnest and magnanimous but knows his stuff as well. for someone who owns a setup that cost over RM100K (about the same investment as mine) and admits that he has a lot to learn from me, says a lot about this person's depth of character, discerning power and humility. i have great honor to present his system in my blog

i reviewed the pass labs xa100 2 years back and the memory is still vividly stuck in my head. the tone, i remember, was uniquely attractive - it was neither solid-state nor tube-like.



2 years later - today, to be specific - i reunited with this class-a beauty (well, a smaller cousin, xa60, actually) in hifi kaki's house. before the visit, hifi kaki pre-empted me by saying that his system is "nowhere near mine" so "don't come with high expectations". don't even trust him on that. i was actually fooled into believing that his system is really not great! when the first note of his copland cdp was struck, i am suitably impressed and i don't mean to be nice to him just because his is my reviewer. (i told him that as a reviewer one should call a spade a spade). yes, i love the tone of his sound. it is, well, unique and a class on its own. this tonal aspect alone places him well above many systems i have listened in the past. sorry that i wasn't completely blunt and honest to those i visited in the past because some of you just don't have the humility and graciousness of hifi kaki.

his room is on the smallish side but it doesn't matter as he will be moving to a 3-storey house in 3 months' time and he will then be having a 15'X 22' almost-golden-ratio room to play with. i promise to help him to tune up the room. in fact, i am so nice to him that i have promised to bring him to ooi's house next week to show him ooi's room, cos ooi has the best hifi room i have ever seen and heard.



it is true that hifi kaki's system doesn't stage spectacularly, but that's because of his room limitations and to a lesser extent, his speaker placement. (wait till he gets his 15' X 22' room, aha) his system has all the high-end attributes of good highs, mids and lows. playing ricky lee jones' "pop pop" brings a familiar sense of air, density and palpability that can elude lesser/poorer systems. the highs are great but a tad short of the decay and that linger-forever-in-the-air quality of my maggie's ribbons. altho' equally elegant, ricky lee jones in hifi kaki's system sounded more rush than in mine; it is almost as if ricky lee jones has no patience to sing. still, it is a very likeable sound.

teddy robin's ferocious drums also sounded believable in his system, showing that the eggleston and the xa60 can indeed flex muscles together. i told hifi kaki that i would want more definition in the mids and midbass and less cluttering when i setup his system in his new house next time.


generally, the soundstage does not spread out as wide as the system is capable of, with instruments and voices cluttering around the center triangular plane. also the vocalist's mouth can be higher if tweaked properly. hifi kaki is fully aware of these shortcomings but he is being patient at the mo since the new house is almost ready.

if the above sound like criticism then you have misunderstood me. i have high standard for myself and those around me. his system is already several notches above many run-of-the-mills systems i came across all these years.

because i love and i care for my friends, i would like him to improve and i promise to present and revisit his system once his moves in to his new abode.

but, what gorgeous tone the pass labs xa60 gives!

[post-script]
i also passed him the RM20K siltech S.A.T.T signature series forbes lake interconnect for review, who says i don't treat my reviewers well? ;-)

say no to politics in hifi

i know it will come. the day has come. the demands from the dealers on the (relative) positioning of their ads; the (unreasonable) expectations from their ads etc. etc.

and i hate all these. i really do. i am not a politician and i am not good in licking the balls/asses of these dealers.

chinese has a proverb - those who eat salted fish must be able to withstand the thirst. in this case, the salted fish i ate is bloody salty! i feel like throwing up all this salted fish i ate.

many dealers still don't know that i do av xpress not for the money, but for the passion and satisfaction of having a voice in this industry. some compare me with my sole competitor - the local chinese mag with a 14-year history behind it and practically monopolizes the market - saying that i am not politically sensitive and tactful. hey, that guy depends on the mag for his livelihood yeah and i don't!

i am thinking of making av xpress totally independent. as long as someone is willing to sponsor the printing cost and contribution fee (for my writers), then i am willing to do it as a non-profit project. you know of any organization who is willing to sponsor RM5K per issue? or you readers can form a common fund (tabung av xpress) for av xpress? only then i can be free of all this crap and politicking. only then i can be a really strong voice in the industry.

on the brighter note, i am venturing into event organization. somebody with good track record is inviting me to invest in his event company. and he has already a mega act lined up in october. i am game cos music and entertainment line is my calling. with music/cd business being a sunset biz, live concert is the way to go. at least, you can't duplicate/pirate a live concert. music lovers are willing to pay for live concerts.

i shall be announcing the act and sell tickets in this blog soon, once we have confirmation from the agent.

this is the most exciting news to us - music label rock in music of hong kong has agreed to distribute 2v1g in hong kong and taiwan!

just how many "new" artists get to break into international market with its debut album? we are so lucky!

the icing on the cake is that keith yip, the boss of rock in, finds our recording "very good" and "is good enough for release as audiophile cd". he also likes the music, altho' "it may not appeal to those who want more than a solo guitar accompaniment".

my engineer, vong, was the happiest man on earth! mark my words, vong is gonna be the most sought after audiophile-grade recording engineer in malaysia after the launch of 2v1g!

This is the second posting on my system components. This time round I’d like to talk about my Copland CDA822 cd player….

There are 2 schools of thought on which component is the most important in a hifi chain, one says it is the source, another says it is the loudspeakers. Both have their proponents.

In my early hifi years, I was more inclined to the latter. With the system I had, it was true that a change in loudspeakers gave me the greatest magnitude of change in sound (for better or worse), not to mention that when I auditioned a system, at a dealer or a friend’s place, the loudspeakers were usually the most visible component. Changing CD players or amps usually did not create the same level of impact on the system’s sound.

As the years went by, I was not so sure any more. As the resolution of my system increased over time (ahem! :-) ), I realized that any change in the hifi chain could create a significant shift in the sound quality. A change may tip the system from excellent to unlistenable and vice versa.

So now I am a fence-sitter on this issue (or to sound better, I’m now the whole-system-synergy-is-important kind of guy :-) ).

What has this got to do with the CDA822? Well, it is the component that illustrates to me in the strongest manner that the source equipment does matter a lot. The Copland contributes tremendously to my emotional connection with my music. With it, I constantly want to bob my head, wave my hands and tap my feet in time to the music. It does not allow me to do easy listening, every piece of music comes off with such conviction from the artist that it forces me to pay attention.

The Copland’s sound is bold, dynamic, and has excellent timing, yet it also retains a high degree of delicacy and details. It can convey the sultriness of a saxophone and the rhythmic throb of a double bass on a jazz piece. It can convey the scale of an orchestra at full tilt and yet resolve a solo violinist’s delicate touches.

In contrast, some higher end digital replay gear that I auditioned in my system might better the Copland in the some audiophile parameters such as resolution and soundstaging, but I was sometimes left cold with the portrayal of the music.

Well, people say digital technology advances at lightning speed, digital gear that is a few years old may be superseded by the latest and cheaper implementation. However, the CDA822 took my latest model, mid-range universal player (albeit at less than half the price of the Copland) to the proverbial cleaner on cd replay. The CDA822 is beaten comparing the cd layer to the sacd layer on a hybrid disc (and only in the treble region mostly), however I put this down to the superiority of the sacd format instead (but that is story for another day).

If I look for an upgrade to my digital front end, the first priority would be to retain the musical emotion that the Copland so ably displayed. I hope I would have greater exposure to high performance digital gear working with av xpress, and find a worthy successor to the CDA822 when the time comes.

But I have a feeling that it may not be such a straightforward task….

a couple of local dealers left for the munich high-end show this week. one dealer went because he wants to see "something different outside the CES". other just tagged along to "look see look see". while those who didn't go expressed disinterest as "there is nothing special". for this group of dealers, other than established german marques like clearaudio, mbl, avantgarde, there are just too many cottage industries on display that can be bewildering.

every year, dealers look for new brands to bring it into malaysia. apart from reading from hifi magazines and internet, they would occasionally ask from industry people like yours truly. for me, i resort to hearing from you readers. kubala-sosna and audio magic are results of "hearing from my readers".

so, please continue to recommend good stuff to us. i could use my limited influence to convince the dealers to bring them into malaysia.

we are like the present opposition leaders in malaysia - we listen to you ;-)

still remember my RM10K challenge? last month, i offered RM10k to anyone who can solve my AC problems permanently.

i just told victor (the dealer, audio creations) that after plugging in the audio magic stealth mini reference for the last 5 nights, the usual problems with my AC seem to have disappeared, momentarily, at least. i couldn't detect any anomalies for 5 consecutive nights, which is extremely rare.

something funny tells me that this jerry ramsey's product is different. it may be able to solve my nagging problem. i can't be sure and i can only speculate.

until i read this in audio magic's website. a customer from hk wrote:

it is also apparent that the changes in sound that I noticed when I listened before between daytime and nighttime (the system sounded more involving and smooth at late night to early morning) are gone, the sound from the system is now very reliable and independent of the time of the day. This is great since I found it pretty frustrating to enjoy a record late at night a lot, then getting up on the next morning playing it again and wondering where the magic from the night before had suddenly gone.

i am still not sure but i am praying hard that i myself am the one who is going to pocket the RM10K reward.

Maggielurva suggested that I talk a little about my system, so here it goes. I would start with my Pass Labs amps, since Pass Labs is the brand that stays in my system the longest…..

My Pass Labs X2.5 preamp + XA60 monoblocks render sound in a very natural and musical way. I listen almost exclusively to acoustic music, and it is also most important for me to derive musical enjoyment from my listening sessions (life is too short!) so these characteristics are critical.

But don’t get me wrong, they are not euphonic, they are the most neutral sounding amp I have ever owned. They just have the knack to put across music as music without any romantic tint.

My love affair with Pass Labs started when I chanced upon a used set of Aleph L preamp and Aleph 3 power amp. Up to that point, I was tinkering with integrated transistor amps, but found myself never totally satisfied.

I liked the philosophy behind the Aleph L+3, Pass Labs’ entry level combo at that time. The Aleph L preamp was passive at low to middle volume settings, the Aleph 3 power amp was full class A and single-ended, both are minimalist to the hilt. The 3’s 30 class-A-watts were enough to drive even a pair of floorstanders in my smallish listening room.

With the Alephs, I found myself listening and reacting more and more to music, my listening sessions stretched longer and longer. So when funds permitted, I looked at Pass Labs again for options, why mess with a successful formula, right?

The X2.5+XA60 combo was very clearly cut from the same cloth, just that the X’es took all the virtues of the Alephs and ratcheted them up a number of notches. The music swings harder, the emotional content is more intense, and all the audiophile parameters are improved upon – the top and bottom extended further, the resolution improved, the soundstage ballooned up, they sound more powerful than even a 100-watter that I owned earlier. The ergonomics and industrial design also improved tremendously (every one who saw the blue meter in the middle of the fascia would think it is way cool).

The Alephs are no longer with me, writing this brings up some nostalgia and a tinge of regret, I should have kept them. Well, at least I have the X’es to go home to, so my music life is still treating me pretty well. :-)

my oh my!

my cheque book is all ready but where's my pen?

the audio magic stealth mini reference (USD1,200) has the best midbass i have ever heard in all the power products i have auditioned and owned all these years!

fair, it still can't beat the shunyata hydra in tonal seductiveness and RPGC's delicacy in the highs but the midbass, the midbass, the midbass! the AM's midbass transforms my maggie's mylar diaphragm into a 10" cone woofer! playing teddy robin CD with drum works aplenty is such an unprecedented joy!

the mids are more neutral than the hydra. some may like it but some like me may find it bland. but could it be the truth? (and the truth always hurts) could it be that shunyata hydra actually colors the sound and make it sexy and intoxicating? i need to sleep on this issue for a few days.

i have burned it for close to 300 hours now (including jerry ramsey's 200 hours), the highs (hence airiness) still lose out by 5-10% to shunyata. i am going to add another 100 hours of cooking. if the highs can equal shunyata, then victor pheh of audio creation (the dealer) can collect the cheque from me.

midbass-cum-ATC lover master ken is gonna take it home for his evaluation/review for av xpress this weekend.

the inner voice in me screaming - "stop the euphoria, maggielurva, why not wait for ken's conclusion too before you sign on the dotted line?"

now you have two reviewers comparing notes, you just can't go wrong, can you? ;-)

two high-end products from denon - PMA-SA1 integrated amplifier and DCD-SA1 CD/SACD player going for a song!

normal retail price for the combi is > RM60K.

bid starts from RM22,888. state your bid now! new and in the box.

p/s it has 2-year warranty from the distributor.

april 19th was the record store day in the US.

the gen-x or gen-y would never really understand why us baby boomers have so much sentiments towards record stores.

back in the 70s/80s where cassettes and LPs were still the rage, we - then student - would save our last penny to go to the local record stores and have our fave songs compiled into a TDK blank cassette. of course, it was illegal now but there were not much regulations then. everyone did that. the record store would charge RM15 - a lot of money then - for just the recording fee.

me being the aspiring audiophile even at that age would buy the best TDK blank cassettes (normally chrome or metal type) in bulk and use it for recording. we would normally leave the blank cassette with the record store for one week. the day for the collection of the completed recording is normally the highlight of the week, with so much anticipation and excitement. we would normally rush to the record shop after school!

as to the song selection, the order or the sequence is important. we would normally tell the record store chap to follow the order which we wrote on the piece of paper. in the 80s, 12 inch or remixes from british bands like culture club, spandau ballet, duran duran and many others were the rave then.

in malaysia, the pirates came in full vengeance in the early 80s too. i remember buying a lot of pirated cassettes (mostly compilations) which came without the normal cassette box but just a thin plastic skeletal case. those who listened to music in the 80s would definitely know what i mean by this type of pirated cassette in malaysia. the packaging was so unique that i think one could only find it in malaysia!

in the 1998, i revived the indie record store concept with "music exchange" and it was an instant hit then. the strait times of singapore once wrote an article titled "what to do in KL if you only have 24 hours ?" and music exchange was mentioned as the must-visit place in kl. such was the coolness and hip factor of music exchange. incidentally, in a special article on kl last week in sin chew jit poh titled "50 reasons to love kl", the journalist also lamented the demise of music exchange as a hip music culture spot.

today's record stores have not much personality and quality to offer but mostly videos and bored attendants with not much knowledge and passion in music.

i still harbor a latent passion to start an ultra cool indie record store, one day.

hot from the oven - alan tam's "best sound ever reborn" japanese pressing 24k gold disc limited edition.

selling at only RM66 at yes asia. if you buy more than one cd, shipping is free.

grab, grab, grab!

p/s interestingly, my duplication factory in HK (which i am going to use for 2v1g duplication) told me that for audiophile CDs, it is better to leave the silver surface (top) of the raw cd untainted, meaning leaving it blank except for logo and album title printing. i guess it has to do with how the laser pickup reads the cd. since they are the expert, i will heed their advice.

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!