my chief producer, jin liang, is finally back to kl for a short break and we met up to discuss major agenda for the audiophile cd project. of chief concerns are the total budget needed and where the recording, mixing and mastering are going to be done. other issues like album concepts, songs selection, distribution, musicians engaged etc etc are easier issues to deal with.

on the same night, i went to see winnie singing live on stage at OUG halo cafe. this is the first time i saw her singing live (not counting all her past tv appearances) and dare i say, she is a thorough gem. not only could she sing like a pro, she can entertain as well. the chatty and apathetic crowd in halo cafe absolutely had no inkling that they were listening to a first-class singer. only a discerning producer like me could appreciate the immense talents and potential in her.

during the break, winnie came to my table and we started chatting. despite her maturity in her voice, at 27, she is essentially a young lass, a smart one at that. when i reached home that night, i sms-ed her with the text - "you definitely belong to the stage. it would be a crying shame if a voice like yours is buried and unexposed. there is a great population out there who will appreciate your talents. i have full confidence in you". she replied at 2am on the same night - "thanks for the words. though appreciation is hard to find nowadays, i still believe in it".

i related the whole winnie story to my senior IT sales director friend. he believes what is essential is savvy marketing to repackage the product (i.e. winnie the singer) into a world-class performer with global appeal, after all talented singers like sandy lam, a-mei, norah jones are not selling on their looks either.

the next day, my chief producer and me met up again with winnie to talk about the project in more detail. everybody is happy to start the project, so i guess project so music (PSM) is now officially started!

taiwanese indie cds have so much to offer in terms of refreshing musical contents and superb recording. some of these recordings are near audiophile quality. this month's pick is deserts (what a name!) zhang xuan's debut album, entitled "my life will...".

zhang is a regular pub singer who has a sizeable following in taiwan. her style is reminiscent of suzanne vega, the folk pop singer who plays acoustic guitar as she sings. zhang is also nominated in taiwan's golden melody award in the "best newcomer" category. she has strong chance to win this award, judging by the strength of this album.

this cd has has very good recording - airy, raw and pristine. standout tracks are track #1 and #2. i like to play track #2 (bao bei, meaning babe) repeatedly on my system; it simply sounds lovely.

hot stuff! i just got hold of the new generation of stage 3 concepts cables and one of them is magnus, the fabulous interconnect that blew me away 3 years ago. without any info from their website (which has not been updated like more than 2 years! it show how busy these people are..), i don't really know the improvements both in terms of materials used and shielding details but the new magnus looks a bit dainty and classy. the xhadow plug (see picture) is also a class act, though i still prefer my old furutech XLR plug. my old magnus is more robustly built, thicker and harder to bend.

the initial impression of the new magnus (retailing at RM7K for 1.5m) is one of great refinement, with a capital "R". my system is already very refined but the new magnus adds a new dimension to the term refinement, almost too good to be true. if i were to use an analogy, the new magnus is like a lady in her early 20s, silky smooth complexion and alluring smell.... (hmmm...let you imagination run wild a bit) and my old magnus is a lady in her early 30s, more mature and sophisticated but her complexion has seen better days...

the new magnus shows great promise but i would like to give it more time to see if it can develop the robustness of the old magnus. robustness is a key criteria in my sound, as i play a lot of pop cds. refinement is great but it shouldn't be too dainty and cultured. since it will be on long-term loan, i will be having a great time discovering this cable.

on to other developments, yes, the curtains are back! i missed the textured and emotive midrange without the curtains on. but this time, i am smarter as i have installed a full-length curtain rod with adjustable curtain coverage to "tune" the sound as i like it (see picture). the curtains not only thicken the mids and increase palpability, they also intensify the emotions of the vocalist and stablise the imaging. my experiment shows that the sound is best with the full-spread of curtains covering the back wall.

note: this article is taken from this issue of av xpress for your reading pleasure!



We dedicate this section to the hottest, best-selling and most desirable hi-fi in Malaysia for the last quarter. The accuracy of this information may be questionable as it is solely obtained from the audio grapevine and may invite arguments or debates. However, the true spirit of this article is to share the excitement and in turn, we hope to excite the local hi-fi industry. Believe it or not, we try to be impartial and are not affiliated to any particular dealer or manufacturer.

Audio Research Reference CD7 CD player

Coming from a highly respected tube amp manufacturer that does not specialize in digital playback, Audio Research Reference CD7 CD player has done extremely well since its launch. In fact it is the first digital product from Audio Research to justify the "Reference" badge.

Following the remarkable success of its reference-status sibling, the flagship Reference 3 preamplifier, the same ground-breaking technology is employed with a gain stage taken directly from the Reference 3 and it also incorporates the latest proprietary capacitor technology found only in the Reference series components.

The good news to ARC supporters is that now they can finally purchase a full-suite of Reference products (save for loudspeakers) and proudly proclaim that they have the best of everything-under-one-roof system in the ARC universe and beyond.

Audionet ART G2 CD Player

Relatively low-profile, this German audio marque has caused quite a stir in the local market recently. Audionet products are developed, produced, and distributed by Idektron GmbH, a company that has its headquarters in Bochum, Germany. When it was founded in 1994, Idektron was a spin-off of Ruhr University Bochum, one of the leading universities in Germany, and was dedicated to making medical instruments. It now makes a nearly full range of audio products.

The ART in "ART G2" stands for Aligned Resonance Transport, a proprietary technology that decouples transport unit and boards as well as the clock generator. The G2 stands for Generation 2. It is a direct-drive top loader. The transport is mounted on a suspended, 22-pound slab of granite.

If the popularity of the G2 continues to grow at this speed, it won’t be long before Audionet becomes a formidable audio brand in Malaysia.


Promitheus Audio TVC Passive Preamplifier

Nick Chua (see interview in the “Personality Profile” section), the local 26-year-old young man who builds a superb value-for-money Transformer Volume Control (TVC) passive preamplifier, did not mince his words when he admitted that “TVC sells to international markets in huge volumes through online channels”. To find out what the fuss is about, just google “TVC”.

The key strength of the TVC is its impedance matching. It allows listeners to hear greater inner detailing and micro dynamics, a more natural timbre, and greater airiness, compared to conventional passive preamps.

Competing well with products 3-4 times the price of his TVC, Nick has certainly scored a minor victory in the price/performance war for passive preamplifiers. More importantly, the Promitheus Audio TVC heralds a new era for Malaysian audio designers who have shown that they are ready to take on all challengers in the global arena.

For further discussion on Nick’s remarkable TVC, check out the humongous 150+ page thread on the Audio Circle forum.

Link: http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=31621.0

this is the meeting i had hoped for for the past 7 years - meeting my favourite local singer, winnie ho. well, i have many singers that i wanted to meet and get to know but none of which is possible except winnie.

i know why i like her. it is her voice and her stage persona. the moment she opens her vocal chord, you know this girl can sing. with style, that is.

so, finally, i got to meet her in real person.

but winnie was real sick yesterday and she could hardly speak. she could only whisper. even in that condition, she initiated the meeting.

she told me that she has no desire to record an album, unless the music touches her. she said she has high standards for her music. i told her i have high standards for my music too and i can assure her that together we can produce music that touches people's hearts. i told her that we are going to work with roger wang and possibly jamie wilson, all guitar supremos and she is visibly excited.

to further convince her. i told her that the first time i saw her in tv, during the astro talent quest, i already told myself that if i ever wanted to produce an album, i will sign her. so now 7 years after that, the time has finally come. 7-year is a long time but the wait is worth it. if that's not sincere enough a gesture, i don't know what is. winnie just nodded her head and said, "ok. i am interested but it has to be after august; i am extremely busy at the moment".

thanks winnie, hope we will have fun making the album!

av xpress issue #2 hits the newsstands today!

this has been a difficult issue not the least due to higher printing quality demands and increase in contents and thickness. rest assured, we will keep improving.

you can find it in major newsstands/newsagents/bookstores nationwide, including sabah and sarawak. please inform all your friends in other states.

you can also find it at A&L audio station at amcorp mall and music by design at city square.

we really hope you can support us because without your support, the journey will be a tough and lonely one. same goes to dealers and distributors.

it has been a rather tough choice for me to choose my ultimate recording engineer to do the audiophile album. basically, i have three maestros in mind:

1) aik-yew goh, hugo's boss (pun intended), has been so successful that no audiophile can afford not to own a cd from hugo. mr. aik, a singaporean based in hk, has recently hit the bull's eye with his LPCD series of audiophile albums, which include titles like faye wong and alam tam. although not having spoken to him, i highly doubt he has the time to work with us. but you never know. maybe i am so charming that i could persuade him for a collaboration. gotta use my charm.

2) keith yip, the boss of HK audiophile label rock-in music, has produced highly-acclaimed audiophile albums with the likes of susan wong and roxanne lui. he has agreed to do the mastering for us but not the recording. again, i need to persuade him more.

3) leo fung, audiophile guru from HK, who has also agreed to work with us.

i have high regards for mastering legend doug sax (from the mastering lab) as a mastering guru but you should check his rate - it is screamingly exorbitant!

i think the final choice will largely depend on our budget, availability of the maestros and timing.

the previous spot has now become a cosy little corner

new spot for maggie (notice the lateral openness)

bored with my current sound, coupled with some feng shui factors, i have decided to switch the position of my system to the opposite corner of my living room.

i took less than 1 hour to shift the furnitures and 20 minutes to setup my system randomly. meaning, using my previous experience, i simply plonk the maggie on spots which i think will best suit them.

lo and behold, even without proper setup, the resultant sound is much more spacious, dimensional and layered than before! bear in mind that i don't have my curtains on the "new" wall, so the mids are slightly thinner than before but what dimensionality! i would gladly trade off the thinned mids with this panaromic soundstaging!

it suddenly dawns on me that even in an the previous spot (enclosures flanked by two walls measuring 13' wide, see the 1st photo) the maggie still need more lateral space to breathe! the current soundstage is beautifully layered and well spread out. soundstaging used to be my achilles' heel in my previous spot and i just gave less priority to this aspect, not knowing that my spot is the limiting factor.

to counter the thinned mids, i use what have now become my second-nature skills in speaker positioning - pushing the maggie forward and backward in minute movement (centimeter by centimeter), to test the tonal balance. the more i push the maggie closer to the back (bare) wall, the better the mids become, yet without sacrificing much on the layering and dimensionality. i didn't test the bass response cos it was 2am in the morning!

by the 2nd night (tonight), i have gotten a fairly great sound satisfying 80% of my demands, eventho' i still haven't done my ultimate speaker positioning steps. the mids are better now, altho' still lacking the palpability and thickness of the previous setup.

i am going to experiment with wooden racks for my monoblocks in the hope to add more meat and texture to the tonal balance.

this has been a revelation! not only has my feng shui improved (now my main door is no longer blocked by hifi), my hifi also acquires a new dimension! way to go!

it is kinda funny. when you are a music and hi-fi die-hard, all your investment ideas would invariably center around this hobby. let's be clear, music and hifi business won't make your rich, that we know that from day one. neither do we want to be poor and struggling artistes that are fed on thin air - we want to develop this music and hifi business into a reasonably successful one; enough to pay our bills, fund our lifestyles and have helluva fun while doing it. that's why we started av xpress, the music label and now another new exciting project.

tonight, i met mark, an indie producer for the past 15 years. sparks flew, chemistry glued and immediately we strike on a partnership deal. we want to bring well-known chinese indie artistes from taiwan and china to perform live in malaysia. again, no one has dabbled in this biz before because it is so niche. mark himself is a seasoned concert organizer; with our combined expertise and experience, we are confident that we can make money and have a good time. that's all i can reveal at the moment.

sorry that av xpress issue #2 has been delayed till next tuesday due to printing problems. i have been extremely tough on my printer in that i want nothing less than 100% in printing quality for av xpress. i have to answer to myself and my dealers who support me. so you can expect a aesthetically pleasing and content-rich publication soon.

harry pearson (HP), the legendary hifi guru, has created many hifi jargons that have managed to describe abstract phenomenon in hifi and these jargons have widely been used by many reviewers till today. one of my favourites is "yin and yang".

after kc blogged about the mbl sound, i was curious and i went to A&L one day to listen to a full suite of mid-end mbl at play. the mbl house sound is unmistakably a "yin" sound. it is a bit dark, the highs are gentle and it does not sound the least like solid-state. it is also alluring, non-imposing, classy and refined, which reminds me a bit (not a lot) of the modern-day conrad-johnson, which is also a "yin" sound.

in contrast, the ARC and krell today are the epitome of "neutral" sound, neither "yin" nor "yang". very few brands sound "yang" these days, i can only think of many of the solid-state brands in the 80s/90s. a "yang" sound is normally in-your-face, gutsy and a bit over-the-top.

can you name me other brands which fall into either "yin" or "yang" sound?

to get an idea of what kind of mandarin pop that we want to do, watch this MTV by shunza (shun zi). shunza sings 回家 (coming home), a power ballad that is very demanding and will cripple any less-than-capable singers.

if i can get winnie ho to work with us, this is a must-sing song for her cos i know she likes shunza and she has done this song many times in the competition.

winnie, are you reading this?

click here

wherein leo describes what "pop/audiophile crossover music" genre is, the kind that So Music is trying to do....

it would be great if we could do a pure analogue album like what leo did for pete teo...

ok, we are going to call it - "So Music", which actually rhymes with "soul music", which can actually mean "so very music". for the chinese name, we will give it a twist and call it "烧音乐"(shao yin yue), which means audiophile music, which can also mean "burning the music", to indicate passion...

for the logo, i am going to use back my beloved music exchange's porcupine so well liked by many people... kind of resurrection, sort of.

yeah!

the more i delve into the project, the more i find it tough. it certainly cannot be achieved in a short time, that's why i am not putting a timeframe to it.

the good news is roger wang has agreed to work with us! he is excited by our concept and he sees the potential of this genre doing well. however, i won't use roger for all the tracks; i want variety; i want sparks flying.... they are many guitarists with supreme skills. jamie wilson is one i would consider too.

i also need to think of the album concept - it has to have commercial appeal, yet not gimmicky to frighten off genuine music lovers. for sure, i will steer clear of teresa teng or cai qin kind of stuff. i want modern chinese pop songs, sung by modern-sounding singers. most importantly, i want crossover appeal, meaning chinese music lovers can appreciate it, as well as audiophiles, even the english-educated ones.

i haven't thought a name for my music label yet. ultimately, this is not an one-off project. we wish to do many albums.

you wouldn't believe this? many of my audiophile friends are expressing interest to invest in my project!

they certainly believe in me :-)

this is going to be, to me at least, the most exciting serialized articles i have ever blogged. this audiophile cd project is brimming with excitement and challenges. i am gushing at the prospect of working with some really talented musicians and the making of a really really cool-sounding cd. you are lucky to get first-hand information in this blog :-)

in just two days, i have found a suitable producer, found my choice singers (regine and winnie ) and got in touch via email with leo fung, the charismatic hifi guru from HK. for the younger audiophiles among you, leo fung was the ultimate guru back in those flourishing days of hifi in late 80s/early 90s. leo has produced a couple of stunning drum works which have become best-sellers. more about leo's involvement in my later posts.

two of my friends, kc and ian, have already given their unequivocal vote of confidence for the two fabulous singers we shortlisted. regine, currently a recording artiste, has a sweet voice that can charm the birds out of the trees and make grown men cry, whereas my fave ms. winnie ho has the power and versatility that allow her to handle any song with finesse and class. malaysian audiopiles will be lucky to be the first batch of audiophiles to listen to their fantastic voices later.

plenty of work ahead. first, i am not sure what kind of musical style i want the singers to adopt. most "economical" way is to do what roger wang and mia palencia do with double take - a simple voice and a guitar. but this demands great artistry in arrangement and singer's capability to captivate lest it becomes bland and one-dimensional. but admittedly, it is also the easiest to record. i may want to do a jazz ensemble but that will be overly ambitious considering our modest budget and the musicians available locally.

as to the recording studio, i will leave it to my producer, jin liang. my last resort is to use roger's RAM studio in kk. roger's studio has been known to produce very warm and atmospheric sound. i am also considering asking keith yip (the HK head honcho of rock-in music label, which produces luminary works like susan wong) to do the recording for us but it would cost a bit considering that he is based in HK. most likely, i will let leo will do the mastering, provided he agrees.

next comes the song selections. i will have some say, together with my producer and the singers. winnie hasn't officially agreed to work on our project. i will be meeting up with her next week.

i guess that most exciting part for me is to see my fave singers flexing their vocal muscles in the recording studio. these are moments to-die-for.

the marketing of this album will also be interesting. i haven't really done up my marketing plan yet. i may look for some dealers to sponsor the album.

my producer will be away next month, leaving me alone to plan most of the work.

exciting times ahead; my adrenalin is charging.

and av xpress is coming out next week!

this is exciting - hunting down a stranger!

within one hour, i tracked down winnie ho, my dream singer for my project, with what else - google!

apparently, winnie has graduated from UK and guess what? you wouldn't believe this - she is staying in bandar utama!

am i dreaming or what?

this is incredible.

pure, understated and a thorough gem...winnie ho

as soon as i finished blogging the post on elisa chan, i got mighty inspired and i took the first step to realize my burning ambition to produce an audiophile cd, possibly malaysia's first... i took up my phone and started calling...i spoke to one of the top chinese pop producers in malaysia and he is interested too....

but i need one singer to realize this album. she is very special to me. i am starting a hunt for her now. rumors has it that she is now studying music in UK...

winnie ho (何芸妮), the winner of astro talent quest (ATQ) 2000, is to me the best singer that the local chinese pop music scene has seen in the last decade. possessing a superstar stage persona and a delicate and yet powerful vocals, winnie never fails to thrill me everytime i hear her sing. after winning ATQ, winnie didn't pursue what is predicted of her - becoming a recording artiste. instead, she prefers to lead a less glamourous life of a piano teacher. she has never really stepped into the entertainment scene but yet people remember and cherish her. one might wonder why, with the vocal prowess of winnie, does she still need training.

winnie's voice has a way to penetrate into your innermost soul and stay there....i am deeply touched by such an ethereal and soulful voice which always manages to caress my soul, a jaded one that is a result of being bombarded by all those trashy mandopop and cantopop in the market.

winnie, you are my chosen one. please, let me get in touch with you.

gosh! it shows how long i haven't been in touch with mia palencia (she of the double take fame)! she had released her first malay single in september last year!

it sounds great to me. very ethereal; very unlike malay song. you can take a listen at:
http://www.miapalencia.com/pages/music.aspx#lyrics

better buy it before i get scolded by her for not supporting local artistes!

elisa (chan kit ling) had a memorable duet with leslie cheung in the early 80s. herself a diva of sorts, it has been a long while since she released a commercial cd.

i am asking my fellow blogger here to hunt it down in tiny dot.

i used to have this brilliant idea of starting a recording label that specializes in audiophile recordings for over-the-prime singers (elisa being one). i actually got started, i don't mind telling you here. i wanted to do an audiophile cover version of local diva sheila majid's songs and give it a jazzy, bossa arrangement. i engaged a very talented local producer, hardesh singh and the project did kick off well. we shortlisted some good local singers. but half way we found out that royalty for sheila's songs is way to high for us to stomach and WEA (warner) is too slow in responding to our requests for licensing permit. so the project was stalled and that was that. that was my closest bid to fame and fortune :-)

deep inside me, i wanted to own a recording label, never mind whether it is audiophile recordings or not. so please don't be suprised if i make it happen within the next couple of years. those who know me know that i am a creator. i can make things happen.

back to elisa's album, the cover is cool, isn't it?

How many times have you achieved that perfect balance? How many times have you achieved it, gone itchy and broken every balance you strived to achieve? What does it feels like to have such balance achieved, you may ask.

The answer is simple, you tend to buy a whole lot more CDs and brush away most, if not all of the time the urge to upgrade. That lasted me for 3 years and I kept on buying CDs and cherished every single moment I had with my setup. Over my many trips to HK, I was greeted with so many opportunities to get good bargains, but most of the time, I ended up lugging CDs back home. There was once I had to acquire an additional huge backpack just to bring my CDs back!

Then bonus day came and I started to get itchy with crazy thoughts running thru my mind. And so went the AQ DBS Panther, Harmonic Tech Magic Link interconnects and my lovely ProAc Reference 8. Then came AQ DBS Cheetah and ProAc Reference 8 Signature. A happy new family you may think but it proved otherwise!

This actually brought almost a halt to my musical enjoyment as I was trying and trying and trying to get that balance again. That brink point where you have ultimate resolution and yet still effortless in conveying intimacy, where a wee bit more would topple the whole thing and send you fleeing with bleeding ears.

Tremendous effort was put into getting that final balance. From sending the full family to medical checkup in our friendly neighborhood Oh Clinic, changing cables, switching sources to silly speaker placements. Nothing could get me that last drip of refinement. The sibilance just stuck out like a sore thumb, stubbornly refused to go away!

How I wish I could have an invisible acoustic sandpaper to just sand that away! My highs were gloriously beautiful; my lows were good given the sizes of the speakers and room; my mids were seductively communicative. Indeed, the setup handled audiophile approved CDs with aplomb. But it failed miserably with pop CDs, a trait I held in pride previously and was now gone.

This lasted until yesterday when I found my ultimate fix, working in such minute precision where more would kill the sound and less would render the fix useless. Personally, I hate to use cones and spikes below rigs. Many have got that hardening effects that might make you think you are getting more resolutions. Yes, the outlines of imaging snap in better focus but the musical flow would be hindered with strangulating results.

I am sure many have heard about the Qi Cones, but I think I am one of the last few knowing it due to my ignorance to cones. I met Mr. Go the second week in SG, starting anew and without much to do. It was a casual outing and before I knew it, I was invited to his little music abode and discovered all these little cones with crystals lying around. That was how I got to know he was indeed the creator of Qi Cones.

After a couple of chats and meet ups, I suggested that I would like to have a go with his Qi Cones. These cones were not those crystal ones, but were meant for speakers with flat rounded tip. Heck, I’ll let the pictures describe the shape to you. So I was back in town and Mr. Go too was in town fixing, coincidently, my cousin’s setup. Or rather, got my cousin kick started.

So we met up and I was anticipating eagerly the cones! Upon close inspections, they felt so much like Shun Mook, albeit with rougher finishing and lighter in weight. Who cares about cosmetic when all it matters was whether it works or not!

Quickly, I removed all the silly stuff you wouldn’t want to know that I put between the speakers and the stands’ base plates. At first, I put them all pointing up with 2 behind and 1 in front. Upon initial listening, there was a slight tame down in the sibilance but not enough! So I switched the front ones pointing downwards, and further taming down happened! Being a gifted audiophile, I sort of got the drift. I switched the inner ones behind pointing downwards and the same results greeted me! So I switched all pointing downwards and voila, great resolution with no strangulating effects!

I stressed great importance in having ultimate transparency and effortlessness in emotional conveyance, too. Going without the cones, my setup was transparent. However, the balance was easily toppled with lesser pop CDs, piercing the ears with hardened sibilance. With the cones, it imbued certain darkness to the tops as well as the overall tones. It might be the added heft/richness in the lower regions or the slight attenuation from the extreme tops that caused such observation. But the most magical moment was when I was able to regain my splendid mids.

The once emotional liquidity and seducing wetness were all flowing effortlessly again. This was imperative to have to enjoy all my female pop divas’ CDs! With such short time, I quickly ran thru some familiar tracks and was smiling in approval. I was so glad that I am back on track again, to be able to not play only audiophile CDs, but really listen to what I like most. I don’t have to keep an audiophile approved setup with limited listening choices anymore!

For me, great sound was about how fast and effortless the energy was released/dissipated/emancipated from the speakers, the freedom of energy FLOW. Musical flow to be exact, failing so would get you a dull and lethargic sound. The cones passed with flying colors with no hindrance to the flow of musical energy. There’s neither hardening of outlines nor strangulating effects.

With just 1.5 hours on tap before my departure to SG, these were what I could observe. Bear in mind that these were in minute proportions and it was exactly the last ounce that perfectionists would crack their head for. If we have to, we would kill!

So, was there any ill-full effect on the overall sound? Frankly speaking, with just 1.5 hours on tap and focusing on the sibilance issue, I ain’t so sure yet. With speakers of this size, bass is still not one of my fortes. However, the observed added mid region richness/slight attenuation at the extreme top would definitely have to be investigated further. Although we are talking about minute variations, this could render certain opacity to the overall transparency.

To round up this initial impression, I have to say that the cones acted like mechanical switches where the tip was the direction where the energy was being dissipated, allowing only a one way channel to get rid of ailing vibration. It worked wonderfully, but I have to listen further to have a better gauge. As of now, it fixed my problem and I am happy!

Oh, I think Mr. Go is going to have his version of cable risers later! You have Shun Mook, we have Go Mook, which deserves worldwide exposures me think!