i read that visitors to this year's CES were all stricken by one stark realization - that today's high-end is losing its perspective with regard to pricing. when you call an item with a price tag of USD10,000 as "mid-priced", you know the manufacturer has completely lost touch with reality. i mean, RM40,000 can almost get you a MyVi and for some mid-level executives, it is equivalent to their annual salary.

while there are enough budget gear to entice the newbies, it’s the gear in the middle, the gear that those budding audiophiles will aspire to move up to when they’ve outgrown the entry-level stuff that got them hooked to begin with, that’s sadly in short supply. incidentally, mr. ling's of tong lee has echoed this sentiment to me last week, that's why he is bringing in more mid-fi stuff to his shop.

back to the subject, with rising material and labour costs in the US and other european countries, which manufacturer really has the know-how, capacity and ability to cater to this critical segment of the market? china? not really. you will be shocked at how they price shanling these days. not all MIC stuff are cheap!

i feel that to do mid-fi stuff successfully, you need a radical approach that is going to change the paradigm of how mid-fi is being engineered and manufactured. i think you know what i am thinking, you smart readers.

who's in better position than steve job and co? who has better credentials and capacity to revolutionize this (mid-fi) other than apple computers?

if apple were to take up this challenge then we audiophiles are promised a bright future. i could envision music servers that have superb UI (user interface) much like iPhone - one could flip the virtual album covers when selecting songs; one could, by using fingers' movement, enlarge and reduce the album cover, rotate the viewing angle , and many other cool features that's unheard of in traditional two-channel audio.

the price would be less than RM5K. executives or fresh graduates aged 22 and above could save up two months' salaries and afford it. they may not even need to buy expensive interconnects or speaker cables, or power conditioners. and what's most importantly is - the sound is truly mid-fi!

all these are not make-belief or fantasy. with apple's track record and its "mover and shaker" reputation, this vision is palpably real.

the only question left is, of course, whether apple sees money in the hifi industry.

I always feel like somebody's watching me
And I have no privacy, whoa-oa-oa
I always feel like somebody's watching me
Tell me, is it just a dream
I always feel like somebody's watching me
And I have no privacy, whoa-oa-oa
I always feel like somebody's watching me
Who's playing tricks on me?

hands up those who remember this song, "somebody watching me" by 80s' singer rockwell? it was such a hit, wasn't it?

seriously, somebody is watching me.

i am not sure whether to feel flattered or worried, as some of the dealers who shunned me in the past, have started taking a look at my blog. some of their customers are also checking if i write defamatory remarks about the dealers.

i am so scared.

now they are reading ;-)

CRL's Audition Policy

Listen before you buy. We'll gladly send you demo cables in our standard length to experience with your home audio system.

* Audition for up to 14 days
* Return cables by the return due date
* You pay a 10% deposit of the product's price
* Deposit charged to your credit card
* Returning borrowers pay a 5% deposit

It's your choice. We'll either refund your deposit or deduct the full amount of your deposit from your future purchase. Borrower pays for all UPS shipping expenses. Sorry, we can only make this offer to U.S. residents. Contact us to order demo cables.

CRL's Upgrade Policy

You may exchange your interconnects or speaker cables within 12 months and upgrade to the next level. Copper Series owners can trade-up to the Silver Series or Gold Series. Silver Series owners can trade-up to the Gold Series. Simply contact us to arrange for an upgrade.

Once we receive your returned cables, in their original condition, we'll apply 100% of your previous purchase price towards your choice of higher priced cables of equal length or longer. Buyer pays for all UPS shipping expenses. Policy excludes power cords.

CRL (cable research lab), a cable manufacturer from US, is offering audiophiles the ability to audition their products and upgrade their existing CRL cables through the above mentioned two new policies.

tell me if i am hallucinating. is this a marketing gimmick (to hard-sell the products and outdo the competitors) or a sincere gesture on the part of the manufacturer? also tell me if these policies can work in the malaysian context.

and i will use all my charm to persuade my dealers to offer the same service to you all ;-)

[click to enlarge]


when it comes to mini monitors that can kick ass, there are only a couple of names in my mind - acoustic energy, totem and platinum (by phil jones, who is now with AAD or has he left too?). sadly, all these happened in the 80-90s, today's mini monitors are more homogenized (and character-less, so to speak) as they have to be a complete offering - beguiling midrange, stratospheric highs and kick-ass bass.

but some manufacturers like AE believes that an old formula given a new treatment would still be relevant and be able to entice the new generation of audiophiles. when the AE1 stopped its production in the late 90s, many mourned its demise. time may move on but the classic principles that made AE1 such a hot property in the 1990s don't change overnight. here comes AE1 classic!

the original AE1 was revolutionary in that it was the first professional monitor to use a ceramic sandwich aluminium cone, the first to increase power handling by using the cone as a heat-sink, the first to incorporate a metal dome tweeter, and the first to demonstrate to the world that even a mini monitor can seriously kick-ass.

AE1 driver is known to offer generous power handling and suffers minimal compression. AE1 is also famous for its composite-lined cabinet rigidity. have your had the experience to carry the AE1 by hands? ;-)

all these and more are retained in the new AE1 classic.

AE has decided to bring back its long-time classic, are you ready to bring back your memories of the most powerful nearfield monitor in the 90s?

to find out, visit hi-way laser in ss2:

Hi-WAY LASER ELECTRONICS SDN BHD
11A, JALAN SS2/75,
47300 PETALING JAYA
MALAYSIA
+603.7873.8325
+6019.281.3399 (kenny sin)
http://www.hiwaylaser.com (map inside)

master ken suggested to use double dosage of mpingo disc on my curtain - by sticking one on top of the edge of the other using bluetak and the result is very drastic - even more concentrated vocalist's mouth, a warmer and more analogue sound but at the expense of some airiness in the highs.

while i like the fact that i get much more focus on the mouth, i am not quite sure if i like a slight loss of air in the high-end.

this SM thing is dangerous, don't pray pray ;-)

marten bird - a star performer that can fly high

issue 229 of taiwan's audio art magazine gives a resounding rave to marten bird, rewarding it with a sonic score of 99/100. trust me, the is definitely not reviewer's hyperbole.

indeed, i could share the excitement with the reviewer, having listened to martin miles twice during the CNY.

enjoying great success worldwide, even in malaysia and singapore, marten, now without the word "design" (i.e. no longer called marten design) builds the bird by building upon experience directly derived from the award winning coltrane and coltrane supreme. the materials and components employed in the bird stretch from traditional high gloss veneer on bird’s 26mm MDF cabinet, to the newly developed ceramic midrange, the ceramic woofer drivers and the ultra modern diamond tweeter.

to me, marten's signature sound is unmistakable - lively, explosive, ultra faithful and plenty of details, details and details. if you are looking for the warmth and thickness of ATC, please look elsewhere. marten's sound is modern and shockingly direct.

of particular interest to me is how the reviewer mentioned the details in the backstage of the soundstage where a lot of speakers fail to reveal but in the case of marten bird, there are just so much more sonic cues and finer details in backstage that lend realism to the whole musical soundscape. i fully concur with the reviewer as this is my experience with the lower-ranked marten miles as well.

the coolest statement from the review is in the ending segment where the reviewer coined the phrase - "heaven is in the details".

[local dealers]
KL - audiomatic (012-3222698)
IPOH - audio art (012-5201066)

note: the only pair of marten bird in malaysia is sold to an audiophile in kampar, perak.

balanced neutrality (BN), a revered name in the cut-throat hifi business, is going to launch their GE2008 reference mono power tube amp next month, said to be the most controversial product in the history of the company as it uses a specially made output transformer that would eliminate corrupted power supply as in the past.

2007 has not been a good year for BN. two of their premier products, the ATAN MONGOL Reference 3 preamp (designed and engineered by its deputy designer, najee) and the LINGAM stereo power amp both didn't fair very well with the reviewers, with some calling it a "total disgrace" to such a reputable brand. worldwide sales tumbled and chief designer and founder, andrew andy bladedius (AAB) is said to have been instructed by the shareholders to "make or break" with the new GE2008 reference mono. obviously, AAB's head is on the chopping board if GE2008 fails to bring in the sales.

traditionally, the strength of BN products has always been its balanced power supply , allowing a fair and just distribution of power through what AAB called the NEP (New Equal Power) technology first initiated by its predecessor. but poor and substandard materials used in the output transformer has resulted in badly corrupted power supply that has resulted in mediocre sound that subsequently tarnished BN's reputation as a premier manufacturer of hi-end hifi.

connecting the 50kg behemoth GE2008 is not straight-forward as you may need to use some grease to lubricate the amp's output taps which is very tight to unscrew - 4 ohm, 8 ohm, 16 ohm depending on your speaker's impedance. once the grease is applied, eveything is smooth as a breeze, which is typical of BN's gear in the past.

sound-wise the 200-watter GE2008 is loud but ultimately lacking true power and finesse. it is like an empty vessel that makes the most noise. the noise floor is not clean and imaging is blur, blur and blur. but soundstaging is impressive, indicating the kind of investment BN dumped into the GE2008 to create a 3-Dimensional stage that is truly panaromic and breath-taking. but detractors could argue that this kind of gigantic soundstage can be a tad artificial and larger-than-life.

in short, i am far from impressed as the GE2008's sound is, at best, compromised due to the uneven mixture of gold, silver and copper wirings inside the amp. the 60% gold is said to create a dense but very lazy sound, while the 25% silver gives agile bass and great highs but just not enough of percentage, whereas the 15% copper composition is robust-sounding but insignificant to give its own signature sound.

as i write this review, fierce competitor, dynamic active power (DAP), is also planning to release it own version of GE2008 ref mono, giving BN a run of its money. DAP's implementation is vastly different from BN's in terms of transformer topology. DAP's advocates regenerative power supply (ROCKET) to give a clean and corruption-free supply to the 8 units of 2020 power tubes. pundits think it is the best time for DAP to snatch back the pie from BN.

in conclusion, BN's GE2008 is only an empty promise. it is glamorous but ultimately unfulfilling sonically. we at desirable audio predict the downfall of AAB as the chief designer.

opera consonance cyber-211 mono amp

opera consonance cyber-100s signature 300b amp

mr. ling of tong lee, located at plaze low yat, is one who believes that hifi shouldn't be an expensive hobby. he feels that the market lacks mid-end products, or mid-hi as we call it, the kind with price below RM5K.

to fill the vacuum, ling brings in many affordable brands that are high in value but low in cost and great in sound. brands like ASL (antique sound lab, the one whose "hurricane" model that sold like hotcakes after HP's endorsed it), project turntable, soundstage tube amp (starting from RM999!), opera consonance, CEC cdp are gear that won't dig a hole into your pocket. as a result, tong lee is supported by many frugal but discerning audiophiles. of course, ling's and jenny's (ling's wife) down-to-earth approach to the business has a lot to do with tong lee's success and longevity in the business.

ling is particular proud of the opera consonance range of amplication and cd player. (remember the droplet cd player that looks so sexy and desirable?) opera audio from china has been manufacturing tube amplifiers for 14 years now. opera's philosophy for hifi is "simple, human", which refers to the revelation of the original spirit and artistic content of music.

featured here are two of tong lee's bestsellers - the cyber-211 single-ended class A mono power amplifier and the cyber-100S signature 300B power amp. the cyber 211 in particular has won the 2007 Blue Moon Award in 6moons.com.

it is true that when it comes to tube amps from china, audiophiles are spoilt for choice but judging from the worldwide recognition for the brand, opera consonance is definitely no pushover.

if you were looking for a single-ended amp, or for that matter, any mid-range product, a visit to tong lee is called for.

also, i can't tell you enough just how nice and friendly jenny is. she is the kind who can remember your name forever once you step into her shop.

oh, tong lee is also the dealer for shun mook, conrad johhson and transparent cables and power conditioners.

Manager: Ling Wen Ang (012-5202988)
G19 &21, Ground Floor,
Plaza Low Yat
Off jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 KL
Tel: 03-21414366

hifi+, a truly "honest" magazine

i can't remember when but i have stopped reading hifi reviews altogether, except for the occasional reference check where i need to do research on my upgrade. even then, i only read from reputable reviewers, and i can count all of them within my 5 fingers.

i still buy hifi magazines, namely taiwan's audio art (for their audio pornography, i mean the sensuous photography) and america's TAS (for RH and HP, and to a small extent, jonathan valin) but my interest is mainly on their think pieces, i mean those intellectually simulating articles on topics like market trends, new technology, breakthru state-of-the-art products etc etc.

i frown everytime i read cliche statements or raves like "a reference product if ever there was one", "the best for under USDX grand", "standard by which audio components must be judged". i am not doubting the reviewer's honesty but i just feel that they are seriously short of vocabulary. i remember those days of harry pearson (reminiscing again, we old folks), he who single-handedly created new vocab for hifi reviewing. words like "chocolatety", "whitish grain", "gestalt", "yin and yang" are irresistably sexy, fun and accurate at the same time to describe sonics attributes.

i think it is very hard for new-generation reviewers to gain the fame like HP, RH, JA (john atkinson), MC (martin colloms), RG (roy gregory) and KK (ken kesslers) in the past. there is just too much BS going on in the hifi publication biz that reviews are no longer trustworhty and reliable.

more importantly, once an audiophile reaches a certain maturity, he doesn't need reviews to decide or validate his next purchase. a great review serves merely to reaffirm his wise decision.

roger wang - the outstanding young person of sabah award

first of all, belated congrats to our guitar man, roger wang. the junior chamber international kota kinabalu named roger wang "the outstanding young person of sabah" (TOYPS) for the cultural & artistic achievement category at a grand gala dinner on September 9, 2007.

TOYPS is a prestigious award organised by the JCI to recognise young Sabahan and Malaysian individuals in Sabah who have dedicated themselves to the progress or welfare of the community at large. These individuals have excelled in their field of profession, practice and endeavour and while some are known by the public, others have worked in obscurity making them unsung heroes of their field.

2V1G recording resumes today, after many intermittent breaks. there were times when i felt my passion for this project has dwindled somewhat due to the long delay (it was expected to be out this month, even roger's official website has made that announcement!).

but it isn't the case when i stepped into the recording studio again to lend support to winnie ho, who is doing her solo today. singing her signature and award-winning song, coming home (hui jia), the highly emotive tune, coupled with winnie's great voice and roger's excellent guitar, manage once again to induce some goose bumps in me. yes, it is the same passion that got us started on this project. it is always there; it would never diminish. the project has started well and it must end well.

the grapevine is already abuzz with news that there is a new album coming out from regine tai and winnie ho. well, it won't move the earth but for those who really care about good music, this album is definitely worth waiting for.

one of the best selling cantopop albums in the history - "the origins of love" - being remade, re-arranged and re-recorded by the original singer no less. bulging tummy notwithstanding, is alan tam as good as 20 years ago? is the recording worth shouting about?

as usual, you will be the first lucky one in malaysia to find out in this blog in two weeks' time ;-)

a reader left the following comment on the post on shun mook:

How can one be sure how big a vocalist's mouth should be? It cannot be that it always has to be 50sen big right? Because I would think it would depend on how the recording was made. If a system always portray a vocalist mouth as 50sen size, is that not colouration/distortion already?

i guess by now a lot of our caucasian readers would be puzzled as to why we asian audiophiles are fixated on the vocalist's mouth.

asian audiophiles place a lot of emphasis in the palpability department - they want to "see" the singer. the vocalist's mouth, is therefore a manifestation of palpability and presence. we are no longer arguing on whether it is true to source, because asian audiophiles believe that hifi should have the illusionary artifact that fools the listeners into believing the singer is really there, standing and singing for them, never mind if in the first place the singer is singing in the studio. asian audiophiles derive plenty of fun in tweaking the vocalist's mouth!

you are right, not all the time you can get a 50 sen's size. in fact, sometimes, the vocalist can be slightly in front or slight in the back, depending on the recording. the 50 sen is only a general guideline that applies in 80% of the cases.

some asian audiophiles (including some "sifu" that i know) can go to the extreme in tweaking the vocalist's mouth until it becomes so pin-point that it protrudes in a 3-dimensional sense. this normally requires the application of cones (underneath the cd player, preamp). i personally don't go to this extreme as i don't like cones as they will thin the tone and upset my tonal balance.

my preferred vocalist's mouth is slightly natural/fuzzy in outline but still, it is very palpable and no bigger than a 50 sen coin in size.

here's the final verdict... let's make this a teaser :-)

for more details, please read this issue's av xpress ;-) the article will delve on the strengths and weaknesses of richard gray, shunyata hrdra and the ppp.

coming in 2 weeks' time, i am bracing myself for another stormy and sweat-inducing shoot-out....

is kubala-sosna worth the accolades?

i have been thinking long and hard on how to install a very effective spotlighting system in my hifi hall, one that can spotlight the stage and enhance the vocalist's presence. after seeing how some of my friends implemented their own spotlighting system, i wasn't quite impressed. instead, i came up with my own implementation and i have ikea to thank for providing a wonderful range of spotlights.

look at my centre stage! with the standing wall light, it mimics the microphone stand and it illuminates the all-important vocalist's mouth with a halo effect.

the other two spotlights are meant to lit up the left and right spots just behind my maggie.

the overall effect is stunning, especially at night time. spooky realism!

this is psychoacoustics at its best :-)

roger wang is anxious about our out-of-this-world (gross exaggeration, actually) audiophile album. i told him that it has been delayed for 3 months due to some complex circumstances but we should be ready in may 2008. so readers who are interested, thanks for your patience.

at the same time, our guitar man recommends me to listen to gina panizales' debut album "finally" which is recorded, mixed and mastered by him. owners of double take's debut album should know how great an engineer roger is. roger is impressed with gina's voice. "very powerful", he asserted.

i am asking him to send me a complimentary copy so that i could review it.

extract from all dat jazz (www.alldatjazz.com)

Gina Panizales, Born and raised in Iloilo City, Philippines, her parents suggested a career for her far removed from singing that of an accountant. Gina took a degree in Commerce major in Accounting, took an administrative job in an office, but eventually found her naturally gifted voice leading her to do part time singing. It didn't take long before she knew it was her calling and joined a band leaving for Malaysia. Then there was no turning back.

She first performed in Kuala Lumpur, then Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta and has traveled to South America, Australia, UK, Turkey both to perform and watch other concerts/performances. One of her cherished moments was performing live at the Cotton Club in New York (a famous Jazz club since the 1930s that still exists in Harlem) with a 16-piece swing band.

[click to enlarge]

the last few posts have been heavy going, let's chill and grin to our cartoonist's latest poke on audiophiles....

presenting the very sexy black-fascia ppp.... finally making its debut in this blog after so much NATO (no action, talk only).

i may be the first one in malaysia who knows how to use the ppp correctly. why i say so? not many users know that ppp is catered to 230v and to set it to an output voltage of 240v, you need to adjust the trimpot hidden underneath the ppp! (note: it is not documented in the manual!) even the local dealer (A&L) is not aware of that! i found out this after a speedy email communication with paul mcgowan. the difference between feeding 230v VS 240v to your equipment is day and night. 230v sounds lethargic whereas 240v is full of life! i wonder how many users in malaysia have been eluded by this. another good deed from me! i am going to ask atven (A&L's boss) to buy me lunch tomorrow ;-)

first impression - after 5 hours of breaking-in, the ppp has the edge in energy, boldness (in the typical american fashion), scale, quietness and cleanness but on the down side, it is tonally bland, a bit too sober, less sexy and rather anti-septic in presentation, compared to the tonally rich, sexy and colorful shunyata hydra. i will let it cook for 50 hours before any serious listening...

in the next 2 weeks, i am going to try the following permutations:

[1] stand-alone ppp
[2] shunyata hydra front-end; ppp back-end
[3] ppp front-end; shunyata hydra back-end

this promises to be the battle of the century! this kind of earth-shattering, life-altering battle is what makes hifi so fun and addictive!

stay closely tuned!

previously, i have my reasons not to loan the premier power plant (ppp) from the dealer. please forgive my reluctance to try on the ppp and for owing you a review on it.

the electricity was bad for the whole day yesterday. even at 1 am in the morning, i couldn't get back my sound. with much deliberation and frustration, i have no choice but to bite the bullet and bring back one ppp to see if it can solve my power problem once and for all.

ladies and gentlemen, please await the finale of my power struggle. we will settle once and for all the issue of whether ps audio audio can solve the perennial problem of bad electricity in malaysia, an area where richard gray and shunyata hydra have no answer to.

the great mystery is soon to be unveiled.

guan tan, kk, me and master ken

today was a gloomy day for master ken and i. we are the hosts for two returning malaysian audiophiles from HK.

four of us met up for CNY lunch in 1-utama, followed by two separate listening sessions. what was expected to be a great aural session turned out to be grossly disappointing one as TNB (local power company) was acting up again. murphy's law strikes at the most inappropriate time. the electricity was awful this afternoon.

as a host, i normally don't pay much attention to the music as i handle the job of selecting which cds to play. but facial expressions from my guests from HK told me that they were not impressed at all. in fact, i started to sense something amiss when my guest played the "jazz at the pawnshop" cd. as you know, this is a very analogue sounding cd. but in my system today, it sounded awfully digital. my two guests were too polite to comment on my system so they chose to remain silent. i took over the listening spot, moments before they started to leave, and my god! the sound was thin and shrilly. it happens to me again and again, every time i conduct demo to my guests. the vagaries of electricity, sigh!

so there you go, demo blues that dent the ego of the host. i was baffled as to why TNB's supply was bad this afternoon. perhaps a lot of people have not started work and stayed at home?

we left for master ken's house. lightning strikes twice on the same day. his sound was equally pathetic - thin and hollow. i was too embarrassed to even hint to ken. i switched to reading the newspapers. ken looked apologetic but didn't know what happen to his system except that TNB did some electrical work to his apartment earlier in the morning.

at roughly one hour after he switched on his system, the sound came alive, much to our surprise. apparently, the locally-made powertrans was off the whole morning and it needed some time to warm up. can any demo be worse-timed than this?


but master ken was raving non-stop on teddy robin's audiophile CD as it kicks plenty of ass with his ATC. he blasted the volume way past 11 o'clock on his ARC LS5 preamp and i could see him reaching instant orgasm aurally. i have told you readers that this cd needs to be played on a 300-watter solid state system with dynamic cone speaker and ken's system is exactly what the doctor ordered. the midbass of the ATC has plenty of torque and swing; it was so fun to play at excessively loud volume.

we then discussed about different kind of bass and the importance of having good bass. ken likes my maggie's bass cos he thinks the bass is very tactile, tuneful and goes very low, the only shortfall being the midbass, which is traditionally never the maggie's strenghts. on the other hand, the ATC's has plenty of midbass torque but it is not as tuneful nor tactile as the maggie's bass. it is amazing that we could agree on something so politically conflicting. great minds think alike or fools seldom differ? ;-)

i lamented to ken that my HK guests didn't manage to listen to my system in its normal condition and instead they ended up getting a negative impression. ken consoled me in his typical no-nonsense style, "at least, i knew how good your system can sound cos i have heard it just 2 weeks ago", he said matter-of-factly.

that statement from ken is enough to made my otherwise gloomy day into a day full of renewed hopes.

one day, i am going to document the do's and dont's of conducting demo to your friends and you all better heed my advice ;-)