this time of the year, every year, i will always dig out my treasured cantate domino cd and play the "silent night" track on my system, at the same time, appreciate how great the ambience of the hall where the recording took place , how great the layering of the choir and believe it or not, at one stage of my hifi journey, i even started counting the number of members in the choir ;-) (disclaimer: don't do that if you don't have the resolution and detail, hehe)

but this year, it is different. the past 5 weeks have really been "silent nights" ever since my ARC preamp gets admitted to ICU due to a power supply problem. i haven't got a clue when it can be fixed. my house has been so queit without music, even my neighbours find it strange that the "nightly ritual" is gone for more than a good month.

during this period of "silent nights", i have been spending my time on other important things in my life, like earning more money (and saving it up), catching up with friends, soul-searching and planning for 2009. it allows me to realize that hifi is not the be-all-n-end-all of my life, eventho' i greatly miss my system, especially the problem came at a time when it was performing at its peak.

i am so glad that i have panzer and hifikaki to anchor this blog while i am "inactive". they are great writers that can give different facets to this blog.

the world is in turmoil now and i am ever grateful that i have a stable job and many fun hobbies that can bring me side income. i wish that you readers treasure the things around you - your family, your jobs, your friends, your beloved ones and even your hifi cos you don't know how bad it can get once they are out of your life.

i wish you a merry x'mas and a happy new year. i will be back.

See how close the battery pack is to the RCA plugs?

This came from a fellow reader whom also uses an AQ Colorado 72V DBS, just like me. He noticed that the distance between the RCA/XLR plug and the DBS battery box does influence the sound somewhat and can be used as a final system fine tune. This tweak applies to any AQ interconnects with DBS new or older models, ranging from an AQ Jaguar with 12V DBS to the Sky with 72V DBS system.

Note the plug at where the DBS lead is connected to, via a pin connector to the battery box. The said lead could be anywhere between one to two inches long, depending on the age and model of your AQ DBS interconnect. Apparently, if you move the DBS battery box closer to the RCA/XLR plug, you should get a more well rounded, natural and organic sound. Move the battery box further away, and the sound becomes a little more focused, but does add a little edge to the outline of the imaging properties.


In my already somewhat tonally warmer balanced system, I preferred the latter qualities. However two other people I shared this tip with said they preferred to keep the battery box as close to the RCA/XLR plugs as possible. I think what ever the outcome, at the very least, you have another fine tuning option that doesn't cost a penny! The usual caveat applies, YMMV.


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This is a follow-up on the blog entry I posted a day ago on the little 'quantum tuning' black box from Happy Audio Visual.

A couple more days of listening to this 'quantum' box does not change my perception of its performance, it continues to be effective during night time at my place. I really love the way it freed my system from the effect of bad AC. A listening session each in the morning and in the afternoon also confirmed that its effect was not so pronounced at these time though there were still minor improvements, probably the Shunyata Hydra 8 could do the job appropriately and the AC quality wasn't so bad to start with.

As I am rather smitten by its performance, I made a call to the distributor, Mr. B.T. Gooi of Happy Audio Visual in Penang to find out more. Mr. Gooi turned out to be quite an affable guy. He confirmed that the unit is locally designed and made to his specifications by some electronics company in Penang (Penang has the reputation as the silicone valley of Malaysia). The price set is RM1,400/unit nett. Any out-of-towner who is interested may either call him (+60 4 2260179 or +60 12 4703365) or email him at btgooi@streamyx.com. You can also find the link to Happy Audio Video's website on the right hand side of this page.

He also offered a few tips on the unit's usage. He said that the unit should be placed on the floor and in front of your equipment, not on the equipment rack and not at the back. This way, it would give the best bass performance and the most balanced sound. These sounded rather tweaky to me but I did try it out, and I preferred the unit placed on the floor as he suggested, the sound was more solid and denser this way.

He also told me that to get the maximum effect, 4 units of the 'quantum tuning' device should be used (gulp!), the sound quality would be transformed, according to him. Naturally I would like to take him up on this. Let's see whether we can do a follow-up later when he has more units to spare.

I'd recommend anyone who suffers from bad AC to check this little black box out.


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some singers are destined for greatest but because of certain factors like age and luck, they couldn't make it in the commercial pop scene. it is then for some really sharp-eyed producers to pick them up and make them into audiophile singers. i have been waiting for years for bondy chiu hock-e (赵学而) to release an audiophile album. my wish has come true. i believe i am the first one to pick up this album.

this has the making of the best canto audiophile album of 2008. you can throw away your mimo lo, susan wong, le mon and all those canto singers in the past.

review to come.

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Maggielurva passed me a little black box, he told me it is locally made and the distributor was showing great enthusiasm for it (but of course :-) ).


The black case is rather sturdily made. It has no connection except an IEC connector. There is a switch at the back and a little blue pilot light at the front. Those are all the things you can do and look at. From this description, I think many of you would have clued on the fact that it is a power conditioner and that it works in parallel to your equipment. I can't tell you anything more about its workings as there is no manual or literature that come with it.


It is devoid of any label except a little sticker at the back proclaming 'Quantum Tuning'. Seeing the 'Quantum' word set a few bells ringing. Is it one of those 'quantum' emf/emi filtering devices that purportedly do wonders at the atomic particle level? Well, whatever I read about these 'quantum' devices' application in audio, I could not understand, so I am not going into that here. I once had a dealer trying to explain the workings of another 'quantum' device from an European brand, he said that it made the 'electrons all flow in one direction smoothly', that set off my BS detection meter. Anyway, I'd keep an open mind, probably one day there will be a plainer explanation for me :-).

I previously had only one listening experience with a 'quantum' device in my system. Used in parallel with my Shunyata Hydra 8, that device had an effect on the sound. Basically, the sound became cleaner, but to my ears this cleanness caused the loss of some harmonic richness and the music was also robbed of some of its emotional content.

That device also ran cold. Not so with this little black box, it runs very warm, so probably it is working under different principles.

I have this little box for only two days, but its effect was clear to hear. It was quite pronounce at the middle of the night, when a lot of lights and air-conditioners were on in the neighbourhood. Its effect was less during early evening. I'll also test it out during daytime this weekend when the electricity is not so dirty and see its effect.

I got an idea to do a blind listening test Friday evening to confirm I could really hear a difference. Admittedly what I did may not be totally scientific, but I just like to relate this experience. To start, I asked my children to switch it on or off as they please, without me knowing, I then listened to a track, then they switched the device to the opposite position, then I listened to the same track one more time. I did this for three cycles. For each cycle, I guessed whether it was first on or off. My guess was correct for all 3, confirming that this little black box did make a difference. (I admit that this probably would work for me in my system with my own music choice only, as I have the required familiarity)

With the device on, the harmonic richness in the sound came through more, there was a little grittiness in the treble that was reduced , the entire sound was a little more relaxed, more composed and cleaner. The sound quality difference became less between the good electricity / bad electricity time, i.e., sound quality was more consistent. I'll continue to listen to it and report any new discovery here.

The device was installed on its own outlet on the same circuit that powers my entire system. In my opinion, the result is impressive, especially when there is a Hydra 8 in the system already at the same time.

Contact: Happy Audio Visual 04-2260179 Hp : 012-4703365

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This is the most anticipated product arrival of the year, if you're as much of a Nelson Pass fan as me!

The XP series pre-amps replaces the very much successful X series which has been in the market for the better part of the new millennium so far. I gather the XP series still uses the Super Symmetry X circuit but with much refinements. Technical specs are pretty evolutionary as even the new entry model, the XP10 has the same, if not better spec compared to X0.2, the current yet to be replaced flagship. Based on the Technical spec sheet, the XP series should be quieter, have wider band width, improved signal to noise ratio and higher slew rate for more micro dynamics.

In keeping with the trend started by ARC Ref 3, the pre-amp gain can be user set, but should sound best with 0 gain. And lastly looks aside, the previous four button, ergonomically challenged remote(hand me down from the Aleph P) has been replaced with a direct function access unit.

Nelson Chia, the boss of Centre Circle Audio, told me that all units the first batch of entry level XP10 units that arrived have been snapped up, and only has one last demo unit of XP20 on display for now. Do hear it before it's gone too!

For more info or demo appointment call Centre Circle Audio at 03-7782 2686

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MTX (musictoxin xpress) is an initiative from musictoxin to promote indie, lifestyle-oriented and non-mainstream music in malaysia. musictoxin aims to produce good music which caters to discerning music lovers and our magazine is our voice. we will leave the mainstream media to do their gossips and sensationalistic news; MTX only talks about music and nothing else.

the key contents would be review articles on jazz music, pop/rock, indie, audiophile and chinese pop. we are going to have an audiophile music chart as well. there will be contests every issue giving away free CDs. there is also be an event calendar from performing venues such as no black tie.

MTX is going to be distributed free-of-charge at all major record stores in the klang valley. those who are from other states, rest assured, we will have pdf download facility at this blog.

this is roughly how it is gonna looks like for our first inaugural issue!

this is the first time an indie label produces its own magazine.

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some of my audiophile friends are comtemplating this purely because of srajan ebaen's article.

not one to believe hype, i will adopt a wait-n-see attitude.

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