SMS Audio

Mobile phone is a necessity in modern living. They make communication easy. Smartphone enhance the connectivity via WIFI, we can talk on line, receive emails, reading on line news, bidding on ebay, paying bills and etc. The functionality is limitless, large driven by our creativity.

In order to engage SMS audio, you must first have a mobile phone. This art of audio has been around for years but we have brought the art to the next level, with visual properties. SMS is big in Asia, and I was told they are not in UK, no idea in US. Probably the call rate here is high but the telco companies have brought down the rates over the years.

To engage SMS audio warfare, you must first team up with another player. Only then, you can hit the war drum, Mr Bombastic. You know there are many semi audio guru other there, these are our primary target.

We probe with a funny question, "How do you clean up your murky bass, to make them sound transparent?" This is a fair question but tricky. If yes, you must elaborate, if no, you should first learn before answering.

西施

潘金蓮

關公

To up the fun, "How you make the highs sound like Xishi's chirping (西施), mid like Ms Pan's groaning (潘金蓮) and the imposing Mr Guan (關公)?"

We relate historical personality to SMS audio. 西施 is the prettiest empress in China and the most adored by the Emperor. We can image she is chirping around the emperor. 潘金蓮 is the most lewd woman in China and she whines with her lover body. 關公 was a military man and he was all about brotherhood. He possess a very imposing manner 气势 that we can safely relate this quality to weight and scale.

How do you counter? Soon, this SMS will circle around the audio community. I say it is cool!

Request to audition

I still get people request for audition since I retired my previous blog. People asked me to blog again. Some enjoy my blog, on the other hand some get hurt with the things I write! I must have been outspoken for either I write things that the folks do not like or hit the nail right on the head. My identity is pretty much unknown, that's a good thing. I could still sneak around in the crowd and get to listen to gossip, like an undercover. They got curious, who the hell is the fella?

The truth is I did not even tell my close friends of this blog. My lips zipped tight. I do not want this blog to be known. Worst of all, those had listened do nothing more but only to add mystery about me.

In order to stay out of trouble, I reject visits and reduce exposure. I do not know about elsewhere, most of the local audiophiles possess fault finding mentality to the maximum, they seek bone in eggs. Yours could not possibly sound good as mine? And knowing Asians, they tried to be a good guest but beat around the bush telling otherwise, hardly honest. Of course, there are some with integrity and consistent. Body language tells me things that the guests aren't telling. Save your breath asking for their opinions, at most, they will tell you good, good, good in your face that is of course if you insist and poi, poi, poi (spit) behind your back. It hurts.

Why bother opening door? Not more than 30 persons have listened to my system, the number stops there. I tuned my system to please me, the way I think is right. As I listen to wide genre of music, I tuned it to be an all rounder, not particular well on one genre of music and worst on the other. This deficiency here will only reveal imbalanced sounding.

Speakers that don't do pop and jazz well, dip in midbass and lacks of dynamic.
Speakers that don't do classical well, lots of peak and valley. Imbalanced.
Speakers that don't do female vocal well, slump in upper mid and mid.
Speakers that don't do male vocal well, valley in upper bass.

Of course, source, amp and cable constitute to the overall sound but speaker character will have a prominant say in a system of how it sounds. Planar sounds Planar, Open Baffle sounds Open Baffle, Horn sounds horn, Box speaker sounds box speaker. The challenge here is to drive them to their potential. We are not living on borrowed time, it should be clear as a gong.

Glowing reviews pump everyone. Hold on, you must read within the lines since most review is good to excellent. Furthermore, every one listens differently and people have different sonic priorities. What works for you might be a poison to others, what more a cult. So, the thrill stops there. Internet direct sales of no guaranteed return and refund is a risky purchase. I am sad to say this sale policy will not work in this part of the world. Local audiophiles take full advantages of it. They are not genuine buyer, they just want to play with the product within the time allowed for sake of fun. This is common among the Asian students in the States, they give a bad name to Asia.

Knowing the reviewer preference is critical to validate the review. Get a mini compo system if you are not serious. No one will care and comment how they sound. Leave me alone.

The banker tale II

Where was I. O ya, the air conditioning being his wisest upgrade.

DAC is making a strong comeback with the emerging of CAS. On the top echelon, you have dCS, Emm Labs, Zanden, Reimyo, MSB, Weiss and etc. These represent the best DACs in the world, with rave reviews praising them to the sky.

What the heck is Behringer Ultramatch Pro SRC2496 ? Probably the cheapest no brainer DAC. The banker was quick to hop on the CAS bandwagon. He bought AC Ryan media streamer and borrowed a SRC2496. The smell and the look of SRC2496, unmistakably pro sound, feature packs with an array of crazy light indicators.

SRC2496 is a DAC and ADC in a single unit, capable of 24 bits and 96kHz sample rate. Data conversation is via AKM4393 that can be replaced with AKM4396, a higher model. A single chip does not determine the sound but the implementation.

Under the hood, the circuit board hardly occupied 30% of the chassis. SRC2496 does not install confidence, I'm afraid. And that is how modern DACs are made today. Flimsy chassis and cost cutting measures everywhere in tandem with better marketability, everybody is happy.

Reality check: DACs have made a drastic progress in the past 5 years. To be on par with modern DACs, they may even better than at least 3-4 folds the price of yesteryear machines. SRC2496 on 24 bit sounds bigger than Link III. My grief with SRC2496, over the top highs, a little grainy and a little short on timbre. I look for the analogue-ness. SRC2496 is very detailed, dynamic and big sound.

Died due to venom, Marantz upgrade

As I upgraded the servo clock, I informed the banker that there is a good condition Marantz CD94 MkII up for sale. The banker chanced upon a Marantz CD94 MkII. Having me to thank, no, not even a cup of coffee! The DIY guru AB against it to his fully modded CD94MkII, the banker and I were floored. The difference was day and night. What I hear was a revitalized CD94 MkII with a much bigger headroom, the timing was more precise and presentation was cleaner. Timbre remained intact and the texture was smoother. Dynamic was walloping and decisive. The downside, the restricted bandwidth stops me from converting. My DIY63 gives more extension and vastly retains the lovely analogue sound. That's why Audio Note, a company big on tone still a bit conservative on modern DA chips. The modded CD94 MkII volume was louder. The venom was just too strong, switching back to stock CD94 MkII, the thrill is gone.

The venom consists of the 1PPM clock at servo and DAC, non-oversampling, outboard independent power supplies to reduce current corruption. There and then, the banker has had his road map out in a blink. He would proceed with the total CD94Mk II upgrade with his fat bonus, coming in at 3rd quarter of the year. It is like getting married again?

A Canton proverb says 好婆守不到寡 loosely translates to "A bitch could not stay true to the marriage". A great itch at the back side, the banker asked me if it is worthwhile to buy a Sonic Frontier Jitterbug. The unit came up two weeks later after he bought CD94MkII. Deep down he had his mind made regardless what I say. He just wanted a cohesive opinion. Now I understand "shopping spree" spell, once you start going, hard to stop.

The banker is on a roll now. I could not stop a runaway banker now. The three-month spending spree had changed his sonic fabric that he did not think the current result is achievable without the upgrade. Indeed, the improvements with the Jitterbug was audible even with SRC2496. Jitterbug has smoothened the sonic texture. Cleaner and clearer presentation. Dynamic and timing improved. Little incremental improvements will eventually mark a significant improvement.

Digital cable, speaker cable, rewire the power line, Power Bank, tweaking, new speakers etc. Now, he starts talking now. His system has humbled him. The banker had changed not only his system but his character as well. As he continues to improve he knows that there is a lot to learn. He used to say the boldest words, now soft-spoken and humble. He now knows who is talking nonsense and reject Singkalinology.

However, the banker failed to see that his speakers are the weakest link in his system and he would attain a notable improvement if you change his speakers. I'd like him putting his priorities right. Bookshelf speakers could not fill a moderate room. This is a typical audiophile mistake. Big room small speaker and vice versa.

A huge percentage of audiophiles failed to optimize their system, no stats, just based on the visits I made. The speakers do not sing to their capability as they could. It is either mismatch, underpowered, wrong cabling and etc. And sometimes, ego is the stumbling block. Best that if you have a musician friend to come over and listen. Hey! Even Franco Serblin invites Andrea Bocelli for tuning too.

Hearty performer

KLIAV 2012 is not a big show. With 27 millions population as opposed to Taiwan 23 millions, Malaysian does not possess the spending power like the Taiwanese. We have a good mix of audio products from US, UK, Europe, Japan and China, nevertheless. This year show managed to spring some surprises. I know, I know some people are very difficult to be pleased. Good for you for having high standards, there tends to be an illusive sound and actual sound gap. The illusive sound is like a lit guy in your head describing the perfect sound. I have little interest in the pursuit of Singkalinggam (ill-opined), talk is cheap.

OK OK OK, I should have mentioned in my earlier post that I placed a strong emphasis on price to performance. Make no mistake about it, there is no deal that is too good in real world like scratch and win. Don't be naive. With that got away, I'm willing and prepared to pay for performance unlike some talk a lot and not wanting to pay for anything, like the world indebted to them and yet never stop complaining. Hello! World.

My favourite room is tatatada..... Yter Accordos and Orpheus combo fed via CAS. I couldn't stop waxing lyrical about this combo, more specifically Accordos. Ooopppps, you gotta excuse my saliva. The sound is undeniably right to my ears, especially the critical midrange and upward. Huha! Rich but not overly rich like his previous creations, about the right dense (ATC have too much of it), dynamic and transparent, all in less than a 20 litres package. Density of sound and transparency in inverse correlation hold true here, I have never heard people praising ATC being transparent. I'm looking for a right balance. The imaging of Accordo is something to be die for. In another word, spooky.

The silk dome tweeters are revealing and most importantly, they have got some body to them, not a trace of metallic, sounded dearer and less razor than Titanium, Berryllium and Diamond tweeters. Who says silk dome can't rock! Jokingly, we need bright tweeters to compensate our ageing ears, we become less sensitive to these along we age. Welcome to F& M curve.

Now, I heard you, I heard you, Mr Wilson. His rationale of incorporated silk dome tweeters to his new Sahsa and Maxx 3 etc. He could afford, no, no, no, Wilson customers could afford the most expensive tweeters in the world.

Accordos appeal to me, a sound synonymic to this blog description. Small speaker, big heart, room filling sound. I have the highest respect to Franco Serblin's talent, a truly speaker genius. Accordos have outgrew Minima Amator although some reviewers might like otherwise. The cabinetry of Accordo is of what you can expect from the fine artistry and craftsmanship from the Italian. I did not fall for that, hmmmmmummm, I do not want a beautiful box. I want great sounding speakers that do the tone and dynamic right and the fine craftsmanship cabinetry is a bonus to me. This should be very clear. The ol Sonus Faber sounded too coloured to the extend that the sound is homogenised. What do you think?

Accordos are godsend for small room. 150mm midrange driver is fast, extremely clean. Everyone knows that putting the most exotic speaker components together does not guarantee good sound. The ability to capture the discerning musical harmonic, the voicing is the key. The perfect marriage of the highs and midrange requires skills and technique. You go assemble your speakers and you will find the painstaking difficult to play them as one aka coherence over a wide genre of music.

With all due respects to the speaker assemblers in Jalan Pasar, I was brought there by my colleague to buy a pair of speakers. Great flexibility, you get to choose literally what pleases you, tweeters, drivers, speaker box size and the guy hooked them up with on the shelf crossover. "Nah, these rock! Can you feel the pounding of the bass and exquisite highs?" playing discotheque music (all that they ever played). "Sorry man, my ears start bleeding and chest thumbing bass suffocates me." The music through the speakers was scratchy. The music fell apart, like a brutal murder. They murder the music.

Marketing is a process of brainwash 

The speaker foremost job is to deliver to the tone right, we, consumers were being led by the manufacturers' marketing ploy to be drawn into the technicality that we know nut about. They shit us with the drivers employed, resonance free cabinetry, crossovers, and bla bla bla. The designer job is to create a finished product and the marketing gets people buying them. Some splashed big bucks on advertising and promotions to create the buzz. The designer's goal is what interest me, what the designer trying to achieve so on and so forth. Which do you want? Technical superiority or speakers able to convey emotions. People tend to relate high price to high quality, high tech to high performance? A top notch camera in the hand of amateur photographer, what do you expect? Speaker is exactly like that too. That's why I consider speaker making is an art more than science.

Take a listen, that's all you need. But most of us were not confident enough to decide but to resort to our friends' views and audio reviews. We sort out to a cohesive view. Big mistake. Who is the one the speaker to please, the owner or the friends?

No speaker is perfect, how I wish Accordos could go down a little deeper and more bass grunt. For about RM30K a pair of bookshelf speakers, they are not exactly cheap but Accordos could shame the more expensive speakers in many ways, timbre and imaging. No wonder, the dealer managed to sell about 20 pairs of these in Singapore. I had goose bump listening to Accordos. Accordos quietly whisper to me "Signed, sealed, delivered. I'm yours." I'm tempted....

The banker tale I

A king is a man regarded as the finest or corkiest in their interest. What have we created here? The banker has self-proclaimed himself a Cost Performance King, ready to take on the world.

Nothing below the knee

Our dear banker is having his first sweet taste of success, so much improvement in such a short span of time - three months intensive audio upgrade. Plenty of passion and money to fund this hobby. Three months ago, his highs was like a surgeon scalpel, sending a cold shiver down to your spine, a kind of hypothermia that he misperceives as transparency. A vocal that he thinks comparable to the best that was not able to reproduce the masculine of Muddy Waters's vocal. A bass that he thinks good that he does not know its deficiency until he was humbled by a better system.

After all, his system was shouty, the highs constantly yearning for attention, the sound could not decouple from the speaker and weightless. The bass was weak as a kitten. Hardly anything below 60Hz. Forget about playing orchestral works. We can't defy the law of physics, can we? Let me know if you hear bookshelf speakers that able to reproduce low bass akin to floorstanders.

 

We hold our laughter. Although the banker claimed that he listened to many systems but he could not hide his inexperience in audio and music knowledge. An urban proverb says "One has not even seen a big snake pee", he has not seen the world yet.

There were times you just brush aside comments from an inexperienced listener. They get excited about the changes in sound. Inadequate knowledge of harmonic texture leads to an inaccurate sound description. Brass has the steely sound to it, woodwind has the airy sound to it and strings has the resonating sound to it. These are tone! There is no better way than to listen to the real things. A music lover is a better listener, can we all agree to that?

Maastricht Salon Orchestra Serenata is a great album, not because of the singing birds but the artistic and poetic play. Beautifully recorded for it reveals the delicate rubbing of bow and strings, the sound conveys emotion. Far from etched, the masterful Andre Rieu violin play reverberates the scent of rosin. Sweet and romantic. Given the glorious golden tonal hue, my guess is a Strad. He he!I got it right. Self-trained my half deaf hearing. Some learned guys could identify the player by the play, that itself is nothing short of amazing!!! I have heard Maastricht Salon Orchestra Serenata in another system but his violin is more aggressive and not as romantic and melodious.

While the romance of violin afloat, the brass and piano should never mask it. The directness of brass shines through like a beam of light. No infighting between the brass, the piano and the double bass. The double bass faithfully laid down the foundation, knowing that the violin is the limelight of the play. I could listen to this CD repeatedly.

Never before I have this deep appreciation for this CD until recently. Guess that I might have done something right? Somebody, smack me!

Sorry, the banker only ripped the first track. That's the problem with young audiophiles. Rip, rip, rip and not knowingly some music ought to listen to as an album. You just don't jump into chorus without intro, don't you? Wisdom needs time and experience to garner. I despise those audiophiles willingly spending big money on hardware but reluctant to spend on music. In time, they will give up hifi because without music as a base is like a man without a soul.

And so, the banker is determined to prove many wrong. He splashed out on one unit Marantz CD94 Mk II, one unit Behringer Ultramatch Pro SRC2496, one unit Sonic Frontier Jitterbug and a pair of Telefunken ECC83 since the last I wrote about him. The banker bought AC Ryan and later dumped it, come on, you call that a source?

However, the most meaningful upgrade he ever made was to install air conditioning in his living room, the wisest decision. The comfort of listening is not to be ignored because we have other senses too. I have had an experience listening to a system in a room that was not air conditioned, ambiance temperature was 32 Celsius plus the heat from the tube amp, 20 minutes into the listening, I was all soaked up in sweat. Can't wait to get some fresh air leaving the room. The room was not well ventilated, stuffy and let alone the system produces a decent amount of heat. I did not enjoy the listening.


to be continued..............

Italian connection

Italian connection, Sonus Faber is the most recognised loudspeaker among its native compatriots namely Opera, Chario and Aliante. They all sounded differently, but they do have one thing in common, midrange eccentric. Think of the great Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, opera is big in Italy. The thing is that local culture play a major influence to the voicing of the speaker, afterall they exist to serve them. Though, they are other makers that make their name first in foreign land and later enter local market. Whilst female vocal sounded good on most speakers, male vocal is exceptionally well on Italian makes. Got ummph! The got the upper bass right. Everyone knows Sonus Faber sounds. The vocal is unmistakeably magical. Dead neutral, I'm sorry they are not.

Opera Prima 1.5

The discontinued Opera Prima 1.5 is the subject of this posting. It belongs to a banker as he craves for real wood. Slightly bigger than the diminutive LS35a, they are about 19 volumetric liter. Both tweeter and driver are sourced from Seas, housing in a real wood shoe box. Yeah! You don't get much real wood speaker box these days and Italian has a way with wood craftsmanship. Rounded box made Prima looks elegant. Many find the real wood appealing, given MDF and plywood are widely used for commercial reason. I'm not a typical eye fi but I find their aesthetically likeable, more importantly I want to know how do they fare compare to the competitors. What is the point of speakers that do not sound as good as it look?

Pushing small car

Prima does not present a difficult load to the amp. Driven with a modded Copland pre and 402 power, they do not sound happy if pushed hard in pentode mode. I like triode better, it does justise to the timbre. Owners of Prima do not play complex and heavy music. You will trade density and sweetness with power and dynamic. There are others can do a better job.

The system is equilateral positioned with the speakers eight feet apart. The bass quality is nothing to shout about, just mediocre by today standard. The enthusiasm to play double bass is lacklustre. Nothing much beyond 70Hz, hence murmurs below those frequency range. I have heard better bass from similar size speaker but the price is double. Within its range, the bass is nevertheless clean and quick. Prima begs for sub to stand tall.

Popped eyes

The highs, hmmmmm does not liked to be pushed. Sound unwilling and hard. Let's be honest, 80-85dB, the highs shows sign of strained, peaky and shouty. They lose their poise.

Give me my cheese, I show you my strength

The mid is the strength of these babies. Not particularly thick and dense like LS35a, British monitor but suffice to say it is musically satisfying. Imaging is palpable. Dynamic and transient is commendable.

The above listening experience could be due to the modded pre, I have no way of finding out. A little advice, the buyer must know what are the mods implemented on an equipment or otherwise, it is a risk and you are left clueless of its sound. Prima requires careful equipment matching to be rewarding. They eagerly yearning for some bass reinforcement aka sub woofer. To be honest, Prima is not my cup of tea.

In sync

No speaker is perfect. That's why you require hi fi skills to bring the best out from the speakers. Synergistic matching and passive tweaking are inevitable. These are the very essence of this blog.

Alpha and Omega

Testing 123, Testing 123, Testing 123.

My first visitor is from The Dalles, Oregon, US, Wednesday, August 15 @ 10:50.

Changing the blog address does not entirely exclude the old followers from accessing this blog. I left too many links that if they looked hard enough, they will finally find me. Thus, I need to start a new clean blog.

This new blog promises more interesting write ups, more tweaks, more kiss ass stories. Life is too short for dull stories. One thing is certain, I can't write like the guys in 6 moons and I make no apologies for that.

Buying rig based on rave reviews is like shooting in the dark, you do not have any idea the reviewer preference. We all listen differently. In order to avoid this, I make it a point to outline my parameters, my rigs, my music preference and my tweaks.

Source : Marantz CD 94 MkII. The servo clock has been upgraded to 1PPM and the stock figure 8 power cord has been upgraded to IEC.
DAC processor : A DIY DAC based on DIR9001+PMD100+PCM63P-K (Japan), 6 independent power supplies in two box construction. MSB Link III Full Nelson and P1000 separate power supply is being retired
Pre amp : Current resident pre amp is Lighter Note, light dependent resistors volume attenuator. My pre is fitted with remote control volume control for the comfort of use.
Power amp : LMos 150, 150W 4 pairs of discontinued Hitachi mosfet based stereo amp.
Speaker : Revel Performa F32
Cabling : Source to dac, Sommer interconnect,
              DAC to pre, Sommer interconnect,
              Pre to power, DIT XLO interconnect
              Power to speaker, Canare speaker cable ( mid and highs), Sommer speaker cable (bass)
Power cord :  Source, HMS power cord
                      DAC, Shunyata Copperhead power cord
                      Power, HMS power cord
Accessory : 4KVa Balanced transformer, M5 sine wave corrector, Schumann harmoniser, ebony wood block, resonance spike
Voltage is 230V 60Hz, 3V tolerance all day.
Room size : approx. 16'x10'x 9' (a taper ceiling), air conditioned and carpeted.
Speaker positioning :  53.0" from front wall, 17.5" from side wall, seating is 106" from the mid point between the speakers. The speakers are toed in to the point that 1cm inner speaker box is visible from the seating position. All positioning are calibrated with water spirit and light reflection.

My music preference primarily vocal, acoustics, jazz and classical, and all others except heavy metal, hip hop and techno. Listening volume mostly wanders around 70dB. No traces of boom. A modest cost system at best.

My system tonal flavor walks slightly on the warmth side of neutral, the balance of dense and nimbleness, transparency and spaciousness, a healthy and elegant demeanor of sound.

I hope you will enjoy this blog as much as I post. I also have a reputation to uphold.