FPB aftermath

Hyperbole

Frank Power Bank rave review raises doubts as if I'm hyperbole. The smell of it, the story, the grammars, all lead to nothing but paid reviewer. Too bad, I wasn't paid a single dime. Well, I seldom write rave reviews as detailed as my posting on Frank Power Bank. I felt that I have to go thorough on this because the bloody thing deserves it. And so, I checked with the banker on his views on Frank Power Bank. Even though he is a newbie, he rides the steep learning curve with ease, the Oppa Gangnam style way. Anyway, he is always in super duper high spirit. A woman slightly exposed is enough to drop his pants, just kidding. The truth is he is swear by it, I mean Power Bank. What were you guys thinking? And what about KF? He has shifted into Neverland, further than where he used to reside. He has a lot to catch up though his passion is somewhat cold.... Poor man has priorities.

I got Power Bank

The door guy have had his Power Bank installed just yesterday. He seldom text Chinese, not tech savvy but I received a long Chinese message from him. The enthusiastic message goes "Noise floor plunged to incredibly low. The super low noise floor expanded the soundstage, so much depth, layering, airiness, penetration, has ascended my system a few notches up. It was easy to depict the musicians' spirit, by how hard they strike the cymbals and drums. The experience was so vivid and distinct. The permeating of violin was lifelike. I felt the weeping of Chai Qin. The control accorded by Power Bank was beyond my imagination!". 

I hit you all with Power Bank! Screw you all.

Awesome remark. Group audioing is much more fun than lone audioing. You get to share your excitement and pull some legs. In group, we push each others to the next level.

To bad, the wait seems forever. Waiting is a silent torture. Dr Mimosa can really make you wait until your hairs turn white. The banker is biting his nails wondering when his Power Bank will come. He got an audio statement to make, man slaughtering "First Degree Audio Murder" act for his audience at his place. You will walk away fine if your audio is meaner than his. If unfortunately not, he will run all over you. Mind you, his friends were stunned with the progress the banker has made so far. He is determined to shake high performance cost perception off, high performance cost means lots of compromises. In short, good sound but not great. He gladly surrender the title to KF.

On Power Bank, 莫待無機空折枝! It means you should pick the flower while it blossoms. He smiles helplessly looking at the queue. Anyway, he has installed a super ribbon tweeter that he claimed "You guys never get to hear what I hear from my system, hek, hek, hek."

Ain't that right? We are not Lolo.

A star is born

Not many would know who is Shila Amzah a month ago, a twenty two years old from KL. She was a runner up "One In a Million" season 2. Boy! I don't even remember who won the reality TV singing competition.

Asian Wave Shanghai 2012 stages a regional reality singing show with participants from Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, India and of course home grown Chinese contestants, to promote Asia's next superstar. Today, Shila Amzah begs the biggest prize by winning the competition.

Below are the footage of her road to victory.

Gemilang, click to watch

    

Same song, two different presentations. Shila has a wider vocal range and stepped it up entering chorus with a more powerful voice. Adele has a tad smokey, mellower and bodied voice. It was obvious that Adele version is more of a white woman style while Shila add R&B improvisation. Adele painted a helpless emotion while Shila, a more fiery and dramatic presentation. It is like ATC SCM7 versus Focus FS68.

I vote "Gemilang" as her best number, the reactions from the judges tell it all. "Set fire in the rain" is not bad either. Adele should be very very worried. My knee jerk when she sing the Chinese number "Conquer" since Chinese is not her mother tongue. If nitpick, her assent could be better.

One more thing, her Malay dressing pose a funny contrast to her English numbers.

Heartily congratulations.

FPB, Lord of Power

This post supposed to come later but I couldn't hold my enthusiasm. Story goes like this, one fine day and we didn't much to do, we gathered for small talk. I challenged the banker if he is to commit to a Frank PB-15000WS Power Bank Storage, I'll follow suit. Knowing the shrewd banker had committed to so many upgrades, that he would eventually slow down. Big mistake, he did not give a second thought about it and went on to commit. I was taken off guard, he threw his chips in. Now, it is my call to follow or done.

Me and my big mouth, too late to back down now. I thought I could take a rest on upgrade and enjoy my audio fruition. And now this, the situation had me play a fat Neo in Matrix. My biggest worry is if FPB would upset my sound equilibrium, tearless for my years long efforts go down the drain. The designer, Dr Mimosa had reassured me that FPB will not. Let's see....


So, Dr Mimosa brought two assistants along with him. First off, I heard a lot of good things about hifi fuse. Out go the standard fuse, come the cryoed hi fi fuse. I could have inserted a 100A fuse but the sound will be coarse and overpowering. The cryoed 60A fuse should receive some credits for added gain and audio elevation.

Housed two oversize transformers in Frank Power Bank

Frank Power Bank weights 38kg, this require strong back to move this thing. At the front fascia, a bright blue lighting indicates FPB is in operation. The damn light is eye piercing in darkness. Sun glasses in darkness is cool but the sound is not, the glass reflects the sound. A masking tape should fix this. According to the designer, FPB is a zero maintenance component and is expected to last forever. Though, do switch off the main if you are away for a couple of days, I was advised. I love zero maintenance stuff, running cost worries me. I hate rigs holding my balls for ransom.

Reinventing the wheel

I always make it a point to ask the objective and the impacts of the product to grasp the logic. Not everyday is a Sunday? Dr Mimosa explained that the power coming into our household is of floating impedance, FPB fixes and stabilizes such floating impedance. Ha! Impedance, that is the only audio jargon that rings my bell. Dr Mimosa revealed that similar technologies have existed more than twenty years ago for non audio applications and he is not reinventing the wheel. After more than a year of R&D on the size of transformer, quantity of transformer, transformer make, power cord, filters and fine tuning, he finalized his design as what I am receiving today. We all know Frank has good ear.

FPB comes in two options of connectivity, direct to the sub distribution box or to the wall socket via power cord. The later caters for those who do not have a sub distribution box and it is said that you can achieve only 70% of the performance connection via sub distribution. Beware, Dr Mimosa tunes Frank Power Bank with standard power cord and he does not warrant the use of other presumably more exotic after market power cords of the desired results. In some cases, those exotic power cords do deliver stellar performance. Hence, it is a double edge sword, use them at your risk. Long power cord, more than three meters is not recommended due to significant power loss. Don't push your luck, you have been warned.

Technicians at work

His assistant connected FPB via three 6mm thickness copper wires to the sub distribution box. Frank Power Bank is a passive component, it only consumes little current, 2-5W. It consumes little power, my worry on electricity bill is unfounded.

You will be sorry

Prior installation, the main have to be switched off. So, please ensure that such inconvenience is tolerable. You might want to avoid your wife's favorite drama before she screams at you!

Lets see what you got

The installation took 30-45 minutes. OK, bring it on, let hear what FPB got. No, FPB requires a minimum six hours to charge up to sound optimum, consider FPB a huge current reservoir. It takes time to store up current. Six hours is not a long time to wait, six months is.

Dr Mimosa and the banker wanted to drop by the same night to have a quick listen. They all itchy back side. Coincidentally, I have to attend a wedding dinner with my wife in Cheras, an obligation I would regret if I did not go. She will fix me right!

Time ticks so slowly, I can't wait to rush home to hear what is cooking. The guys were punctual, Dr Mimosa and the banker showed up at the doorstep at a little over 10. The banker took a long 360 look at my room, wanting to know what voodoos I have installed. Si beh cunning fella, I waited no time to switch off the light and listen what FPB has installed for us.

Right off the bat, FPB has a magical way of purifying the contaminated current. The occasional irritating hum was reduced to a new level, the stage was more "blacker". I could now hear the blowing of my air conditioner even though it was in low fan mode. It is a new Daikin air cond, ok.

Tonal quality improved, clean, articulate and vibrant, definitely not bleached. I got a tad smoother, less edgy sonic texture. On the winning duo Barbara Streisand and Barry Gibb's Stranger In A Strange Land, a beautiful number, you folks owe a listen to this number, the edge delineation outlined. FPB distinguished two voices o so palpable. You have no idea how difficult to achieve this. The images have shed some weight, no more fluffy images that many consider warmth. Warmth my foot la, who is whispering?

Kidding? I am dead serious. Presence is one of the audio elements that gets you involved. The degree of presence separates a high end system and the mid fi wannabe. Single driver and horn are exceptional in this regard. Single driver suffers from limited bandwidth while horn sounded honky. The presence accorded by FPB akin to single driver speaker, close but not the same level. I am using a 3 way speaker, this is nevertheless phenomenon. Nothing beats the rawness of single driver and horn thanks to simple crossover. Complex crossover have an appetite for details

On Youn San's gut wrecking Pancake, the banker jumped, sighed and told that he was experiencing a biblical episode of Jonah swallowed by a fish. The bass ate him? Very interesting description, these type of remarks definitely get me into trouble!!! He was shook up by the authoritative, taut and whopping bass. Dr Mimosa said the bass driver have grown 2 inch bigger in diameter. The bass quantity and quality were simply leaping into a different league. I am not suggesting my bass is similar to Wilson Audio. That's deceitful.

The PRaT thing, the immediacy got better. The musicians were pumped up to give a more energetic performance. Another glaring virtue of FPB, micro and macro detail retrieval were astonishing. Difficult subtleties shine, no guesswork. Tons of details. The stroke of drum, the plucking of guitar, the brush of strings and the ripple of percussion, more bite, more direct and more decisive. I thought my sound is clean but this FPB opened the hell gate! It makes you want more, more, more.

Sucking air

Speakers suck up current during the complex passages. This is an acid test to determine if your amp is up to the task, capability to meet the demand. FPB can not resolve the power of your amp if under powered. If your amp could not supply the current at low ohm, Frank Power Bank is no cure. Change the amp instead!

But, if your amp is up to the task, FPB acts like Lord of Power, my 150W power amp sounded more like 250W. A modern Hercules. Eat that out! Dynamic and transient benefited the most. No sluggish if you know what I mean. With great power, come greater volumetric soundstage in dimension. The images were rock steady, no wobbling during complex passages. The stage was akin to spooky electrostatic. On Brendan Perry's This boy, the banker sworn he heard the sound coming from the back wall.

After the grueling test, nobody is complaining about the noise which itself is a compliment in disguise. There is a toggle switch at the back of the FPB, offering three tonal balance setting. We prefer the default setting as it sounded the most natural to our ears.

Probably I did not expect all that much improvements from FPB. For the sake of supporting a friend, I found FPB improves my sound in many ways. None of my tweaks improve all departments. Most of them improve only on two or three departments. Three, you got lucky.

Russ Andrew Clarity 16, nearly got smitten

Power is the lifeline to our system, I drink to that! This goes without saying FPB does not come cheap, by my standard, OK. It costs more than my amp! For the results, my audio performance leapfrogged and I do not think you can look elsewhere, probably those five times priced power plant. I don't know. Russ Andrew Clarity 16 is good but still a distance close. Some guys who had installed FPB keeping coming back for more. And they are no fool. The back order is building up and the wait is getting longer. The banker will get his in October.


You need to get this FPB in your system, you may want to tighten your belt or sell off your other gears but please do some things. It is that good.

Resonance control I

Alright, alright, you might have learned that some speakers are made like musical instrument craftmanship. Noble idea, doesn't it sound delicious? Bosendorfer speakers are made like a piano, Ocellia speakers, Tonian speakers and Kiso speakers like guitar and violin, even Triangle Electroacoustique, a long shot, incorporates the cello endpin to their speakers. A noble approach to speaker making.

Two things in common with these speakers, first, they favoured thin wall and "breathable" speaker enclosure and second, they do not favour damping materials. They make the resonance works for them instead of eliminating it. Fascinating?

In order to achieve the desired results, these speakers require intensive painstaking skill to make them. Rather artisan than utilitarian in approach and high labour cost, hence, they aren't actually economies of scale. They hardly cheap. Cost performance is very subjective.

Bosendorfer VC7

Ocellia with PHY-PH driver

Kiso HB1

Triangle Electroacoustique

Of all these offerings, I have had only a brief listen to Kiso acoustics and the brief listening is not solid to pen my listening impression.

Antonio Stradivarius

The traditional musical instrument voicing is a good old time proven technique. No one makes violin sounds like Strad, no one learns the secret of Strad, the lacquer is largely the main ingredient to the Strad. Antonio buried the mythical lacquer properties with him to his grave. We may never make a violin like Strad, not even close.

Hi tech costs $$$

Hi end speaker makers rely on modern technologies for voicing, using exotic materials, boutique parts, new metallurgy wiring, high tech measurements etc. The development costs and premium parts drive the prices to the sky and they do enjoy economies of scale. What this mean, exorbitance profit. Self esteem costs, owning these is a realization of self esteem. Your wallet and willingness to pay are the gauge of your self esteem.

And for most of us, Average Joe, will have sit back and accept the compromises and imperfections. And wait for the economies of scale that the price will eventually be more friendly. God has given us the best tool, our hearing. Aunties and uncles can tell good sound too. So, beware of those expensive speakers that measure good but does not sound good.

One thing that do concern me, these tuning and resonance controls are only effective on limited frequency range.

O yes! Resonance control it is. The ancient maestro voice their musical instrument by playing around with resonances. They curb them with shape, size and the choice of enclosure construction. Resonance is like cholesterol, there are good ones and bad ones. Instead of total elimination, they voice with resonance. And so, a bold idea popped up in my head, to assume my room as the body of a musical instrument and work with the resonance.

Room will add gain to any speaker loudness. You will never get a linear response across the whole frequency response. An in room peak at 40-60Hz is inevitable. You can use electronic room EQ like XTZ room analyzer, Roomperfect, Tact room correction or DEQX to ameliorate the room response. I got nothing to report because I'm not Mr Tell It All.

Look, the cones at work

Admittedly, I'm a cheap bastard. The story begins with Dr Mimosa telling me that applying brass cones will do wonder to the bass. Skeptical I may be, I jumped on it because the cones do not cost me a lot of money, furthermore, I do have some cones readily for my disposal.

The great thing about this tweak is the versatility, that accords flexibility. It boils down to your sensitivity to tone, details and phase. Don't blame me if you can not hear the effects. It is fairly easy to depict the effects. Place the two inch cones two to three inch from the front wall, the bass character per distance is personal preference. If you find too boomy at one side, place additional cones around will help, you may also want to try stick the cone on the wall too. The later proved to be difficult due to the mass of the cone. I doubt that any commercial available adhesives can do the job. It is not a good idea to apply permanent bonding and you might want to experiment more.

Is your bass like a punctured ball?

Pay attention to the bass characteristics. Chances are your bass got cleaner, leaner and better defined. Imagine this, your bass akin to punctured ball with loads of char transformed to a fully inflated ball. The bounce is consistent.

A perfect dive, minimal splashes

With the cones, you get diving bass. Yes, I really mean the bass dives. I tried this on my friends, they were in awe. How could it be? Don't ask me. Helped by my Schumann harmoniser, my bass gained a bouncing sphere dimensionality. Incredible? Said the banker, I got the stunned face again.

Placing the cones at outward of the speakers determines the soundstage. Move the cones along outer side the speakers and hear the difference. I will not feed you findings, you ought to explore and enjoy the fun of exploration. This is part of the audio fun.

Steel cone is most lively, brass is lesser. 

The versatility of the spikes/cones is much appreciated because you could place them where you find necessary, where you need to add liveliness to the sound. I suggest you place really sharp spikes in the middle and observe the results. For best results, place various sizes and shades of the spikes in a triangle formation. The key to the effectiveness is loose spikes that vibrate. You'll get a sharper image with some degree of liveliness. There are also other places you might find effective too. On top of the CD player, corners of the rack and speaker top etc.

In principal, spikes/cones with the greater in height will have an effect on the higher frequency ranges and more livelier.

Crystal ball

There is also a suggestion to add crystal to enhance the ambiance, particularly if your room is dead.

You will very happy with the results and thank me for sharing.

Harmoniser in action

Earth pulse

Schumann resonance, the link is an excellent write up, care for a read? Earth cavity produces very specific pulsations, an earth pulse of 7.83 Hz. NASA came up with the calculation. The scientists discovered that indeed there is a correlation between Schumann Resonance and brain rhythms, a deeper states of consciousness. Hence, all living things maintain good biological health if their brain electromagnet waves synchronize with earth pulse, 7.83Hz and the related frequencies power factor to 7.83, it goes on as to 13.7, 19.6, 25.5, 31.4, 37.3 and 43.2Hz.

Don't ask me

This subject, earth pulse is too heavy for my uneducated brain to explain. Hence, I will not try to explain what is already not completely understood by me. What and how this earth pulse things affect our audio is the matter I would like share with you folks using my set of ears. I do not have the best set of ears but chances are you will hear what I hear.

DIY unit

Housed in a PVC casing of 155mm x 110mm x 45mm, it weights less than 200gm. this harmoniser is a passive component that radiates 7.83Hz resonance. Powered via 12V DC via adaptor, no indicator light on the box itself. You need to peep through to the air ventilation hole of the box to see if there a red bulb lighting. Not commercially available, I just got lucky able to get three. This thing induces a deeper relaxation that will to put you to sleep!!!

The harmoniser works better than sleeping pills. Using one in my bedroom, guess what? I sleep like a baby, my wife complained that it gives her headache. It goes to say, different individual responds to things differently. The irrelevance stops once you turn your audio on.

chances are you will hear what I hear

Like an ioniser machine, you feel a breeze of fresh air akin to the air near waterfall or lightning, you smell something reminiscent of chlorine. You do feel immediate changes in the ambiance when this harmoniser is on. It is difficult to describe with my limited vocabulary. More about harmoniser later.

I was advised that two is ideal and two it is. Strange enough, I feel like I am in a dark mines under the earth, stuffy. It was an eerie experience. The first emanating of sound wave sounded vastly different. To avoid concluding hastily, I took time to digest by revisiting some familiar CD and turn on and off repeatedly to reaffirm my assessment.

Works best on hard surface

Track after track I play, slowly and surely, I noticed there is a change in sound quality whilst the timbre largely remained unchanged. I started with two harmonisers in my small sound room and found two is too many of good thing. I felt "suffocated", uneasy and heavier chest in 10 minutes. Moving further away reduces the uneasiness. More is needed for a bigger room. I know someone is using 5 units in a 20' x 28' x 11' room, and I feel normal in that room.

I started experimenting the positioning of the harmonizer. I tried left and right, front and back positioning, placing them side by side at the plane of the speakers. The size of the room and the distance the harmoniser to the seating arouse different degree of uneasiness. In the end, I placed the harmoniser down the middle close to the front wall which is about 12 feet from my seating. The following report is based as per se.

Playing the excellent Jack Johnson's Sleep through The Static folk pop album,  I'd describe in one word "organic". I like the live ambiance as opposed to studio recording. This album is recorded via solar power, I have no idea if it will sound cleaner. Guess what? This album is mastered is by Bernie Grundman, you can expect a certain quality to it. Studio recording is too clean and too dead for its own good. This particular album is relatively uncompressed except a little at the kick drum.

The difference between hi end and mass market speakers is sound quality, timbre and texture. What I gathered is the harmoniser transforms goose bumps texture to normal skin texture, less hairy, less char, applied a smoother texture. As if a gush of fresh air cleansing the unwelcoming sonic fog, the harmoniser removes the fog that I did not know it exist, I thought I have removed those nasty fog long time ago, shame on me!!!! The harmoniser consistently lets you hear more into the recording. Jack's resonating of strings, acoustic guitar and the ushering of decay is breath taking. What more to ask? The vocal was clear and articulate. The slight huskiness of Jack's vocal is reserved. I could hear the tape splicing of this album.

The presentation was more effortless. You do know, effortlessness does not come by easily. The unhurried quality is to be heard to appreciate. I heard that from vintage speakers and vintage low power electronics, not mass market gears. It is a statement of finesse. No, not in the expense of dynamic. Micro and macro dynamic are intact.

The bass ranged from 100Hz downward benefited the most out from the harmoniser. Whilst the highs and mid sounded nimble, the bass received a make over. The harmoniser accorded a certain degree of fullness and extension to the bass. It adds weight and scale. Turn it back on, the extension is restored. The plucking of double bass is snappier than before, the pumpkin bass has been revitalised. A new found bounciness, the Q-ness like silicone elasticity.This is indeed a good news to bass deficient system. But knowing audiophiles, they will never have enough with bass. The more the merrier.

The harmoniser renders a more airy and spacious presentation. Light off, the soundstage is perceived to be extended beyond the concrete walls. I prefer light off for all electrical appliances generate EMI and recycle back into the power. The culprit, EMI is the mother of nuisance, get rid of this promises a new level audio elevation.

The banker facial reaction

You might doubt I make thing up, the shrewd door guy called me early in the morning says to cross check his experience. He wanted two more. The high spirited banker was cursed by the harmoniser, expressed a funny facial expression - raises eyebrows, popped eyes, rounding lips and in state of ecstasy. I bet he could not recall his name at that moment. Even the contended KF also jumped and wanted one after 10 seconds into the music. As I always say KF is very geng (good). He will fall asleep and snore if he did not like what he hears.

No eye candy, listen without prejudice

The harmoniser is one important component in my audio must have list, it stays there. NOBODY TOUCHES THEM unless I say so.