Renewed rivalry

It is great fun to hang around with audiophiles gossiping, you never know where the conversation will carry you, do you? Some audiophiles could come up with really kick ass stories with outrageous  descriptions that might have professional reviwers' face red. The truth is, they often hit the nail by its head. Having said that, there is no substitute to a wealth of experience, if you ain't have it, you ain't have. Of course, great deal of fund invested into this crazy hobby, you get knowledge and experience. You will distingush white lies better. Don't fall for that.

Ridicule, 讪 in audio context means unsubstantiated allegations as to promote thyself. It takes place at mamak restaurant 24/7, a Malaysian favourite pass time. The cheapest way to burn time. Cheap audio guys sit there enjoying the company and waiting for others to pay the bill even though he is the host. Most often than ever, they are the one who dominate the conversation.

So, if you were ridiculed, you only have yourself to blame for being shallow and inexperienced. Regardless what, we were ridiculed all the times. Now, the key word is "unsubstantiated remarks", I steered clear away from them. I only pen down my adventure and experience. If you asked me about high end audio, my experience only limited to a few home visits and audio shows. I got little to tell.

"You do this, you get noble highs, lushly mids, humongous bass, panoramic soundstage etc, one tweak fits all." This is a classic. Sound familiar? It is almost an audiophile's natural ability to ridicule audio wannabe, it is like we were born with it. Do observe the facial expression of others when one ridicule, it is almost a sure thing that they couldn't hold their cunning smile or avoid eye contact unless they were being ridiculed too.

Four guys were excited about remodelling/constructing audio room. One constructing his room according Golden Cuboid ratio, the other one is in a little dilemma, a small room or a big room. His small room could not accommodate his floorstanding speakers and if  engaging structural change, it will get messy and costly. Chinese saying third party always has a better picture at a problem. The other one is trying out new diffusers, the results are encouraging and the other one redo the room treatment. Plenty of action.

The fun is YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU WILL GET!!!

Ceiling is the most overlooked acoustically. Concrete  and  common plaster ceiling are   shitty. Soundwave bouncing around like crazy in a room with concrete ceiling. Thin plaster ceiling will rattling like mad. Some do bat caves (left image) only got me in awe. As with my continuous tweaking, my soundwave behaves more pistonic, my room slowly becoming my audio liability, shit! The rattling mode changes, it bothers me to the bones that I just skip listening to those tracks. And as long as I don't cranked up, I'm OK. I can't go through re-doing the room again.

 

 A few of us are celebrating early Christmas. The banker is currently all cloud nine for the praises he received week in week out. Confidence grew. His wife has changed from resentment to approval for the banker has gone through ups and downs in life of late. No more "qi qi gut gut" (nagging), worrying he would snap, ending up in mental hospital.
 

The banker did  his audio with so little money, he and his super calculator. He is playing David in David and the Goliath. So much so that, a new rivalry is quietly brewing between the banker and KF, whom have been out of action for a couple of months. KF as if just been released from Pudu Jail and walking over pomelo leaf ritual (a Chinese cleansing ritual) , KF came to audition my system to testify if I have gone banana, self bloated. 自己講，自己爽!
 

I wanted to start playing but KF lighted up my room to see my tweaking. He did a 360 viewing!!! And he said "You will kick yourself when your air condition unit needs servicing." He is right! No way the serviceman reaching there unless I remove my tweaking. After he had a good look, I seated him down and spun some really good recordings but they did not seem to give any impact on him. "Lively" he said. Play something common,  I need to drag Cai Qin out for KF. He takes a long breath, close his eyes, sit real still, engage in "deep listening" mode. Within seconds into the notes, KF jumped and screamed "Your Cai Qi sounded so young, 35 as opposed to mine, like 50! Do not stop (the player), continue playing!" Half into track 14, KF "Stop, stop, stop!". "OK, OK, OK, I am all ears." "Don't get all crazy, your Cai Qin does not sound sultry." KF missed the slight midrange bloom to make the vocal  lush and horny. I don't blame him because I know where he is coming from. Vocals is not my audio gauge but violin, piano and double bass. If I got these right, chances that I won't go wrong - faithful to the recordings.

 

The midrange bloom will delude audience of a violin into viola, the extra warmth will get vocals darker and chesty than it should have been, a well sign of ageing. Some love this coloration. Colorations make the sound listenable. A total linear response and drop death neutral will not cut it for me. The listening does not last long. Mind you, speakers are the most colored component of all. Changing speaker yields the most audible difference, cable comes second. I guess people change cable as an alternative changing speaker - changing speaker is a more expensive endeavor. It could lead to changing the other componets in the link too.

 

KF left my house with handful of Chengal wood. And he invited me to Amcorp mall the next day to get some spikes, a tweaking I did not reveal publicly. KF is moving fast to make up for lost time. He is missing out the real audio fun, the progress of audio.

 

Want to win a war, you need to beef up your arsenal. You need to do something. KF will take delivery of one Power Bank this coming Saturday. Look like we will have a party in Kajang. By then, KF will be on a more level playing field. Power Bank vs Power Bank, this will narrow the gap. Both are going exactly the opposing route. KF is considering upgrading his speakers while the banker is considering adding an active sub. Interestingly, KF 's strength is exactly the banker's weakness and vice versa. And I get to hear both sides stories. The story continues next year...

 

This post will wrap up 2012, I like to take this opportunity to

 

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


Happy audioing! It ain't fun doing something you don't enjoy. 

Chengal blocks - Take Two

After receiving true Chengal teachings, I couldn't wait to try them. Excited to put what I have learned to use, most importantly I'm eager to see the results. On the other hand, I cut loss my earlier Chengal by recycling them, had them sliced to the right thickness. And so, I  drove around my neighbourhood in search for a good Samaritan to cut to half inch thick. Nobody cares for small job these days.

Rewind, a quick listen without Chengal blocks, "a horse does not know her face long" says the banker, your guess is as good as mine. The magic was gone.  And so, I found a person who is willing to help me for a small charge. Paid RM50 for an hour job and thank them for a big help. A basin-ful of small Chengal blocks is now at my disposal.  I'm ready to rock n roll.
 

The cut was reasonably precise. I inspected the blocks piece by piece and spent some time to sand away the rough edges with abrasive paper. When hobby is concerned, all hardships becomes a joy. But with a few exceptions, it is hard to embark on a hobby as profession that pays your bills these days. How I wish I have half my audio motivation in my work? The cross section cut of Chengal exposes  no loose fibre, no pore holes. It is a sign of hihg density.    

The left image was taken at one coffee shop in PJ. The two wood pencils isolation caught my attention, makes me wonder if he is uncle Y's buddy too? The owner is an avid audiophile since 70s, he runs a famous bak kut teh in Taman Connaught. The topic on audio triggered his enthusiasm. He is currently playing a pair of Audio Note ANEs. Don't play play! A small world indeed, it appears that his buddy is our good friend too. All hell breaks loose.  Audio Note fans are the most brand loyal group. You could expect the bak kut teh uncle system ranges from RM80K and above.

Me : "Uncle, what speakers are you using?"

Uncle : "Odio Note." He has a strange slang.
Me : "Odio Note??? I never heard of, uncle."
Uncle got a little annoyed "Odio Note, it costs RM20k per pair." I started pulling his leg.
Me : "O! Audio Note, the Audio Note by Peter something. You must be playing ANE, top of the line."
Uncle : "Yes. It costs RM20k per pair."
Me : "Audio Note has a wonderful midrange to die for."

Ice is broken, I gazed at  the guy whom is seated at one side of me, he plays a million dollar system and he returned with a wicked smile. Just for the thrill.
 

Images on my first right  was my initial Chengal cable support setup, 6" block. I had then replaced them with a smaller block. As you can tell from the image on the second right, setting them up is a back breaking exercise,  ensuring cables sit on the blocks and sit vertical block perpendicular to the horizon plane. To do that, you need to uncoil or untwist the cable as cable has memory of its own. The blocks are about 6 inches apart to avoid cable sagging. In my case, I got to deal with bi cables per side. Doubly hard.



 

Then, I reverted back to horizontal block perpendicular to horizontal plane mostly, some small blocks are horizontal upright to make way for the power cords.
 

 

Before, the pre is on the ET rack, power amp and Power Bank sits indirectly on the Chengal plank in # formation. DAC sits on a piece of glass/Chengal plank.

After, my DAC sits on marble supported by Chengal plank and pre sits on smaller Chengal plank in perpendicular position. Power amp and Power Bank are isolated from the carpet floor.   I changed the DAC plank configuration to only two planks in upright position. The DAC is isolated via marble/ebony cakes.  This is the best configuration that I had arrived to in terms of sound reproduction and  the below listening experience is based on.

My first concern is will the blocks survive the storm from the speakers? Will they not fall like domino if I cranked up the volume. Surprisingly, the small Chengal blocks hold up well.

With all other factors ceteris paribus, the precious subtleties prevail. High end audio is all about subtleties, right?
 

The difference in sound is obvious, deaf also can hear. You may also light off, your gears powered up, close your eyes and feel the atmosphere. First of,  I heard a new level of tranquility never before experienced, indescribable. It is like Christmas Eve, the most peaceful night of the year.  The tranquility is as if the gears are in perfect harmony, ushering a blacker than black background.

The  tranquility unfolds a "longer tailing" and deeper soundstage as if the electro-signals struggle less to transform to sound. I like what I hear.

Everything was on 30/30 vision given my rather low end transducer. Ambiance retrieval benefited from this tweaking. Studio or live recording, heavily damped or lightly damped studio, closed mike and not so closed mike is easy to tell. No sweat.

Patricia Barber Nightclub is a wonderfully  recorded album. It was recorded live in a club after night, after the crowds left.  My type of jazz got to have the hitting and brushing of cymbal. Albeit you can hear the hissing of the master tape, the spaciousness of this CD is awesome, border less. Patricia tears down my concrete walls. The sound is natural and if I'm to nitpicked, the images are slightly bigger than what I used to. I got nail this later. As with most jazz singers, Sara K, Stacey Kent, Diana Krall, Norah Jones etc, their  album shares a strong respective similarities in style and presentation, from track one to the last track. Same tempo, same arrangement, same vocal technique, very predictable, no surprises. The double bass is softer than before, a little more tenacity is nice. This is one of my desired results. It just does not sound right if double bass is hard, punchy and "short breath". Bloated. I desire my double bass of candy like quality. Listen to this album at night is an excellent choice to wind up your hectic day. Her lazy voice paralyses you.

This is one of my favourite CDs, Beethoven Romances Nos 1 & 2 by David Oistrakh. Great composition and impeccable performance by a great violinist playing with a Strad (in all honesty, I could not tell it was a Strad) and a West Germany pressing that is known for tonal accuracy. Recording is very good by today's standard albeit the recording gain is rather on the low side, you need to crank it up a bit.  This CD will mercilessly reveals your system's flaws. David's attacks on violin showcase his masterful technique, brutal force (E note) at time, caressing (D note) at time and how he works the violin is genuinely a gifted talents of a great violinist. He even takes on the whole orchestra!!! The violin strikes the high pitch as thin as a 0.5mm line (ball pen), and no one will even complain my highs is unrefined. Some says Marten speakers possess a hair thin highs!!!  My highs does not sound hard, cold  or choppy, you are in trouble if yours do. The recording is transparent enough to tell where the musicians are, most importantly this CD is very accurately recorded, instrumental in keeping my tonal accuracy in check. Balanced sound is my ultimate goal.

 

Small Chengal blocks as tone wood showed me a alternate route to high resolution, nimbleness of musical notes, see through transparency, trimmed images, tranquility and blacker soundstage at a small cost. The more revealing your system the more significant the effect. As in many cases, do not overdo it. You might need to retune a bit here and there to balance up the whole sonic picture. Good luck!