KF, Grade A durian

Kajang is a bustling town, way too many traffic lights if you asked me. This town is known for satay, grilled marinated red meat, served in peanut sauce. I made time to pay KF a visit one evening to realize a promise I made many months ago. Me and my big mouth. KF was caught surprise. Traffic was unbelievably heavy on the highway, the congestion was without any reason. Which town in Klang Valley does not face traffic congestion? When the wheel of development comes, excites the local business dynamic, attracts people to work and stay, new buildings are up, schools are made, phone network covered, traffic build up is inevitable. On school days, parents pick up and drop their kids. Don't they send kids to school via bus anymore? Make things worse, they park their car as with their own will. They worsen the traffic congestion. Gosh, my fuel was running low, getting caught in a bad traffic with an almost empty fuel tank is not exactly a good feeling. I was in a melancholy mood.

It took me 20 minutes more than usual to reach Kajang. We had dinner and went straight to business. The above image can only serve a memory, ah...! The cheap Persian carpet bothers me upon entering to his room.  Friends know KF is very particular with things. He wants his things neat and tidy. A good barometer is to look at the man car, dust free.

Regrettably, this virtue did not reflect in his audio room. The color painted on the walls, the futuristic rack, the white single settee, the monochrome carpet, displays a modern styling and along come the cheap Persian carpet, what's a spoiler. His magic carpet inherited from his family must be responsible for his sound? Bad taste. KF looked at me helplessly and said, "... too much of  work to have the carpet changed." Bloody excuse!

 

KF's room measures roughly 12 feet by 9 feet, height is 10 feet, a typical small room in an apartment. Everybody can wish for better things but only a handful will get it. Two persons in his room is ok, three will suffocate, everybody will fight to access oxygen. Even the settee stands in the entrance way. The guest has the honors to take the sweet spot, the host sits on on the floor. More guests, the worst the sound gets. They behave like sound trap, they eat up detail.
 

Let's run a little KF's background, he grew up in Sansui era. In those days, Sansui speakers are full ranger, built like a mini refrigerator and dig low. People then like them loud! Something never change with age, he reminds me of the late Uncle Vic. He has a tendency to blast his guests out the door but only this time I take control of the remote control.

Good news first or bad news first on my previous impression?  Let's start with bad news, the recessed highs, lack of air and shut in soundstage and among others were the shortcoming. The sound was locked in between the plane of the speakers, nothing much beyond the speakers. The decoupling effect did not work at optimum level. Depth and height were restricted, make worst by the room modes, the evil of his room acoustics.

A right tone is neither overly smooth nor sand paper abrasive. Can you imagine a smooth brass? If you do, you got unfinished work there! KF's tone was overly warm, too hard, too heavy, too coarse and jarring for my taste. It renders an aged vocal. Overtones were short than normal. Nuff said, KF started bitting his lips with my remarks as if "Nobody beats you up in a long while, eh?”

OK the good news is, KF does not suffer the worst and costly nightmare that any fi would not want to confront - mismatch. O my! The control and detail squeezed by the Power Bank was nothing short of spectacular. That thing is still vivid in my head, a significant jump in audio performance.

 

 

KF spent his bonus on his second Power Bank. He was super proud and cute with the occasional  crouching image pouncing at your face effect at crescendos, courtesy of twin Power Banks. It gives your heart a workout.

KF wanted my honest opinion on twin Power Banks. I listened long and hard to key the following findings.
 

His room treatment is the major culprit. KF's really worked his room this time with the introduction of new tweaks.  Little little things add up? KF got rid of the nasty acoustic foams, I hate those acoustic foams. Aesthetically, his room now looked refreshing.

KF applied spikes resonators on the wall, rack and speaker top. There are also many cones on the floor, this place is like a living landmine. The Mosfet 150 was spiked up with huge spikes, a resemblance of the mighty Krell KSA monster amp. Since KF's Mosfet 150 runs on low bias class A, the spike elevation permits better heat dissipation. Everything lasts longer with less heat. His Mosfet 150 was previously sitting on raised a glass plate. Yekkk! The cables were all elevated from the floor, better managed now. He mixed and matched the isolation to arrive to a balanced tone, neither hard nor soft, neither hot or cold. That's what I called attention to detail. These things never escape my sight.

One thing he did not change, he is still using the generic power cord. A point he wants to prove many wrong. "Hey, look, hey, look, no need exotic power cord!" KF got a statement to make, it hits me directly.

Audio is like Maths. The number of tweaking add up to make a bigger impact. One trick pony has no place in audio. KF managed to remove the coldness and gloominess of his sound with isolation. He succeeded in getting rid the resonance that have many perceived as warmth. In doing so, edge delineation improvement is reflected. With  a combination of different hardness of isolation, tenderness and decay were restored.

Cai Qin sounded lighter and youthful than before. Her vocal received  the Telefunken euphonic, so does the rest of frequency spectrum. The tubes have their colors painted on the sound, a 3D bloom and coquettishly captivating. Vocal fans adored this exquisite evocative quality not found in Solid State electronics.  As a matter of fact, Cai Qin sings like a real diva in KF's room. Element of rushing, murmuring and grouchiness were not found.

KF explained, articulation comes with how much you control the bass and room mode, how effective you control the bass from intruding the critical midrange. The key is first sound reflection. KF uses soft board to counter this, they changed the sound reflectiveness coefficient and delay the reflective sound.  Further listening reveals the headroom is bigger than before. The ambiance fills the whole room, cinematic like, not as confused. KF nailed the last straw of soundstaging. The neat cable management also helped to promote the soundstage, less interference.

 

Now, the biggest surprise is the bass. KF's bass has that wave like rumbling quality. He uses cones to reshape the bass. Fat, tight, controlled, fast, all bass descriptions (except elimination) can be achieved via the placement of the cone. His previous bloated and undefined bass is now history. You guys might have a hard time to believe the diving bass. KF attested his bass with some ferocious drum play and jazz. The bass in his small room has definition, somewhere 75-80dB. 

Just how good is his bass, I requested him to "Pirate of the Caribbean's On Stranger Tides", he did not know what is coming.....
 

 

This is no ordinary cup cake. You need to have a system with plenty of juice to reproduce the grandeur of this soundtrack.  Nope, KF's system could not pull it off! Wishful thinking.  You ain't got what you ain't got, KF's system has very little output below 35Hz, the foundation was too weak to hold up the granduer. Even the mid bass ran out of steam.  However, to have KF's mid bass quality and quantity in his small room is respectable.
 

No wonder KF was all smile for the past weeks, you know, the kind of wicked smile that he wants to hide and thinks nobody would not have noticed. However, KF was flexing his legs, ready to boot me out from his room. The cold water on his enthusiasm is too chilly. My only contribution that day was toeing in his speakers a mere 1mm. Astonishingly, that 1mm toe in can do to the sound! The imaging got even more focus. And because of that, I returned KF a tongue out look.

KF was quick to have his trusted buddy over for a listen. His buddy was shaking his head, astonished with the pace of improvement. Two thumbs up, sent KF to the top of Broga hill. The retired chef has been visiting KF for the past 10 years and never once approve his audio. "Your system now gives me what I want." said the retired chef. KF was so touched, almost hanging out his tears out to dry.  A smile of satisfaction, a smile of arrogance, a smile of achievement, this fueled KF even more.

KF thanks me for toeing in his speakers. He is now the undisputed new king for sub 20k MYS system, and he got every reason to be cocky! Like a famous Hakka quote, his system is a guaranteed Grade A durian, a Swiss Army knife system. His system could  knife most silver discs of various music genre. Clap-clap, dollar per dollar, KF's system is tough to beat. It is almost at the peak of optimum. The law of diminishing value is lurking at his door, so help him God.
 

Walking tall

Lunar New Year is around the corner, it is the start of spring. Most activities will stand still in this part of the world during the festive, sort of freezing in time. Lunar New Year is an occasion to celebrate, we visit friends and we feast, an occasion to meet "long lost" family members. People get laid back, looking forward to yet another long holiday. Time to put our audio to sleeping mode though there will be some private audio parties and I am so consumed with audio, audio 365.

Traffic was bad, some came out for shopping while others were leaving the city to join with their family, the bustling KL will morph to a foreign city with imported labourers come flocking into the city. They make KL their meet up venue.

Conducive environment enhances the joy of audioing, period. Noise free, room temperature, seating comfort, lighting are the factors that determine the degree of conducive environment. I fell in love with Lazy Boys, snug myself into the seat, sort of like baby in a cradle. Why do women always stand against men? Shoot, I did not get the approval from my wife to get a Lazy Boys for my audio room. She will nag me in my sleep and she always wins.

So, I figure the best thing next to Lazy Boys is a footstool. Cost effective and practical. So, my hunt for a footstool was on. My wife and I did some leg works, we managed to find one footstool with matching upholstery, paid 120MYR and I am happy with the find.

The footstool cum storage is a pleasure to use, my old knees take quite a bit beating due to my body load. Do we agree here on weight shedding is like a condemnation. Look what's on the table, change diet or stand to frequent hospital in years to come. Thus, I have made a tough decision, to commit to work out, 30 minutes cardio per day. Guys, there is always a "buy out" clause? Much like in audio, one will attract challenges for careless remarks. Better to stay low key to enjoy peaceful audio. I am not out to make a statement but to share my audio adventure with a few close friends and blogging, peaceful audioing.

OK, let's rock n roll, happy legs came in the expense of depressing bass notes. My damn footstool is a living bass trap. The bass is thoroughly sick, like a deflated ball, it had lost its vibrancy, bounciness and definition. I lost my foot tapping.

                                   

Torn between with and without footstool, I hate to see my blood and sweat cash goes down the drain, my money isn't easy to make like some business tycoons, lawyers and doctors. Dr Mimosa advised me to take off the footers of the footstool. I thought that was not cool. I sealed the opening instead. Bass improved slightly, only marginal. The idea of removing the footstool from my audio room is as if shooting myself in the foot, be a man, I bite my own bullet. The footstool stays.

My past experience taught me that when you are troubled and couldn't figure a way out, don't give too much thought about it, concentrate on other issue and the solution will eventually surface. A cool head makes wise decisions. Leaving thing as it is, I waged war against the nasty omnipresent EMI and RFI. I knew there are some unfinished works there. My usual audio route is research, research and research, I'm no genius, could not pick ideas from thin air. Pricey tweak, I can't afford but the cheap and cheerful ferrite rings fit my bill. It will be interesting to know how they turn out to be.

I drove to old Pasar Road, a local renowned electrical and electronic parts marketplace down town. Traffic was as bad as I could remember, did not change a bit. This place is changing though not as at the speed of our economy might suggest. New buildings are up, it is sad to see an increasing number of street stall selling non electrical and electronic merchandise, like hardware, bag, and clothing and even sex enhancement pill. These changes dilute the image once Pasar Road known for. One thing does not change, parking is always a hassle.

You are running a risk if you park your car on the yellow line, the officers were relentlessly issuing summons and towing cars.

As much as I hate to go to Pasar Road, a Chinese proverb says "To get tiger cubs, you need to go to the tiger." The guy who said this probably did not come back, serving up himself a tiger's meal. Laugh out loud. Crowds were as usual, I bought two shallow large diameter ferrite rings and bracelet them in parallel at DAC power cable IEC connector. I figured DAC would benefit most from EMI and RFI free. Horse faced, lifeless sums up the story.

CD transport and DAC received power cable braceletting treatment. Too much of a good thing, I reduced to one ferrite braceletting instead. The single ferrite bracelet was a show stopper, the sound became sort of mist free and still lively. With the ferrite bracelets come greater articulation and intensify tone density. Bingo!  It a sign of a good thing!  Getting a little cute, I clamped the coaxial cable with ferrite clamp. Big flop! Ferrite clamp sucks all the life there is in the sound. Dustbin is where they belong. There seems to be an unestablished correlation between the size of ferrite bracelet and audio performance. Don't be greedy.

With growing confidence in ferrite bracelet, I was eager to return to Pasar Road to get a few more ferrite bracelets the next morning. Impatience drives me nut, I can not stand half done job. I wasted no time putting the ferrite bracelets on M5 sine wave corrector and power amp LMos 150 power cable. Holy cow! The whole ferrite braceletting works wonder, the improvement was greater than CD transport and DAC, what a kick at my face! No burn in, no waiting time, transparency gets an instant boost, detail permeates through the sonic fabric like never before, power and control too showed improvement too, yahooooo.... I was walking tall.

All above findings are substantiated by the following repeated CD listening. Erik Satie's piano work is under the shadow of Liszt and Chopin, I felt that he is under rated. His 3 gymnopedies by Pascal Roge under Decca label, West Germany pressing was beautifully recorded. I heard the  pristine steel strings reverberations with each hammer strike and some unknown background noises at the intervals which I could not put my finger to it. It sounded like ventilation induced noise. These imperfections make the sound realistic.  The transparency of this recording is magnificent. If I were to demonstrate see through quality, this CD will be it. The ferrite braceletting put these through a magnifying glass.  In total darkness, I see a naked piano in front of me and nothing stands in between me and the piano. No ill note, no mist, no guesswork. The intimate relationship is indescribable. The transparency conveys detail, detail conveys emotion, emotion runs deep.

My favorite CD, Ali Farka Toure and Ry Cooder collaboration, Talking Timbuktu is a fusion folk with a strong African influence. I must say this is the best Ry Cooder's work for me, a strong chemistry between Ali Farka Toure and Ry Cooder was evident. Most fusion sounded out of place, they do not blend all that seamlessly. Mind you, this is not an audiophile approved CD, I find that the recording is more than decent and the music is unique. It is either love or hate kind of music. Track 2, 7, 8 and 10 are highly recommended. The bass lays the foundation, the Malian singer do his magic, and his earthy vocal is so magnetic and inviting. African music are particularly strong on vocal harmonisation, no fancy technique, no complicated composition,  no falsetto nor vibrato, they sing from the heart. The flow of music was awesome and the stage was beyond walls. Bass was taut and authoritative, I could literally feel the play of the instruments. The  timbre  has that resounding  quality, exhibiting the wonderful individuality, the guitar, the bass and the congas were so tuneful. I prefer this to Hugh Masekela, this is an album that will grow on you, it will grow on me.

How about big scale music? The pirate of the Caribbean soundtrack : On Stranger Tides is one of the most challenging CDs that I ever have. The cinematic sound shakes and tears walls. The bass on track 3 is awesome and equally demanding. The layer upon layer of bass Ooooooo, to reproduce the full grandeur and scale of this track requires no fainted hearted system, and certainly no bookshelf speakers could pull this off. My system was struggling with the bass having their own slapstick during the complex passages, I was infuriated. The ferrite bracelets rescued me from shame. Presence, power, quietness and 3D soundstage, the new found bass control, interwoven the stage together from crumbling. Imagine man on man acrobatic. Credits goes to LMos 150, its control is crucial to keep the composure. I can forgo the extreme frequencies but will not compromise on separation and definition. As the volume turned up, my room quickly became my liability. Some noises uncalled for. The outcry for further room treatment is resounding clear. "OK, OK, I heard ya! I heard ya!" I am happy to report that with the noises been taking care of, I am pleased with the outcomes. 

TBM is my tonal balance reference CD to check, we all know how meticulous the Japs are with tonal balance. The quality of the recording gives me goose bumps. It will sound marvellous on any system, no doubt about it. Better system extracts more subtleties and definitions. The ferrite bracelets turned my system a better system, more like planar speaker like quality. The reverberations float in the air a wee bit longer, the spatial resolution was breathtaking. Microscopic detail retrieval was like cup cake, no need to look hard for them. TBM recording has a special way of capturing the truth of timbre, we get to hear subtleties the musicians hear. My audio room receives a 360 degree presence like in a live musical event. If my description is a little too abstract, the qi or energy fills the room.

When quietness/cleanliness is attained, everything prevails. I checked and edited this post to reaffirm if I am living in my own audio fantasy. Pinch me. The ferrite bracelets compensated the inferior bass inflicted by the cute footstool. They are a reminiscent of mini dCS Puccini :-} and mini Power Bank. No, I am not blowing my trumpet, says 10-15% will be right. Some one had just tried one ferrite bracelet, he can't wait for more .........

Budget audio, no glory?

Budget audio, no glory? Audiophiles tend to give the stare like "hey, you can ignore what this guy say."

Many look down on budget audio. I don't blame them for they do not have much wow factor. Forget not, we were once started our audio avendure from budget audio, right. There are also blessed people started their system at half a million MYR!!!

Monitor Audio has dogged quite a long awhile. This time, I will share my first impression on Bronze BX2s, entry level bookshelf speakers from Monitor Audio.

I must confess that I did not like old Monitor Audio signature sound, tilted up highs. Thin and weary highs sounded unnatural, the vocal seems to sing a higher key like in Karaoke. While they weren't in similar fashion with the more refined Pro Ac, Monitor Audio has a fuller midrange and bass. It seems at so point in time, speaker companies reinvent themselves. They changed the house sound. In doing so, they hope to gain greater market share. That's why a bright engineer could not be a good business man and vice versa for they look at things at different perspective. Krell and its founder is a clear example.

So, what is the fuss with the rave reviews they garnered? I will soon find out.

A typical 2 way bass reflex bookshelf, 350mm H x 185mm W x 285mm D, weights 5.84kg each. One 25mm tweeter and one 165mm driver in a MDF box going for 1200-1300MYS per pair. The tweeter and driver are Monitor Audio proprietary, not available for third party use. They hold the prices up pretty well, thanks to low cost production facilities in China.

Well, I did not expect much from BX2s. A present speaker will always better than the old speaker in the same price bracket due to the blessing of new technology. It will be different story then if you compare with mid price old speaker with the low price new speaker. The reason I post this is to see if time has pressed the speakers performance. From the spec alone, these entry BX2s highs shoot up to 30kHz!!! 10kHz more than the similar offerings a decade ago. It even bettered Wilson Sophia Mark I!  Lows digs down to 40Hz, that's pretty amazing for its size.

 

Nuff talk, let's get right to the sound. Grandeur is never bookshelf speaker forte, the only speaker I have heard that defy this law of physics is the Sonus Extremas. BX2s were never close to challenge Extremas, we talking about 15 fold price difference. The matter of fact is BX2 has a  bass belie its size, gorgeous. The bass is full and extended. In this regard, BX2s punch above their weight. I was curious how 165mm/6.5 in driver could move so much air and with such authority? Bigger motor behind the driver must be responsible for the bass. A peep behind BX2, the bass driver was locked in place with a rod, a cross head screw was seen at the back of the enclosure. This is an ingenious design to curb resonance. Resonance occurred mostly at the front baffle where the driver is screwed onto the front baffle. The louder the sound the greater movement of the driver hence the greater resonance. Similar priced (less inflation) speakers a decade ago would dream to have a bass like BX2s. BX2s bass beat Mordaunt Short Aviano, a direct competitor. Advancement in efficient production brings about cost reduction that allow a driver of this quality to be made available to budget speakers. 

 

On the highs and mids, BX2s no longer inherit the old Monitor Audio house sound. The highs is thicker and given time (not fully run in yet), will shine. The mids is clean and articulate, no trace of BBC sound. Nope, you do not get the tonality, tonal quality and refinement of the megabucks speakers. Most speaker makers cut corner at crossover. Skimming quality components at crossover is not something new. I am expecting too much BX2s that priced so dearly.

 

BX2s are best driven with solid state electronics, Audiolab will be a fine choice. At 90dB sensitivity and 8 ohm nominal impedance, BX2 will not pose a difficult load to the amp. Monitor Audio has up the game, dollar per dollar, BX2s make an ideal buy for the beginner.