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 .........