Le tour de boom

I got to say greed is a common sin for fi. Upgrade is something all fi look forward to. Bit by bit we push to the limit. Those contented lots, their heart have turned cold. Come on, there is surely some areas you can improve! Year after year, I revisit and gather that some systems sounded dated. That goes without saying some systems have stopped progressing. And there are some still improving on every visit even though there is little can be improved already. Folks, these lots have achieved a fantastic sounding system, world class in one or two areas. I have to take my hat off to their undying passion. Their attention to detail is painstakingly.

I love tweaking for two things unexpected results and low cost. Some may accuse that the results are exaggerated. It all depends on the ability of the listener to pick up the minor changes. As so, a simple glance at a system is suffice to reveal the owner's passion.

A sin she once told me, differentiating the differences remain the lowest hierarchy of audioing. Every fi can do unless of course he is deaf. Identifying and solving the problems is audioing highest order, citing big majority of fi is at the bottom of audioing. He believes that audioing must base on solid engineering, repeatable and producing consistence results. It is not hard to tell the sin she comes from engineering background. You know the stereotype 1 + 1 = 2 lot.

And there are those unexplainable tweak, the said sin she opined that these are very subjective. "I have no appetite for these, no feeling." he said with arrogance that invite some beating, ha.

Imagine this in a milled aluminium casework.

I benefited hanging around these people, they share technical insights and of course be weary of problematic topologies. Non engineering based fi are sold on branding and aesthetic. They seldom look beyond the beautiful casework, it is the topology that makes the difference. Well, only a handful of components in the world are considered to be in a different league, truly a state of the art.

Let's not jump into conclusion as yet, isn't audioing also an emotional fulfillment. Things that deal with emotions are complex. People relate sound to past events. Human being is a complex creature and is not created alike. What makes audio interesting is that everybody listens differently and generalization doesn't always serve right. That's why making known the writer's preference helps to avoid misleading and costly false assumptions. My audio goal is to recreate honest timbre, highest tonality possible, wide bandwidth, lifelike images with a natural ambiance, reverberation or partials whatever you might want to call it. In another word, a less hifi-ish sound. I believe majority fi die for precise imaging and soundstaging.

By honest timbre, I mean the boxiness of guitar plucking, the metallic quality of brass, the rosin of violin, the overtones and partials of drumhead, even some chestiness or nasality of certain artists. Let's not introduce the mixing voodoo, please. We use red book as benchmark, people are inclined to bring too many variables in. Hello! This has no end to it and even Einstein also make assumptions.

Going no where

First impression lasts forever. When people perceive a person a jerk, that perception will be like a cattle mark, stick on you for the rest of your life. It will helluva difficult to shake that perception off. That is of course you hire an image consultant to re image. Money talks. So, in order to give a good impression, I will need to get my acts together to make S1 EXs sound acceptable. I study S1 EX characters, what pleases and what displease them. I am a firm believer of hands on experience carrys greater weight that audio theology, talk is cheap. However, having said that there is still a lot to be done in my room.

Keep out, work in progress

As I wanting to get S1EXs to sing, my precious CD94 transport denied me. What's a terrible let down! Took a few days to identify no signal out, shoot! And I blamed my DAC. I kinda not able to think straight when things go haywire. Thus, I called out my cheapo Pioneer DVD player to serve, a unit I have not been playing for two years. Pioneer DVD player is a wonderful tool to break in the speakers. No critical listening but to clock some hours on S1 EXs.

Fresh speakers are temperamental. Sometimes they behave and sometimes they are not. S1 EXs sounded treble shy and with an overbearing bass. From what I gathered from the press, reviews and listening experience, not just Stereophile mind you, this is not how S1 EXs would sound. However, I do concur with some observations made by some good men that S1 EXs need space and juice to sing right. What they did not reveal is S1 EXs shine with revealing front end and pre amp. S1 EXs will be in their element with analytical, leaner and transparent components; tonic water comes to my mind!  I guess that why Andrew Jones prefers to drive S1 EXs with class D amplifiers, no gushy mushy sounding component.  Dry and lean bass do S1 EXs good. Many of us have difficulty describing tonal accuracy just as describing colors. I was astonished that people could instantly point out that TADs produce one of the most accurate sound. This assessment comes quicker than having your 2 minutes cup noodle cooked!!!

Like a big fish in a small pond, S1 EXs were struggling to stretch their leg in my room. Standing waves constantly smearing the midrange. The vocals have added chestiness. The bass energy is enough suffocate a living being in my room. Enormous energy is felt in standing position. I could feel the energy crawling up my seat though not pants shaking. My seat is where the bass cancellation is optimum. Bass boom is a major audio obscene, and I'm embarking le tour de boom. Failing to tame the bass, I can go fly kite.

Common things to tame the bass are speaker positioning, cabling, room treatment and seating distance.

Space constraint prohibits speaker positioning. In my case, space is a luxury that I don't have. S1 EXs now sit almost similar spot as with Performa F32. The situation now is different, I pushed Performa F32's bass to the limit but manage S1 EXs to the amount my room allowed. Corners augment bass, that was where I start my work - bass trap.

Cable is a tone control device for me. I have not heard a cable that is free of signature or absolutely colorless. Have you? I must confess I'm no sucker for exotic cables. Cable is very system dependent. So, I start experimenting cables from my cable stock. Though it was time consuming, but it was rewarding. There is no better way than me running through my CD collection to reaffirm my selection of cables.

Room treatment is equally critical reducing the standing waves but my fight is not over. Investing in a room give you the highest yield than audio component. The first reflected sound should be taken care of. This act will cleanse the dizziness and reinstate edge delineation. I hope that 2D diffusers could nail the dizziness.

I was constant pressured to open door. A think tank analyses the type of visitors as follows :

• join the fun 
• looking for fresh story
• assessing and comparing cousin model of the same make 
• to verify audioing skills
• to evaluate the sound
• and the combination of the above

I am happy to report that I have managed to make some progress this week. One accused me of making things up because he did not feel the thunderous bass that I encountered earlier. "More bass but not that more". I smell a minor victory there. No much can be done further but time to allow S1 EXs to continue breaking in and waiting for the arrival of diffuser.

有心栽花花不發, 無心插柳柳成蔭, 盧生又無端端做了reviewer.

We never run out of stories and we take them to Whatsapp. Breaking news, Mr Loo, aka the banker will be debuting his maiden review pretty soon, not here but the popular AV2day. The AV2day editor came to audit Mr Loo's system, to get to know "where he is coming from". We sneaked in to join the party. A reviewer must have a reasonable system to build credential.

Hey, don't go. You haven't tell me how to release my brake!

One reaffirmed Mr Loo is "driving with handbrake on", this was evidenced only on some tracks. Nothing escapes the radar of the old goat, Low. One loves the tonal flavors and thought that it has a little resemblance of the infamous LS35a in the midrange, a little. Another praised the seamless bass integration. Loo's bass was full and poise with a strong presence down to upper 30s. And I prefer a spicier presentation that injects excitement.

An old goat suggested that a great review requires three elements; first and foremost, there must be a sonic difference, secondly, spiced the story up with "flowery" lingo and lastly wrap it up with an unbeatable performance cost value. He will be the dealers' darling. The other opined that write from the heart, be original. He will stand to make a lot of enemies.

Writing is a very good pass time, I find. It will be difficult at first as always but things will eventually come together after awhile. That's the first hurdle thing. A writer will be more alert to the surrounding subconsciously, ready to absorb new ideas and look at things in at different perspectives. Polishing grammar and delivery come naturally. Looking back my earlier postings, I almost wanted to jump off the bridge, very jittery not way near "hor fun" smoothness. Idea running dry will be every writer's natural progression. My best advice to Mr Loo is do not try to please everyone, because he can't.

These comments have caused Loo unrest even though he claimed that he is immune from third parties comments. He said with finger crossed behind his back. He is currently looking for ways and means to "disengage the brake". That my friend, is the most devastating remark to the ear of the beholder.

My ceiling, my regret

The title bears such negativity! Confront it or condone it. Six months living with my Performa F32s, the ugly truth surfaced. My room is my biggest liability, not room size but the rattling ceiling. Well, a bigger house is everybody dreams. Right where I am staying, my wife won't cede an inch more for my audio room. So, forget about golden ratio, diamond ratio for that manner, I work with what I have.

My ceiling, my regret. Upon inspection, the previous renovation contractor cut corners on my ceiling. The ceiling framework was shabby, could not withstand against the bass waves. As such, mysterious sounds were found all over once I hit the loudness threshold. At times, it had me thinking that there is loose parts in F32s. Holy smoke! Compromises. I got to keep the loudness below the threshold to not to excite the ceilling. Turning down the volume, turning down the excitement. Hey! I am not a head banger. Now, this is the thing with S1 EX, my ceiling has no chance of survival. It will make itself known.

An insensitive speaker, anything below 89db/W/m requires one to turn up the volume a little more to achieve realism. High efficiency speakers fare better in this regard because they do not eat up the realism as much. Then again, high efficiency speakers have their set of limitation, mostly and namely, nasality and limited bandwidth.

 

 

I always worry about handling and delivery. Thank God, my S1 EXs came in one piece. I knew that I need to get the ceiling fixed before moving the little monsters in my room. Time waits for nobody, my time is not for others to waste. I don't waste people time and hate people wasting mine. I am an impatience person. I see, I take and I pay.

I drove around in my neighborhood looking for contractors. Went through with the contractor what I wanted to do, agreed upon the terms, the contractors showed up at my door and started to work on my room two days later. Going forward, the contractor beefed up the ceiling framework, skimmed and repainted my walls. The reconstruction took four solid days, and the dust was unbearable. I have to clean the place up after work to be livable. Exhaustion beyond words.

OK, the news spread like wildfire with S1 EXs. The guys were zealous, anxious to know how they sound or how terrible sound I will get. By the way, the paint odor is sickening. With some helping hands, I got the hefty S1 EXs moved into my room. They weight a whopping 66kg each. O damn, the imposing stature of S1 EXs pose a strong contrast to my small room, my heart turned half cold already with the sight. Hello! I think I had dug my own grave. Dust to dust ashes to ashes, deep down in my heart I had started to murmur my own burial speech.

S1 EXs pose some serious challenges. Firstly, it was my greed and secondly, they are too big for my room. Violating the two utmost audio sins promise condemnation. And I had gone hiding in a confession booth to repent. I went against what I preach. Kuala Lumpur, I have a problem!

Did I jump the gun on S1 EX? My critical rational was the radiating surface? Let's see, Circle area computation is π x r^2. whereby r is radius.

F32 employs dual 6.5 inches midbass drivers, they equate one 9.2 inches driver. S1 EX employs dual 7.06 inches midbass drivers, they equate one 10.0 inches driver, an 8.7% increase in radiating surface. Surely, the bass would not be that great of difference! My friend whispered to me that I have overlooked the driver excursion rate, an unpublished data.

S1 EX's bass quantity blew my assumption to the roof. Hate to admit, S1 EXs were very boomy in my room!!! I now found myself five feet under. Plan A was a total disaster. The Neodymium magnet employed must account for the phenomenon. I swear on your grave that this rare earth magnet is not from Lynas, for Lynas has not started their operation in Kuantan during the time of speaker assembly. The last thing I want is the protesters come campaigning at my door. Neodymium magnet is being second to Electro Magnet developed by Focal in terms of power per heat value. Magnet loses power when heat buildup. Be reminded, S1 EXs are still far from breaking in. Nevertheless, I was all shook up hearing the bass speed, prowess and extension.

Damage control is taking place. Let's see my cards on my table, the best and worst scenario. I will never able to realize the full potential of S1 EXs in my room. 70% of S1 EXs is about right or maybe less, my room is the limiting factor. My present cabling has to go and I have to experiment speaker positioning. I am taking my time with each small step.

 

Tonal flavor aside, the good news is my trusty Mosfet 150 is capable of delivering the juice to make S1 EXs sing. While busy settling my system, I tagged along audio heavyweights to attend the exclusive AV Design's Bryston Model T launching on April 13. The system was all Brystons except Wywire cabling. The sound was promising with the bass quality and quantity unheard of at this price. The bass was full and meaty coupled with clean midband and inoffensive highs. So, Model T has created a ripple like repercussion underground. They are well worth their asking price and I shall not write too much due to brief casual listening in a less than ideal environment.

OK, enough bullshit for the day.


To be continued....

Living your dream

Hey, hey, hey, it has been awhile since my last posting. I'm rather busy these days. Funny that I accomplish little even though I was busy. Weird, isn't it?

Do you have a dream, seriously? Dreams make life worth living, dreams make us homo sapien because God creates us to think. Orelse, we are no different from animal - food and mating. A person without dreams is living out his life like a robot, until the day he is set to retire. Hello to Capitalism.

It is all about competitive edge in the world of Capitalism. Life will only get tough by the days, we all need to sharpen our competitive edge to stay in business or employed. Capitalism consumes resources, sucks our life dry. I invite you to come in here to dream ....

I have been with my present speakers, Revel Performa F32 MSRP 4K USD for 2 years now and I was spending the first year mostly to break the speakers. My God, modern speakers take time to break. The bass drivers do not even move much. Once broken in, the bass extension is marvelous. In all honesty, F32s do not shine in any particular area but the longer you stay with them, the more you appreciate their healthy sonic balance, no major flaw that put you off. Those who had heard, have nothing but praise their price/performance ratio.

A balanced sound plays a good variety of music. F32s are versatile in small room and great in medium room, thanks to the crossover tuning. Their performance belies their modest asking price. I have done around of auditioning before deciding on F32s, American speaker with a Brit mid. I'm retiring them prematurely after hearing magic from a friend's system - TAD full suit. TAD system makes my tears roll, hold it, hold it, this is embarrassing. Their highs and mids realism awes me. I was like Christopher Columbus discovering America. My equilibrium was disturbed. I no longer feeling contended. I lost my interest in F32s, I felt disconnected with F32s, I no longer wanting to listen to them. I was agonizing. My mind went somewhere else. The venom was spreading throughout my body, my thought glued to TAD. So, exercise cautions when listening to friends' system. Your friends could be audio devil's advocate. To avoid this trap, listen to mega systems that you can't afford!

Tonal balance occupies top priority, the designer background, his philosophy and the intended purpose of his creation top my speaker selection. Poor guys like me always approach with price point, you know, the typical how much? I started looking for a tricked down model that employed similar technologies that I can afford, there you go. They always offer tricked down models to capitalize on their R&D, don't they? Pioneer S1-EXs with blue blood studio pedigree, is my antidote. But, MSRP 9K USD price tag is not friendly for me. I wish I have a genie to grant my wish, that sadly remains a fantasy. They are well in the range of a pair of used Wilson Sophia. And why does everybody use Wilson as benchmark anyway? I'm not anti Wilson, excuse me, just that I would prefer to have other makes.

There was a story in a forum that a guy came up to Andrew Jones at an audio show, asked him about the degree S1-EX resembling the mighty TAD M1, the parent model they transfer the technology? Andrew was caught with the question, took his time and replied "80-85%". Wah, si beh song lim pe ka lu kong! That arithmetic works too good to be true for a cheapskate like me. I almost pee in my pants and momentarily slide Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad under my pillow. Some Americans prefer to buy "prestigious" brands so that they may fetch a better resale value in future. Hey hey hey, what do we have here? Americans with Chinaman mentality. Pioneer, the name does no bit to uplift my self esteem even it is a flagship model. Their loss is my gain. Rumour has it there are only eight pairs sold in Singapore and two in Malaysia, the info comes straight from the horse's mouth.

My incline to Classical music also accounts for the speaker upgrading. There are a certain qualities that I looked for - the refinement of strings, the scent of violin rosin and the masculine of piano playback. Natural timbre, erhu, pipa, guzheng excite me, even sitar and tabla also generate equal share of excitement. I want an honest sound and value. There are many overrated speakers even though favourably reviewed. When you are rich, you do not exercise "choosing". You get the best there is or the one you like. Or buy the most expensive speaker the market has to offer. There are people who buy without looking at the price tag. There are also people buy for aesthetic. I buy for sound. Too bad, I can't afford to change equipment like changing cloth. Mind you, I'm just an average income earner, struggling for daily meal. When limited resources are concerned, you got to be critical about big V, value.

You get what you pay. True in most cases but is not entirely true. There are many speakers out there are overrated. I too hold the belief that on a good pair of speakers, your money goes to tonality. That goes without saying that the higher the price of the speaker, the greater the tonality. Mostly, the hidden components inside the speaker accounts for the performance even though same drivers employed in lower models. Fact is, you can't get total realism from working man price below 2k USD speakers, do you? The designer works the compromises around, they skim at less critical areas. Let's not get trap in most DIY mindset, buy 2k USD speakers, add 2k USD mods, you will get a 10k USD speaker exponential performance? Somehow, DIYers tend to think they are the smartest guy. Wishful thinking.

Incidentally, I did audition Pioneer S1-EXs at the local store before deciding on F32s. The dealer have only himself to blame for not able to put up a decent demo, the sound was utterly dull and lifeless. Pioneer S1-EXs were far from break in and probably unmatched amplification. Both of us lose at the end. I think that was the only pair S1-EXs in Malaysia. That pair belongs to my friend now. He will be using Bel Canto Ref 1000 to drive them, the same combo Andrew Jones uses during the show and Stereophile review. Can't go wrong with that combo, smart buy.

With the money on the line, you feel the adrenalin making purchasing decisions. You do not wish to end up a sucker, a laughing stock. There are many bad purchases already though they may never admit it.

To be continued ...................