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.