A summer Christmas part II

Trapped in the mid fi kingdom? That's where I'm now because Pioneer S1EXs ruthlessly revealing the flaws of my audio upstream. That aside, the more I listen to them, my astonishment grew. Love the neutrality, love the musicality and love the resolving power of S1EXs. They somehow inherit the British midrange with a twist of American bass slam.

Truth is I always worship the shortest signal path ideology. Longer path stands for higher loss of signal. DAC with volume control came to mind. I received a DAC loan, connecting it direct to the power amp. Holy, holy, holy transparency! What's a revelation! DAC has come a long way, the level of performance has exceeded my wildest imagination. The gap between analogue playback and digital playback is narrowed. Does it sound analog? Hell no! But I bet with you that it is hard to find a DAC sounding digitis these days and the day requiem for pre amp is near, in my humble opinion.

The DAC smoked my resident dac + pre. I realized that the sonic turbidity comes from the combo and room acoustics also come into the play. There's still unfinished business. Big portion of bass muddiness was wiped off on my initial catchment, even the booming at side seat was not overwhelming. I was caught surprise. It was boom like hell prior to this.

I was playing 10/10, first track from Paolo Nutini's Sunny Side Up. A layer of sonic haze not made known to me had been removed. Noise floor was notably lower and background was jet black. Micro detail retrieval was awesome. With the new DAC, my system, my system as if had received a jab of revitalization, snappier, rhythmic, more PRaT, spatial separation and more of everything. The air around the instrumental was breathtaking. My jaw was floored, absolutely. Given the newness of the loan unit, I have some reservations. The bass did not blossom and so, it somewhat less true to the bass reproduction though I applaud the tautness, jump factor and edge delineation.

Once tasted the goodness in your very system, it stirs up a hornet's nest. It is the most effective selling technique in audio. My audio head was tangled ever after the return of the dac due to stability.

Back to where I was, muddiness and me. In order to get down to the root of the problem, I took great pain to scrutiny each component in my system. More dirt under the carpet than I ever realized. Cable was not the issue but my LDR pre and DAC were the real culprit. Holy shit, the LDR pre amp sound quality deteriorated over time without me realizing. Just like tyres, the gradual air pressure loss is unfelt. Many things went wrong from midbass down.

Let's get to work, I swapped my resident LDR pre with Autoformer Volume Control and PS Audio GCP 200 pre to arrive to this. PS Audio GPC 200 pre amp is nevertheless a good pre largely beacuse it does not mess around with the tonal balance. Transparency is commendable, some muddiness from the midbass down were removed but still give enough trouble to the bass. Flaw was identified and more need to unfold. Everything was rounded off. Trouble duo have to go. I hate that! That mean I need to burn more cash and cash is something I don't have much!

My search for new dac is on.

A summer Christmas part I

Frequent equipment change is a luxury I can't afford, do you? History reveals to us that resource scarcity drives innovative, gets one to go around getting things done. One excellent example, the oil producing neighboring countries are more developed than the oil producing countries, they go downstream and value add oil related products.

Audio passion is measured by the time spent on this crazy hobby and sonic pickiness. Missing either one will not get you far. Passion motivates you to acquire knowledge, to get better sound. Thank goodness we are presently in K-nomic. Never before the world experiences information outburst as we are right now. Information is as easy at your fingertips. People share stories in the cyber world. Audioing is made much easier than in the 80s where the net was still in its infancy, access to information was poor.

Small room, anything 1600 volumetric cubic feet and below, I can't help feeling apologetic. It is my belief, 2.1 system is the ideal solution in small room. However, 2.1 system has their own set of problems mainly the integration of the mains and the sub. No matter how well you integrate, you stand a chance of misconstrue the mid bass. You know, some call it grey area? Furthermore, this integration requires good technique to align the phase and timing and make them sing in unison. A godly effort.

Migrating from 2.1 system to floorstanding speakers, I eliminate the phase and timing constant. I let the engineers take care of these shitty phase and timing. They can use whatever computer assisted speaker stimulation crosssover. No guesswork for me.

From Revel Performa F32s to Pioneer S1 EXs, I'm without regrets. The idea is to sound pressurize the room to stimulate a believable event. Undeniably, the atmospheric of big speakers is unrivalled. You feel the musical nuances biting every inch of your flesh, so close to the real thing but yet so far. If you have been to live music, you'll know what I mean. However small room is not without problems, booming is always there to harass.

Small room is a perfect breeding place for booming, this is true if all your room boundaries are of concrete. Bass trap is one key solution, a pressure release valve. My wooden ceiling is my release valve, booming is kept to a minimum. The truth is you can't eliminate booming entirely. I just take care of four corners. If the bass still fall apart, I might want to make two small openings on your ceiling to release the bass energy or figure out an alternative to trap more bass.

Another less preferred solution is to use cable to deliberately suppress bass energy, trading sonic balance for less boominess. As such, highs naturally will become extra zealous. Strings and brass will be more emphasized while drums will be more abatable. Vocals will lose their guttural qualities and "uplifted" considerably.

KL SMART tunnel, seems like an endless tunnel.

Tweaking is icing on the cake. To remedy this, tone wood is probably the answer. Tweaking is as good as black magic. Once hooked with tweaking, you set to hit on an endless tunnel. Correct combination of tweaks is like a dressing to a cake.

If all above still fails to curb booming which I don't see it will, turn down the volume.

Take a break. Audio gossip is fun when no hold barred, question is can you take it? We were talking about those systems that you won't visit even if money is offered? It was so laughable, of course, this is as close as it gets. My mouth is zipped, classified information.

Back to story, admittedly, I'm ambitious and greedy. My leg rest cum storage is a wonderful bass trap. As where I have left, I've detected a weird soundstage anomaly, the soundstage was constricted within the speakers and the depth was shallow, only ten or fifteen feet. Holy cow, there was bass suck out. This is contrary to S1 EXs heard in a showroom, painting a wall of sound and exhibiting non of those attributes. Puzzled!

Things did not go well with my resident Marantz CD94 either. CD94 did not read right, I had to call up my crappy DVD player to serve. In an attempt to achieve good sound, I was experimenting power cords. And why they don't make universal polarity. The plug polarity own its share of guilt for messing up the sound as well. So, the double teaming had compounded the complication. It was a slapstick, nevertheless. After making right the wrongs, I was racing toward the checkered flag. The sound was acceptable, somehow the bass linearity remained my system's Achilles heel. I blamed the newness of the drivers, patiently playing them and keep my fingers cross.

As where I was now, I got a real nice pinpoint imaging, rivaling monitor speakers. The quality of highs is marvelous. The highs was pristine and the extension was effortless. Fine as hair. Some tweeters roll off at certain points and rounded off things a bit. Some sounded veiled outright. I could not come back to dome tweeters no more. As such, strings and piano sounded glorious. This was the quality that prompted me to break my piggy bank.

Anything above midbass, it sounded flawless to me. Although, they do not paint a rich tonal balance which I hope not, they sounded real to me. The vocal mass is healthy without too much fat to the bone. Too much mass will hurt the strings because warm midrange will leads to thick strings and could never be more exemplary on violin. Ladiodental consonant and throatiness were apparent, excessive upper bass will eat up these virtues. I love S1 EXs pace and punchiness, heart stopping! Neodymium magnet is at work.

It is not exactly bass shy at my place, bass shy is bass deficiencies. Empty the room will do the trick, but holy shit, how do you deal with bass suck out?

to be continued

My KLIAVS 2013 coverage

Well folks, hollowness follows after KLIAVS highlight. KLIAVS weekend is a hectic one. As usual, there were some hits and misses. I found that the room acoustic was largely the major fault. Those treated their rooms had their systems shine, after all they had paid so much money to showcase their offerings. Here's my run down on initial impressions.

Asia Sound Equipment

On level LG right after the escalator, speaker on the left is Broadman VC2s (RM72k per pair) driven via Rega electronics, hit Malaysian soil for the first time. The sound radiated from the slim small foot print was room filling. Next to Broadman VC2 is Rega flagship RS10, were going for RM40k+.

Up to Level 8, LS35a club was naturally the first room. That room always a crowd puller. I could not get myself in the room but many reported that Jo's system sounded better than last year notably better articulation. Is he using the God's cable this year? Veteran Jo told me the rest of the equipment was constant but he applied different the resonance and isolation load transfer. Meaning, moving the isolation devices around. He upgraded to Wywires and Skogrand cabling. O not forgetting, the man was getting serious, he wore bow tie! To grasp a better picture, I'll drop in his residence for a listen in near future.

Swedish Statement

Right opposite of LS35a club, we have MSB DAC - Vitus 450W class A - Marten Bird Mk II combo. The sound has a resemblance of the fresh air from Mt. Alps. Ultra clean and delicate highs with civilized bass.

Swedish Statement also occupied the next door, starring Marten Django Ls. They were going for RM35k, is Marten's latest entry level offering in their speaker lineup. They shared the similar house sound with Bird Mk II (RM135k).

Audio Art

BMC made its debut in KLIAVS. Mr Carlos Candeias, president of BMC was seen briefing their technical superiority of his creations. Many flocked into his room, my friends were thoroughly sold on his audio philosophy.

This room showcased full-fledged BMC, they don't sound anything German. Full bodied and warm. BMC Arcadia, the only speaker in BMC offering was going for RM135k if my memory serves me right.

Look at the huge toroidal transformer in S1 stereo amp, 2kVa perhaps and large numbers of small caps, this is a very fast, responsive and peak current ready amp.

Tropical Audio

Sam Chan demoed Quad - Harbeth M30.1, garnered British school of sound fans. M30.1s have the noteworthy dynamic that separates them from theirs older siblings. M30.1s were priced sub RM10k.

Sound Concept

Adrian Wong returned to KLIAVS after long absence with Burmester - Magico S1. Magico S1 is the youngest sibling in Magico family, they are retailed for RM35k, a real working class speaker given the reputed aluminum speaker company.

Audio Note

Audio Note always sounded most synergized in full Audio Note system. Mario Binner flew in to set up the system. The signature extreme toe in, making the axis crossed one meter out in front of the listening position, unique bass loading from the corners, you got to listen to this to know the sound effect. This combo offered the least hi fi-ish sound of the show, smooth, good tonal density, non-fatigue and natural.

AVP Soundcraft

Totem Arros, RM5k are the star. Impressive big sound, full bodied, gutsy emanated from 4.5 inch driver. Arros will excel in small room. I was interested to listen to their flagship - Wind but no avail.

HiFi Creations

The only line array speaker design in KLIAVS, a brave effort from a local. Deploying 16 pairs of 3 inch drivers in total, big sound and the fastest in the show. A little raw, great micro and macro dynamic and the PraT thing was in spades. The room was a little noisy though the height of the imaging is commendable and least affected by sitting height. They were going at RM13.5k during the show.

Audio Note

This is the second Audio Note room, Avantgarde - Avantgarde combo. Fino is the entry model from Avantgarde speaker lineup. Very listenable horn designed speaker.

CMY

Featuring Naim - Pro Ac K6. Room acoustic was treated using ASI resonators. The combo is a typical Pro Ac flamboyant highs and solid bass response.

Good sound from Jeff Rowland - Dynaudio combo. Dense tone and awesome midbass. You got to listen to this.

Clarity MP

Mark Levinson No. 52 pre, RM100k was receiving a premiere review from AV2day recently. Mark Levinson + Revel Salon 2 sounded sweet, warm, full bodied with good bass weight. This system deserves a bigger room. Drop in their showroom in Amcorp Mall for a serious listen.

Acoustique Systems

The petite CN Lim demoed his Monitor GX200 based system. Acoustique Systems distributes Mytek and M2TEch dac. His partner was raving the musicality of Hegel HD25 dac, RM7k. Monitor GX200 system gave a clean sound and this alone is rather unusual from British speaker company. Good job.

This room was managed by unfamiliar faces. Zellaton is known for their galvanized looked aluminum foil drivers, used by Ensemble Prima Donna, Admonitor, Italy and the red hot Magico speakers. The Zellaton drivers seen on Zellaton Grands looked anodized.

Brother in arms, Zellaton Grands were driven by BMC as a German audio assault. This combo sounded typically German.

AVP Soundcraft

The same combo displayed as per last year, Nagra - Verity is a proven combo. The sound is relaxed, delicate, natural and an excellent choice for voices and small scale music. Sweet.

Moving down to Conference rooms Level 4, the big boys were boogieing to impress.

Perfect Hifi ; Audio Research - Sonus Faber Olympica III.

AV Design : TAD CR1 Mk II based TAD full fledged system.

Are you much of a horn guy?

Focal Scala V2s powered by McIntosh mega watt shook the floor .

Wilson Maxx IIIs were brought home of an avid audiophile on Saturday night before the show was over.

I could draw two general conclusions for KLIAVS 2013, better performing system/room and no B52 music to vow the crowds.

KLIAVS 2013 Commemorative CD

Hey folks, KLIAVS is back again. This is an event most fi are looking forward to check out the latest toys in the audio market. It is also timely for fi from all over the country to fellowship. Out to grab, the organizer has printed 10k copies for the show goers.

Hot from the stove, I've received a copy of CD from the organizer on July 2. The producer handed it over to me, I felt honoured. The artwork of the cover CD is like non other, a royal symbol somewhat and the fabric background injects elegance, mystery and very English flavoured. Are the producers getting a lit excited receiving the coming of new member of British Royal Family? I know that the producer was once studied in UK. Talk about colonial sentiment, ha. Only they will know. In a nutshell, the cover looks classy and presents less commercial intent.

The producer also revealed that the quality of the CD is better and cost higher to promise better sound. Wasting no time, I spun the CD to pen my thoughts.

Here's the tracks recorded on this CD :

1. Autumn Leaves from Audiophile Prologue 1
2. Amour M'est Au Cuer Entre from Out of Time and Country
3. Cello Suite 3 from Martin Zeller/J.S Bach/6 Suites Cello
4. Tomorrow from Woong San/Tomorrow
5. El Portenito from Sera Una Noche/La Segunda
6. Birmingham Jail from Sheila Jordan/Voices
7. Wisdom of Empty City 空城計from Three Kingdom 三國
8. John Henry from Cecile McLorin Salvant/Woman Child
9. 短歌行 from 關棟天/短歌行
10. Chapel of Love from Girl Talk/Girl Talk
11. I'm All Smiles from Ravid Goldschmidt &Silvia Perez Cruz/Llama
12. Sonata Graz No. 3 For Violin Continuo In D RV II Allergo from La Serenissima/Antonio Vivaldi
13. Chitlins & Gefiltefis from Christian Mcbride/Conversation with Christian
14. Echoes of Love from Omar Akram/Echoes of Love
15. Dance of The Tumblers from Exotic dances from the Opera/Rimsky-Korsakov/Eiji Oue/Minnesota Orchestra

The selection of tracks this time around mostly is less commonly heard and more of acquired taste.  Suffice to say, Commemorative 2013 will be less appealing to fi with narrow music genre preference and newbie. So, be patience, wotk them out and you will like it soon enough.

Recording quality wise in general bettered Commemorative 2012, notably more natural tone and greater tone density. I was told that a sealed Commemorative 2012 is going for RM120 - RM150. Imagine that!

Voices, go for track 1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11
Acoustic timbre, track 3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15
Spatial presence, track 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15
Big scale, track 7, 9, 15
Bass, track 4, 8, 13, 14, 15
PRaT, track 8,

My favorite tracks are No. 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 & 15. Well, that's me. You might have different favorites. Vocal fans will not be disappointed, the vocal has the surreal presence. The ambiance tends to draw my attention and is one of the hallmarks of audiophile approved recording.

My run down on the tracks :

Track 1 is not an easy track to chew. If your system doesn't have a good bass reproduction, the double bass will mess it up instantly.

Track 2 is my personal favorite. The bell measures your highs reproduction, the spatial imaging in huge soundscape is absolutely stunning. Very clean recording.

Track 3 sounded elegance. Smashing clarity on the cellos, delicious instrument reverberation propagation. Love it.

Track 4 demonstrates a lushly vocal with strong rumbling bass. Background is not as dark and clean.

Many MA recording hallmarks, clean and spacious were showcased on track 5. The conversations were unpretentious.

Feeling a crave for country songs, Track 6 will be fulfilling. Ultra black background. MA recordings has its magic again on double bass, well behaved, controlled and comes with distinct edge delineation. Very natural vocal reproduction.

I am not unfamiliar with track 7. Three Kingdom is one of the better recordings from China, many were hampered by over EQed resulting unnatural timbre. Cinematic effect with rumbling bass if these what you're looking for, you found it here. This track will on put a test on your amp current delivery and

Track 8, a folk song with Jazz influence. Punchy midbass, a test on your system ability to depict double bass and kick drum. Harry Belafonte's version is still very much prefered.

Track 9 is very acquired taste, it is either love or hate affair.

Track 10 is my least favorite.

Track 11, as with similar to Track 5. The female vocalist voice sounded like Ricky Lee Jones.

Violin lover track, track 12. Expansive and tone beauty.

Cow tendon string fans, track 13 is a bass crunching score. A good test for tenacity, and it is strictly for kick ass system. This track will move a lot of air.

Track 14 is a new age score. Out of word, difficult to describe.

And lastly, the producer is saving the best for last, play it, crank it up, wrap it up and call it a night. The splendor of a full orchestra, my kind of music. Layering, tone beauty and majesty of orchestra, this is room shaking track.

A worthy note, MA Recording is truly breathless and outstanding. They have the uncanny quality to depict space, timbre and spatial presence, floating the images in mid air. Reference Recording too is equally impressive. Commemorative 2013 will slowing grow on you.

Go out, attend the show and grab a copy or be sorry.