Usable standard

You know God has created the laws of physics that promise repeated results. And there are still undiscovered physics yet to be fully understood by mankind. Things that beyond mankind intelligence, at least not timely as yet. Let's not talk about the best audio electro topologies, physics have never spoken any louder. Acoustic is about physics.

Our listening was gradually conditioned by our own room acoustics, unknowingly. It has wilfully established our sonic standard. Given the same system in another room, ceteris paribus, the system would sound dramatically different. Room acoustics is one hell of sonic contaminant. We need to establish a usable standard to refer upon. What betters live performance as standard, the very event that we try to reproduce.

Audio is not only about equipment. Knowing how to work with your room via speaker positioning and room treatment separates the good and mediocre, particularly most of us do not have the luxury of building our audio room from ground up. We are listening to the room. We need to reap the good energies of the room and obscure the bad ones. This is where room treatment works its magic. As in every system, there are some dirty little secrets that never see the light of day unless unrevealed. Old bird as we called it over here, knows it too well.

A wise audiophile will always establish a playable list of materials because each system has its own hits and misses, capitalise on those that makes your system shine. For instance, asking a full ranger to play full orchestral works is largely a suicide. Nothing beat single driver speaker and flat speaker on voices for its coherency, phase and clarity. Try listening one, you'll understand what I am saying. In sheer versatility, multiple driver speaker could weather the music like no other speakers could. It does help to explain the dominance of box speaker in market share. Not ignoring its presence complimenting the big screen TV.

Tonal balance will either make or break for all audiophiles. Getting over tonal balance, tonal quality is closely correlated with price. The better employment of parts and components grants greater tonality. No argument here. Money always buy quality. Unrestrained, free of dynamic compression is one of the highest order. Aren't you glad that either your crescendos or decrescendos rise or stop at will? The ability to do that is what makes music music. It evokes emotions and goose bumps. It triggers adrenalin rush. It allures you to follow the beat. Music as what it is intended, has plenty of dynamics/transient, in micro and macro level. Without it, music will be like religious chanting. We all know how boring that is.

The quality of unhurried-ness is another superlative audio order. Truth is, I only hear this quality from big multiple speakers. They relieve small diameter driver from upper bass and downwards duties, they are out of their comfort zone there. The response curve at those frequencies volatile like crazy and requires filtering. This is where the number does not reflect the whole story. Many small speakers claim 40 Hz, but they hardly have the bass volume to impress. The bass did not have the supposedly fullness and wholeness.

The area of 7 inch driver is 38.48 square inch whilst 10 inch driver is 78.54 square inch. Two 7 inch drivers area is almost equal to one 10 inch driver. Both bass sounded vastly different. The earlier bass will sound tight, hurried and punchy, the later will sound relax, fuller and goes lower. My preference leans toward the later. Smaller bass driver is driven by costly urban space, no space to accommodate ugly mini refrigerators in their living hall. Aesthetic overrules fidelity.

Inspired by KF's system, the little adjustment of my bass traps brought forth a profound improvement. Mostly, curing the plague of smearing. Past experience taught me poorly designed three ways speaker always carry an excessive upper bass energies. These bad vibes will only creep into the midrange and smear the notes. This is one of the major downfalls with big speakers. This is the crossover job. The ruler straight frequency response curve stays on paper, in anechoic chamber. You can't stop room interaction from screwing up the response curve. It is the major contributing factor to midrange booming and each room has a varying degree of booming at different frequencies. The new found serenity of sound after treated is intriguing. To illustrate, the decay of timpani has got cleaner, more elegant and with an unspoken grace. As such, the critical midrange benefited most, gone are the pseudo warmth and dirty and confused nuances. I welcome the transparency, they bring me closer to the real thing. The music activates the gushing of endorphin, tantalising my senses giving my body shakes.

My hope was high. Great, I invited my wife to listen to my piano playback.

Johannes Brahms Piano Concerto No 2, a CD conveniently at reach was played. Her disgruntled look hinted trouble. It made my flesh creep.

"What? What? What?"
"What did you do?"
" I didn't do anything. I knew that look, tell me."
"Your piano did not sound right now, notes were light. Veiled, sounded like a thin cloth in between. It was alright a week ago. You went into the room and did something yesterday, remember?"
"O yes! I repositioned my bass trap. But that can't be it. Ah, I get it. Not this CD, try this."

"Yes, This one sounds right!"
"Damn! Emil Gilels's JS Bach Piano Concerto No 2. sounded hollow and thin too."

That spells relief. Both were playing a Steinway piano. The big yellow Deutsche Grammophone label is always better recorded. The lesson is nail the playback material first.



So, I was hold ransom by the recording. Please be reminded that it is impossible to emulate the overtones of piano, a lot of overtones were diminished.

Why is this important? We must always establish a standard, a standard which is consistent and commonly acceptable. What is the worth if a violin be mistaken for a viola? A Steinway for a Fazioli? A Strad for a Guaneri? Musical instrument has its individuality, music has its musicality content. Are we supposed to add the superlative sweetness, wetness, luscious to sound appealing? We should not get in the way of music. If there is dryness, let's there be dryness. If there is coarseness, let's there be coarseness. If there is hissing, let's there be hissing. You don't have to look far to see the highest end of audio camps on the neutrality whilst the lower end cousins are happily coloured. This is a heated debate over fidelity against individual pleasing sound.

A famous quote, "You cannot possibly bluff your way through in studio industry, you certainly can in domestic audio." Typical old English houses come with white wall and black stripes, which gives English its identity. But, sure you can colour your sound like you colour your wall, it will be misrepresented.

Adios, Merry Christmas.

My thanksgiving big bird

Frequent readers know that this blog is not about state of the art audio gear. There are plenty of such reviews around if you look hard enough. I may dream one day owning them in my wildest fantasy, but, a little far-fetched for me. Slapped with high import duty, the weakening Ringgit is not helping. The cost of audioing continues to escalate. Happy for you if you one day make your buckets of gold and buy them, you will be envied by many. Anyway, this blog is about real audio for the working class. This blog is about realistic audio that most can afford. This blog is about sharing experience. This blog is about fun.

KF has been enjoying a good audio ride, decided to install the upgrade kits that he bought from GR Research some time ago. This is not an easy decision because he worries risking his good sound, that what happens when one is in a comfort zone. Wasted resources, neither go well with him too. What could possibly go wrong with the upgrade kits? Worst case scenario, revert back to the stock crossover and go on to blame me. It is only human nature.

Encores upgrade at Hifi Creations. Behind Encores is a custom project.

Alas, it is not like to perform male sterilization. I hooked him up with Victor, the speaker expert. Victor granted a me personal favour to assist. This guy is a living component bible, he knew his stuff. Quality components cost money, they will certainly brought forth changes not necessarily improvements if you mess with the value. You know, the kind that you win some here and lose some elsewhere. We shall see if the mod lives up to the expectations. Victor ran the moded Encores for 50 hours before KF picked them up and head back home. I was hijacked conveniently that afternoon to watch an episode of audio pornography. Hence, the following report is for what it is worth.

Original crossover

Upgraded crossover, drop in replacement with similar values.

The upgrade kits consist of SonicCap and Mill resistors. The crossover is simple, it explains easy current demand on the amplifier. I always like simple crossover approach. Tube or solid state, either should not have problems driving it. At this juncture, his 28" stands received new set of spikes to curb bad vibrations.

KF's audio den

A little background, KF was playing a pair of Ho's LS3/5a and Genesis sub combo and got a decent performance. Then came Encores, I enticed him to jump for them. What started as a tease, ended up with a purchase. For its asking price and satisfaction guaranteed, this is no brainer. The entire purchasing course took only two hours. Encores arrived at door step in a couple of weeks later.

Encore's bass was generous in sub 1200 cubic feet, the room helps bolster the bass loading. It makes a possible return to genuine 2 channel system from a 2.1 channel system. The cohesiveness of sound is well received and appreciated. Mind you, KF is bass nut, he will not settle with lame bass. Total cost of system is further lessened.

Pop is real music, is everyday music. They are everywhere. Media are playing them, radio stations are playing them, malls are playing them, pubs are playing them. You can't avoid them. Though, they do not received highly among audiophiles. They proved to be equally challenging to reproduce, testing your system on the ability to resolve the complexity of music and realism. Many audiophiles avoid them.

The diva from Canada

Celine Dion did a cover version of Jennifer Rush's hit, "The Power of Love". This is a big song that could possibly embarrass many systems. Ability to play loud is one thing, maintaining composure is another. It should not gets on your nerves.

Dion shines with powerful high key, her vocal dynamic is fabulous. Her ascending high notes is inviting. On this number, she starts slow, gets your adrenalin going at the chorus and intensifies at repeated chorus before a strong ending. Her voice punches through the sonic fabric with flesh and body, convincingly. Her highly recognizable high notes were both penetrative and solid. The moded Encores share the same family sound with the stock Encores. On closer listening, the tonality has been treated with a degree of refinement and civilization. The edginess has further decreased. I could hear better resolutions, cleaner, less coarseness, less congestion but at some point, however, the sound does hints some degree of restraints probably due to uncooked components. I hope for more musical ease.

At where it is now, I found no murkiness. The drum strokes accorded "The Power of Love" with a chest pounding sensation. A bass authority seldom heard from bookshelf system without subwoofer. It was a pleasant shake up. Realistic has spoken. The magnitude of drum and the dynamic of hard hitting were again evidenced. No, Encores could not reproduce the level of scale the top dogs which is largely an unfair comparo. They have the PRaT to sound involving, make your feet tap.

Drum stroke gives an insight to a system's heart beat. Softening is no good, rolled off is no good, slow and dull is no good. If there is hard hitting, let the hard hitting be heard. This system has a big heart. You cannot bend the laws of physics but you'd have taken them as floorstanding speakers if blind folded. The beaming of highs bestow the precise locality of images make following the drum stroke a breeze. Encores are very sensitive to placement and only opens the window of music at the specific tiny sweet spot.

Over to Mariah Carey, Carey could sing in 5 octave range and masters whistle register. She does more runs and riffs more than anyone I know, rendering a strong R&B influence. "Dreamlover" is the first track from "Music Box" album released in 1993. Her huge diagram enables her to dig deep and rise violently. Her ability to reach whistling is ethereally unique and out of this world. This number gets difficult when the drummer joins the jamming at the interlude.

The bass has never gotten this tight and cohesive in KF's room. I got to be honest here, the stands work wonder. So much so, the tonal weight was satisfying, KF did not miss the sub. Speaker stand is an important component that you should pay attention to it.

Moving on to audiophile recording, Joe Pass is a guitar legend. Holly molly, you can easily see his finger works as if Joe is playing his guitar with three hands. The Gypsy influence is clearly present in his play, as inspired by Django Reinhardt. The most striking virtue of the playback was physical presence. He bends, plucks and strums with terrific hand-brain coordination. Timing was impeccable, the magic.

I could again noticed less graininess at upper treble, but felt that the extension could have been more which itself already good. There is a degree of analogue-ness to the vocal. Micro dynamics could be more effortlessly, guitar could be more exciting with more subtlety and overtones. The upgrade makes Encores sound expensive. Suffice to say KF's system has no major flaws, coherent, quite neutral and realistic. They would not hinder you from a pleasant listening, that's alone is a compliment.

"Better components for better sound" has never rung more true, a lesson learned. KF is a happy man, his system outgrew his room. Unstoppable orgasm.

Conclusion

Strike while the iron is hot, Victor incited KF to custom build a MTM configured speaker with premium Scanspeak drivers and premium passive parts. Finishing at his choice, wood veneer or high gloss coating with specific speaker voicing, man, this is a sexy project. Think high quality sound, think exclusivity, think three fold the performance. Go check what drivers they employ in mass produced speaker, go check what passive components they give, all those crossover hype are purely marketing. There are thousands speakers in the market, but you will like a few of them end of the day. Take middle man and distributions away, that's your saving. In my day dream, I would give my project a cool name, Grand Emperor Concert Reference if I get tired with my resident speakers. A worthy note, speaker is your number one high fidelity gatekeeper, and is the most distorted link in a system. And they sound vastly different.

I'm now starting to envy KF. So much quality for so little money. Moded Encores are good but still a gap from what top notch speakers can deliver. Tonality, the blooming around the tone (vocals and instruments), the effortless rise from ppp to fff  and the tranquility of sound (during adagio), are the areas you can't cheat with clever tweaking. This is high end sound of higher order.

Santa had delivered KF a present early this year. And, I am coming to get my thanksgiving 9kg kampung (outdoor bred) bird, eat one at the restaurant, bring one home. Bill to KF.


Hifi Creations, Victor Pheh 0122962799

How is your audio treating you today?

More often than not, we ask ourselves where to put the money for the highest return? Electronics, speakers, cables or room treatment? This is a million dollar question, if only I know. The more I dwell in this hobby, the more I am convinced this is an endless adventure. You keep trying something. Sometimes I get to think that I am living in my own little fantasy, a scary thought.

It is no secret that our technologies unable to replica real sound as in a ratio of 1 : 1, no, not even a chimes. My challenge is I want to make believe I am listening to the real thing.

Bernard Haitink, I am not sure if he is true Shostakovichian, it was a commendable performance. 

A tuning requires hundreds hours of good variety of playback to affirm its worthiness. More good vibe than bad. War torn Shostakovich wrote Symphony No. 8 in 1943, his works are not actually any classical scholar would advise the beginners to start with. Anyway, symphony defines space and dimension like no other music can. Understand what you listen is critical, macro music with symphony, micro with ensemble.

Like quiet time, a conducive listening is desirable in order not to kill the mood. "Dinner ready" a shout from the kitchen is a showstopper. Late comers are disallowed to walk straight in a philharmonic hall because they will distract the play. No excuses for lateness, serve that right. Respect others' time, respect your time.

Haitink was the principal conductor of Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, one the oldest orchestras. As a trained violinist, Haitink started the first movement predominantly with strings, not overly romantic, maneuvering the sound from first and second violin, viola and cello later joined in for a workout. I can't help noticing the quirky echoes lingering around the cello F holes, a minor air turbulence there.

The shrilling brass and vicious timpani highlighted suspense and drama, something for the audiophiles to get excited about after 30 minutes into the play. Occasionally, I got into troubles discerning harmonics at polyphonic and accompaniment when they were seemingly inseparable. Symphony No. 8 is sad and dark and not the most explosive symphony I have heard, however, it is suffice to serve as bass check list. Congestion and indistinguishable bass is not what I have in mind. To maintain composure and never lose grip is on everybody wish list. I am happy with what I heard.

Capturing the mastery of Eugen Jochum whom is know for Bruckner and Brahms repertoires

Emil Gilels is a Russian pianist and as with Russian school of piano playing, they favor aggressive attack on keyboard. The virtuosity of Emil Gilels is unquestionable, and is considered to be one of the best pianists in twentieth century. He was the winner of Second International Chopin Piano competition in Poland at the young age of eighteen. What an accomplishment! I did not know what I do when I was eighteen.

Unmistakably, Steinway is known for its spellbinding golden hue warmth. The maestro's intensity and the improvisations hold your breath to grasp his play. Hearing the glimmering overtone, the steely tailing vanishing into the space, piano is truly a devil's instrument. The deafening silence between notes excites me. Brahms Piano Concerto 2 is not a particularly difficult repertoire to play, Gilels makes it almost too easy.

Berliner Philharmonic requires no further introduction, peerless strings wins world accolades. Woodwind, brass and percussion revolve around the strings. Under the scalpel precision of Herbert von Karajan, Berliner Philharmonic reached great heights. Sir Simon Rattle succeed him as principal conductor, he is not exactly the same mold as Karajan. We shall see in time to come if Rattle can fill in the vacuum.

Mainly, I wanted an audible presentation that allows me to hear every note and harmonic. Clean upper bass is instrumental. The last thing I want is a bloated bass that mess up the balance. I got that checked.

Leonard Cohen's Ten New Songs has awesome bass, great for bass check list 

Leonard Cohen is a poet and a singer song writer. What better than dark, deep and mysterious voice to do sprechgesang? Cohen's song is largely love it or hate it. In "Ten New Songs", he added more color to the music. To me, it dilutes his sprechgesang magic. The tuneful bowling bass was a surprise, great to measure our bass reproduction.

Question is do we know the magnitude of the bass in the recording? My bass varies in the last three months. I got to nail this son of the bitch! From relatively flabby bulldozing qualities, I tighten the bass. At this point, my cello couldn't be any happier with the new found definition. Anyway, a cello should never sound thick and muddy, what more homogenizing the overtures. The inverse relationship between bass clarity and bass weight has never been this clear. I worked toward a bass to reproduce cello and drum realistically, delineated and but still pack a punch when call upon.

I like to think my piano is accurate, my lovely wife says my piano sounds more real now. She is an eighth grader. A boost of encouragement indeed. Getting the piano right is my number one audio goal. My belief if the piano is right, everything will come together. So, how is your audio treating you today?

Audio Rhapsody

In many ways, photography shares a lot of similarities with audioing. That is, skill set is the predominant ingredient. Good photographers can get beautiful pictures working with low price equipment. Given state of the art equipment, the result will be even more staggering. The lesson is, you can't beat skill set and money in a single package. This is simply too good. For many, when money is taken out from the equation and everybody speaks in a common language, a fair playing ground is established. Unlike watches or cars, you either can afford it or not.

In the land of audio gurus, look, I'm not going to pretend to be one which I'm not. Not intend to be crushed by road roller, I still got many good years of audioing. Diamond in the rough in some ways, everybody must go through the mandatory learning process. Nothing substitutes experience.

Today, I wanted to share with you an audio wisdom. Not mine though. It goes like this, number one, gear upgrading is quick fix but hardly a permanent one. Get into a store, choose and pay, things do not get any simpler than that. Not many audiophiles know, gear upgrading will ruthlessly reveals shortcomings. If it does not, buddies, you should be questioning the move in the first place.

Next, cable experimentation. No big deal either, but this route is dangerously endless. Running to cables for audio remedial is liken a step closer to cable sinking mud. Audiophiles like to go down this path because mostly, cables are wallet friendlier and the result is immediate. No voodoo, I supposed. A renowned cable designer opines audiophiles conditioning themselves listening to new cables, to justify the new cables are better than the old ones during the break in period. The break in period is mainly the process of die-electricity of the insulation materials wrapping around the conductor. I suggest a read on http://www.audioquest.com/pdfs/aq_cable_theory.pdf

To DIYers, measurement is the ultimate reference and understandably repudiation of snake oil. They shake head mocking at exotic cables idea. I'm sorry to break it down for them, they have no idea what they are missing. A forbidden fruit, I presumed. Either as tone control or straight wire, both camp at the opposite extremes. This sticky debate is like religion, the staunch supporters from both camps are unlikely to give in. I'm not sure I wanted to be caught in cable war. Right at the middle, I hold my stand that speaker cable to be straight wire whilst interconnects, tone control due to cost considerations.

And lastly, soak in room treatment. Not everybody can afford to build his audio room from ground up, hence, room treatment inevitably becomes critical. Even in a golden ratio room, can you do without any acoustical treatment? I doubt so. Paying attention to four walls, a ceiling and a floor is your first commandment of room treatment. It is a good start. An empty room inherits enormous standing waves. Different makes, different sound. Naked brick wall without cement plastering is found to reduce a great deal of noise. As more furniture and fixtures in, they alter the mode of standing waves. I am not going to dial in too much on room treatment. Suffice to say if you want to make a statement in audio communities, a well-treated room is a necessity.

Working audio in living hall or odd shaped room invites unknown variables. Glasses, open wall, flimsy ceiling, partitions, hollow flooring, cavities and etc. will only complicate the issue. God knows the sonic effect of the mixed. Hard to believe, a slight move of my single settee in my audio room brings about improvement in sound. This phenomenon has led to me to suggest soundwave dynamic has great impacts on sound. Next, I sweat my ass off  realigning stuff in my room.

It is always untimely to declare audio victory. Because you may have not spun specific materials, does not suggest you're home free. Consistently, I run into some unassuming materials to admit my room acoustic is far from done. You never know when and where the downfalls.

Audiophiles are natural flaw seeker, blemish sucker. They don't give credits to anything, they seek perfection. They are biased too, who isn't? Only handfuls appreciate the efforts and the struggles. Do not go the distance to please them, please yourself instead. Do as in your might to avoid your system a one trick pony. Believe me, as you grow older, your music staple expands. I can't emphasize enough the significance of clean bass. Clean bass rewards gorgeously because everything revolves around bass. The cleaner the bass gets, the greater the sound. If your system not losing grip on complex passages, you might have yourself a winner there.

Audio to begin with is a hobby of madness. When a system gets expensive, you better be prudent in what you say. You do not want to step on people's toe as if you are fiddling with someone's self-esteem. There is no provision for honesty, there is no provision for innocence. Audiophiles put a lot of thoughts in their systems, into how they wanted theirs to sound. Hard to deny, every audiophile have their own idea of sound. Ahem, embrace diversity. Go and live life happily. We do not need an audio sheriff.

Miracle cable, a polished performer

Today I am going to write about a humble speaker cable, code name Miracle. This is a prize I brought back from Taiwan. This speaker cable was a plain jack transparent PVC jacket loosely housed 4 twisted solid wires in a pair, 2 twisted wires cable per terminal. Not a whole lot of copper inside. It looks like a Nordost clone but not in sound.

I was warned they sound best at 2.46 meter or even better in 3.69 meter, an exponent of 1.23 meter. Miracle has been rigorously tested to come to such conclusion, it allows the fullest sonic flavor. Mine is a 3 meter in bare cable, no banana plug or Y spade. Hooking them up directly without banana plug or Y spade aka poor man's audioing. Connectors introduce sonic signatures or sonic contaminants, depends how you look at it. The cheap is of brass. And brass conductivity is not good, 28 as in reading compares with 100 with copper. Anyway, the cost of fitting the entry level Furutech connectors exceed the cost of cable. You can figure the price of Miracle.

Miracle is of high purity virgin oxygen free copper from Finland and cable drawing is done in France. One has sourced from the same vendor and draw in Taiwan but the sound was not convincing. So, there are some hidden manufacturing techniques in the drawing. The reviewed Miracle comes from France.

Sound impression

Without much ado, I hooked the cables up in my system to hear what they have to offer. A minute into the track, I found myself melting in my chair. Hardly any break in, Miracle sent my resident cable, Canare packing. No, I ruled out anxiety as excitement when assessing Miracle. Worst case scenario, I just chuck Miracle aside and bury the story. They are not thick enough to hang my neck and I hate the acetic of being a Jackass.

Let start with vocal, aha, this is where the prize is laid. The vocal regains succulent, fertile voices. The forwardness in the mids largely responsible to this bodied display. I welcomed the slight chestiness, to accord voices a touch of groan. This brings about a perceived maturity, more fat under the skin. What's a smooth performer. I know one guy who incorporated a small sub to his center speaker, loving it.

I want my Luciano Pavarotti to sound like Luciano Pavarotti not Placido Domingo or anybody else. Nobody comes close to Pavarotti's iron hung, not Jose Carrerras, not Mario Lanza. Powerful, deep voice. And Jacky Evancho had me fooled for a mature soprano belies her age. Anyway, I rediscovered her silky voice with Miracle which I had misjudged her in the past. Her tone is polished, the sax sounded sexier, the drum has more drum skin effect and the violin has denser tone. Bye-bye jarring notes. But, will the forward mids tips over the tonal balance to cause adverse effects? Read on.

Highs has profound effects on listening fatigue. Our ears have limited tolerance to screeching highs. I know it will make me turn off my stereo. Likewise, highs must also behave like sub bass, not calling attention to themselves. I have long dumped the grandiose sound inclination that Hong Kies were heavily propagating, a coat of gleaming fie sugar on your doughnut. Not real, man. Highs should only present when called upon. The quality of highs is measured by extension and graininess. The ease of extension makes the sound airy, relax and respond to music swing. Spiccato and staccato, you can hear the fascinating the string reverberations at ease. And the overtones, the second order harmonics is fantastic, our hearing is adept at discerning these things. The soundstage expands laterally.



Typically French, Miracle presents highs with a degree of coquettish. As with everything French, listen to the works of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Camille Saint Saens or Hector Berlioz, not to wander too far. Operatic Bizet's Carmen suite is one exemplary of Gypsy influence. Django Reinhardt not excluded. France is a lovely melting pot where the cultures from eastern Europe and northern and western Africa meet. The extended highs is a glaring trade mark of French. Images benefit from specificity, it makes possible to follow the movement of images like Harry Belafonte live recording. Harry talks to musicians behind him, turns head, teasing the crowd etc. Mr Belanfonte is such a crowd pleaser. Strings, guitar, chimes, cymbals, triangle and bell shine, giving a sizzle to the music. Sopranos and female voices enjoy an ethereal beauty, certainly not mechanically cold and robotic.

Miracle does not offer much bass volume, this is not to say the bass is deficient. Bass grunt is relatively shorter. What Miracle lacks, it makes up with bass agility and bounciness. Miracle redefines double bass and cello while others murk them, giving ways to percussion to make greater impacts. There are many speaker cables that deliberately boost the bass to meet pop, jazz and rock appetite. To be honest, all are not in the wrong. Just different in sonic expression and how you look at thing.

Conclusion  

I waxed lyrical about Miracle here not because I bought it. Miracle is a great speaker cable for entry level or even mid fi. It is said Miracle replaces many garden hose speaker cables costing many times more. The owners are cashing in on these garden hose variants relegating them into reselling markets. The expensive one could be a different story. Personally, I prefer thin and not too stiff cable. The fact that Miracle makes me discover how grainy my speaker cables suffice for the switch. I also can't stand sluggish and vibrance-less sound. Better go fly kite. As Miracle done its time, it has got even better. Thumb up!

The lit fella, Jordan Watts

This is a follow up to Alan visit. The second system that we listened to was DIY Jordan Watts speakers based system, same system in different setup. The DIY Jordan Watts project is manned by Alan and with the help from his son. Box is of solid wood, Cenggal Mas if I remembered correctly. Cenggal Mas is one of the Asian densest wood, as to minimize box resonance. The radiators help to offload standing bass energies, would result a longer bass grunt. Aesthetically, Cenggal Mas veneer is not that pleasing like nyatoh. The fit and finish is good, far from amateurish. So far, that's how I read Alan's logic of engineering.

It has long known that Alan champions vintage gears, promoting out of the radar of most fi vintage gear. Price has been reasonable, hence, giving good performance and cost. These days, anything that bears big name like WE or Klangfilm and history are crazily priced. There are collectors all over the world willing to pay good money for them, for nostalgic or investment reasons. A remembrance of the golden era of audio, perhaps. It is difficult to put a value on sentimental reasons. Form factor, mini refrigerators fall out of place today due to space constraint, slim tower or book shelf speakers are the darling of urbanites. Scarcity of space in urban command a premium. Secondly, the low wife acceptance factor is also the reason for the decline of mini refrigerators.

Power conservation is hardly a valid reason for fi to go green. Class A amps will never go away. Anyway, amp is a mature technology. Digital and speaker are the cash cow, attracting a lot of entrepreneur's attentions to cash in. Some one will make their cash register rings.  

A little check on Jordan Watts, Jordan was the first to use metal cone driver for wideband application. Yes, you have guessed right, a single driver to cover all frequency spectrum, no crossover as per se. The idea of using stiff and light material for speaker cone drives the exploration using aluminium, magnesium, ceramic and berylium. And all these drivers achieve varying degree of commercial success. Nevertheless, it is almost an infinite of matrix of speaker building. It is a good advice to read the objective of the speaker designer before shortlisting them. Acoustic Energy AE1, goes down in the loudspeaker history as one of the speaker that defy the law of physics, squeezing bass volume that never before heard from a small enclosure. The designer, Phiul Jones wanted to create a small speaker with jaw dropping dynamic and sonic precision. Time waits for no one, AE1 as of today sounded dated.

Alan must have savaged old 4.5" Jordan Watts drivers, affixed them onto a box which is about the shoe box size of the legendary LS35A if not any smaller. In order to expand extreme bandwidth, Alan opt for ESS Heil Air Motion AMT tweeters and passive radiators to realize his objective. Suffice to say, you do not obtain linearity from a single driver to take on wide bandwidth. Hence, two way, two and a half way and three way are the choice of modern speakers to coup with hi res media via an introduction of crossover. We shall see in a coming decade if active speakers are game changer. Guesswork is being taken away. If so, this will put a lot of amp companies.

One front two back formation

On the metal stand, Alan sits three ball bearings on a wooden pockets to isolate the speakers from sitting on the metal plate. Sitting directly on the stand will veil the sound, albeit a gain in bass weight. I have had a fair experience with Yamamura foot, they do wonder to the bass but on the downside, they move quite a bit. Image specificity is compromised.

Driven with puny 8W Secret Audio 300B monoblocks, I immediately felt that it was a punishing act for Jordan Watts to fill the room. And Jordan Watts will not shame away telling they are not happy pushing them hard. They introduce distortions, alas, 4.5" drivers can only move so much air.

Metal driver has two distinct advantages, structural integrity and pace. Smaller diameter further enhancing structural integrity, to allow for a more pistonic lateral movement. Less crazy bounces. As such, you will hear a cleaner and less edgy sound compares with driver of paper and plastic made. Some will notice metallic flavor but this is not a deal breaker. You now see the return of metal tweeters. Go ahead with paper or plastic driver if you prefer romanticism. Metal drivers are not alone, joining the race are more exotic drivers like carbon fiber, composite materials, diamond, ceramic, magnesium, alloy etc. These days, coloration in high end audio is a plague.

In this system, tube helps to curtail the metallic character, so much so that I was enjoying the music and forgot about metallic-ness. Tube inevitably adds body and blooming to the sound, giving more "human" to the sound. Decidedly, there was a lack of immediacy and presence with certain music. I felt disconnected with the music when listening from 9 to 10' away, especially on more demanding materials. My instinct tells me to move my seat right up, to 5',. Things began to take a dramatic change, for the better. More palpable, more immediacy and vastly improved enveloping effect. The feeling of being enveloped in music is a sensational feeling, like in a live event. Your skin feels the music.

Pity, I did not try other positions to validate my thoughts like reducing the speaker to speaker distance or toe in or listening as in soundfield, aka Audio Note method. I hold on to my principal, touching people gear remains a taboo unless permitted.

Sound impression

Voices hang nicely in the air with steady locality. Sweet. The crossover-less is magical with voices, nothing ever come close to it on vocal reproduction. Voices are intact with none of the oscillation between the tweeter and the midrange driver. The detail is aplenty, afloat, courtesy of ESS Air Motion tweeter. Nice. Pace is good, giving the needed groove to the music. Overall, the sound falls into slightly warm side of neutral.

The downsides, Jordan Watts could not go loud. They will protest when pushed hard. No, they will not provide the majesty of full orchestral works like Mahler or Stravinsky's works, you got to pay a lot more to get it. The bass seemed to roll off slowly and smoothly from 100hz. And they will not shake the room the way many mammoth speakers able to. However, I can't lie that I am yearning more bass, more, more and more. Since you can't use a more powerful amp, get help from wall boundaries to increase bass volume.

If you valued soundstage and non fatigue listening, these Jordan Watts might just be your ticket to sonic haven. Sit back and enjoy the music.

The language of violin

Among the violin concertos, Butterfly Lovers violin concerto occupies a spot in my heart. I fell in love with its melody.

This concerto tells about the love story about a young lady who disguised herself as man to receive education who later falls in love with a lad. The story takes a sharp turn after completed schooling, they departed. The lad was later grief-stricken to have found the young lady's father had made an arranged marriage, to marry a powerful family as to strengthen his position in the official. He perished in sorrow. On the escort to the bridegroom on her wedding day, she passed by her lover tomb. Broke down in tear, she was mournful. She asked for the tomb to open up as she could jump in to join with him. A ferocious thunderstorm ripped the tomb open, her wish to reunite with him was fulfilled. The story ended with both spirits morphed into butterflies, they were together happily thereafter.

Butterfly Lovers violin concerto was composed by two students, Mr Chen Gang and Mr He Zhan Hao from Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1959. The violinist, Yi was also very much involved in the composition of the concerto. At the age of 18, Yi Li Na was picked among three candidates to play the leading violinist that brought her to fame. Butterfly Lovers violin concerto did not receive instant fame then. Shortly, struck by Cultural Revolution led by Mao Ze Dong who later become the Chairman of Communist Party of China, Butterfly Lovers Violin concerto was banned from playing. Only propagating nationalism pieces were allowed to be played.

It was only ten years after the Cultural Revolution, Butterfly Lovers violin concerto was able to see the day light. Butterfly Lovers violin concerto received an overwhelming response. In 1990, Yi became the first artist allowed to play in Taiwan, which was a diplomatic breakthrough since China and Taiwan ties was rather shaky and the concerto was well received.



In the above video, Yi explained how she uses her violin to deliver the story. The screeching birds, the innocence of young lady and lad, coquettish and love scene via various violin techniques. I found it is very good stuff for violin lovers. Young violinist ciku often found to show off their techniques while skimping on emotion department.

Unfortunately, I could not find her 90s recording which is considered in her prime. Many Asian violinists include this piece in their performing repertoire. Takako Nishizaki and Li Si Qing are the better interpreter among the modern players. Even Gil Shaham took a year to study the piece before performing. I have my favourite.

We all need to pay tribute to Yi not only for Butterfly Lover concerto, but her aspiration. At 73, she continues to teach violin lessons. She has also formed a violin foundation to help her students to learn from the masters, unfortunately her foundation is often found red for the noble intent. As of to date,she has nurtured three world class young violinists in her belt that have won many prestigious violin competitions. Unreservedly, she humbly admits that her students have exceeded her in technical mastery. A great person can change life, she has won my highest respect!

En route to off mainstream

Audio is great fun with home visiting, a private peek at one's man cave how others are audioing. This is where the real thing is, this is where the audio wisdom lay bare. Whether a standing ovation or speechless comment, it is time for reality check. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, perhaps not. Facts is you may not know your guest preferences, the response would be unpredictable. The question is can you take the heat? In all account, we should all embrace diversity, audio shouldn't be that boring.

And so, we decided to check out Ipoh friends. Hopped in a car before the sun break, we headed north on Saturday, two days before Hari Raya. Bad traffic is expected, we joined the large crowd "going home convoy". We never have thought it would be this degree of madness. Traffic was at snail's pace. At some point of time, we managed only 12km per hour. A 230km route that normally take two hours, took us eight that day. 30 odd km per hour, that's a scary record. Make no sense paying toll. Exhaustion and frustration all written on our face, compounded with tiredness and hunger, it fell short of someone suggesting a U turn going home. Exited express way at Sungkai for fuel and food, we pressed on. Patience brings sweet reward, the traffic eased somewhere at sleepy Kampar town. What's a relief! Vroom... we stomped on the speed pedal for the lost time.

The weather had been kind to us, not as burning hot and stuffy as few days before. Waiting is annoying, the host felt the stress too for an unexpected long wait, kind of "stuck" situation. Anxiety drives people nut. He had since expected to receive us at 12pm, got us at nearly 5pm. We made two home auditions that day, hit the sack at 200am calling it a day.

After dim sum in the next morning, we stopped by Alan Wang's place. He is the owner of Kinta Valley Audio whom runs a home based small audio boutique. He imports audio equipment, parts and tubes from all over the world, refurbish and resell them. Alan is silently running a vintage audio campaign off mainstream. Truly, audioing is indeed for all walk of life, any budget, there will always something in-store for you. Just drop the prejudice, different budget vary fidelity and enjoy the music.

Below is his vintage audio collection. Here's his vintage audio collection.

Pioneer vintage speaker with proprietary beryllium tweeter and midrange unit

A closer look

Magnavox FM cum pre amp 

Eico electronics

Darling 1626 tube amp

Eico tuner

Eico tuner again

Eico

First system featuring the rare Shahinian Arc based system, Arc measures 14 ¼" x 27 ½" x 9 ¾" in a 12' by 20' room and with a cathedral ceiling approx 14' at the apex. It is a two way design. Arc's tweeters, midrange and bass units fire up at tilted angle, there is a 8" rear passive radiator claiming 28-18,000Hz -3dB. The figure is a little ambitious without the help of front wall bass reinforcement especially the Arcs were placed out in the middle. Nevertheless, a neat and clean room is eye pleasing.

Alan Wang in his room

Driven by Chinese made Audio-gd pre and Secret Audio 211 SET monoblocks, the source was Denon professional CD player. Secret Audio, an epic DIY goes commercial. The very amp at Alan's place, set to premiere in the coming Hong Kong AV show. The MRSP is RM30,000, slightly under 10k USD. Comes in with Shuguang 300B. Alan tube rolled, GEC 300B if  I remember correctly. In this room, Arcs was about 8' apart, we were seated 9' from the speaker plane. My qualm, IKEA Poang chair is not an ideal chair, that thing rocks. It also sink at varying degree with body weights.

Arc is clearly a different breed of speaker for a reason. Big sound, warm and relaxed. Best suited for classical treat. Arc paints the wall of sound to give you an illusion that you are listening to big speakers.

The sound was relaxed that you could feel the tone harmony, cohesiveness is admirable regardless whether you stand up, sit down or walk around. The bass was rather lightweight, Arc could use the wall reinforcement to aid bass quantity. The fact that 87dB and 8W of power did not jive with me, Arc needed more power to come alive. That's my biggest reservation. Nothing substitute power.

The presence was there but did not have the strong leading edge nor the tone density of conventional straight firing speakers. The stage is without a spotlight. Neither, the microscopic detail and pinpoint imaging. And do we not distracted by non musical microscopic detail, and got carried away with "my system let me hear this". Over emphasizing detail can be fanatical, this is a common acute disease of fi. I placed strong emphasis on harmonic richness, the music. Togetherness. What's there is there, what isn't, don't deliberately looking out for them. Soundstage freak with strong fondness to spatial things need not look here as you will feel getting off on wrong foot.

For jazz, Arc is a little falling behind in pace department, hence, lessened excitement. Again, the power could be the issue.

Have you grown tired of those constant attention grabbing sound that induce listening fatigue over time? Constant spanking you in your face? It is attractive at first, slowing it wears you down. Enter the realm of horn, flat speakers and some exceptional front firing speakers for tireless listening. Arc is one of them, projecting a semi Gothic sensation. I guess we could expect experiencing spookiness of Roger Water's amazing album, Amused to Death. This album will leave you a life long memory perplexing.

Meet the Duevel family

German Physiks 

In view of similarity, Duevel and German Physiks take thing to another level. High fidelity has since evolved, time bears witness to pivotal sound, from forward midrange to flat response, to imaging, to transparency, to immediacy, to super airy, driven by technologies. These aspects were notably improved by leaps and bounds. Even horn is making a comeback on its own way these days, just refer to the number of new horn in CES. It all comes down to the sound matching your listening profile. If Arc fits your listening profile, I urge you to pay Alan a visit, kintavalleyaudio.

Another breaking news, KF has quietly become an audio celeb in Ipoh!

Skye Deep Blue

It is believed many Malaysians may have missed this album for it was not distributed here. A classic story of lounge singer, spotted, went into a recording studio. There are a lot of unpolished great singers that needed a break. CD recorded in China to me sounds unnatural, with a very forward midrange while the rest step back.

Try hunting this CD in JB, no luck. Got to get it from Singapore. Boy, am I glad. Skye is a Singapore born, lounge singer at St. James Power Station. Built in 1926, this place was a power plant turned into an entertainment centre for the booming Vivo City. This album was released in 2008, this is her debut album under Harmony Records. It is a surprising good cover version album with great selection of modern classic Mandarin hits and a English number, Elvis's Love me tender. Mind you, this is not another ordinary cover version, it gives me goosebumps. Credits to her husky voice, weighty, individuality, unplugged style and great recording quality. Of course, her executive producers, Yin Tan and Sebastian Koh. Her vocal reminiscent of Paul Young's flu-struck voicing. Some cuts bettered the original to my ears, of course.

If you are a fan of MA recording, this is going to be a treat. Todd Garfinkle, the familiar face who show up every year at KLIAVS promoting his CDs is responsible for recording. Single microphone, one take recording, uncompressed, no mixing and direct cut to master. Optimum sonic preservation. Expect exceptional harmonic richness, palpable imaging and great ambiance capture, a hallmark of MA recording. Recording took place in Republic Polytechnic. Every bit spells audiophile. The arrangement is mostly accompanied with crispy guitar plucking and gorgeous drum. All audiophile goodness you ever asked for from this album.

Track list

1 後來
2 曾經心痛
3 囚鳥
4 味道
5 一笑而過
6 棋子
7 一個人生活
8 聽海
9 哭不出來
10 最熟悉的陌生人
11 Love Me Tender

Skye smoked Sally on this particular track, bettered in emotional intent of the song. Sally has a higher key, displays an angry delivery while Skye conveys helplessness.

Unreserved thumb up.

KLIAV 2014 coverage

Audio Sector line up

Rogers LS5/9 (right) and its replacement model (left).

Marantz network player NA11S1, deserves your attention.

Atoll electronics

BMC Pure Vox debut

Impressive showing by BMC Pure Vox, small speaker with big heart

Rear view of BMC PureVox

BMC USB high speed cable debut

Swedish Statement showing, Marten and Vitus winning combo

Local made diffusor by Hifi Creations

Hifi Creations, Arpeggio speakers and Magnet electronics. Good run for your money.

Tweaking from the pearl of east, Hong Kong

Audio Physic Scorpio 25 driven by Odyssey electronics

Audio Physic Scorpio 25, cross section view

Classic on wall (left) and Classic 10 (right)

Linn Akubarik with Linn electronic

Harbeth C7ES-3 with Quad electronics

AE Reference 2 with Roksan electronics 

New line up from Epos, K series

Devialet driving Penaudio Cenya

Inside the Devialet

Estelon speaker and 49 sonic personalities Graitech cables, come at RM28k

Unconventional Devialet remote control on Penaudio Sara S Signature 

Audio Note assault

Alan Wolff's Magico S3

Focal JM Lab Aria 900 with McIntosh electronics

Rosso Fiorentino in action

Adam Column by Audio Art

Soul Note,ex Philips engineers creations

Gut wires

French seduction, Atoll electronics

Audiomica Laboratory

Triangle speaker

Triangle line up

Hi Diamond cables

XTZ Divine 100.49 with YBA electronics

Focus Classic series teamed up with Densen electronics

Zellaton Grand and KR amp

ASI speaker, resonators and Karan electronics 

ASI cables with proprietary metallurgy

Dynaudio C1 with Jeff Rolwand electronics

Meeting the Naim family

Mission + Audiolab

Aurum Cantus from China

Canton tag teamed Moon audio

Verity audio + Nagra 

Neat speaker, FM acoustics and Vertere turntable. You gotta hear this!

Vertere The Record Player

Wharfadale classic

Harmon Kardon group, Revel + Mark Levinson

Opera speakers line up

Dali + dCS Vivaldi and Constellation

Sonus Faber Aida + Audio Research

Rockport + Vitus

Close look at new Vitus

PMC fact 12 driven by TAD electronics

JM Lab + McIntosh

Goldmund Prologos Plus

Findings :

CD and CAS as media are among equal, five accounts for only 11% is using vinyl at this year KLIAVS.

Speaker below RM10K showcased attained 16%, below RM30K 41%, below RM100K 30%, below RM200K 11%, above RM200k 2%.

I returned for the show on the second day to make sure I am missing anything.,particularly the sound from Arpeggio + Magnet and BMC room. Some are lucky that they do not have home theatre as neighbour, some are unfortunate. Man, Neat + FM Acoustics + Vertere combo captured most of my attention. Rhythmic, lively, clean and communicative, set my foot tapping, they did the least wrong. Best sound in my book even though missing the lower octave energy. It goes for RM300K, the least. No mushy mushy presentation but plenty of bite. If you are for live, directness, micro dynamic and gutsy sound, ASI room is worth checking out. Super Tango goes down to 18hz + - 3dB, that's is amazing.