音响の母 - 基音

"Seek, ye shall find" a borrowed quote from the Holy Bible. We must always take efforts to make ourselves happy, legitimately. Come on, you live only once. Don't let life brings you down. I would care less if there is a life after death because you can't do anything about it. People die every day. Anyway, be nice to yourselves, and not worry too much about your children for they will have to make their living on their own like we do. Welcome to reality.

My neighbour renovation works, the drilling and the hacking have not been conducive for audio time. And the pollutants, dust and noise, I retreated to a sabbatical audio break, house cleaning, and some repair works whilst waiting for my audio purchases. The audioing time was spent on reading and researching, the mover and shaker, the latest buzz and knowledge to inject new thoughts. Audio makes me happy, so do readers here that what I like to believe.

How do you define good sound? Good Lord, you get many answers from audio pundits.

Some say honest reproduction, 360 degree dispersion emulating the real thing, I smell the dollar.
Some say sound to maintain in order when cranking the volume, it is a tough act.
Some say a communicative vocal reigns supreme, go get some tubes in here.
Some say a balanced system can ride any storms, I wish it will be easier.
Some say a border-less soundstage is captivating, nothing a big room could not do.
Some say awesome midbass rocks, a genuine treat. You don't have to be a punk.
Some say the relax presentation from vintage gear is priceless, a feeling of nostalgic sentiment. Old is gold?

System setting starts with bass. Build your house on the rock, does it rings your bell? 音响极至要紧的是扎稳基音; No bass, no glory. Bass is the foundation that the mids and highs rest upon, I couldn't agree more. Adequate bass quality and quantity forms the spine of the sound, a strong spine gets everything right. Do that, you have a special thing going on there. This is exemplary in great sounding audio.

Ironically, audio has become sort of religion. It has been said the number people die for religion is greater than World War I and II combined. Religion has zero tolerance. Locking in a confrontation, I'll flee away as I don't see the need to get caught in a spat. It doesn't build anyone up. Let's just agree to disagree, if not, stay in respective borders. Going further, I write my thought freely here because I own the space.

Snake out

The long awaited day had finally arrived, the day my room refills with music. Successively, my audio purchases had arrived at my doorstep, comprised of a pre, a cord and an interconnect. Their arrivals throw my mood to work out the window, I "snake" out naturally. Work can wait.

The acquired pre amp is identical to the loaned pre amp, no risk there. This is one hell of pre amp, transparent, fast, punchy, wide band and grippy notes. Though it has character, and which is not? It fits my sonic prescription, that's my enthusiasm.

Why would I need a power distribution since I have 16 wall outlets at my disposal? Noise rejection, the custom power distribution via its proprietary internal wiring suppresses the current pollutant effectively. I know this doesn't add up, each socket sounds a little different. This power distribution has been the maker's star product, customers have to bear a fairly long waiting time. I got mine early due to I'm a foreigner.

The cord that links the power distribution from the wall socket is the king maker. The downstream will be sonically "assimilated". I assigned my most neutral and most powerful cord there. The weight of this cord is substantial, ensuring good dose of conductivity goodness. The earlier cord is very musical albeit restricted bandwidth, with a mids to die for but didn't quite match the effortless and bass energies of the replacement cord.

To further streamline my system sonic prescription, I need also to weed out an interconnect which is deemed a hindrance, that happened to be the interconnect linking pre to power amp.  Zu Mission was called for duty in tandem with its bigger brother, Varial was called for duty at the upper chain. These are great interconnect, its performance worth every penny.

Coax out problem, really pik chek.

Though, the new pre amp and interconnect are far from break in. I can't wait to post my listening impression. I'm eager to know whether I'm on the right track and my investment payback. Sigh! The player coax out mishap prohibited my system from full strength. Hence, the following impression as it is without a DAC, I connected the player straight to the pre and power.

Sound impression
My bass has always been my Pioneer S1-EX based system Achilles' heel, I know. I singled out bass as the biggest challenge. The aramid and carbon layer driver cone needed some serious work out to sound its best, which usually takes a year or two for cones to loosen up. In my case, two and a half year! I was gentle with them. Lacking the necessary bass quantity tipped the tonal balance and DAC/pre was also blamed for lacklustre performance due to insufficient gain.

Amazing Wonder Board

Moving forward, the pre and the cord were instrumental, my bass has recouped some lost ground. A thought suddenly flashed through my mind, I rouse from my chair and rearranged the Wonder Boards. For a year, I had been figuring out how to capitalise Wonder Board for the results are less than staggering. It does seem that Wonder Board works well in a particular formation, and they have finally revealed a glimpse of magic that night. After industrious trials, depending on configurations, Wonder Boards shed profound effects on the highs, bass, imaging and soundstage. I think I have come up with a winning configuration. Throatiness has never been this clear and premature vocal softened tailings were remedied. The way Wonder Boards lock the images in space is mind boggling. I hope you still keep up with me. Wonder Board is a non-commercial item, I have reasons to believe that I am the only local who toy them. Peace.

Let's those with ears hear. The chewy and fluffy bass texture is a godsend. I discerned an increased in bass volume as if my bass drivers have grown in inch. The timid and shy bass in the past, it has now been given a new leash of life with more gravitas and effortless-ness. Voices also benefited from the cleaner bass, males voices with more body and never run out of breath whilst female with lesser chicken screeching delivery.

Started simple, I spun Alison Krauss's Now That I've Found You compilation. The mids is surprisingly good, low fat nothing like the full cream and rounded of a typical 300B. Yup, there is a presence of skeletal body which I think it is more correct.

Next up, Jackie Evancho's Dream With Me In Concert. Her angelical vocal was mesmerizing. Fluid and grain-less, like flowing honey. No problems there.

Playing Bernstein, Symphonic Dances from West Side Story from Allegretto to Molto Allegro, the gradual drama build up, ascending to the climax, finishing with the ferocious percussion. Fast, furious, clear, decisive, never draggy and no gluey notes, encore and curtain down. Thank you for coming out for the night.

On the well recorded noisy Jeff Buckley's Grace album, guitars and drums interplay took center stage. The kick drum through my system was well articulate, with plenty of body and air around the instrument. I was able to follow the actions. On noisy passages with heavy jamming, my system maintained composure. The drum skin resonance was clearly audible. "Hallelujah" is the hit recorded in this album, I like Jeff's rock expressiveness better than Leonard Cohen dark and melancholic rendition.

Last but not least, The Turtle Creek Chorale by Reference Recordings to wrap thing up. Wonderful recording, the chorale accorded a rich gothic-ness, somewhat dark and melancholic. I grasped the singing heads afloat in a spooky holographic time and space. The front to back projection is nice, layered, the sense of being enveloped has never been so real.

Conclusion
Though, the occasional presence of hardness and congestion are troubling. A clear sign of unbroken equipment and cable, nothing time can't cure. Bandwidth is widen. I have no doubt it will only get better with time, my bet is paying off handsomely. Strangely, my system now sounded less hi-fish, sounded natural with no attention grabbing highs. I'd rather be good all round than be exceptional in an area or two. Return of investment is awesome, the sense of fulfilment has never been so satisfying.