Social media like Facebook and Twitter influence our life. Sharing is the culture. We read stories with pictures too. So, picture tells a thousand words? Read with a pinch of salt, exercise your judgement because what you read and what you see might not be true. The eyes in many ways make our mouth redundant particularly in audio. Seeing a high end big name system in a nice room image, audio folks quick to draw conclusions. They start singing praises. This is common, you can see it in their eyes. Some even suggest remedial advice, playing Audio God unwittingly. Ridiculous! Without good acoustics, you are doomed. I'd eye for specific acoustic rules and laws I know you should adhere to attain good sound. Acoustic is a consistence determinant in any situation, period.
My acoustic learning curve has been exciting and educational. There is no shorter path but progressive accumulating your experience, it sharpens your hearing too. Well, keep spending time on certain thing, you will eventually good at it. There's no two way about it, unfortunately that doesn't include upgrading of gear. Anticipation is the engine that generates excitement. The reward is handsome, it is seemingly repealing of fidelity window, endlessly. It keeps you thirst for the next "improvement".
Double Take is a dynamic duo featuring Mia Palencia as vocalist and Roger Wang as guitarist. When they are performing in KL, I jumped at the chance to listen to her. I know her voice, well I thought I knew her voice well. Her voice in her early recordings sounded rather "crude" and aggressive. She is a talented singer, she brought us a number of Christmas numbers that night for the occasion. We booked early to get front seats, up close about 10 feet from the stage. She has improved in singing, more silky in her delivery. It was an intimate little performance, we get to chat with Mia. The door charge was cheap for her singing caliber. Look, you pay big money for big name artist and yet you are seated so far away from the stage. There's no intimacy. The PA system is doubtful for the sound quality. Loudness without quality is crap.
I bought "In good company" CD after the show on my exit the premise. Produced in 2013 in Australia the recording quality is obviously truer to life. Of course, I'll be caught lying in broad daylight saying playback is better than live, regardless any high end system. Two elements; life and attack were considerably compromised in playback. However, her voice was packed with emotions, somewhat midrangy voice. It has body, creamy and liquid. Great for a vast genre of music. What's a musical feast! You don't get more realistic than live performance, do you?
Fresh from memory I played my system, the sonic disparity brewed a discontentment. I am harsh on myself sometimes. Know no hardship, sonic excellence fuels me. My gut feeling is that to replace the power cord at my source with a tweaked YBA Diamond I brought from Taiwan. It has been reported by many users that the tweaked version thrashed the stock cord but I couldn't attest this. No fancy power connector, but terminated with hospital grade connector instead but the secret lies at its termination.
Bingo! The hi fi-ish element is further curtailed, rounded highs, musicality improved, solidity enhanced, the magnitude is subtle but noticeable. All led to lesser listening fatigue. The biggest surprise is YBA Diamond rendered a cleaner bass presentation, dug deep with richer harmonics. I hit the jackpot! Tradeoff is less open at the top for a more musical presentation. Gone is the diminishing of voice line graininess and double bass fog. However, some recordings are obvious than some. "Cheek to cheek" in her album is exemplary. Due to this, I'm not convinced with cable looming.
If you are interested in local artist works, check out Zee Avi (Sarawak) and Yuna (Kuala Lumpur) in Youtube. They are different in their own right and they're equally talented. Pity though, they didn't get to be included in our very own Commemorative CD to add a bit of Malaysian flair. Not to be cowed by inferior complex, seriously guys, they are as good.
