Well, the real audiophile never sleeps well... So true! I only have night hours available for sound experiments that I imperatively prefer to use with my eye lashes closed till morning or perhaps getting laid(heard that Singapore is the right place for getting laid). I'm definitlely off that list. |
... I will post pics later from every System....there are some remarkable ones.
Now on the way to listen to a complete Kondo Japan System with their huge Kagura mono amps, Pre, Ginga Turntable & Arm & the new Ikeda KAI Reference cartridge connected to the largest Avantgarde Horn System .... |
Sounds like great fun Syntax! I look forward to your reports and pics and thank you for including us! |
Yes, this should likely be both fun and informative to read.
Thanks, |
Just came back from Luk Yen Teahouse in HK...this chinese culture is really something interesting for a coffee drinker like me....very refreshing, healthy and the right preparation to listen critically :-)
These Pioneer speakers are very detailed, they hide nothing, clear in tonr and very fast. Will post Pics later, I think they are very, very rare and highly sought after even in Japan....
The Kondo chain was very pleasant to listen to, never harsh, a matching combination to combine the old chinese culture ( sitting on the floor preparing the next cup of tea while Jim Foggerty from CCR shouts in the microphone about running through the jungle.....)
Now on the way to Malaysia...heard that there are is a group of die hard audiophiles in Kuala Lumpur area who are really trying to push the curtain....got the contact and invitations....Plane is shaking right now based on turbulences from the raining season right now....stomach is a bit going up and down right now....phhhh but when it is worth it .... Right now I feel like the Hunter of the lost sonic arc.....but there is also a another hope....meatarians are welcome there..... |
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Malaysia System 01
After landing and check in I was told that Malaysian Audiophiles also never sleep :-)
So the first Visit started at 10.00 pm....I did enter the room and my first impression....Whoooah, absolutely no mercy from the owner....huge room and loaded - and I mean loaded - and when there was some free space, there were his audiophile friends, but more about them later.
Very friendly and warm welcome, like the coming home of a lost son, really great. Very friendly, relaxed...I learned, there are audiophile groups, they are in very lose touch, do visit each other regularly and they grow...great community.... We know somebody who has this and that and that one knows someone who owns....and so it went on....
But back to the stuff dreams are made of -:)
On the right side was Clearaudio Statement Turntable, you know, the really big one, left was one rack with Vitus electronics, the full monty, preamp plus phono-stage with external power supplies, on the next rack was a Airforce One Turntable and in some distance I started to count ....one, two, three, four Mono Amps from Vitus...those, when you want to move you need the help from your neighbor, cables, power supplies and so on to a very elegant looking 4 Tower Speaker System from Gryphon.....on my way back to the listening seat I stumbled across some huge metal boxes with handles at each side with speaker cables, MIT Oracle something, but there was dust on it, so probably out of use for longer time.:-)
And what my jaw drop, when it started to play, it was really good. I mean outstanding good, I would say, among the best sounding expensive High End Systems in my last 5 years.... What was - or is - very remarkable, room tuning is made seriously.....but more to that later... really cool...now 01.00 am .... time to eat something...02.00 am back to the room...listening to this and that...discussions about cables, arms, phono alignment...great time....came back to the Hotel 03.30 am...System visit for the next day was prepared ... |
Malaysia System 02
I learned, an audiophile Day starts always somewhere in a Restaurant (meeting point) no matter how good the breakfast was...and relaxed discussions about Arms and interestingly, much about Cartridge Alignment
Analog has a very serious standing, of course, they all have high Digital Quality, too and the discussions about that are short. Very short....
Next visit, opening the door and also very well done room with damping done everywhere. Sperling Turntable, Ikeda cart, Audio Note GB preamp and their huge monos, speakers are a former Sonus Faber Design ( i guess, not really sure about ), Esoteric Digital complete and another sonic presentation which is simply stunning....all kind of music ...first I thought, a great, normal priced System until one whispered in my ear that the Audio Note Preamp is 100k British Pounds .... |
Malaysia System 03
Honestly, what came now I was absolutely not prepared for ....
A professionally designed listening room, huge Focal Utopia Stella EM, the latest FM Acoustic Resolution Electronics, FM 222 Phono (when I remember right, it was the large unit), FM 255 Pre and their powerful amp....Vertere Record Player and Vertere SG-1 Tonearm (from Great Britain I think) and a TechDas Airforce One Turntable with Axiom Tonearm, Digital from MSB and Proceed....the Owner loves Rock Music and another stunning Performance for the next 3 hours was served, one record after the next....very, very nice room
Btw...some restaurants have a Lunch/Dinner Card with pics from the meals, very helpful and what is great, sometimes there is a red cross or similar warning behind the name...that means 'hot/spicy' .... From the 21 meals there were 18 with such a sign so it made it easy for me....from 3 only I had to choose :-)
Did it save me? Of course not -:)
Meat was fine, then I tried some Salad and there was 'something' in the dressing what increased the blood volume in my ears .quite fast ...Huh... A different way of 'preparation' for the next listening session .... -:) |
Ahh, Fun and Games.Great stuff Syntax.
Enjoy |
Malaysia System 04
I was really curious, I never had that experience before, not one weak System, all great ones and always completely different.....
Another great room, probably one of the best tuned ones I've ever seen...electrically lighted room diffusors, super nice .....Eggleston Savoy Signature Edition Speakers, Pass XA160 monos, a TW Acoustic Raven Phono, Simonte Audio Pre (I think and I also think, it is a passive Pre when I understood it right), TW AC Turntable with Copper Top Plate, XV-1S cartridge with Axiom Arm placed on unknown Isolation Platform....and here we made comparisons with different Phono alignments....first was made with a Mint Protractor...we listened to a few records and then the owner was interested to align the XV-1s to a new calculation which is called UNI- DIN and when it was done I had serious problems to believe the overall improvement. Much better tonal definition, increased soundstage, much better headroom, much more open high frequency are combined with an unheard sonic coherence. In a way shocking how great this System was sounding now....no way back ....
Again .... late after midnight .... But...who cares -:)
Malaysia System 05
Next System visit at 02.00 pm in the afternoon, I thought, great, now I am in the normal time frame ... Indeed right but we left also that room after midnight -:)
Also very tasteful from Interior, professionally done, really super nice....Goldmund Equipment...Mimesis Series....top models ... Mono Amps Telos 3500, Goldmund Phono Preamp and the Preamp is a Digital Design when I got it right ...the communication with the Bladelius Digital was not via RCA or XLR cable.... Speakers are Grande Utopia Made in France by Focal, Turntable Clearaudio Master Reference, Souther Arm with Goldfinger Cartridge ....anyway, a very warm welcome, trying something here and there, more and more other audiophiles came by ....
And....Dinner with very relaxed audiophiles ... Again 01.00 in the morning, normally no problem....but I prepaid Hotel in Singapore....well, no way out ...a night drive to Singapore .... I am shot now .... the real Audiophile is born to suffer ..... |
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Great stories. Thanks for sharing. How did you meet all of these folks, Mr. Semantics? |
Syntax, what happened ? No more stories ?
I was really enjoying your stories and always looking forward to reading end.
More pictures please even if there is not much to say. |
Arrival in Singapore ... a great City ....very interesting from the Historical Point of View .... I decided to be a bit lazy and booked guided City Tours....and I love the food there...outstanding multi cultural ... I was invited to Seafood Restaurants...never had such good quality before (freshness, taste), also extremely friendly people ... and got contact to local audiophiles...chattering about 'tis and 'tat... nice. The Show itself is not so big but what I heard, quite important for the whole area (Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia area...) ... the sound in the Show is comparable to others you are well aware, my personal favorite here was the Demo room from Kondo, they used a quite inexpensive speaker from ProArc (about 5k$) and it was stunning but as usual, based on the enormous hardware pricing the speaker did not get the respect it deserved. Anyway, a very good match. What caught my interest, there were 2 DACs in the rack, an old Forsell one and a new Zanden, mostly they used the Forsell. I asked for a chance to listen to the Zanden unit, they changed the connectors and ...in a way it sounded much more worse than before and when they asked what I prefer I said the Forsell...and they agreed and switched back. It is also their favorite one. Not the official solution but they concentrate on analog anyway. Also very popular is advanced Audio Video, latest seems to be wireless from Goldmund, can't say anything about the quality because there were Speakers everywhere but I enjoyed the movies...
The journey was going to end...I got a lot of very interesting impressions. |
Interesting interaction with Thomas aka syntax . Interesting conversation . Learn some tricks . Maybe after munich 2015 , we can have a reciprocal audiophile visits
Tested Dietrich latest catridge Aiwon on Axiom tonearm . Exciting combination |
