Hi-end of yester-years

Back when I was still in infancy years of my audio journey, there were a few brands that I would dream of owning. By just listening to their names or reading their reviews would send me drooling for the rest of the day.

I still remember the years when MIT still reigned the hi-end arena with almost no competitors close by. Almost every hi-end magazines and hi-enders and hi-ender wannabes (the first I could think of is me) were raving nothing but MIT!

Then a couple of days ago, Eugene passed me a pair of Shotgun S3 RCA 1.5m to try out. For those of you who do not know, Shotgun used to be the top of the line series. Today, the series sits the third from top. Further reading reveals that the Shotgun today is equivalent, if not better, than the used-to-be-flagship Shotgun.

This disturbs me, either the cable technologies have improved leaps and bounds, or MIT has somehow lost the magic in producing jaw dropping cables. Well, to be fair, I have never listened to MIT back then until a couple of days ago.

So, how was the Shotgun S3 then? To me, nothing to shout about. If I were to spill the beans, sorry, I was not impressed. Having used AQ for most of my higher awareness level in my audio journey, most if not all, cables from others are not as balanced. Only a few could pass the test of time, and sound.

In the context of mostly Audio Research setups and combos, for pure copper cables, AQ comes across as the most balanced with no band shouting for attention. Of course for those who follows this blog closely, there are other brands that are able to steal my heart, but unable to attain/afford.

OK, I’ll cut the crap and drill straight in to the sound. From all the sources, MIT has the tendency to sound bloated and fat. From initial listening, I fully concur with that! The bass of MIT S3 comes in strong and bold, they firmly plant themselves and sounded slightly firmer than AQ Panther. Bongo drums have got slightly better bite than Panther in Mimi’s latest album.

At first listen, with Mimi’s and Lemon’s albums, vocals sounded lush and emotional. But something is amiss, which I could not attribute before I listened to Janice. Just after I switched to Janice, I realize that the edge of vocals was not as pronounced due to S3’s slightly nasalized mid. The breath is just not there!

Cheer’s vocal could sound dry, thin and harsh if the balance is not there. Further test with Cheer’s albums shows that S3’s mid is just recessed. For bright sounding setup and drier sounding SS, MIT could be the match in heaven as its nature would bring balance to the setup. However, with tube’s moist and luscious nature, S3 just would not cut it.

Oh, before I forget, the high is just, eh, recessed! Sorry to have used “recessed” so many times as I could not think of any better words to describe the nature of S3. Although I could not relate the similarity of high’s palates between MIT’s and Tranparent’s, the recessed highs nature seems the same for both!

Now I really wondered if the deeper stage I heard was due to S3’s recessed (again!) from mid and above band, drums would sound from deeper within the stage. The boldness might be due to its larger than life bass which floods my smallish room! With such excessive bottom, the timing and speed suffered. Track 11 of Cheer’s new album is a great track if you could play in a tuneful and snappy way. S3 just sounded sluggish.

BTW, the variable impedence does not bring magic for me, I settled at Low as moving it to Mid or High seems to rob the highs more.

With S3’s characteristic, no wonder many who dabbled in SS raved so much about MIT. For me, MIT is a NO NO for tube heads like me!

如果說望著你的眼睛，我的思緒沒有一絲波動，是騙你的。

只是，我試著壓抑，只讓它成爲輕輕漣漪，微美地在心中留下絲絲暖意。

聖誕的短訊是驚喜，只是我刻意遲遲不回；不是矜持，只是不想讓迷亂的心再次糊塗。或是，糊塗的心再次迷亂，糊塗與迷亂，都不好受。

新年，手機的顯示有你的名字，沒有慌張，只有驚奇；你送來祝福，然後請問公事；回了祝福，也回了疑問。沒有想象，也不想期望，只有漣漪，只有暖意，也有洋洋得意。

洋洋得意？有用嗎？證明了什麽？沒有，什麽都沒有。除了尊嚴上的少許彌補，不覺得獲得了什麼。沒獲得，沒遺失，是平手嗎？也不是。或許，真的是平手，平手也不是樂事，也不是苦惱，只是更清楚。

只是更清楚，内心的失望與可惜。

失望，你不給自己機會，就為自己築牆。害怕，我可以理解，難道我看似無懼嗎？

可惜，你不給自己機會，就給別人推辭。無助，我可以接受，難道就裹足不前嗎？

算了吧，不要為過去惋惜，我不需要有疑問的眼神。

你，還是繼續浮沉吧；我，無能爲力！


雨音

What to look forward to in life?

I bumped into my previous manageress (got married quite recently), my second boss to be exact in this company. She said to me, “you know? Girls like tidy guys.”

Me, “huh?” since I did not know what she meant when her remarks struck me.

“You have beard and moustache growing on your face!”

“Well, a change for me maybe.”

“Girls like it clean and tidy.”

“I am not too sure of that, coz nothing seems to work for me.”

“Har, that bad meh?”

“Not really lar, but seems that I have not found anything that works for me.”

“Did you try or not?”

“Hmm, at least I still enjoy being alone.”

“Sure or not?”

“Well, at least that’s the only excuse I can say to console myself.”

“Must ask Colin (my current manager who just got married also) to help you.”

“…”

******

My mum called, “hey, you know aunty XXX rite?”

“Yes, why?”

“Her daughter just finished her studies in pharmaceutical. She looks decent.”

“So?”

“Hey, you know your dad’s friend, YYY, who opens hardware shop?”

“Yeah, why?”

“His daughter just finished her studies and she is helping in the shop. She looks decent also.”

“Hmm, our hometown got so many decent looking girls meh?”

“That’s not the point lar, do you wanna know them?”

“…”

Is marriage the only thing to look forward to in life?

A cable guy with a Magic tale...

Sorry guys, this is a "blowing my own horn" posting. Spoke to some idiots and got really furious!

I hate it when I am right, I hate it when I am right and I have to fork out marnie to acquire them! And the part I hate most is I was never wrong with cables. It is like an ability born within me, like I am able to sniff the good cables out of the rotten ones!

Months ago, you heard me going gaga over the Harmonic Tech Fantasy power cord. Then later you heard me going gaga over the Stealth Cloude 9 Full power cord. Both prime examples of copper and silver cables out there.

Please, this is heavy stuff! It's not like I earn a million a year and I can splurge on cables without reservation! It's even tougher when I am buying without pre-purchase home trial sometimes. Some idiots even think that I have contacts that I could get them at cheaper price and flaunt about all my cables! Let me tell ya this, we are talking about cables that cost more than a decent Japanese 29" TV, cheaper also it's not that cheap actually!

People who know me know I worship AQ and would recommend any newbies to get at least a decent AQ in their setup. I was lucky back then to have Leslie and Yong to advise me on a good head start. I took the Python back home and was since then a loyal AQ believer. Even until today, I cursed myself to have sold the Python in desperation to upgrade to their better DBS series.

Then came Stage III with their pure silver Magnus that awed my jaw to the floor with what silver could do. Since then, I was in the look out for affordable pure silver products to elevate my setup. Then I found Stealth, a newcomer with impressive pure silver products, and at a slightly lower price tag.

Stealth is very much more civilized than Stage III with a deeper stage and lesser drive factor. I would never use the word laid back as the word always reminds me of "DULL". Even lesser drive here means not as forward and robust. Please, stop making me explain myself, if you do not know what I mean, listen a few more years. And of course, listen with better gears.

If memories serves me rite, Magnus has got a deep stage and a very cohesive fore and aft transition. The Panther is all about drive and forwardness. So, imagine how exciting it was for Python as Panther has tamed down quite a fair bit with the new DBS implementation. Still, copper is copper, they lack absolute tonal texture and density. Silver, OTOH, is fast, pure, tonally rich and substantially densed!

Let me elaborate a bit, robustness, forwardness and drive does not necessarily mean the cable is fast. They can be mutually exclusive when you play at a higher turf. Even I discovered this recently with more exposures to silver products.

OK, after blowing a horn for so long, when am I gonna talk about HT Magic? Keep it cool man, without the foundation on what copper sounds like and silver sounds like, you are not going to have the slightest idea on what I am going to say.


The HT Magic builds around blending copper and silver. Sorry ar, I am not sure also whether they actually blend both or run them separately or blend them and run them separately at the same time, as even the web site is also very secretive about their structures.

On first run, they sound harsh and sharp. But funnily, they settled pretty fast and retained at that even after I've removed them to have a closer look and drool at their sexy purple body with dark mesh outer jacket.

Once settled, I have to admit the sound was not anything close to what I would have expected. They surpassed my expectation and came in as a surprise bonus! With the Fantasy as the resident power cord feeding my RGPC 400MKII, I was expecting a much softer and civilized presentation. How wrong was I to have overlooked that the Magic was constructed with copper and silver.

It strikes the perfect balance in having the robustness of copper and still being able to give a richly densed imaging. Although it lacks absolute cohesiveness of silver, it makes it up by giving the forwardness of copper. AQ Panther is able to give strong outlines of instruments but lacks the density of giving the instruments proper body. Stage III Magnus gives a stronger sense of density and more colorful tonal textures. HT Magic sits in between with weighty body and robust presentation.

At almost the same price point as the Panther, I would say the Magic is ahead of what AQ has to offer. And giving such performance at this price point, I think it's really hard for the competitors to come close.

Laws of Attraction

Spent the day idling at home listening to music and watching some reruns on Astro.

Kinda silly whenever I was forced to take leave, coz I feel so aimless and there is no sense of existence.

Anyway, watched Laws of Attraction again and this movie never failed to touch me, anytime. Maybe it's Pierce's suave gentlemanly style, or maybe it's Julianne's intelligent yet fragile manner. I don't know, but I could not deny how successful the director portrayed love in such simple and fluid manner. You can't fail to feel the flow of affections and chemistry thru out the movie.

And the director has intelligently put away and avoided the financial side of making a relationship work. Yes, we have heard endless fairytales with "they live happily ever after" endings, coz getting into the gory dirty details of day in day out life would just kill your appetite for anything.

Yes, we can have attractions and affections. But the law to it is whether you could feed yourself in the first place!

Random rants...

Yesterday, I got a bonus which makes me a bit richer.

Today, the petrol price goes up 30 cents.

WTF, in this case, work another 10 years also we end up paying the government lar!

It's OK to pay them as long as they do their work and make this place of ours a better place to live.

But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! They won't even let you sleep properly! They build mosques here and there and here and there. Oh, this place looks nice, and it's still empty, let's build another mosque! WTF, there's already another one a few blocks down!

Build you build lar, but why the fuck you have to play your prayers so loud?! Well, if you use ARC + AQ + ProAc, and the prayer has got soundstage, layering and imaging, then at least I can polish up my listening skills.

But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! They use PA system and scream their prayers at you full blast!

Oh, they widen the roads not for better traffic flow, but for them to parallel park along the roads for their prayers. Fuiyo, this is what we pay them for?!

Anyway, I am selling my cars now. Who wants to buy?

Low mileage, immaculate condition, manufacturer's service history, nice number plates!

If you take both the Avanza and the MyVi, I give you good discount!

Ah, Cloude 9 again!

I was exposed to silver when I was in Form 2, back then, I did not remember any brand that come up with pure silver cables. It was mostly silver plated. What struck me was how "airy" it could be with additional highs and sibilance.


But the realization of true silver sound came about when Leslie passed me a pair of Stage III Magnus silver RCA interconnect. To say I was flabbergasted was very much an understatement as my precious investment in AQ seems overvalued. More so, if I were to compare the Stealth Cloude Nine speaker cables to my AQ DBS Mont Blanc.

You might have to adjust your expectation and try to bring up the level to the sub 6K cables. Maybe sub 7K as the Mont Blanc is retailing at RM7K plus the last I checked. We are not talking about DIY silver or copper, but properly R&D-ed and handsomely built cables.

The AQ is the brand that brought me the glimpse of hi-end while Stealth elevated the clarity of that glimpse. The moment I replaced the MB with the C9, everything seems smaller. Nope, not laid back or masked, but just smaller. On further listening, it was revealed to me that the instruments and vocals just snapped into focus with solidified imaging and eerie layering.

While the AQ has ample of drive and robustness, the Stealth is, on the other hand, very civilized and composed. Still, do not get laid back in the picture as it is very much not the case! The Stealth digs deep and lifted more veil, scary thought as the Mont Blanc has already done a great job in this department. In fact, the Stealth has got the uncanny ability to convey the true tonal texture and color of instruments!

With female vocals, they are smooth yet flamboyantly fleshed out, never edgy nor coarse. One would wonder with such civilized presentation, the Stealth would be slow. NEVER! Upon extended listening, the Stealth has got better leading edge transient. Highs, though softer than AQ’s bold presentation, goes up high with sweet trailing decay. The lows goes deeper, more defined with very much tactility within! There’s just a stout sense of palpability and articulation within the music presentation that is so intoxicating with both the Stage III and Stealth!

Upon switching back to AQ only I realized what is so enthralling about silver, in this case, the Stealth! While the AQ is able to transport the musicians to your room with vivid and forward presentation, the Stealth is able to diffuse the direct force of instruments. Please, it’s not laid back, but the aural sense of live-ness, the venue information was somehow attenuated with AQ but brilliantly reproduced with the Stealth!

To some, the AQ would be prime choice for them with rock and pop songs. For me, where tonal color and tonal texture reign supremacy, the Stealth leads miles ahead!

Wise up lar, Malaysian audiophiles!

It's a sad thing to see Malaysian audiophiles giving away the much envied opportunities of trying, getting and appreciating better audio equipments and accessories. In our slow moving audio market, the dealers are more than willing to push their products and giving better terms. With some credentials, it is not hard to get hooked up with some arrangements of home audition and payment terms. Of course, if you have the genuine intention of purchasing in the first place.

With some genuine dealers around lending some helpful hands over your upgrade path, it's hard to understand why many still moan over the harsh pricing of established brands which could deliver. Even if the pricing seems a bit intimidating, not due to over pricing but more due to weak ringgit, there are still plentiful of more economical pre-owned gears lying aroung down under. Even after the so called 'tax', it's still way cheaper.

I still remembered how I got started and tried many tried-and-tested-but-never-achieved-any-better paths, and yet, many still embrace them with many lame excuses. It's fine that you follow whatever suits the size of your wallet, but it is NOT fine to corrupt young minds trying to get into the hobby. What's worse is that the so-frequently used terms in audio were never fully understood and yet, many still treat it as a pride to explain them to the newbies, without the slightest hint of blush!

Malaysia is an interesting country to be in with so many driving Protons who dare to ask the Ferrari owners how the Ferraris handle. What's more? They would suggest with slight modifications, the Protons is able to achieve near Porsche handling and performance calibre. Well, even a 3 years old is wise enough to prefer Porsche/Ferraris over Proton, and yet, many grown ups still enjoy the ostrich mentality!

It's sad to see many self proclaimed gurus in Malaysia mis-educating the yound minds and enjoy a hell lot of talk cock sing song sessions! I tried and tried to help enlighten the helpless and yet, it's sad to see, if anyone, being able to be enlightened. And it's always more comfortable to be with the ostriches coz you don't feel any lesser than them.

Come on Malaysian audiophiles, you deserve better than this!

我們也纍了...

我：喂，你還寫不寫啊？

雨音：寫什麽？

我：我的“部落”啊！怎麽這麽久都沒消息啊？

雨音：天啊，我忘了！

我：你好歹也給我幾則嘛！

雨音：好吧！好吧！我看我有沒有吧！咦，你不是也寫過很多的嘛，幹嘛就是要我的？

我：因爲你是女人！我想要多些女人的觀點嘛！

雨音：哎喲，以前女人緣那麽好的你還得需要嗎？別開玩笑了啦！

我：好個屁！現在沒人要啊！

雨音：就是叫你別讀那麽多女人的雜誌了，你就是不聽，現在顯驗了吧！

我：有關係嗎？！

雨音：當然！

我：怎麽說？

雨音：女人要的是男人。

我：我不是男人嗎？而且啊，我還是百份百女人要的男人咧！那些雜誌里有關好男人的要點我都差不多全有了咧！

雨音：天啊！笨蛋！

我：喂，天下少有的好男人還算是笨蛋啊？

雨音：對啊，那是寫給女人看的啦！

我：有關係嗎？

雨音：當然有！我問你，要是我現在給你一份沒挑戰的工作，你要嗎？

我：現在不想，老了可能要。

雨音：對啊，女人還有大把條件的時候都是喜歡挑戰的啊。

我：犯濺！

雨音：你還不是？！

我：怎麽一樣呢？我就不相信應付不了有挑戰的工作！

雨音：我們也就不相信應付不了壞男人！

我：那爲什麽寫那麽多你們想要的好男人嘛？

雨音：那爲什麽你會越來越想要錢多事少的工作呢？

我：因爲纍了嘛！人總會纍的吧？

雨音：我們也纍了！

我：．．．

What do you want lar?

Just the other day, a girl friend of mine told me this, “could you be more serious? I have moved pass the joking years lar.” So I said to her, “why change me? You knew it since the beginning I am that way one mar! I am already like that lar, how to change?” Of course she meant it in a good way, but I was surprised that what was initially an attraction could change into annoyance, nuisance or frustration.

Look at some of these:

“He’s always in control, how confident!” Would become “Hey, stop controlling my life!”
“He is decisive, I let him decide all the time!” Would become “Hey, why do I always have to listen to yours?!”
“He is kind, caring and generous to everyone around him!” Would become “Hey, don’t you think you are a bit too kind to your young Ms. Assistant?”
“He is so funny!” Would become “Hey, can you be serious when I talk to you?!”

Can’t you girls have a singular standard and just follow that from start till end? It’s just plain sick to see those attractions that you found in him all turned sour after marriage or after a long relationship!

Sorry lar, I am like that one, cannot change oready.