Monday, October 4, 2010

That Vintage Feel part 3: The Music Presentation

That's The Blogmaster at the emperor's throne..................







In part3 which is an extension of the earlier 2 parts
article of the same topic, I will like to touch on the
type of music that the owner like to listen to and
what he may replay for his visitors to listen. Even
at the time of writing of this part3 article, Koo has
already decided on not keeping the QUAD 306, he
has always surprised me with his choices of
equipments.


So I could only guess that he is working on some
changes to his setup. Could he be getting an amplifier
more powerful than the already very listenable QUAD
306? That I have to wait to see. So at the moment
I get to listen to the diyed 0.75w darling amplifier
a few more times before I decided to write this
part3 article.


What I listened now of the 0.75w darling amplifier is
one of more tweaks being done to it in the last few
months. If that is not enough there were more tweaks
to the non oversampling dac, since it's undergoing
listening tests I'm can only say the detail/nature of the
tweaks is along the signal path. What I perceived is a
change, depends who is listening so it may or may not
be that person's idea of an improvement. Firstly I
noticed the highs(I hear more of it) have improved
over the period, this was also being reported by
other visitors who came several times over that
same period.


And I perceived the bass presentation is more
controlled,whereas others who listen often
may only want to consider this insignificant and
that only more bass weight as a significant
improvement. So different listeners may give
credits quite differently! Here I gave him points
just for better bass control, not alot of bass sound,
just enough to get by. How do I know this? I
heard the replay of track 6 of the Dream of the
Opera CD, as I said not a lot of heart thumping
bass, nothing that shake the chair I sat on, nothing
to move my stomach fat around the middle, just
bass sound that I'm comfortable with.But hey,
that's my poison I guess!


Other tracks I heard replayed include the last
track of the Manger Demonstration Disc, again
just about enough to get by, nothing in the room
vibrated in unison with the drums and bass sound.
Perhaps it's not anybody's idea of bass sound,
but I would give him some marks for trying at it
rather than just talk to some 'armchair critics' at
some forums and can't do any 'transfer of
technology' to improve the sound of his setup
even after much discussions!


Do I have to repeat that the vocals come
around very nicely, if not lustfully with female
vocals and with enough details on the male
vocals? Now, now don't get me wrong that
is superlative, there are many other setups
with even more mesmerising vocals than this
setup, but I'm just looking at the price point of
a few thousand ringgit to get me glued to the
chair long enough to be 'seduced' by the sound
and not want to get up and go! At least not yet
after a mere hour of listening in front of the
setup!



Another thing I like about the setup is how
the hue of the afternoon sun bath the room
with that yellowish tint we know so well! A
lovely feeling of sort. What a wonderful listening
experience I thought with a wash of beautiful
colour mix of yellow to orange hue to feast the
eye too! Yes the room was not to be darken for
those afternoon listening sessions.


It's always being enjoyable listening sessions
whenever I listen, whether in the daylight hours
or at night.


9 comments:

  1. Paid a visit to a very friendly owner's set up last week.During an hour spend listening to his music, IMO ,I was very impressed on the musical performance of his set up, which was achieved without the luxury of a high budget. He has demonstrated that"everybody can hifi".

    ReplyDelete
  2. "everybody can hifi" means what? Cheap systems can perform well? Or just churn out bare music?

    ReplyDelete
  3. The taste of the pudding is in the actual eating! By all means go taste it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Ng,

    Glad that you enjoy the system as we do.


    cheers
    KLau

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think cheap systems can perform well only if coupled with knowledgeable and skilful owners.

    ReplyDelete