Thirst for more 'Hakka Song".

Lately i've been listening to a lot of hakka song.
But the hakka language that i know is different.I can't understand any of the lyric but it would not prevent me to enjoy the music

Ah Tao hakka song.If you don't own this you have miss alot of music.

I come to this cd  when i ask Jo ki any alternative good hakka song beside Ah Tao.Thanks Jo,you should get the "getting dark" CD.

Planting trees album

The first cd is "chung su" means planting trees by Lin Sheng-Xiang and by 2 japanese guitarist, Takashi Hiroyasu and Ken Ohtake.(I'm surprise )

Lin sheng-xiang, Ken Ohtake and Takashi Hiroyasu

Although only using with a pair of guitars, i can felt like i'm easily been "absorb" in that environment.A very involving album.Superb recording.I can play both of this cd over and over again and the guitar...wow!  i want to listen again tonight.This song arrangment is good.

My only grin is the whole cd tempo almost the same.Why this album use less instrument?.

Getting dark album

The 2nd cd is "lim am" means getting dark also by Lin Sheng-Xiang.
Use more instrument but the guitar is better play in the "chung su' cd.Song is arrange with more variety.


KLau

My Room Acoustics

Ceiling treatment behind listener It's not often one writes about his/her own hifi setup, details of the gears or even about the room where most part of the listening are done. However, after all a blog is like one's diary in which case a written records of one's hifi journey, seems quite proper, irrespective of whether any readers may or may not like what he/she reads or find the article not of any use at all, or even at times deemed offending to some particular readers!  From listener's position What I have in mind is a brief write up of my hifi journey in room acoustics. It may not be any readers' idea of room acoustics, and may even be deemed doubtful as to its effectiveness for the purpose of enhancing the listening pleasure of any listeners in the room! No 2 ears are the same, so probably no 2 persons could agree on what he/she may perceived of the sound. And lastly I'm not here to suggest that having a room made acoustically 'comfortable' for even a brief period of listening can replace the need for really good sounding hifi equipments and any ancillaries used with those hifi gears! So if one thinks getting the best equipments one could afford is the first and foremost the most important factor over room acoustics or nevermind the room acoustics, and the need for room acoustics treatments are not that important to him, there is no need to argue on this till the cows come home. It's your listening time, you could do whatever 'floats your boat'!

My involvements with room acoustics started with the need to address the already bad echoes and bass sound in my 8ft by 14ft smallish room with a sloping ceiling. The cross section of which depicts the shape of a true trapezium! There I was deciding to live with the disturbing sound from the system's playback, or do something about it! Doing something would seems to, going to take forever........a really daunting idea, and really frightening at that time!!! So it was decided, at some time 3 years ago, that I would do the surface treatments of the ceiling as there isn't enough floor space in the room to do anything really significant. Neither could I do anything much to the walls of the room because of the width of the room, though the first reflection points in the room as regards to the placement of the speakers have to be addressed properly, accurately or not, I thought that may be another issue.

Off I went to collect recyclable materials of cardboard, pieces of wood and even foams made from different materials, from electrical shops, and asked friends for these recyclable stuffs. When I have gathered enough of these materials, it was time to sit down to look at them and to get ideas and raked thru the brain for any useful data and information. Took about a couple of weeks of material collections and doing google search of information on room acoustics to finally come up with some idea of doing ceiling treatments. Then the need to have those designs hold up to the ceiling permanently, and came up with the idea of using very thin metal wires to hold them against the ceiling surface, and should be removable in the event of wrong placement or the wrong design and to even cover the worst of my thoughts, to have them removed and reused in the event that I have to shift house!!!

  

Side panels: Composite design

So after much experimentations, with design and choice of placements, finally came up with a design that was kept till this day. All in all it took just about 100 manhours to complete the task of doing the ceiling treatments. So far the room could now 'support' the use of multiple subwoofers reasonably well(meaning it's just about tolerable), I could do better if I had tried other ways, but there is no way to find out now for sure, I thought. So ended the 1 major project I have ever undertaken, and I considered it 1 big step for me along the way of my hifi journey.


 Written by Uncle Vic

Music Exchange at the KL Performing Art Centre, Sentul West

There I was on sunday, 5th september 2010, at the Sentul West, at the Performing Art Centre(PAC) with other writers of the H1F1 blog. Earlier Erik Goh had called up the group to inform of a music performance by the KLPAC orchestra and the visiting Penang State Symphonic Band(or PESSBAND) at the PAC. It was a music exchange program cum charity drive. So we quickly got together at our meeting place in Rampai, Setapak for a drink with the 'Wise One'(a very close and good friend of the group), check our stuffs/ photographic gears, etc., got a drink and grab a bite, and off we go to meet Erik who was already waiting in his car near the Sentul West to go with us to the PAC.

The PAC is situated in a pristine, clean and peaceful place with lots of greenery and open spaces, just the right place for an auditorium for music and play performances! We don't feel the need to do things here in a hurry which includes parking our cars and the slow walk into the PAC, followed by a short climb up to the 1st floor entrance, where we were greeted by some young people presumably from the young peoples' music groups. Entrance was by donations only into a donation box for disbursement to charitable organisation(s). So there were no ticketing and it's free seating for all.

We were guided into the right side of the auditorium and we had a pretty good view of the performance area. I thought it was just about right as I need to take some really neat pictures of the performances without disturbing the audiences. I had brought along an Olympus DSLR camera that has a very low level of shutter noise and I have taken along a AF ED short range zoom lens and another longer range lens for that really close up shot to capture the scene with the available ambient lighting as it's simply not right to use a strobe light for photography during the music performance proper.

Most if not all the performers were very young people, I reckoned in their late teens and very early 20's! The performers(combined Penang musicians and those from the Klang Valley) included the string section of violin and cello group, other group further into the performance area included wind instruments group of flutes, the brass section of trombones, saxophones and the timpanis are on the left with the electric guitar and the hand drums and modern drum set and percussions on the right. Several conductors took turns at directing the group performances.

The music presentations and performances reminded me of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO)performing classic rock music from the likes of Beatles, ABBA, Rolling Stones and Stephen Bishop and music from the movies as well as TV themes!!! If you could take out your CD of LSO performances you will surely know how I felt about the music being performed. It's very own style of presentations and not an exact duplication of the original music presentation as per the movie or tv theme! Very original style and presentations.

After the music performances, the crowd were simply exhilarating and there were shouts of encores!! Probably most of the people from the crowds were the parents, relatives and friends of the performers and many more regular visitors to the PAC.

 Photography sessions soon followed and the atmosphere was filled with an air of joy and jubilation!

From left to right, Uncle Vic,Uncle Chew,Eric Goh,Kenneth Lau, Yee

Our group too took the opportunity to have some photographs of ourselves taken too.

By: Uncle Vic

Edited by:KLau

Which new 12ax7?Full Music,Electro Harmonix or EI

From left to right,Full music Gold pin 12ax7,Electro harmonix 5751 gold pin,Ei 12ax7

All new production 12ax7 tube.Ei had stop production and will be more difficult to get.

Full Music 12ax7.
A completely new design rather than follow the construction on famous NOS tube.Previously Full Music is more famous for the triode type of tubes like 300b and 2a3. Now this Company from Tianjin,China release a 12ax7 tube.

The first thing I notice is lower noise floor. I suspect this tube might be a good candidate for phono. I like the tonality of his tube and the imaging is good.Sound is balance. I don’t have any complain much for a new production tube.I tends to like this tube more than others in this group.Kudos to Full music.

Electro Harmonix 5751 gold pin.
This is a premium version from electro-harmonix, Russia
5751 is a close family of 12ax7 with a lower gain.
The song  presented with more “muscle” and imaging is bigger than my reference tube. High is a bit artificial.In tends to dislike this tube in my system.

Ei 12ax7
Said to have bought all the equipment and stock from telefunken.
This tube is said to follow the construction of Telefunken smooth plate.Ei tube is made in Yugoslavia
The Ei tube which I am  testing here is originally selected by Jadis for the JPS2 pre amplifier. The plate is silver colour(There is another version where the plate is black).
Music is presented with a lot of “air”I feel it is a bit over from what I used to be.Extended listening i feel it is more of some echo at the high.
No wonder in another setup where a system using Jadis JPS2 + JA500  when playing the cd "Jazz at the pawn shop"give me the best atmosphere feel.("pub feel").
On the vocal  the singer is presented much younger and the bass is not as low.



**Tube tested in my diy Marantz 7 and using telefunken smooth and rib plate as reference.I think the 5751 tube is not showing the full potential as the specification of 5751 and 12ax7 is different.My pre amp operating point is tune more favour of a 12ax7 tubes.
*Thanks  Wong Chai for the tube.

KLau

Manger铭阁喇叭Zerobox登陆大马！

假如你喜欢听MANGER这张CD，又对封面的星形单体照片感到好奇，可以告诉你，这就是本文主角(Manger)铭阁喇叭的全音域单体原貌。提起这个“星体般优雅”的单元，不得不谈谈它的背景。其实Manger是一间单元制造厂，由已故的Josef W. Manger博士发明这颗著名的MSW(Manger Sound Transducer)单元开始。他费了30多年的岁月研究“听觉和音响”方面所获得的经验而发明了BWT(Bending Wave Transducer)曲波传导器。这单元是根据人类耳朵的结构，以及神经等的生理学上要素，转换成扬声器的发音原理方面，而加以开发出来的。

其实Manger MSW全音域单元在90年代就已经被其他喇叭厂用过而闻名，比如德国的Audio Physic - Medea和瑞士的Acoustic Lab - Stella Elegans。而这里所介绍的铭阁喇叭，则是Zerobox系列的103，107及109三个款式。109是书架型，其他2款则是落地型。

这次在马来西亚的代理商Sound Precision负责人陈先生引入的铭阁(Manger)，挟着它40年的声誉，让本地音响爱好者又多一种品牌聆听心爱的曲乐。而它也在明日的KLIAV影音展览上一展身手，让参观者试听它的魅力，也可同时一窥全豹。

参展房址是吉隆坡万豪(JW Marriot)酒店8楼8034号。据陈先生表示，他将展示Manger的107落地式喇叭，配搭美国Inex Innovation前级A200和放大器Amplicable Elite。这全新的尝试届时将会让大家耳目一新。

Manger 107在8034号房展示

Zerobox旗舰103

TAD speakers launch

The soft launch was on 26th june, saturday 2pm at AV design's showroom at Rohas Perkasa Building, Jalan P Ramlee, Kuala Lumpur. Those invited include their customers, hifi bloggers, some hifi sifus, the young and talented and as well as the wise & learned senior ones. I was there early, and met up with Jo Ki, the LS3/5a guru & moderator of the LS Malaysian Chapter and a friend Yee, I met about a year ago at a Yamaha Music and Audio equipments sales in PJ. As the quests kept coming in, the gathering picked up momentum, & the host suggested we start off with slight refreshments and drinks and what follow were exchange of the latest happenings and updates, as most of the guests more of less know each other or have met previously at some other hifi social events.

When the music listen proper began, James of AV design started off with a rock track, Stairway to Heaven from Led Zeppelin, and it was rock, rock and more rock music thereafter. Later James played some audiophile tracks and some of past favourites. And it was followed by more coffee and drinks, and food! It was the rock music that everyone have their eyes glued to where the setup was placed, the TAD Reference 1, the Bryston amplifications and source. Everyone's attention and interest have moved to where the speakers were, after the light refreshments. This is an event reporting not a audio review, so will leave the technical information to other hifi bloggers present at the meet to write in detail of the equipments in used.

Then there were the photographing session, besides the listening session. Most guests have a closer look of the speakers and the ancillaries used for the music demonstrations. Followed by photo sessions with guests posing beside the R1 speakers.

It was much later when most of the guest have left, the guests who were still around played some old favourites followed by some trance music with beats as fast as 133bpm!!! The speakers handled this very well, and I was still comfortable with the pace of the music!
I left the place after this, still thinking how loud & well the speakers plus the setup could replay the various types of music!

Guang Zhou Trip

I need to apologize as I have forgotten to bring  my camera during this trip but here are some of the system that I have listen.

Westlake tower 12 + boulder 500ae(pre + power) .I listen at the "new tao ge" Guang Zhou at the top floor.Using TAD speaker wire.I like this system.

B&w 805 + onix integrated amplifier + onix cd player.I listen to this setup at the cd shop at Hai Yin Complex.Every cd shop got serious setup. I like this so a bought a few cd's from this shop.Yes, i like this setup.

Ayon speaker + Kondo M77(pre) + Kondo power amp(sorry I forgot the model).This setup is at the ground floor of "Wan Shen" building.I don’t like this

Tannoy srm15(added elac super tweeter(like a mushroom), + single ended(Don’t know what power amp)amplifier+ vintage marantz 7.This setup is at the New "tao ge" building GuangZhou.The speaker is just being fire up.The sound is still changing while i'm at the place.An Elac super tweeter(look like a mushroom) is being added at the top of the Tannoy.Sound Moderate.

Tannoy Kensington +Accuphase pre and power.At the "Wan Shen"building ground floor at Shen Zhen  Sound ok

Wilson audio Maxx + Big boulder silver in colour.At the "Wan Shen" building  ShenZhen.Nice talking to fella "Old Lee"Nice guy but I don’t like the system.Just beside the Wilson maxx there is the famous B&W Nautilius but too bad it is never connected to any amplifier.Many mention that this speaker is very difficult to drive.

Westlake bbsm10vnf +Plinius (pre and power) 250watt silver colour.At the "Wan Shen" building Shen Zhen.I request for the Manger CD gtrack 15.The seller agreed there is room boom. i don’t like this.

Orgue pm610,Orgue PM610 reference, Archion 12 + melody parallel 2a3 + Jungson cd player.I like the normal PM610 rather than the reference PM610 that use solid wood cabinet.Overall,I don’t like this.

China clone proac response 2.5 + China Kt88 amplifier.I don’t like this.

During this trip, i found that everyb system either violin music or "chai chin" cds.Why?

"I don’t like" doesn’t mean the equipment is bad. Maybe at that moment my mood is not good or ....too many maybe.

KLau